I solemnly swear that I've been up to no good

Today's post will begin with yet another warning to spammers:  all comments are moderated, and any spam will be marked as such and deleted.  This time it was some idiot proclaiming a quack doctor who hawks "cures" for...incurable venereal diseases, shall we say.  One of my favorite blogs is littered with such nonsense comments and could thus do with a good moderator.  Anyway, if you're out there and read this, you've been warned, your doctor is a quack, and you wouldn't have VD if you'd behaved a little more responsibly.  Now that that's out of the way, I can't say as I've behaved too well myself lately, at least in monetary terms.  No Santa Claus for me this Christmas!  LOL, this post hearkens back to a tidbit of news that I dropped for y'all in March.  Yep, today I unveil two new additions to my eighteen-inch doll collection.  I had told myself I wasn't going to buy any more American Girls since Justine-Marie is all but perfect, but I let a few friends on Failbook talk me into buying one of the lovely ladies below.  The other has a longer story behind her.  Meet Luciana Vega and Lark Chloe Anderson.

I'll start with Luciana, since for awhile I thought she'd be doing this post solo, and since her birthday is today, May fifteenth.  I already have her in mini-form (as Denise Goldberg's doll), so why do I bother with a large Luciana now instead of back in 2018?  Because my friends on an AG-themed Failbook group suggested that Luciana might become hard to find after the lawsuit is over and done with.  The lawsuit is such old news that it walked alongside Sue the T-rex, but for those who have been living under a rock (like me) here's a link to the story.  Apparently Luciana is very similar in looks, styling, and name to a real astronomer, and said astronomer was/still is heap pissed to the point of suing because AG didn't contact them first.  Among the terms of the lawsuit were a cease and desist on all sales of Luciana and her items, though I don't know if that includes sales on the secondary market.  I doubt it since no one can fully control the secondary market, but I got Luciana anyway just in case price-gougers start hitting eBay...and because I love a good controversy.  The case is now dismissed and thus much of the controversy is moot, but no terms or agreements were specified.

I'm not going to do an in-depth review of either Luciana or Lark since I did that with Courtney and Justine-Marie back in January, but I do want to point put a few things with both dolls.  Firstly, I wonder if it's coincidence that Luciana's surname is the name of a star, or if AG planned that?  I wonder how many peeps even caught that?  Anyway, Luciana was the second doll to be released with a "new" style of eye (Nanea Mitchell was the first), an eye that had less metal, closed differently, and had visible pegs.  This new style of eye turned out to be about as popular as the bodies with permapanties, and it didn't last long.  Here's what Luciana's eyes look like; her eBay seller had her in profile so I'm expecting some eye wonk.  Shame on me for not asking for more pictures.

Well...maybe her left eye is an eensy bit wonky.  My left eye is too, especially when I get overtired or sick.  Mama says she can't tell that Luciana's eye is wonky, so maybe it's just my imagination.  I really have no room to complain too much about eye alignment anyway, since Justine-Marie is a little wall-eyed and I like her just fine.  I can see inside Luciana's right eye socket a little, more so than I can the eyes of my other dolls, but this is only visible up close so I'm not gonna gripe too loudly.

The other thing I want to talk about is Luciana's hair.  Yeah, it's thin in back like Z's and Courtney's, but it also has this.

The streak appears to be the same color as the extension I braided into Silver Bird's hair.

Luciana is not the first American Girl to come with goofy-colored hair; that title would go to Isabelle Palmer, who had/has a pink peek-a-boo.  However, Isabelle's pink streaks were not permanently attached, whereas Luciana's purple streak is.  It doesn't always show, which I think is clever, but it IS there and I love it.  As far as I know, Luciana is the first AG doll to have exotic colors permanently blended into her wig.  She's since been followed by Truly Me #86, #87, and #88, and by the three Street Chic girls, #89, #90, and #91.  #86 bears a passing resemblance to Luciana, by the way, as she has purple hair and the Josefina head with medium tone.

Oh yes, I want to look at skin...er, vinyl color.  Luciana is of Chilean decent, meaning that she's darker than my other dolls.  Seriously, even Z and Silver Bird are light, and they're both supposed to be Oriental.  But they look white, especially next to Luciana!  Indeed, Mama didn't believe Z was Korean-American until I showed her Z's book.  Here's how they compare to Luciana.  Silver Bird is an old doll and has faded a lot...

...but Z is pretty new and hasn't had time to fade.

Poor Silver Bird is so faded!  I'd like to send her to the hospital for a repaint, but I'm afraid that if I do they'll change her eyes too.  Silver eye is supposed to be a defect, but in this case I like it.  It sets Silver Bird apart from other JLY #4's.

Yuck, looks like she's got some sort of crud on her cheek too.  I'll have to deal with that.  Anyway, just for shizzles, here's how Luciana compares to Abigail Witch, who is also Hispanic...

...to Nancy, who is also Hispanic...

...to Ana Ming, who is Chinese and has a damned gnat on her upper lip...

...to Xenia, who is Greek...

...and to Mosi, who is Navajo.

Under the glare of my cell phone's camera Luciana appears darker than them all, and though my phone does wash colors out these pictures are pretty accurate.  The AG wiki lists Luciana's skin tone as "medium," but that tells me nothing since there's three shades of medium:  dark, light, and golden.  I think Luciana is dark medium since she looks more like Kaya and Josefina (both dark medium dolls) than she does Lea (a light medium doll), but I'm still not 100% certain.  Shouldn't matter, I don't guess, but I'd still like to know for the sake of reference.

Since Luciana has the Josefina head I'm going to compare her face to that of my other Josefina head, Julie.  The Josefina head can vary a lot depending on the paint, and to a lesser extent on the hairstyle.  Julie's head looks narrower than Luciana's does, but in this case it's because of their differing hairstyles.

Sometimes AG also tinkers with eyebrow placement, and that changes the overall look of the doll.  McKenna Brooks has raised eyebrows, for example, and Lea Clark has angular brows.  I'm not a big fan of either look, by the way; to me McKenna looks like a dope, and Lea can look aggressive.  Luckily Luciana and Julie both avoided looking either dopey or grumpy.  Indeed, they both look fairly intelligent as American Girls go.  Julie has the older straight brows while Luciana has the feathered ones.  Luciana's brows do have an angle to them, suggesting that she could have an attitude from some angles like Lea, but so far I haven't found any bad angles. 

Julie and Luciana both have the same dark eyes that I have such trouble photographing, so that's a pain in the posterior.  Two Truly Me dolls have lighter brown, almost amber-hued eyes (#26 and #62, both of whom were retired in 2019), and Tenney Grant and #89 have another fairly new shade of brown eyes, meaning that Luciana had other options.  I wish one of those other options had been used for Luciana, especially after fellow Girl of the Year Saige Copeland had a unique eye color of her own.  To me having unique features makes the Girl of the Year a little more special and unique.  However, I'm learning my difficulties with photographing these eyes is not the fault of these dolls or their maker, but rather my equipment.  For reference, I present this video by Lynn Life.  See how her Julie's eyes sparkle?  I think it's all about lighting.  As an aside, while I was setting up the above picture, I got this candid of Luciana and Julie getting to know each other.  I think they could become great friends given a little time.

Now let's talk about Lark.  Lark once belonged to Chloe, from Chloe's American Girl Doll Channel.  Chloe recently decided to liquidate her very large collection, and since I love/loved/still love her channel I bid on Lark's auction.  Yes, bid, as Chloe didn't have a "buy it now" option for her customized dolls.  I actually had given up on winning Lark at one point since every time I bid eBay would say "You've been outbid."  Someone else had set a high bid, so I set one too without much hope that it would work.  Lo and behold, the other person with the high bid backed out, leaving me with the sole high bid.  No one topped it, and I WON THE AUCTION!!!  My first time bidding on an auction and I won it!  Now that that's out of the way, Lark originally came from Dolliebmine on Etsy, and Chloe owned her for about three years before parting with her.  Her box-opening video can be found here.  Her name was just "Lark" then, but I added in "Chloe" to pay tribute to her prior owner, and gave her a random surname.  She's...maybe not quite as unique now thanks to Truly Me #90, who also has blue hair, but the shades of blue aren't the same so no biggie.  #90's hair is electric blue like I once wanted for myself, while Lark's hair is more of a dark indigo shade.

This hair is thick and lush, but it's also very long and it has that synthetic slipperiness that makes styling a tremendous pain in the posterior.  I have her hair tied off to the side, a simple hairstyle, and yet the entire time I was putting said style together I was thanking the good Lord that I was smart enuff to give Justine-Marie a short wig.  When Lark first got here her hair was braided back, and I commend Chloe for having that kind of patience.  Even a style as simple as two tucked braids is too much for my clumsy hands.  Lark has a beautiful wig, though.

Regarding the face, Lark has the classic head with blue eyes and fair skin.  #90 also has blue eyes and fair skin, but she sports the Josefina head so telling her and Lark apart will be a cinch.  It also helps that Lark has purple eyebrows (#90's eyebrows are light brown) and sparkly red lips (#90's lips are a natural pink shade).  Lark also had enhanced eyelashes at one time, but one of those came loose during shipping so I just took them off.  I can always replace them if I choose to. 

When Lark was new she wore a black leotard and a black faux leather jacket with a bold floral skirt.  The color scheme would've fit in nicely with the new Street Chic aesthetic American Girl is hawking, but Lark isn't wearing that outfit anymore.  When she arrived she was wearing this.

Looks like the jacket from the Truly Me meet set and two right shoes from the Lilac Dress set, plus a white dress with pink polka dots.  The only things Lark has left from her old ensemble are her necklace...

...and her earrings.

Her current outfit is a cute outfit, no doubt about that, but the sparkles look more like something Luciana would wear.  Lark's exotic hair begs for brighter colors, and luckily I have just the thing:  vertically striped blue jeans with bright yellow crocs (or uglyshoes, as my family called them) and a bright yellow T-shirt.  The shirt and jeans came from LuvItDollClothes, and the shoes came from Annie's Dolly Boutique, both Etsy shops.  Etsy truly is a godsend for those who want cute and affordable options for AG and smaller My Twinn dolls.

Simple, casual, comfortable, colorful, not terribly unlike what the little girls are wearing to school around here...when school's not closed for this coronavirus crap, that is!  I'll admit that crocs fell out of favor with my friends during high school because they can be slippery on wet or tiled floors (especially if the floor is both wet AND tiled), but they're still pretty popular around here for casual and home wear.  And they're still hella comfy, especially during the summer.  I just wish I had some goofy charms to hang on these, like some of my friends did with their crocs.  Do peeps make charms like that in doll size???  Even if they do I doubt they'd fit on Lark's shoes, since the holes in her shoes are heart-shaped.

Fun story about Lark, now!  I'd had Lark not even a full day, and just for the heckuvit I had her at the library with Justine-Marie.  One of our young regulars came in, saw Lark, and remarked "I feel like I've seen her somewhere before!"  Turns out that the little girl is a fan of Chloe's American Girl Doll Channel and recognized Lark from there.  So I guess y'all could say that Lark is a celebrity doll of sorts!

Since I opened up the post with a Harry Potter reference...Luciana and Lark both align with Ravenclaw!

I also have one Slytherin (Justine-Marie) and one Hufflepuff (Lindsey) in my dolly mixture, but I'll show y'all those shirts some other time.  Thank you to Blueberry Lane for these awesome shirts, by the way; that shop has some kick-a$$ stuff, AND they're based in Raymore, Missouri.  Raymore is clean across the state from Malden, and yet items from Blueberry Lane often come within two or three days (partly by virtue of the Interstate system that connects Kansas City, St. Louis, and the Bootheel).  That's fast shipping in these days, y'all!

Maybe my third new doll can be a Gryffindor.  Red would look good on her.

Whaaaaaat, y'all thought I was done?  Naw, I bought Dolly #3 on an impulse right when things were kinda tough at work, when I desperately needed a pick-me-up.  I won't share her in this post since it's a long enough post already, but the eye color will give y'all some clues as to who she is.  As I noted above, only two dolls have this eye color.  But...gotta keep y'all in suspense!

See y'all soon,
RagingMoon1987