My Thoughts on AG's New Releases (P. 1)

 Hello everyone, 

I thought I'd take a look at American Girl's newest releases, since I've talked about a Girl For All Time's and Carpatina's releases in the past. Let's begin: 

(image from American Girl, https://www.americangirl.com/shop/c/girl-of-the-year-kira)

I personally find that her storyline is a copy in some ways of Leah Clark's (who is one of my favorite Girls of the Year). However, it doesn't mean that they can't write a similar storyline well. Instead of Brazil, Kira travels to Australia and is protecting Koalas. I do like is that they are focusing on a real issue that is going on in Australia (the wild-fires). 

However. I do wish they had chosen to create a little more of an imaginative doll to go along with the real world issue. 

Leah was a popular doll and I remember going to the store and hearing a girl talk to one of the employees ask if Leah was still around. The girl was very disappointed that Leah had been retired, and I'm sure she wasn't alone, so I can see why they would make a doll like Kira. 

Though I am a bit frustrated that they decided to make her blonde, given that they have a lot of blonde dolls.  

(Image from American Girl, https://www.americangirl.com/shop/p/kiras-comfy-platform-tent-gvf54)

The tent is pretty, though it does feel a bit like a copy of Leah's tree house, even though  the tent is much more pink and a lot less intricate. I actually found that Luciana Vega's space station was a lot more interesting. 

(Image from American Girl, https://www.americangirl.com/shop/p/world-traveler-in-ireland-and-irish-souvenir-set-for-18-inch-dolls-06bun165)

American Girl definitely decided to focus heavily on shamrocks when making this. Though I would have to say Ireland isn't all about shamrocks and four leaf clovers. 

 

For these outfits in particular I think they cared less about capturing the feeling of the places and a little more of what foreigners think of the places or hope to see when visiting. It seems to be a recurring theme with the different places, Japan, England, France, etc. 

(Image from American Girl, https://www.americangirl.com/shop/p/courtney-doll-and-book-and-courtneys-meet-accessory-05bun03)

Courtney is a historical doll, however, to me she isn't very historical, as she is from 1986.  That isn't very long ago, and I was not very psyched about the release. I almost feel as if AG should have have a separate line called "vintage dolls"  because I don't really think that Julie, Courtney, and Maryellen are really historical. (At least at the moment, in the far future they may be). 

There are some other time periods that AG doesn't have dolls for. I think it would be neat if they made dolls from these time periods: 1920s, the American Victorian period, or they could even focus on the suffragettes more (Samantha did have the suffragettes in her story, but her aunt was against it for most of the story, and it was only a small subplot).The dolls from these periods would have really beautiful clothes and I feel like dolls from recent times don't have such cool clothes as dolls from the time periods I just listed. 

(Image from American Girl, https://www.americangirl.com/shop/p/courtneys-pleasant-company-doll-grn50)

One thing I thought was interesting about this collection, is that they have a doll which is a smaller one of their larger dolls (Molly) and retired dolls. Now, a larger doll can have their own Pleasant Company version of Molly.  (Molly hasn't yet returned but may in the future return to the Beforever line). 

Also what I find neat about it, is that the doll has Molly's original  book and has the Pleasant Company doll magazine. 

(Images from American Girl, 

here, here, and here)

American girl recently made dolls with colored hair. Out of all them I actually prefer the doll with purple hair, since the color isn't too bright for me. And I think the hair really fits her, and it doesn't look as if she is wearing a wig with her natural hair hidden underneath. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What do you think of Kira Bailey, do you like her? And do you like the new dolls with colored hair? 

-Quinley 

Pixie Hollow Rewrites (Part Two)

Hi everyone, 

So, I kind of forgot to make a post for holidays this year.

However, it doesn't mean I won't do one next year. Also in the new year, I intend to post some more doll customizations and also some AGSMs (American Girl Stop Motions).  Both these things take a long time to do, and since I won't be able to go to the thrift store (due to COVID-19) I will be posting customizations from a long time ago. (Last year and before that). 

So since we're done with this brief update, let's move onto the post: 

I talked about creating a fairy whose talent was not in the original game, here he is. 

I decided I would make a Pixie dust talent. I decided to remake Alex (and ended up changing his name to Axel) and make him into a Pixie dust talent instead of an animal talent. 

For Amethyst, the fairy you have been seeing around in part one, 

I finally decorated a few parts of her house. 

I always loved the water fairies's houses in the game for some reason.

I can't tell whether the addition of the pixie dust tree is recent or not, but 

seeing Queen Clarion inside was pretty awesome. I love that she looks just like the movie version of her character. Also the pixie dust falling down moves.  

If you fly around, you will find things hidden around the tree, which is cool. 

I took screenshots of the game while playing it. However, I realized it didn't show how the game works as well as it would to show a recording of it. So I did a recording and here it is: 

You can also watch it here 

Some of the things I mention, including Amethyst's house are much easier to see and experience with 

the video.  (Though I didn't include The Pixie Dust tree, that will be included in the next video. 😉) 

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Which house do you prefer the Water Fairy House or the Pixie Dust fairy house? And if you were a fairy what talent would you have?

-Quinley

Hekate (a photo shoot)

Hekate (or Hecate) is the Greek goddess of witchcraft (among other things, cross-roads, and ghosts), so I thought she was the perfect doll to do a photoshoot for especially during this time of the year. The goddess, Hekate also appears in William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth (known to superstitious actors as The Scottish Play). But often times she is cut from the play and replaced with a normal witch.  

(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate#/media/File:Relief_triplicate_Hekate_marble,_Hadrian_clasicism,_Prague_Kinsky,_NM-H10_4742,_140995.jpg)

I ended up making a doll of Hekate, however I'm not sure I'm done customizing this doll, given that Hekate is a triple goddess. So I may find a way to make her look a little bit more like the Greek goddess above in the future, but for now... 

On to the photoshoot!

I really like the way this photo turned out, especially with the blurred background behind her. 

The leaves have recently started falling from the trees, so I thought

they made the perfect backdrop. 

I like the angle of this photo. 

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Which photo is your favorite? And do you have a favorite Greek god/goddess or line from Macbeth? 

Have a Happy Halloween!

-Quinley 

Pixie Hollow Rewrites (Part one)

                  Pixie Hollow was a virtual world that was up until 2013. It was a beautiful and amazing I loved the fairy creating portion of it. However it closed and I was very upset for a little while...

One thing I loved about the game was the character creation part of it, where you could create your character or remake them over and over again. I always created a new fairy when I played the game. And just enjoyed changing the talent around. There about three slots you could fill for the fairies so I always ended up deleting a fairy in order to create a new one.  The only thing I didn't like was that you and to pay to get certain things, it was a game that helped the company earn money so it was not surprising but still I didn't like that aspect. I took a break from the game for a little and then when I came back I was sad to find out that Disney had removed it.

What you see when you enter the site 

And then in 2020 four years later from the time that Fairy ABC had decided to create their own rewrite of the game, I found it. I was looking through articles about Pixie Hollow when a "fan community, FairyABC, has created a "rewrite" of the game, as of 2016. Users there can join a virtual world similar to Pixie Hollow, but without many features of the original games." - Wikipedia.
I was both surprised and intrigued, so I decided to check it out and created an account and entered the magical world of Pixie Hollow...

I created a fairy to begin with, and loved how the opening and choosing of talents felt like the old game. Even if it was more limited in some ways. 

My original goal when I entered was to recreate one of my old fairies, who had been extremely tall for a fairy and had long black hair that was tied back in a braid. But in the end I decided to create a new fairy. Though I may end up making her looking that fairy in the future. I started exploring the game and soon found out you could change your fairy's wings... 

I ended up giving my fairy dragon wings. Which was something I couldn't do in the old game, and if I could I am pretty sure Disney would have made it a premium option.

I began playing around with what my character wore, and it felt like a paper doll game, except where your paper doll will blink and sit if you want them to. I also love that I can give my fairy Bobble's glasses. 

I was never able to create a sparrowman in the old game because it closed before I actually wanted to, it was an option when I played but I just wasn't interested. So now I realized I wanted to make one, so I did. 

This game also allows you to have six slots for the amount of fairies or sparrowman you can create which is double what you had in the old Pixie Hollow, So I'm saving my others for later and currently just building these two characters and their houses. 

The game does glitch and overload from time to time causing you to go in and out of the game and bugs will happen, but it doesn't make me annoyed I'm just glad this exists. 

One of the funniest bugs has to be my water talent changing into a tea making talent. 🤣

The tea making talent is a talent you can choose, but it was one that my fairy isn't. 

There a lot of pros in this game, which outweigh any cons, because the community in the game is usually pretty active, and users are generally welcoming and are willing to help you figure out how to do something or tell you if they know about a bug and which stores are and aren't working at the moment and if you click a button it may cause you to reload the page. 

And one of the bonuses of this game, is that they have other talents that didn't appear in the original game, a fast flying talent, a performing talent, a writing talent, a tea making talent. 

(Image from Disney Fairies wiki, https://disneyfairies.fandom.com/wiki/Rani) 

Because of this I intend to have more of the talents that weren't in the (original) game than the talents that were, though I chose to pick one of my favorites of the original game's talents. Which is Water talent partly because of Rani from the original story books.  Also I love the irony that my Water fairy has red hair and dragon wings which is something you would usually attribute to fire. 

If what you are missing is the game playing part of Pixie Hollow, then there is a version of it called We The Pixies (or WTP) where they are recreating some of the old games. However, it doesn't save the fairies you create like Fairy ABC, so you have to restart every time. If you like just restarting every time and not building your fairy over time, then this version of it you may be okay with. Given that it focuses more on the gaming of it, rather than the fairy building. Though it doesn't have the sort of community that Fairy ABC has which has been growing for years. 

Their version of creating the fairy is somewhat similar to what I remember to what one of the first Pixie Hollow games was like, it doesn't allow you to create a sparrowman (yet), but they say it will come in the future. And perhaps in the future you will be able to save your fairies too. 

They only have one meadow in it, but that meadow has one of the games I remember playing in it. 

Which was the fish game that Silvermist had in the old game: you are rescuing fish and over time it steadily gets harder. 

One thing it has is more than one way to sit down, you can sit or kneel down. While in Fairy ABC you can only sit down. 

At the moment, I feel this rewrite is in its early stages, it may end up getting much more complex over time. But I would say WTP is mostly something I would go to, if I wanted to play some of the games from Pixie Hollow rather than building my character and traveling around the game. 

So in the end the choices between which rewrite you want to play is up to, your interests. I love character creation and developing a character over time so I would play Fairy ABC's, however if you like playing games where there is a challenge to complete I suggest We the Pixies, and if you are alright with having to create a new character every time you play too. I generally like being able to keep my characters and have it remember them instead of starting it like I have never played it before, so that's just my preferences. 

Since I have only played the game for a short period of time, and there are still discoveries I am making this is going to be made into a series exploring the different areas and things one can do in ABC Fairy's Pixie Hollow. 

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Have any of you played the old Pixie Hollow? Are you interested in the rewrites? And if so, which is your favorite? 

-Quinley 

Where the Fay Dwell (a Lyrical Photoshoot)

Hello everyone, 

I hope you are doing well, I know the quarantine is hard. But to cheer you up, I have a lyrical photoshoot to present, I took the photos beforehand and decided to write the poem later. 

So here it is: 

I know a place where the fay live, 

it is near a cave, 

with sparkling crystals that will make your heart lie still, 

In the glenn, 

which has been talked of by wise men, 

the fay fly, 

into the summer sky, 

There are tales spun, 

but of them none of them lie, 

For if you believe: you will see the fay fly, 

They hide in flowers, 

they particularly like sun flowers, 

But if you believe they may come near, 

If you are sad they will wipe away a tear, 

If you are happy, they will play a lyre, 

They are the fay, 

and if you believe they will surely come to play. 

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Do you have any favorite stories involving fairies? If so, I would love to hear in the comments. :D 

-Quinley 

Custom Doll: Steampunk-Cyborg (Belated Blog Anniversary Special)

Hello everyone, 

This was meant to be posted on March 30th (the date of my blog's creation). 

But then a lot happened, so instead we will be celebrating Q's Creative Corner's blog anniversary very late. 

I thought it would be fun to film myself doing doll customizations, not only because I had seen doll customizers who inspired me to do this, but also because then I would be showing it in a way that wasn't just pictures. That way, you (the audience or reader) could see it and see how I do it, and maybe learn from it if you are interested in it. So, here it is: 

You can also watch it here

I hope in the future that I will be able to produce more videos like this, for this blog. 

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Who is your favorite Doll customizer on YouTube? 

Would you like to see more videos like this on my blog in the future? 

                                                    -Quinley