Update and Reveal, Review, and Comparison of My New Doll!

Hello everyone! How's it going? I'm SO excited to share my new doll with you but first I have something to tell you guys because it will affect the blog slightly. So we had a bit of a family emergency about a month ago and my sister has moved back in with us, I can't talk about what happened but prayers for her in this rough time would be really appreciated :) How will this affect the blog? She's living in the loft that my doll house was in, I had to take down the doll house and have nowhere else to put it. I was really sad to take my doll house down, I had spent so much time decorating and arranging everything, but it's worth it to know my sister will be safe. So the doll house will no longer be appearing on the blog, but I will still be setting up scenes to go with my stories :) Now on to the doll!!

 

You all did so great guessing who my doll is! I was so impressed with how many of you guys got it right, bravo! You know your dollies! My I introduce you to...

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Saila Qilavvaq! 

 

Here are the awesome bloggers who guessed right!

 

 "I have no idea what doll she is, but I'm pretty sure that she isn't AG. I'll guess that she's a Maplelea doll, based on the third one from the bottom."

- Rose from A Doll-op of AG

 

Woo Hoo! Great job Rose! I was so impressed that someone guessed it on the very first comment!

 

"Is she Saila?!?! She's such a cute doll! :)"

- Kaitlyn from Kait's AG Crafts

 

Great job Kaitlyn! You were the first one to get the name and everything! Well done, well done :)

 

"Oh! Oh! Oh! It's totally Saila!!!!! I think..... ;)"

- The Human from Life of a Farm Doll

 

You are totally right! Awesome job girl!

 

"Oh, she's lovely! I think she's a Maplelea Saila-she looks great in glasses."

- Natalie from The American Girl Spot

 

Correct! Nice job! And thank you, I like the way she looks in glasses too ;)

 

Awesome job everyone! You all did so well! *Round of applause*

 

Ok then, now we'll dive into the review!

*NOTE: This is a review of the Saila doll, some things may vary between the Maplelea characters*

 

 

So here's Saila, I bought her on eBay for $65. She came with her full meet and is in amazing used condition.

 

 

First we'll start with the doll itself (Caution: These pictures contain dolls without clothes on, so just a heads up XD).

 

 

Saila has a thick cloth body,

 

 

With a tag sewn into her back with her info and generation number.

 

 

She has a string to keep her head on, but it's sewn inside the casing. So if you need to retighten her limbs you'll need to use a seam ripper to open the casing and untie the neck. One cool thing that Maplelea does though is generation numbers. A generation number pinpoints the date your doll was made, mine was made a year after Sailas were first produced. If you'd like to learn more about generation numbers then you should totally check this post out on Canadian Doll Notebook HERE. Meg did an awesome job of explaining it :)

 

 

Saila has an incredibly beautiful face mold that pictures just don't do justice.

 

 

She has really pretty hazel/brown eyes that are just so amazing when you take a close look at them. 

 

 

She has dark brown feathered eyebrows and eyelashes that curl up.

 

 

 (A side view of her curled eyelashes)

 

 

 Her lips are a peachy pink color and oddly enough she has this same color dotted in her nostrils. I've never seen an 18" doll that had this before, so it bothered me at first, but I don't really mind anymore.

 

 

the ears aren't as detailed as some ears I've seen on dolls, but they do come out a bit so glasses and stuff stay on better.

 

 

Saila's arms, legs, and head are all made out of a sturdy vinyl that is soft and smooth.

 

 

I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture but she has soft indentations on the back of her arms to define elbows.

 

 

Her hands are smaller than some of my other dolls hands and are curved into a C shape so she can hold stuff.

 

 

Her hands are actually pretty detailed, and because of their shape.....

 

 

You can actually lock her hands together! I was actually really excited about this part because I saw The Human do it on her dolls and I just thought it was so cute! The hands can lock in front of her,

 

 

And behind her head to give poses that you can't normally get.

 

 

Here is how far she can open her arms.

 

 

The leg sockets look pretty similar to the AG dolls,

 

And the legs are skinny and, like the elbows, are defined at the knee and kneecap.

 

 

The feet are pretty long and flat, she has defined toes.

 

 

I was able to get her sit in straddle,

 

 

Splits,

 

 

And this is the closest I could get her legs together while sitting, although she had to use her arms to prop herself to sit this way.

 

 

Now on to the hair! She has wig with solid black shiny hair, it has a slight wave to it.

 

 

Her hair is parted on the left side of her head,

 

 

And it goes to her bottom.

 

 

The hair is pretty thick and is very good quality.

 

 

It is so well made that I can actually part the hair (Mind you this doll didn't come in braids or anything) and you don't see the wig cap! This is probably the highest quality wig I've ever seen on a doll, most dolls I've bought that didn't come in braids or something look terrible when the hair was parted. So I was pretty thrilled when I discovered this.

 

 

She also has those little short hairs like AG.

 

 

And now lets take a closer look at the outfit, it includes a T-shirt,

 

 

Jeans,

 

 

A vest,

 

 

Shoes and socks.

 



 

First off her jeans, they are a dark greyish blue color and come to about her ankles.

 

 

The inside is white and they Velcro up the front.

 

 

There is no elastic in the front but it does have it in the back.

 

 

It has two pockets in the front that are real, as you can see above,

 

 

And I was having a hard time capturing this on camera but her jeans are glittery. The glitter doesn't come off, which is a plus since glitter drives me crazy XD but the jeans are a little stiff.

 

 

She can, however, sit without her pants falling down.

 

 

Next up is the shirt! it's a light pink and is really nice, it doesn't feel cheap or anything, it feels like a real T-shirt!

 

 

The sleeves come to elbows,

 

 

And gathers at the neck.

 

 

There's a cute little embroidered maple leaf on the bottom left of the T, the leaf is peach and has a darker pink M on it.

 

 

The shirt also Velcro's up the back.

 

 

The vest is dark purple with hot pink around the sleeves, on the pockets, and inside the neck.

 

 

It is very thick sweat shirt material and is all soft and fuzzy on the inside :)

 

 

It has a real zipper,

 

 

And real pockets as well.

 

 

A view of the back, there's detail stitching on the front and back.

 

Socks! Socks! SOCKS!! Got to love doll socks XD These ones are made of white fleece and have elastic at the ankles.

 

 

The top is folded over and has embroidered flowers and blue zigzag at the end.

 

 

They are knee high and are fairly easy to slip on over her paints.

 

 

Moving on to the shoes! They are called kamiks, the grey bottom and the white right above it are a sleek material that I have no idea what it's called, and the fabric above that is fuzzy, I think it's suppose to look like fur. 

 

 

And the bow on the back is made of a twisted rope/yarn.

 

 

The boots slip on easily but they curve on the bottom, I think this is normal but it might make it hard for her to stand.

 

 

You may have seen in her photo shoot that I put glasses on her as well.

 

 

I got these for Christmas, and because they aren't Maplelea they don't fit her every well.. They fit AG, but the arms on these are too long for her face. So they hang quite far off her head.

 

 

And because of her flatter face her eyelashes touch the lenses of the glasses when she lays down, so they don't close with them on.

 

AG AND MAPLELEA COMPARISON

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Comparison time! Ya'll ready for this?! We'll be comparing Saila to Kit because she's probably the most like the dolls AG makes now that I own (She's only a year old).

 

 

Let's start with the legs! The vinyl feels about the same I'd say, Saila has longer feet and slightly longer legs. Kit's legs are also chubbier than Saila's.

 

 

Saila's cloth body is thicker than Kit's, but Kit's stuffing is packed a little firmer.

 

(LOL it looks like Kit is about to push Saila over XD)

Here is a side view of the bodies, and as you can see Saila doesn't have a defined back like Kit does.

 

 

Kit's arms are shorter than Saila's and are chubbier.

 

 

A side by side of the hands, Saila's are a little smaller than Kit's.

 

 

One thing about AG hands is that they are more open, so while Kit looks like she's waving...

 

 

Saila's hand is more closed like a fist.

 

 

Aww! They can shake hands!

 

Kit: "Sorry for pushing you over earlier, no hard feelings?"

 

 

 As far as the hair goes, Kit's feels softer while Saila's hair feels thicker and better quality.

 

 

Maplelea limbs are strung like AG. Saila's limbs are very tight, and considering that she is used this is a very good sign of quality. I just tightened Kit's limbs because after only about four months of owning her the limbs were so loose I could pull them out of the sockets! And I bought her new too, very disappointing.

 

(Sorry this picture isn't very centered)

A side view of the faces, as you can see Saila has a flatter face mold.

 

 

Now let's see how the two brands of clothes fit the other doll!

 

 

LOL XD First off, Molly's glasses don't fit Saila, but then again Molly's glasses don't even fit Molly sooooo, Yeah, that was pointless XD On to the dicky! I had no trouble putting it around her neck and it fits rather nicely, the sweater slipped over her head easily as well.

 

 

Because Saila's arms are longer though, the sleeves are about an inch above her wrists.

 

 

The skirt fits well and comes to her knee caps.

 

 

These socks are a little stretched out, but I think even if they weren't they would be much too loose around the ankles.

 

 

And since her feet are longer, American Girl shoes are too small for Maplelea dolls.

 

 

Next up is Kit in Saila's meet! The Jeans are a little long for Kit, but don't look bad on her. I would say however, that they do look a little baggy.

 

 

Something surprising is that the pants are slightly large around the waist.

 

 

The shirt fits fine,

 

 

The vest does come up a little high on the neck though.

 

 

Due to her chubbier legs the socks were a little harder to put on.

 

 

The socks are also too long for her feet.

 

 

I wasn't able to get the shoes on because of her wider feet as well.

 

 

So that's my review of Maplelea doll Saila! Overall, I love this doll! The quality is insane and I have NO regrets in buying her. Especially with the turn in American Girl quality lately, I would much rather pay full price for a Maplelea (Which is saying a lot for me since I haven't bought a full priced doll in a loooonng time) and know that I'll be getting a great quality doll VS a new AG doll that has squishy vinyl and see through cloth. Thanks so much for reading everyone! I hope this post was helpful if you're considering a Maplelea! Have an awesome day everyone!

 

-Katie :)