Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Meredith Rock Climbing

Our Generation's Rock Climbing Outfit


One of the neatest outfits to be released in a long time is this rock-climbing outfit from Our Generation. It's a deluxe outfit, which means that it retails for about $17.99. It comes with a shirt, yoga pants, rock climbing shoes, a helmet, webbing, and a carabineer.


Let's start by looking at the shirt. Made out of a Lycra type of material, it's very light and stretchable kind of like an Under Armor type of shirt. It is a very light pink and has bright florescent pink sleeves and neckline. It has Velcro up the back to make it easy to get on and off. The shirt is a little loose on Meredith but not as bad as other T-shirts that are made by our generation.


This could be because of the material stretching. Soak this shirt!!! I soaked it twice and both times the bright pink bled into the light pink. The shirt lost a lot of dye in the water also.


The yoga pants are a dark purple cotton material that goes just below the knee. The waistline crumples up near the top of the pants. Because they are yoga type of pants they have an elastic waistline that fits Meredith well. The rest of the pants are larger, not formfitting as most yoga pants are but it does look good on Meredith and make sense with rock climbing.


The shoes that come with this outfit are all cloth, which at first doesn't sound great, but makes sense for rock climbing shoes. Most rock climbing shoes are a light cloth top and a very flexible rubber bottom or a type of cloth with grip to it. So these cloth shoes make sense and do look like climbing shoes. With little straps of elastic across the top rather than laces and very tightfitting design, they are very similar to the real thing.  They just fit on Meredith’s feet, which is interesting since Our Generation feet are about the same length but are much wider. These shoes are hard to get on Our Generation dolls and American Girl dolls. But Meredith is able to wear them fairly easily. Getting the back on her heel can sometimes be a little bit difficult, but it's not impossible.


The webbing is what goes around Meredith's waist to make sure that she's safe as she's climbing. It's made out of woven polyester in two different colors (gray and blue) a large strap of webbing goes around her waist and around the calves of her legs. Then a connecting piece of thinner webbing connects the larger calf strap and waist strap.


On the front of the webbing is a metal ring that is connected to florescent colored rope and at the end of the rope is a carabineer to attach to either another climbing rope or to the wall itself. I love that this has a little carabineer to make it more realistic and to keep Meredith safe.


The webbing is loose and is set up for an Our Generation doll, which have a larger waist and larger legs. But it does fit Meredith okay and could be modified fairly easily to fit Meredith tightly.


The final part of this outfit is the helmet. Made of molded plastic with slits in the front and back, like a bike helmet, this helmet is light and less bulky than the Journey Girls helmet that comes with the “Summer Accessory Pack”.


The straps come around the ears in a strange place and kind of flip out a little. They keep the helmet tightly on Meredith's head with Velcro for adjustment.



Rating
All ratings are out of 10

Value 7– Besides the dye issue with the shirt, this set is made really well, and true to rock climbing gear (according to my limited rock climbing experience when I was a child). It would have been really neat to have a chalk bag and a water bottle with the set. Still worth the money.

Fitment 5 – Two things in this set fit Meredith well; the shoes and the helmet. Everything else is loose. The yoga pants are not horrible, but they aren’t awesome either. The shirt is not as loose as other Our Generation shirts, but it is still large. And the webbing is big, but can easily be tightened by adding Velcro to it.

Versatility 6 – Well, that pants and shirt can be used with many other outfits. The helmet can be used instead of the dorky Journey Girls helmet, for skateboarding, rollerblading, etc. And maybe the shoes could be used with another outfit.

Cuteness 8 – Okay…maybe not super cute, but this set is super cool!!! It’s awesome to have outfits that inspire play, and especially outdoor play. This outfit really encourages exploring and doing it safely! Awesome!

Overall 8 – This outfit is more than its score implies. Mostly because it is such a unique set that opens so many neat possibilities. It was so neat to have Meredith climbing the rocks, rather than just posing by them. Awesome to have safety equipment like the webbing, helmet and carbineer, too. If your dolls want to get out and explore, this is the set for them!



AG note - Most of this outfit fits American Girl dolls well.  The shirt is somewhat tight, but since it stretches it fits okay.

The pants on the other hand are not as forgiving.  The waist is tight, making it difficult to get the pants on her waist.


They are also tight on Gabby's legs, which makes sense for the type of pants they are.  The webbing fits perfectly.  The shoes are really tight...really tight.


They are difficult to get on Gabby's feet.  You can do it, but it is extremely difficult.  The helmet looks small on Gabby's head compared to Meredith's.


Although the outfit is tight, it does work, and I would recommend it just because it is such a neat outfit.

3 comments:

Sharon said...

This is a really great outfit, I would buy this if it were available in our Toys r Us, particularly as we have a lot of rocks around here that my girls could be posed with, using this equipment.
Thanks for another good review.

Kiki's Korner said...

Rock climbing is very big in my part of Colorado so I'd love to find this set. I've spent many enjoyable hours reading your blog and love your photography of the dolls and especially the places you visit.

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