#nicki and Isabel hoffman

[timetravelingcourtney]

Meet Izzy and Nic: 1994 (OCs)

Izzy and Nick share everything including a birthday and a bedroom, but not an outlook on life.  Growing up in Middleton, Wisconsin, they attend Komrey Middle School.  Isabella always looks just so, her desk is always tidy and her homework is always done.  However, her twin Nicolette, or Nic for short, seems to spend her afternoons and weekends running from one practice to the next.  In class, she doodles all the time and has to ask her sister about the lesson she’s missed.  Izzy seems to have it all together with her perfect outfits and clean desk but when life throws her a curve, she struggles to hit the ball.

Last Halloween, when they were eight, Izzy and Nic wore matching black cat costumes but lately they haven’t been matching much.  Their mother, Christina, is disappointed but understands that they are developing their own tastes and identities.  

Izzy always seems to know what she wants and this year she wanted to be a medieval princess, so their mother has been working on her costume for weeks.  Nic can’t figure out what to be for Halloween but Izzy points out that she loves swimming in the lake and would make a great lake creature.  Nic uses her artistry and creativity and concocts the perfect outfit from items she finds in their father’s fishing boat, the garage and a discarded dress of her mother’s.  Nic worries that her costume will look unimpressive next to her twin’s, but Izzy is so enthusiastic about Nic’s creation that she proudly trick or treats through the neighborhood by her sister’s side.  When they get home, their Halloween buckets overflow with candy.

Next Up: Things get more complicated when Izzy and Nic Learn a Lesson

a note on this project:  I came into these early AGOTs over several years as well as their outfit collection.  When I set out to create this story line, I was pondering the question of whether or not AG would use any of the early AGOT items in the new line.  If so, what would it look like?  It’s an interesting conundrum: if AG will be true to their own past or go for something differently nostalgic.  As an experiment in play, I stuck with what I had with just a few purchases to complete outfits and diy’d a few items as well, as I imagine a young me would do.  A few promises - the leaked part of the story of the twins Jewish heritage will be explored as well as complex and impactful current events from the time.  I have the six book story arc descriptions completed and so excited to share it with you :)

[kaileeandag]

So,I got Nicki and I noticed something

I was looking in Nicki’s journal and noticed that her and Isabel’s dad kind of looks like Eddie Vedder back when Pearl Jam was starting out.

[apeekintothepantry]

Happy Pokémon Day! February 27th is the anniversary of the first two Pokémon games’ release in Japan, and it’s a minor holiday in my house, as a fun excuse to make Pokémon inspired food, watch some Pokémon shows or movies (we’re going to watch Netflix’s new Pokémon Concierge this year!), and get excited about upcoming games and releases. This year, we’re making a Pokémon Sword and Shield inspired burger-steak curry and I’m making a dessert from the Pokémon Cookbook by Victoria Rosenthal. It’s one of my favorite fandom cookbooks – all the recipes are vegetarian or vegan, to get around the awkward question of where does the meat in the Pokémon universe come from?

But that’s not all we’re making! Ever since Nicki and Isabel were released, I’ve been dying to do a post about them and Pokémon’s infamous “Jelly Filled Doughnuts”, better – and more accurately! – known as onigiri.

Pokémon was released in the United States in 1998 via two Gameboy games: Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. The games quickly caught on to be one of the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the late 90’s and early 00’s, and as a kid at the heart of this explosion, I can’t overstate how much of a big deal it was. One of the great things about Pokémon – and probably why it has such lasting, widespread appeal – is that there are so many ways to interact with the franchise, and the marketing doesn’t skew hugely towards one gender or the other. Cool, tough Pokémon like Charizard got pretty similar billing to cute, pink Pokémon like Jigglypuff, and there were so many options for potential favorites that it was easy for any kid to find some creature to attach themselves to.

One of my petty complaints with Nicki and Isabel’s collection and books is the almost complete lack of mention of Pokémon and other anime that was really popular among kids in 1999. I know AG probably didn’t want to shell out for licensing deals with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company, but their stories just don’t feel accurate without discussing their prized binder of Pokémon cards or begging their parents to take them to see the Pokémon movie in theaters. Maybe the authors were just a little too old to get caught up in Pokémania?

I’ve also always thought its close overlap with the Beanie Babies crazy helped get millennial children like me very into the “gotta catch ‘em all” aspect of the franchise. Is this why I’m such a crazy toy collector as an adult? Who knows.

The Pokémon anime was one of the main ways kids like me got hooked on the franchise, because not everyone was allowed to have a Gameboy of their own (me), and not everyone liked video games, but even if you didn’t like video games, the cartoon might appeal to you. Although it was far from the first Japanese cartoon to air on US television, Pokémon was one of if not the first truly mainstream favorites of the 1990’s. 4Kids, the company in charge of dubbing the show into English, decided that American kids wouldn’t understand or be open to certain aspects of the show that reflected its Japanese roots, and so made a lot of strange choices in rewriting the script. One of the most notorious was deciding Brock’s rice balls were actually jelly filled doughnuts:

Onigiri – also known as omusubi or nigirimeshi – are balls of rice with a variety of fillings inside. They’re often compared to sandwiches, as an easy, quick, cheap meal or snack that combines carbs and other ingredients. While the concept of taking a rice ball and stuffing it full of other tasty treats goes way back to ancient Japan, the triangle shape became popular in the 1980’s thanks to a new machine that automated the filling process. Further developments over the last 40 years have created unique ways to prepackage onigiri without making the nori wrapping sticky. The ones we made were an attempt at recreating the “Hawaiian” (spam and pineapple) rice balls from our favorite food hall back in DC. One of my favorite pandemic indulgences was getting take out from the food hall, which often included a sampler of some of my favorite onigiri, and I haven’t been able to find anything close to similar where we are now. One of the many reasons I’m excited to move!

Even as a kid, I wasn’t convinced the food in the anime was fried dough with fruit jelly inside, because they sure look like rice. I also think 4Kids didn’t anticipate that Pokémon’s widespread popularity would inspire many of its fans – including me – to become absolutely obsessed with Japanese food and culture. I would’ve been more excited if they’d just been straight with me and shown more Japanese food on the show, and then probably begged my parents to make it or take me to a restaurant that made it. While I can’t confidently cite numbers of how many other people were first exposed to Japanese culture and food through Pokémon and franchises like it, I do think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity to highlight how things like this exposed kids like Nicki and Isabel to parts of a culture outside their own!

[genievillain26]

Doll Day Snow Day

[americangirlstar]

New Hoffman Twins promo images with their new Y2K Outfits.

[mydollsaregay]

Last night, I was thinking about the twins and was able to put my finger on what was still bugging me about them.

Despite it making us feel old, the 90s IS history (hell, yesterday is history!). AG is saying it, but I’m not sure they… mean it?

From the hints of the girls’ stories I’ve seen so far, the only anchoring historical event seems to be y2k. Everything else is nice enough, but certainly not unique to the 90s, and could be given to a goty instead.

Honestly? Y2K is not enough. It’s a little too safe. Yes, it was a big deal to the people who lived through it. However, it was literally just New Years, but cooler (and with a lot of programming work in the background to change years to be stored as four digits). What are the lasting effects that kids can recognize today? Because I see very few that can’t just be chalked up to the passage of time.

There was a lot more to the 90s than fashion, pop culture, and the biggest new years ever, but it kinda seems like those are the only parts AG is interested in portraying. When you put y2k up against some of the other historical events that other American Girls live through, even just the ones from the 20th century, it seems pretty silly. Second wave feminism, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, and now….. new years but the number changes a bit more than usual!!!!!! Like. Cmon.

Even if they were wedded to portraying y2k, columbine, the effects of which are VERY much felt by kids today, happened that same year. But I kinda doubt AG will have the guts to even discuss it in the girl’s stories, which is really sad (and honestly one of the biggest downsides to more modern historical dolls - the history they’re covering is still too touchy for a lot of parents to be comfortable with).

Also, by pushing the girls to be in the late 90s, I’m betting AG is trying to worm their way out of having the 2000s girl live through 9/11 (i.e. watching it on tv) and the start of the war on terror. Which like. I get WHY (still too touchy for parents) but it’s really frustrating. 9/11 and it’s aftermath is arguably one of the most impactful events in American history, it’s stupid to dance around it. Felicity gets to live through the actual revolution but god forbid a more modern girl actually live through recent historical events.

[girlsofmanylands]

Comparison of the new Hoffman twin grin pin stickers (middle) and the OG pin stickers. The new ones are so much bigger and thicker, much more like doll sized pins! And as you can see they made many updated versions of OG pin designs!

[agbob-dollpants]

Hello! I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while! Today, I just wanted to show off some pictures of the new AG 90’s twins Isabel and Nicki Hoffman! :) ✨💿🛹🎾

I got these 2 on February 24, which was 2 days after they were released, at the AG Place Columbus! 💘

I have renamed Isabel to Shiloh Michelle, and I have renamed Nicki to Aviva Nichole! 💿 I had to rename them because I already have the Nicki and Isabelle GOTY dolls.

You can find all of these pictures on my Instagram: agbob_dollpants! ✨

[doll-princesse]

[kirstenstrunk]

We better be getting leaks of a tradmarked name for an Asian historical doll imminently. I'm not even playing, I'm deeply annoyed by all of this. If we really have to put up with two more white, blond, (barely!) historicals, then the next doll announcement out of AG's mouth has to be an Asian historical.

[kaileeandag]

Wonder if Nicki has ever done this?

I bet Nicki had eaten an entire bag of Warheads in one sitting. Those were the go-to sour candy for Millennials while I think Toxic Waste is the Gen Z go-to sour candy.

[gluevah]

We went outside today c:

[americangirlstar]

American Girl + Percy Jackson PicCrew (3/?)

Maryellen Larkin, daughter of Hephaestus

Melody Ellison, daughter of Demeter

Julie Albright, daughter of Ares

Ivy Ling, daughter of Tyche

Courtney Moore, daughter of Hephaestus

Isabel Hoffman, daughter of Iris

Nicki Hoffman, daughter of Iris

[mydollsaregay]

I ended up getting Nicki, and she arrived today!

she’s super cute! I got pretty lucky and her eyelashes are placed pretty well. I LOVE her meet outfit - not only is it super cute, but the fabrics all feel really nice, and it comes with more pieces than I generally expect from modern ag. The shirt and dress are separate, and the flannel is a regular doll shirt with functional buttons (!!). Her shoes are nice, but I watched a review on YouTube where they said the material felt like one that would start disintegrating with age, like a lot of older ag shoes, and I concur. Her accessories are also super cute, but I really wish historicals still came with a coin 😭

I read her journal, and it’s pretty cute! However, I stand by both my assessment that ag is sidestepping harder hitting historical events due to them seeming too sensitive, which like. If the past is so recent you can’t comfortably write about the realities of it, wait a few years -_- It read more like a goty story to me: more focused on relationships and inner conflict.

On the other hand, I also stand by my opinion that the switch to journals is totally fine, if not good. Ag’s target demographic has gotten younger, and the reading level of the books that come with dolls should reflect that imo. Also, if the name “journal” is tripping you up, it’s actually just a graphic novel, not like. An actual journal without a story. It had a similar feel to me as something like diary of a wimpy kid. There was also a section where “nicki” explained how to make zines, which was really cute.

Content-wise, it was fun, though a bit tame compared to other historical books (nickis anxiety about y2k was a nice character moment, but it alone does not make y2k a incredibly major historical event lol). My only big complaint with the story itself was the fact that they got their pets for Hanukkah. Like. I thought we all knew giving kids pets as gifts is a bad thing???? Not a huge fan of that. On a lighter note, Nicki loves lists (as do I!) and I thought it was a really fun detail.

(Guys, I think she might possibly love lists.)

However, I do have another problem with the journals - it seems like the book that’s coming out will be the exact same story, based on the name 😭 on the last page, it said to look out for the book, called “Isabel and nicki: countdown to y2k” which is like. The plot of the journal I just read lol

[timetravelingcourtney]

For those of you wrapping your minds around 1999 historical dolls, some fun facts:

My grandma was a depression child like our girl Kit.

Grandma was a military steno pool secretary during Molly and Nenea’s storylines. (Infamously when she got the initial messaging that the war was over she called all her girlfriends and told them to go buy pantyhose.)

My mom is a boomer like our girl Maryellen and spent some of her youth as a self proclaimed Navy brat in Pensacola Florida.

I was born during Julie’s storyline.

I was about the same age as Courtney but did not get a Molly because PC was not on our radar. I still had and played with Barbies.

I was in graduate school during Nicki and Isabel’s storyline.

My kids, including my son, have read all the historical AG books and even now in their advancing middle school years will ask, “so was that like Felicity time or Caroline time”.

Eras.