Amanda and Rita Cheryl and Marina

Okay, I was absolutely NOT planning on buying this young lady.  She's the most beat-up American Girl I own now, and also the cheapest.  She ekes out both Julie and Doremi, who were my cheapest and second-cheapest until now.  Julie cost fifty bucks and fifty cents, Doremi cost just under seventy, and Amanda here cost a little under forty-eight.  She was actually around twenty-five, but shipping and handling for a large package is understandably high.

I've chosen the name Amanda Nicole Faraday for this doll, because she looks a little like my best friend from high school.  For the record, my best friend's surname was NOT Faraday, LOL.  I had another doll named Amanda once, but I gave her away to a little girl who needed her more than I did.  Anyway, the new Amanda is a Pleasant Company-era JLY #2, or so the seller said, and she is the poster child for fixer-uppers.  She has a chop to her wig and a nasty case of silver eye/bubble eye...

...and the poor little thing is "filthy, filthy, filthy," as one of my favorite patrons once said when describing a book she didn't like.

I don't usually mind silver eye.  Indeed, both Molly and Silver Bird have it (Molly's is more extensive than Silver Bird's), and I've chosen to leave them be.  I probably would leave Amanda as-is too, but she also has bubble eye and I don't like that much.  So this may be the first doll I send to the American Girl Hospital.  Her wig is cut but otherwise in good shape, and I'd leave it alone too if it weren't for her paint being mostly gone.  Or I could give her cheeks and lips a little dab of color myself.  How hard could it be?

Now...the eBay seller says this young lady was #2, but #2 has medium skin.  Amanda is pretty pale, especially compared to Zoe and Luciana, whom I know for a fact are medium-skinned.

I know that AG dolls fade as they age, but do they fade this much?  When I first opened Amanda she looked like plain-Jane #13, but my friends on Failbook say she looks more like #16, who has slightly darker hair but is still something of a plain Jane.  Since Amanda is likely a #16 and NOT a #2 I likely won't send her to the AG hospital, since the shorter hair and the silvered eye helps distinguish her from other 16s.  To help make her even more distinguishable I gave her a pair of glasses and fitted her with a Boston brace.

Amanda's shoulders are uneven, a hallmark symptom of scoliosis, so I pretend that that's what she has.  I thought I'd have to jerry-rig a brace for her, but this awesome Etsy store called ScoliBuddies makes back braces for dolls and teddy bears of various sizes.  It really is an awesome brace, too.  It looks just like the real thing.  Amanda's thick Pleasant Company frame is a bit too thick for both brace and dress, so a stuffing removal may be in her future. 

I have to admit that while I like Amanda, finding out that she wasn't a #2 was a moderate disappointment.  I like medium-toned American Girls, especially if they're one of the handful that has the classic mold.  Unfortunately an early doll like #2 goes for a premium on eBay, so I set my sights on #49 instead.  Enter Rita Cheryl, who loves Paw Patrol and my beat-up emoji pillow.

Of the seven Just Like You dolls with medium skin and the classic head, only #49 has blue eyes (#44 has hazel eyes, and the rest have brown).  Combine blue eyes with tan skin and black hair and you have a striking doll indeed.  The combination can also be achieved with Create Your Own dolls, but so far #49 is the only doll that AG deliberately made like this.  And yet Rita Cheryl's eBay auction only had one bidder:  me.  I had earlier bid on a two-doll lot that included #49 and hazel-eyed, black-haired #48, but the bids got too high for me so I dug a little more and found a hidden gem.  Her hair has a few broken ends but is still smooth for the most part, and when I parted her hair the part didn't start looking gross until I got to the hairline.  Even then it's not that gross.

Not bad at all!  Rita Cheryl does have shiny vinyl, but a once-over with a Clorox wipe will fix that, just like it did for Julie.  

Like Amanda, Marina Isabella Gutierrez was an impulse purchase, and like Amanda and Rita Cheryl, she didn't come in her meet outfit either.  She came in the Blue Sea Dress from the spring 2018 Mix and Match collection, plus lilac flip-flops that came from God knows where.  Since the dress has a little purple mixed in it works out fine, though I will be trying to find Marina's meet outfit.

Marina is a #89.  I had hoped that #91 would have popped up on eBay by now, but no dice yet.  Since Marina has her box, her book, and her hair is flawless I assume that someone only wanted her for her outfit.  Jeez, why not just wait and buy it on secondary market, like I do???  Oh well, I'm not gonna harp too much, since the meet outfit should be a breeze to find.  I've run into fans that don't care much for these exotic hair colors, but I think they're cute.  I'll admit that it makes finding the right outfit a little trickier, but I've managed with Lark and I can manage with Marina too.  Lark can look nice in things that match, or in things that artistically contrast, like her yellow blouse and crocs.

Marina will be easy too.  Marina has hazel eyes, a color that I don't yet have in my collection, but they have a lot of green in them so green clothes will make those pop.

For the record, AG's hazel eyes can vary a lot in color.  This lovely post by Lissie & Lilly discusses eye colors in general and shows the various shades of hazel in particular.  Maryellen's eyes are mostly brown, Mia St. Clair's eyes have a golden cast, and the brown and green tones vary widely.  In Marina's case the eyes look dominantly green with brown highlights.  I love them.

Marina has the Josefina head like Julie and Luciana do, and that's a teeny-weeny bit of a bummer.  The Street Chic line had two Josefina heads and a Sonali, and I personally would've liked a little more variety, but beggars can't be choosers.  I'd hate to have to do maintenance on this dye job, by the way.

Sure, it looks great, but the more colors there are, the more touch-ups one probably has to do.  I wouldn't know this for sure since I've never had unnaturally colored hair, but I figure this is the case.  Good thing Marina is a doll and thus doesn't need such maintenance.

Before I put the box in File 13, let's take a look at the front of it.

These Street Chic dolls even come in a special box!  Well...the artwork is special, at least.  I wonder if the Street Chic subdivision will be expanded upon, or if #89, #90, and #91 will be the only ones?  Time will tell.

There may be a fourth one on her way, but she's not here yet.  LOL, it's been a busy year for American Girls here at the Moon House!  No Santa Claus for me this year!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987