At Sam's Club yesterday I was excited to see these Beforever boxed sets selling for about $40. each set comes with both classic books (a compilation of the six original historical books) as well as the new Journey book (an interactive adventure where a modern girl travels back to the historical character's time). Each set also comes with the new mini doll on a personalized mini stand. I didn't get a good close-up picture of the stand, but it has the character's name and year on a white base. The stand is really a nice touch. Another fun bonus in these sets is the decorative ribbon bookmark. each bookmark is really nicely personalized to the coordinating historical character. The charm shows that girl's signature flower (pictured on their books), and the different fabrics used really represent fashions of the matching era. While I do like these bookmarks, I kind of wish AG had gone a different direction here. The bookmarks are cute, but they don't really add to the play value at all and are likely to get lost. In the journey books, the modern girl obtains an item that is important to the historical character, and it transports her back and forth between her own time period and the past. I really like this idea, and I think it would be fun to have a miniature version of each artifact. It could be a charm on a bracelet or necklace for girls to wear, or it could be sized for the 18 inch dolls to play with. As a collector's item, I like the bookmark, but as a toy, a magic time-traveling mood ring or matryoshka doll would be more appealing. Here is a close-up of the mini doll. The new minis have a different face mold with a slightly slimmer all-vinyl body. For the most part, they can share clothes with the older minis. The mini dolls sold separately from AG come in an official AG box with a cover and also have a mini book, whereas these sets do NOT have a book and have a clear cover on the mini box. Overall, I think these sets are a very good value at $40. American Girl sells the mini dolls individually for $25 and the three-book sets for $30, so that's a savings of $15. Other retailers (like Amazon and Barnes and Noble) have slightly lower prices, but this set is still a better deal, and you get the special stand and bookmark as well. Hard-core collectors may prefer to get the individual dolls for the box and mini book, but I think these sets would make wonderful gifts. I did not see Kaya or Addy, but I didn't do a lot of digging, so they may be available from some stores. Josefina is not included because she doesn't have her new mini doll or journey book yet. My store had plenty of Samantha, which is nice because her mini doll is on back order from AG right now. I think these are definitely worth checking out, and I think they may be available at Costco as well as Sam's club.
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