NEWS: Meet Ada!

Hullo Darlings, how is everyone?

As many of you know, my birthday is in the later part of August, this year, with birthday money, I began looking for a doll. Also, as most of you know, American Girl just came out with their new character, Melody Ellison, a singer from the 1960s.

(Image via google)

With Melody, (a beautiful doll) coming out, suspicions began circling more than they had. Everyone in the AG community has been wondering when AG would retire Addy, seeing as she is one of the only Pleasant Company dolls left, and they've been retiring the rest of them regularly since 2009. Addy's release date was indeed Jan, 1st, 1993, surely it would be coming time for her to discontinue. 

However, for the longest time, Addy has been the only African-American historical doll. When they released Cecile, a lot of people thought Addy would go, but she stuck on. After they got rid of Cecile and Marie, I personally think the community was quite stunned when Cecile was discontinued instead of Addy. 

(Image via AGwiki)

Let's look a little deeper into Addy and the role she plays in her stories. Addy's stories are set in 1864, 100 years before Melody. Addy's family is a slave family in the south. Her mother and her have decided to run away from the plantation where they work at the beginning of her book 1, (or at least the original series, I haven't read the new ones yet.) She and her mum make it to Philadelphia where her mum begins to work as a seamstress and Addy begins attending a school for coloured girls.

Throughout her books we see Addy realising that there is a split between blacks and whites even though Philadelphia is a free city. The stories continue with her trying to make the best of what she has and she begins climbing to her better self. They're quite good books if you'd like to look into them. The point of that rant is that Addy's stories show an important part of history, this makes sense as to why Addy has been around for so long, but will she continue on, or will Melody be the end of her?

The stores have been stocking barely any Addy products, and I heard that the Canada stores had been clearancing her out before Melody's release, to make "room" for her. Is it just me or does that sound suspicious?  On top of that, Addy didn't get any new releases with the last big release this fall.

I don't know what to think anymore with AG's ways of doing things, they've been assuring people that she won't be retired, but at the same time, they're not doing anything to keep her in stores. Who do you trust?

Before I go any further, let me step back about nine years ago. The three dolls that I remember really wanting for my first AG doll were, Kit, Addy and Lissie. 

You see where I'm going with this?
So yeah, the search was on, did I want a new Addy doll? Did I want to try to order one on clearance from a Canada store and fight with shipping? Or did I want to get a PC (Pleasant Company) one.

As I've said in past posts, I prefer older AG's quality opposed to newer products, and considering that AG updated their Addy dolls with the Beforever release, I decided an old one if I could find one for less, would be the way to go.

Now that you're all tired from reading this long rant, let me introduce you to the darling this post is supposed to be about. 

The beautiful box arrived Aug 31st. The best way to wake up.

I was able to find a PC doll which I purchased for a small sum of $61 dollars. In comparison, it was an amazing buy.

Here she is! (The outfit did not come with her, I made it from random items in the dollhouse wardrobe)

148/16: Which means that she's not first edition, but close. Strangely enough, this is the most common numbering on PC Addy dolls, if anyone knows a little more about these numbers, I'd love to know!

Yay! She has her strings!

So yes, I got an Addy doll, but why does the post say Meet Ada?

Well, let me tell you. I've decided to rename this dear, Addy's full name in her books is actually Aduke, so instead of that, we're naming her Adeline, Ada for short, that isn't to say that she won't be being called Addy some of the time, but Ada is her preferred nickname. 

For middle names, I decided on Freya Pearl. So her full name means something like this: Pleasant (Adeline) Lady (Freya) Pearl (Obviously pearl). 

Pretty, eh?

 ~ONTO HER PHOTO-SHOOT~

Sorry for my shadow.

Her lovely black hair needs a little work, but I like it!

Please welcome Ada to my dollie family below. I'm sorry this post has taken so long to post, I wanted it to be the best it could be, and it being a month late is better than never, right? 

Thank you for reading my rambles, there will be more on Ada later. Do you think AG is going to retire Addy because of Melody? Your opinions down below lovely readers.

<3

~Lu & Ada-Freya