Our New Ashton-Drake Baby Doll {part 1}

Update: Don’t miss Part 2 about our Little Peanut.

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We have a new doll in the doll house!  I say “we” because this is a mother-daughter venture!  It all started at the end of the summer when my daughter took a look at what she had earned babysitting for a neighbor.  For a 12 year old, this was the summer dream job, she enjoyed the work and enjoyed earning a little cash.  She earned a good sum of money babysitting and wanted to spend part of it on a new doll.  Not just any doll.  She had in mind a collectible doll.  The features she wanted were:

1. A baby doll.
2. Soft and realistic to the touch.
3. The clothes could be changed. (Not like the collectable doll we used to have who’s  clothes were sewn on!)
4. Adorable (Who wants an ugly doll?:))

On her own she researched different dolls and came up with the So Truly Real line by Ashton-Drake as her favorite.  There was one feature that stood out and that is what the company calls “irresistibly soft RealTouch® vinyl skin”.

After looking through the collection she narrowed her favorite down to “Little Peanut”.

Source

The website described the doll as “fully poseable and weighted to feel incredibly real in your arms”, but we could not find any information about being able to change it’s clothes.  These dolls are collectables and the website clearly states, for adult collectors.  I was concerned changing the clothes would be considered a play feature, which is clearly NOT what this doll was intended for.  At 12 soon to be 13 I new my daughter was old enough and responsible enough for a collectible and this doll would be treated as a collectible.  She still wanted the freedom, flexibility, and ease to dress the doll as she wanted. With how pricy these dolls are, I wanted to be sure we understood what this doll would be like before we purchased it.

Source

She emailed the company with the question of whether the clothes could be changed and they replied “As per your request, you can change Little Peanut’s clothing”.  The next day we ordered the doll.  Yes “we” ordered it, you see, I agreed to buy the doll with my daughter.  What can I say she’s a good saleswoman and I bought into the argument that this was a doll investment.  It’s true, we have often bought doll related things together.  Needless to say, since this was for her, I agreed to pay $40 of the total cost if she put in the other $100.  So there it is, Little Peanut is “our” doll, but mostly hers. 🙂

When we bought the doll I knew I wanted to share a couple pictures of her, here on the blog.  In the end I decided to share a bit more, because of the difficulty we had finding many details about this doll.  Although I focus on the 18″ doll world on this blog, I’m diverting a little to share our experience with you.  Doll fans often have cross-overs of other dolls that capture their heart!  Little Peanut captured ours!

She arrived 26 days after we ordered her.

We were surprised, maybe we missed the fine print, but the doll wasn’t ready to send out the day we ordered her.  In fact I later read it could take 2 months to come.  I’m still not clear why.  I would want to check with the company first if I was ordering it for a birthday or christmas, when the time frame mattered.

The box arrived very protected, with plastic wrap and then a cardboard box over the doll box.

On the doll box it clearly states “Adult Collectible:  Recommended for children over 14 years of age.”

Oh the antisipation!

Her neck was stabilized with cardboard and padding, her arms and legs wrapped in packaging material.

Awe, what a cute face!

She came in a pink onesie with little elephants on the front.  Her little pink hat covers her netted hair.

Right out of the box we can feel how she is weighted like a baby.  How do they do that?  Too cool!

She defiantly is adorable!

I will follow up soon with a photo shoot of Little Peanut.  I have lots of close-ups and more details about this sweet doll by Ashton-Drake!

See you soon!

Anna

Update: Here is the link to Part 2