Magical Merchandise: Disney American Girl Dolls

Happy Monday Friends!  It has been SO long since I've done a post about Disney merchandise.  Although I've saved photos of products here and there over the past year and a half, there's absolutely no way that I'll ever get "caught up" with them.  But I would like to get back into posting about merchandise more regularly.  So today I've made a special selection to get back into my Magical Merchandise Monday blog segment.

I believe I've briefly told you about my obsession with American Girl Dolls when I was younger.  Felicity was my absolute favorite, but I also had Samantha and a doll that looked like me.  I would spend hours pouring over the catalog when it arrived in the mail.  I always loved the little miniature foods and accessories.  Even as I grew older, my American Girl Dolls were very special to me, and I've taken extra care of them.

So you can imagine my surprise when one day, I opened my email inbox to discover that American Girl was making Disney Princess dolls!  It's like a dream come true!

In July of 2023, AG released three limited edition American Girl Doll Collector Series dolls to coincide with Disney's 100th anniversary celebration.  (I had every intention of posting about the dolls on here... and then a few weeks later my world came crashing down.)  The first three dolls released were Rapunzel, Belle and Jasmine.  Swarovski partnered with AG for the collector dolls and they had tons of sparkle and details on their outfits.  The dolls were limited to 4,000 of each design and they retailed for $300.

At the time, I remember thinking that $300 was a little more expensive than what I would want to spend on one of them.  But looking back, I wish I had splurged and gotten Rapunzel.  The intricate details on her dress are absolutely stunning!

But thankfully, I didn't totally miss out as this was only the beginning of the Disney and American Girl collaboration.  Since the original collector series, AG has also made more standard play dolls for little girls.  So when I saw these... I knew I had to get them.

In February of 2024, they released the first general dolls: Tiana, Ariel and Cinderella... along with other outfits and accessory packs (with sidekicks!) for each of them.

In July of 2024, they released limited edition versions of Anna and Elsa as part of their Frozen American Girl Doll Collector Series dolls.

In August 2024, I was pleased to see that Rapunzel was back, but it was a simpler version of the doll instead of the Swarovski collector design.  However, I didn't care because I knew she would be mine someday.  She also had accessories with her release.  The only disappointing part of her release is that Rapunzel didn't come with another dress option like the original three general dolls did.

Back in November they released Moana to coincide with the release of Moana 2 in theaters.  The doll is beautiful, but Pua and Hei Hei really steal the show!

And this was where I thought today's posts about new Disney American Girl Dolls was going to end... but I happened to check my email less than 5 minutes before I had this post scheduled to go live at 2:30 PM and they have literally just released a general Belle doll.  (Talk about some good timing!)  So after a few quick adjustments and additions to my post, here's what the Belle doll released today looks like!

Aren't these adorable?!?!?  I'm obsessed... and I'm confident that American Girl will be releasing more of the Disney Princesses as time passes.  I can't wait to see who is next and what other outfits, accessories and side kicks she'll have available!

The reason I picked this for my first Magical Merchandise Monday post back, is that I am now the very proud owner of two of these Disney dolls.  For Christmas this year, I asked Santa for a lot of smaller paints and crafting supplies... but my "big items" were Rapunzel and Cinderella.  So Christmas morning, I was transported back in time 30 years as I delicately opened Rapunzel (from my Mom) and Cinderella (from Jeremy).

The dolls are so beautiful.  I won't lie, even though I knew what they were when I was opening them, it still made me a little bit teary eyed.  It brought me back to being a kid and feeling all of the wonder when I first opened Felicity and Samantha.  And the two accessory packs I got took my breath away.  Rapunzel's little paint set is perfection, and Cinderella's pink dress tugged at my heartstrings.  That scene of the mice and birds making her pink dress will always remind me of my Nana.

It's safe the say that American Girl has knocked it out of the park on these Disney dolls.  I am so happy they have partnered with Disney to bring these dolls to the current generation of little girls... and to those of us "big girls" who are still young at heart.  °o°

All photos are from the American Girl website, their facebook page or from marketing emails they sent me.  For more information, please visit their website.  (I also used American Girl Fandom Wiki to research information in this post.)

Magical Merchandise: Disney Princess Sequin Loungefly Collection

Happy Marathon Monday!  Today we're having a cool, rainy and dreary day here in New England.  It's one of those gray days when it's kind of depressing and you just want to cuddle up on the couch.  Instead, I figured I would fight against the 'blah' with something sparkly and fun!  I had no idea what I wanted to write about for Magical Merchandise Monday, but when I got thinking about it, this was the perfect idea! 

At this point, I'm sure that you've caught on to my Loungefly obsession.  Starting in June of last year, Loungefly has been releasing a Disney Princess Sequin Collection featuring all twelve of the official Disney Princesses.  (Obviously, shiny, sparkly and princesses was right up my alley.)  I've been buying them and patiently waiting to share this post when the collection was complete.  Loungefly just released the last bag in the collection two weeks ago on April 3rd and mine came in the mail the other day.

The bags are absolutely beautiful.  I'm already a sucker for any of their sequin bags, but the fact that these were all princess themed completely sold me.  The details on them are perfect and they definitely resemble each Disney Princess.  Each bag also had a matching wallet.  (I didn't buy all of the wallets, but I did get a few that I liked.)

As for the bags, I have all of them except Tiana and Mulan.  I made a grave error when Tiana didn't sell out right away.  I thought that I'd have another day or two to purchase her, and I was waiting to get paid from Etsy.  But in the meantime, she ended up selling out and I missed her.  The bag is still online with a "Notify Me" button, so most people assume that they might restock her, but I'm skeptical as to if that's real or a website malfunction.  (I'm still signed up either way though- just in case!)  And Mulan has been sitting there like a few of the other bags so I was trying to wait to buy her (and a few of the holiday bags) until we got our tax refund.

Of the entire collection, Rapunzel is my favorite.  She's my favorite princess anyways, and the one that I relate to the most, so that's probably not a surprise.  However, the bag was so gorgeous that it was love at first sight.  I love how they included the floral pattern of her skirt on the bag.  In fact, I loved it so much, that I begged Jeremy to order an extra for me so I can use it without worry about it getting ruined!

The only disappointment was the Snow White bag.  It doesn't bother me too much, but a lot of people were really upset that they changed the location of the tag on the last bag.  The entire collection has the plaque at the center under the bow, and then they moved the Snow White one.  I understand that they didn't want to cover her collar, but it's unfortunate they made this design decision on the last bag in the collection.  (A girl in one of my Facebook groups moved hers and it still looked fine.)

I can't wait to display this gorgeous collection in our master bedroom.  I've decided to hang two shelves in my vanity area and I'm planning to put this collection on one of the shelves.  (Then, the other one can house my Cinderella and Rapunzel bags!)  I'm so excited to see them once they're all displayed together!

If you're interested in this collection, most of them are sold out online, but you might be able to find a personal shopper to pick them up from one of the Funko Stores.  (Or you can spend lots of money to get them on the secondary market... what I might end up doing just to get my hands on Tiana.)  However, Loungefly is doing a giveaway from now through April 21st over on their Instagram account to celebrate hitting one million followers.  They're giving away an entire set of these to one lucky person!

I don't know about you, but these sparkly gems definitely brightened my day!  °o°

All photos taken from Loungefly's website and their Facebook account.

Magical Merchandise: New Disney Princess Torrid Collection

Happy Monday Friends!  

Today I wanted to share some fun new clothing items that Torrid has recently added to their website.  The new Disney Princess Collection has slowly been showing up on and off for the past few weeks, but it finally looks like everything has arrived online!  As a huge Disney princess fan, naturally I was intrigued by everything.  

So today, I thought we'd take a peek at it!  Let's dive in!

First, they have a new Cinderella Dress.  Honestly, the ruffled dress style reminds me more of Wendy than Cinderella, but there is a glass slipper embroidered at the bottom.

I like the style of this cute Tinker Bell Dress.  There's also a Tink embroidered on it!

I'm not a huge Snow White fan but I love this top!  I think the red on the sleeves is the perfect nod to Snow White.  I might have to get this one.

There isn't a Snow White Skirt in the collection, but this was the photo the top was modeled with.  I'm wondering if this suspender skirt is going to be added eventually?

There's also an Ariel Sweater with small shells embroidered on it.

Then, there's an Ariel Top with an embroidered sleeve.

Finally, there's an Ariel Pencil Skirt with her embroidered at the bottom.

This is what the entire Ariel Outfit looks like together!  I think it's cute and pretty subtle.

Next, we have the Belle Top.  It's hard to see, but there's a book and a rose on it.

The matching Belle Skirt has a ton of roses cascading down the front.

Here's what the Belle Outfit looks like together.

I absolutely love this Aurora Dress.  You don't see much of her Briar Rose look and this dress is really cute.  The embroidery at the bottom says "Once Upon A Dream".

They also made a coordinating Aurora Sweater with some of the birds on it.

Here's the Aurora Outfit with the cardigan over the dress!  It's so cute!

Finally, we have my favorite Disney princess.  First, they added a Rapunzel Peasant Top that has a tiny Pascal down near the hem.

Then, there are Rapunzel Pants with a few floating lanterns embroidered on the side.

And here's the entire Rapunzel Outfit!

These outfits definitely fit more of the Disneybound vibe than actual costumes.  I love stuff like this though, because it's much easier to incorporate some Disney style into everyday life when the clothing doesn't feel overly costume-y.

I definitely love a few of these... especially the Snow White, Rapunzel and Aurora styles in particular.  But Ariel and Belle are cute outfits too!  Surprisingly, I'm not really loving the Cinderella dress, and I have a Tinker Bell dress already.  A few of these styles might find their way into my closet eventually!  °o°

#tbt 2017 D23 Expo Memories

The 2022 D23 Expo officially kicks off tomorrow in Anaheim and I couldn't be more excited!  I can't wait to see all of the booths, the costumes, the cosplays, the panels, the merchandise, the shows, and everything else there is to experience!

I'm sure it's going to be an amazing weekend.  And to get into the spirit, today I thought that I'd share some of my favorite moments from the 2017 D23 Expo.  

Before I dive in, I want to preface the rest of this post by letting you all know that I've never written much about the 2017 D23 Expo because I had a lot of mixed feelings about it.  Don't get me wrong, Eliot and I had an amazing time, but at the time, that was overshadowed by the amount of complete chaos and disorganization.  I left the expo completely in awe at everything I'd experienced, both the positive and the negative.

But now that five years have passed since our last expo experience, the bad parts aren't so fresh and raw... and I'd rather focus on all of the positive.  So these are all the positive memories that I have from the 2017 D23 Expo.

One of the coolest moments that Eliot and I had at the D23 Expo was something that almost didn't even happen.  I don't want to get into the disaster that was trying to get into the Descendants cast meet and greet, but somehow, a miracle happened.  Being kind matters, and Elissa was able to get in with a complete stranger's group, then she squeezed us in so Eliot and I got to meet and take a quick photo with the Descendants 2 cast.  (That's when Cameron Boyce gave me the biggest hug- which I'll never forget.)

Another cool celebrity moment was when I saw Colin O'Donoghue who played Captain Hook in Once Upon a Time.  I was trying to get a picture with him, but again, the talent lines were a hot mess at this event.  Eliot and I tried our best, but I couldn't get in the line.  I also didn't get a selfie with him, but I did see him and take a few pictures of him.

I did however get to take a picture with his costume at the Walt Disney Archives "A Pirate's Life For Me" exhibit at the expo.  (Read more about the exhibit here.)

The Pirates Exhibit was actually one of my favorite parts of the event.  Each year, they make a museum on the show floor that showcases Disney props and costumes.  Since it was the 50th anniversary of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, that was the chosen theme for this year's expo.  The exhibit had displays from anything related to pirates- from Once Upon A Time, Jake and the Neverland Pirates cartoon on Disney Junior, Descendants and props from both the the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction and all of the movies.  It was really cool to see everything.

We saw Captain Jack Sparrow's iconic outfit, as well as Will and Elizabeth's wedding attire.  I love these types of exhibits because I'm always astounded by the costumes!

The theme for 2017's D23 Design Challenge was also Pirates of the Caribbean.  The top 23 pieces of artwork were selected to be displayed at the event.  I really enjoyed seeing all of the finalists creativity and artistic talents!

Another thing that I loved from this event was the display of costumes, specifically the princess gowns.  Ella's blue gown from the live action Cinderella and Belle's yellow gown from the live action Beauty and the Beast were my favorites!

Although it wasn't officially part of the D23 expo, another thing we stumbled across was the Pizza Planet truck parked outside of the expo at a hotel next door.  A Toy Story fan decorated an old Toyota truck to look like the iconic truck, and they had it parked for Disney fans to enjoy.  It even had a Buzz Lightyear toy sitting in the front seat!

One of the things that Eliot and I enjoyed most was all of the merchandise available at the event.  We lucked out and got let into the Mickey's of Glendale Imagineering store without waiting in the insane lines for it.  We also checked out the Disney Store and the D23 store.  We found a lot of cool things.  I was especially excited when Eliot was able to get me the Tsum Tsum Pixar Shorts set that I really wanted!

The only session that I went to at this D23 Expo was the The Power of the Princess Panel.  Elissa, Sara and I all went in early to stand in line because we really wanted to see this one.  Thankfully, we were able to get in.  It was pretty tight security and we weren't sure why at the time.  We even had to put our cell phones into a ziplock bag and then in our backpacks.  The princess panel had two female animators leading the discussion... with four actual Disney princesses on the panel!  Auli'i Cravalho (Moana), Anika Noni Rose (Tiana), Paige O'Hara (Belle) and Jodi Benson (Ariel) graced all of us with their presence and it was the coolest thing.  (Read more about it here.)

Part of the way through the panel, we were shown a rough cut of the new Wreck-it-Ralph 2 movie.  Some of the cuts were actually animated, and some were still in the rough sketch stage. Now we knew why we couldn't video tape any of it.  It was so cool!

Finally, the iconic princesses were all asked their favorite lines from their movies.  They all ended up singing instead... and I swear Elissa and I were going to slap each others thighs off from excitement.  It was a truly magical experience!

Finally, the part that sticks out most in my mind was the thing Eliot and I loved so much that we did it twice Sunday afternoon... the Alan Menken Concert.  The concert was Alan Menken taking us through his own personal story through song.  It included fan favorites from the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Tangled, Hercules, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Aladdin.  Some of the songs he wrote for Broadway and the live action movies even made an appearance.  It was absolutely incredible... like I said, it was so good we went back for the second showing of it.

As you can see, there were a lot of cool experiences that Eliot and I got to do at the 2017 D23 Expo that some Disney fans can only dream of.  The D23 Expos events are definitely the place to go for fans!  While there were a lot of things that weren't so great during this weekend, overall, it really was incredible!  Hopefully, all of us will get to experience more fun things at this year's event!

Happy 2022 D23 Expo Weekend Disney Fans!!!  °o°

2023 Virtual Princess Challenge Registration

This morning, I once again traded my glass slippers for sneakers while I signed up for the 2023 RunDisney Princess Half Marathon Weekend Virtual Race Registration.

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The princess themed race weekend is my favorite RunDisney event.  Eliot and I have attended it in person twice: just the two of us in 2017 and with his family in 2019.  I've always dreamed of doing another princess race in person, but between the pandemic and how much it costs, I'm happy to have an alternative.  Plus, next year Eliot and I are already signed up to do the 2023 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in person.  I can't justify turning around and going back down to Florida a few weeks after that event takes place... especially if we have the puppies at that point!

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Thus, I happily opted to sign up for the virtual edition of the races.  Some people aren't a big fan of them, but I thought this was a great thing to come out of the pandemic.  I'm not sure if RunDisney will continue to offer virtual versions of their race weekends, but I'll probably sign up for princess weekend every year if they do keep it!  I will definitely miss being down there in person and experiencing everything that I love, but I'll still get to earn the bling and get the race shirts!  So it's a win-win in my book!

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Thankfully, this was smooth sailing like signing up for the virtual marathon.  I don't really know how registration went on Tuesday for the in person event, but the virtual side was quick and easy.  I was in the queue about 10 minutes before 10 am, and right at 10 I was switched over to the waiting room.  I only had to wait 2 minutes, and within that two minutes I was heading into register for Princess Half Marathon Weekend!

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I decided to register for the Challenge as well as the 5K.  I really like the artwork for this year's event, so I decided to just go for it and do all of them.  Plus, the princesses for each event are some of my favorites: Jasmine for the 5K, Belle for the 10K, Moana for the Half Marathon and Cinderella for the Challenge.  It's also the 15th anniversary of the half marathon and the 10th anniversary of the challenge.  Hopefully, they'll have really cool medals like they usually do for the anniversary events! 

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So, as of this morning, I am registered for the actual in-person 10K at Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, the virtual WDW marathon, and both the Princess 5k and Princess Challenge!  I think it's time I lace up those sneakers... someone has got some training to do to prepare for next year's RunDisney events!  °o°