Mark, I share your feelings about the Pleasant Company, and its dolls. Our family adopted one, Kirsten, and many of her books, ice skates, fishing poles, beds, chests, adorable little shoes, hand-knit sweaters, and hair ornaments. Seven hundred dollars later, we are all very close and everything. My daughter has outgrown her, but she and her accessories are carefully packed away, awaiting the arrival of my child's children.
I, too, had hoped that they would go public. Even though the quality is wonderful, the prices are very, very high for each little item, and I was pretty sure that included a substantial profit margin. This is really an upscale doll, however. Just the basic first order--the doll wearing an outfit, a hairbrush and one book telling the beginning of her story--is $150. Either Mattel will cheapen the whole line, which would ruin the heirloom quality, in my opinion, or it will be a little niche item that brings them mostly prestige. It all really seems antithetical to the rest of Mattel, which is definitely high volume, mass market. |
