American Girl Samantha To Be Retired!
Monday October 13, 2008
I was just notified that Samantha, the popular American Girl doll, is being retired. The doll, plus all her accessories and clothing (all from the Victorian era) as well as Nellie, will no longer be available for purchase. The books about Samantha will continue in publication. The final date of availability on Samantha is not yet set. Samantha has been in production since 1986. For more information, and to share your stories of Samantha, you can visit American Girl Stories.
Comments
This is sad news! I loved my Samantha doll growing up.
I guess now it will be a collectors item!
I have been afraid Mattel would go this route since they purchased Pleasant Co.
I know their ‘updated’ outfits (rock star,etc.) and accessories di not go over well with some of the AG collectors I know. I was going to sell my granddaughter’s Samantha and Molly but I think now I will keep them since they were made before Mattel took over.
Sad,sad ,sad
Bonnie
I never had a American doll Samantha but I hope i will before it retires. the Samantha doll is so cute i love her brown hair and brown eyes. I have brown hair and brown eyes too and i think she can be my twin doll but she cant because there are probably people that look like Samantha more then me. She looks so peace full that if she was a real person she can make friends easily. I f any one finds a American girl Samantha doll less then $105 please e-mail me.
Sincerely,
Vera Bzhilyanskaya
This is pathetic. I just bought a Samantha doll. I had planned on buying the clothes gradually over time. There’s no way I can afford to buy even half of them by Christmas. I feel like I just wasted $100.
Your right. No one will be able to get the WHOLE Samantha doll Collection before it retires.:0. Shes like the cutest doll and Suddenly “POOF” just like that I see a message saying: The American girl doll Samantha, Is being retired.=0.
Sincerely,
Vera Bzhilyanskaya
I just found out.:( I agree with dollnana, what is Mattel thinking?! All of the dolls are wonderful; besides, Samantha has been around since the beginning, and she’s always been a big seller. What gives? I wish they’d change their minds and keep ALL the dolls around forever. I won’t be paying $600 for them on E-Bay. Thanks for letting me rant.
I think Samantha was GREAT! I got her for Christmas one year and I LOVED her. She’s was a REALLY greaat doll. I hope they could keep her. :}
Why would the retire a doll they’ve made a movie on?
She was one of the best ones! I can’t believe they aren’t making money off of her anymore!
She will always be near and dear to my heart as she was my first AG doll at age 8.
Samantha is only being”achvied”. That means Samantha may come back another year as a limitied edition doll for one year. You know how the old Disney movies are taken away but then are showed again in tha limated edition? That is the same thing with Samantha.
Bastards. That’s all i can say.
That’s so sad! I have all of the original American Girl dolls and Samantha was always my favorite. We were both “born” in 1986, haha. At least I have her already ^^…I used to read her books over and over.
I know prices are on the rise for Samantha, but I found some good deals on Samantha dolls and accessories at http://www.american-girl.myauctionlinks.com/
Im so sad!I’ve had her since i was about 8!I loved her movie and everything she had!Which one will be next?
I’ve read all of your books.I am reading Changes For Samantha.I really like it poor Nellie.And Jenny and Bridget.Please don’t go!
I will miss her soooooooo much. She is my favorite doll i read all of her books and i am getting her. my parents bought her for me for christmas but she is on back order till may. they ordered her in october.
I just bought Samanatha for my granddaughter and now I can’t buy any clothes for her. My 7 granddaghter is very upset about. This is her first AG doll so she was very happy when she received now she can not clothes for her doll.
I was so upset and in shock to find out about discontinuing Samantha. She was my first Pleasant doll and was planning to purchase more of her clothes for my personal collection.
I wonder if this was public notice, I work in a mall were there is a store I never saw any notice. This is sad.
I’m so sad she is my favorite.
i love my samantha doll!(im only 11) i really wish they wouldnt retire her .
Awww, im only 11 and i got her 3 years ago
help!!!!!!!!!!! i have this american girl doll
and i dont know what she is
I was freaked out when i heard Samantha was being retired! It`s like broken my spirit. I HATE that she`s retiring!
I wish they would not retire Samantha! I’ve had her since I was 8 (now I’m 12) and I’ve loved her so much, and she was always my favorite. I have a lot of her clothes and accessories, but I still waish I could purchase a lot more of them, and now I can’t.
One exciting thinf is I guess now my doll is a collector’s item, but I’d rather they not retire her than she be worth more money, because I can garauntee I will never sell her.
My daughter just saw the Samantha movie, and now she wants the doll! I can’t believe that a popular character like Samantha, that even has a popular movie, would be retired. It doesn’t make sense. My daughter is sad. Thanks a lot Mattel!
I was in Chicago last month and decided to drop in to the American Girl store. Samantha being my favorite of the American Girls, I looked for her first and was shocked to learn that she had been archived. The sales associate told me that Rebecca has kind of taken over Samantha, because Rebecca is from 1914. What the heck? I got my Samantha doll when I was 8 and I treasured that doll growing up and even to this day (I’m in my 20’s now). I’m extremely disappointed that Samantha has been archived and I feel like my heart broke in a way. Learning that Samantha is no longer available put a damper on my trip to Chicago.
My granddaughter Samantha wants a Samantha american girl doll. Is there anyone who wants to sell one.thanks
i just found out that Samantha is no longer available
and the fact that the 1914 doll is replaicing Samantha is bogus because there are plenty of other dolls that are just one decade apart.
there were only two outfits of Samantha’s that i didn’t have. She will be missed
Samatha is my youngest(now 34)daughter’s favorite American Girl. I brought Samatha for her when she was in high school.
My oldest daughter was in a thrift shop and saw Samatha, she quickly picked her up for $4.00. The doll is authintic, hair is a little dusty, same plaid dress, dark stockings and shoes. She gave her to me and I love her. What a bargain1
I have a Samantha doll for sale on Craigslist for $75. She is in her original dress, stockings, and hair tie.
she was my very first American Girl Doll! Plus, why did they pick Samantha to retire if Kirstin was the first?
I can’t believe they’re retiring Samantha. She was my first and FAVORITE of the dolls! I got her when I was 8 and I still love her and I’m 26. Those bastards! Why retire ANY of them, why not just keep them all?? This is garbage. I just lost all respect for this company.
Today I went to a local consignment shop and picked up the Samantha doll for $48.00!! Almost new, with her clothes…my daughter has been bugging me for 3 yeears for one, but I never had enough money to ever get one. She will be soo happy come Christmas!
I have the Samantha doll, book and various clothing still in the boxes. It was given to me as a gift, but I am past the age of playing with dolls.
Where could I post them?
Are you kidding me samantha can’t go she cool and I mean her dolls and she’s nice funny in all her books some of them are sad like in book one when nellie and samantha’s grandmary’s seamtress who patches samantha up jessie left jessie had to leave because she had a baby to take care of and nellie had to go because eddie’s parents said she had to leave because nellie kept coughing and samantha did not want nellie or jessie to leave jessie was nice to samantha and nellie was the only nine year old that was a girl that was there and eddie was not a girl and he also made fun of her a lot and I don’t even know how old eddie was and I don’t really don’t care because he made samantha look bad in front of everyone and besides I was going to get a samantha doll for my birthday my birthday is november 15
I just found out tonight that they retired her. She was my FAVORITE as a little girl (i’m 24 now). I even have her doll, still in the dress she came in. that’s a shame.
Cami Lampert at #33: Your best bet is to put the doll on eBay. Or you could just email me–I’ll buy her. I have several of the dolls and need to complete my collection!
(go to my web blog at shalanna.livejournal.com and leave a comment telling where I can e-mail you, telling me that you have the doll for sale and what price you are asking)
I think they’re making a mistake to retire Samantha, but Mattel is a big monolith and they’ll do what is money-making. Sigh!
Somehow I received an American Girl catalog in the mail today and figured I’d flip through it and reminisce about my beloved Samantha doll– only to find her missing from the catalog and I come online to find out she was RETIRED?? I loved my Samantha doll! She was a Christmas gift when I was 12 (I’m 26 now) and my (evil) brother decided one day to chop off her hair and use permanent marker to give her war paint. Needless to say I was heartbroken, and now its like she’s been destroyed all over again! What were they thinking? My AG doll was what got me interested in reading and in history (I’m a History Grad student) and that is just SO sad! Why retire any of them? They each had their own personal history wrapped into the history going on around them. 1904 was a different time than 1914, so using Rebecca as a replacement is just ludacris!
My 18 year old received Kirsten and Kit from grandparents when she was little and I always wanted her to have Samantha so I thought I would buy it for my 6 year old now…unbelievable! I agree that it is an outrage for them to have retired it! BEWARE…In case you haven’t seen …Kirsten is on her way out also.
I also received an American Girl catalog in the mail this week. I had Samantha and my sister had Molly. I started looking through to see what was new with them, just to find Samantha missing! I was so disappointed to google her and find out that she is retired. I am 29 years old and still have my Samantha doll, plus her entire collection — thanks to my grandmother. Every year she bought me something else from her collection. I cannot believe they retired her. That makes me so sad!
We purchased/invested in Samantha for our daughter Mollie when we moved to Madison after the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, a difficult experience for an only child.
We could have spent our money on a Barbie doll, but the American Girl collection seemed enduring and timeless. I wouldn’t recommend spending that amount of money on something that are going to be obsolete.
Really shouldn’t Mattel retire the Barbie doll instead?
I was so sad when I found out Samantha was retired, I grew up with Samantha and Felicity and am still greatly attached to the two dolls. It’s such a shame I can’t extend my collection of her items. It’s also a shame Pleasant Co. was taken over.
My daddy bought her for me soon after they came out. I love her! I have the bed and the holiday dress and all the books (at that time) and once I thought I had lost her little doll in the pink dress and my dad when out and got me another one, and then I found the first one! I am 30 now and had a little girl this year and am happy to be able to give Samantha to her when she’s older. I think it’s not so much just about the specific doll (even though she is definitley my favorite!) but all the memories attached. I remember the Christmas I got her. My neighbor had Kirsten and we would play together…. What good times!!! Thanks, Samantha!
I bought my daughter a Samantha doll several years ago, because I thought she would come to love her American Girl Doll like her older sister, who has had her Mollie doll for 7 years now. She has not become attached to her doll at all, not like her sister who loves her Mollie doll. We are having tough financial time, since I am disabled. She has told me to sell the doll and all of the stuff I have purchased for the doll in the last few years. But, as far as American Girl retiring Samantha, I don’t think they should do it either. It just doesn’t make sense to do that. The Samantha doll represents an important part of history, and many young ladies have come to love history because of their dolls and the stories that go with them. The Barbie dolls are not selling very well anymore, as I have seen on news reports. Maybe it would be better to put more effort into keeping the different American Girl dolls and limit the Barbie, since the American Girl dolls seem to be more popular. I still have my Barbie Doll. She was the first Malibu Barbie ever, with a twistable waist and bendable legs at the knees. I got her back in 1969. Those were Barbie Dolls. Things have changed so much.