Review: Club Chelsea Boy 2018

  I finally had a chance to visit the going out of business Toys R Us a week or so ago. I had hoped for a mark down on the Wellie Wishers,but there were NO American Girl items at all. I should have known that was too much to hope for. American Girl isn't the type to let their product be marked down in a going-out-of-business sale.
  There were mark downs, but most things weren't marked down very much. There was plenty of the usual  merchandise. It didn't look like much had sold.
  One thing I did find was this little guy.

He's the latest Club Chelsea boy.

The old Kelly Club boys had names.These current Club Chelsea boys are all anonymous. In the Kelly Club dolls there were only two boys, Tommy, and one Ryan,( in the Amusement Park series,before Ryan became part of Midge's Happy Family line.)  Tommy was available as a blonde, with a bowl cut, or an African American. In 2014 Mattel released a Chelsea friend who actually had a name,Darrin.
 

You can read Darrin's review HERE.

Darrin,the lucky kid, had a name and rooted hair. He seems to be the last of the rooted hair boys, however. Since then all the guys have had molded, painted hair.  There was a boy last year with molded, painted black hair.
 

You can read his review HERE.

He was followed by a blonde version of  the same head sculpt.

You can see my post on him HERE.

Late last year there was a set released that included 2 Chelsea friends, a boy and a girl,(and a purple piano.)

You can see my post on this set HERE.

The little guy had the same head sculpt as the previous 2, though.

Getting a bit tiresome,isn't it? There might not be enough difference in the past three guys to warrant buying all three for a lot of people. But wait. It gets better because now there''s this little fellow.



His package was already unsealed at the bottom. It was easy to tear the plastic bubble up and get to him.

The bottoms of his shoes say 'Chelsea'.

The bottom plastic ties were easy to break, but the one that connected his head to the packaging was more challenging. I was afraid I was going to rip his head off.

It was very tight. Here you can also see the huge mold lines under his chin and around his head. Not very attractive.

It left quite a hole in his head too. Here you can see that his hair has molded detail.

And here is his cute face with big brown eyes. There were three of this guy on the peg when I bought him,and all three had marks on their faces in different spots.

He's definitely cuter than the guys with the pompadours.

Here is the detail in his hair from the side.

There's that ugly mold line again.

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His outfit consists of a one piece shirt and shorts outift that looks like separate pieces, but isn't.

His shirt has a cactus design.

As you can see,his outfit is one piece,and closes in back with Velcro.

He has the same shoes as the camera shirt boy, only in silver. Silver?

I like him much better than the last two guys.

He has the usual articulation,at his neck,shoulders, and hips.

At least he can sit down.

 The outfits on these dolls are getting pretty frustrating. They aren't even two pieces any more. I remember when my kids were small,and Kelly and Tommy outfits were multipiece things with snaps. During their childhoods the snaps were exchanged for Velcro,but the outfits were still fairly detailed in most cases. Looking back no farther than 2014, Darrin came in a two piece outfit and shoes,as well as a hat and an accessory,(a soccer ball). It's even a bit unreasonable for this new guy to be priced the same as the Chelsea girls. They at least have rooted hair. This guy has to have been cheap to produce. I think somewhere around $8+ is a bit much to pay for a simple doll of this size, with limited articulation, molded hair, and simple one piece clothing. 

 
But as you know,I have a weakness for boy dolls, so I was helpless to resist him. See you soon for another review.