Why is Samantha AGs bestselling doll?

[gingerharp]

Felicity and Addy fan

I totally agree about people knowing Samantha. My dad always called ANY AG doll a Samantha doll. I had Samantha but I also had Felicity a few years later and Dad would always say go pick up your Samantha dolls, or is your Samantha doll wearing a new outfit?

He did the same with my friend who had Kirsten. He'd say can I see your Samantha doll? This is a blonde Samantha doll! And my friend would say no she is a Kirsten doll, but to him she was always a Samantha doll. Now my mom called the doll's by their real names, but if she were referring to the whole collection or a bunch of them they were also Samantha dolls. A new catalouge would come and she'd say another Samantha catalouge is here.
My husband knows Samantha and Felicity but he can't remember Molly or Addy (Sam and Lissie are the only ones I have so that is probably why) For some reason Samantha maybe because of the movie, and Felicity I think he likes the red hair stick. He remembers Kit because he says she has a stripper name, but everyone else even Nellie seem to be forgotten and clumped under Samantha dolls.

[Felicityexpert]

Originally posted by Popsie:
Interesting point, Gingerharp. I have not read Nellie's Promise yet - we just got it. One of the things that makes me see her as a tomboy is that she does things like sewing and playing piano, but it is clearly at Cornelia's bidding and not for pleasure or her choice. I've never had to ask my dd to practise piano - it is one her favorite activities, as is sewing. So, that is my perspective.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't have many nice things to say about Nellie's promise. Wasn't that good IMHO, and it's a historical purist's nightmare.

[DaWaterRat]

Finally, girls like the pink frillyness. That is of corse, a generalization and does not apply to all little girls, but the type of girls who don't might not be the type to be that interested in dolls.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm glad you said this was a generalization, because I have never, in my life, been a pink fan. That's not to say that I haven't owned some pink stuff, but mostly that was the 80's... I'm also not a fan of frills and lace, and based on the pictures I can find of my childhood, this again seems to be a long standing thing. (I don't remember liking lots of lace, but I'm willing to concede that it might be the failures of age and memory there...if it weren't backed up by pictures). I've never been especially "girly" or feminine, though I'm not sporty enough to consider myself a tomboy, unless that includes "geekboy" stuff like RPG's, comics, anime and computers (which were things that "real girls" weren't supposed to be interested in when I was a pre-teen). Of course, I did go tree climbing in Grant Park after my Junior Prom...

But I love dolls.

And I'd like to think that, despite Samantha's popularity probably for every reason mentioned (She's the girly one with the most common coloring that most mothers or grandmothers are going to buy for their girls), she's not quite as popular as Marketing and Research want people to think. I think one of the reasons Samantha is the most popular because Marketing thinks she should be the most popular.

[Molly-Felicity]

I think girls like Samantha because she is just so pretty. My daughter and I were not huge
Samantha fans. She got her for Christmas this year and we both completely fell in love with her. I hold her and can stare at her endlessly -she's that pretty. I also know that when I was a child I would have chosen Samantha because so many of my favorite books were set in the same time period - A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, All of a Kind Family (check out the cover of the 1st book. The girls' dresses look just like Samantha's play dress.)

I also think she's quite versatile. When dressed in modern clothing, she looks like an entirely different doll.

[amandajg]

I don't think that people (or, rather, most people) think that all of the dolls other than Samantha are rif-raff, I just think that subconsciously at least some are more attracted to Samantha because they see her being a bit more like them. (Assuming, of course, "they" are of a higher socio-economic status, which I believe a majority of AG customers are.) The brown hair and brown eyes is also a good idea, so many dolls are blonde-haired and blue-eyed that any brunette girl can appreciate Samantha. Also, aren't most dolls traditionally kind of modeled after Victorian-era dolls, at least in essence? A lot of the Madame Alexander dolls or just a generic doll you can buy at any store often has "Victorian-looking" styles. I just wonder if Samantha's style is what people most often connect with a doll, for whatever reason.

[beccachris]

I just recently (in the last year) discovered AG, so I'm just guessing as to which doll I would have chosen as a child. More than likely I would have picked Samantha, due to the fact that she looked the most like me because of her brunette hair.

I just don't remember their being many brunette dolls when I was a child. Now granted, I was more into Barbie than other dolls though. I can remember being about 10-12 and just being enthralled with my sisters Theresa Barbie she had just gotten because she actually had brunette hair. I had never seen one with brunette hair and up until that point, I just had to make do with Barbie.

But as far as clothing and history goes I would have probably been more interested in Kirsten or Felicity.