New York Chavonne

How New is New York Chavonne?

Toys R Us has the Journey Girls travel to a new place each year.  This year the girls are traveling to New York.  Each girl (Kelsey, Mikaella, Callie, Meredith, Kyla, Dana, And Chavonne) are all released again, the only change from the last year being their outfit and maybe their shade of lipstick. This year Chavonne and Kelsey had actual physical changes to the dolls.  Today we will look at Chavonne and review the changes that she has gone through.

Chavonne comes in a new box, with a different design than in years past.

There are no photos of real girls on the box anymore, the sides have windows and the back has a picture of the dolls (which is no different than in years past), but at the bottom of the box there is a collage of words that describe Chavonne in different languages.  Kind of a neat new thing.

Obviously the most noticeable change to the doll is Chavonne's hair.  She has long, dark curly hair, rather than the short, tight curled hair that she has had in the past.  Her hair is similar to Dana's hair in color and texture.

Because her hair now frames her face differently, it seems to change her appearance, when in reality she has the same face mold that she has had since she was released.

Chavonne has the new joints (which are balls rather than cups), which means there is a slight click in her arm joints and she splays her legs when she sits.  Nothing new, but no improvements.  Her seam up her back seems much more straight than some of last years dolls (half of them had the new body and joints, half had the old one).

The New York inspired outfit is cute.

Her bright red leather jacket has great stitching on the outside.  The inside does not have a liner, but the other side of the fabric is a yellow/tan color that is soft and non-abrasive.

Inside the jacket, the edges of the leather material is loose and shows some fraying. hemming the edge would reduce this issue.

The denim skirt is a lighter blue with stitching up the front in a tan thread.  Velcro holds the skirt on in the back.

There is little give to the skirt, which is expected from denim, however it makes it difficult for Chavonne to sit on her own.  Mine always has a little buckle in the fabric in the back, maybe from the way the velcro is positioned.

It's a nice skirt that goes well with this outfit.

The white top may look familiar.  That's because it came out this past year as a top with the Italy line.

Okay so it's not exactly the same.

Toys R Us had the sleeves taken off so that it is a tank top rather than a shirt, and there is ribbon hemmed around the neckline and arm holes,  but essentially this is the same top.

A nice added bonus is the scarf that comes with Chavonne. It's a simple sheer scarf with muted leopard print on it.

It can be used around her head, or around her neck.  It adds flare to the outfit....plus it matches her shoes.

So the shoes are the same old plastic flats that we have seen with every Journey Girl since their release.

These shoes happen to have a leopard print on the front of them.  Yay!  They are cute, just want some nicer shoes!

Two finally pieces to this outfit.  One is a small plastic hair clip with a red plastic flower on it.  It's very simple, but cute, and brings the red from the jacket together.

The other piece is the purse.  It is a black purse with handles and a shoulder strap.   It opens, but there is nothing to keep it closed, which is okay for the design.  Shoulder strap purses are so nice.

They are easier for the doll to hold and look more natural.  the strap has some kinks in it where it was folded for shipping, but those should go away with time and play.

Results

All ratings are out of 10

Poseability - 6 - Nothing  different from any of the other current Journey Girls.  Chavonne's legs don't splay as much as Ilee's, but as I have noted in the past that doesn't correlate to the different dolls, more likely it is a difference in each doll.  Two Chavonnes may have very different joint feel.  

Quality - 8 - The most impressive thing with the new dolls has been their outfits.  All of Chavonne's  clothes are well made.  Some of the outfits in the past have been very uncreative, but this one has many great elements that can be used with other outfits and dolls...just wish the shoes were better!

Adorableness - 9 - Chavonne looks amazing with long hair.  She looked amazing with curly hair too.  It's good to get a change in style.  I'm glad that Chavonne still has the old face mold.  It suits her perfectly.  And her outfit is awesome on her...now give us so neat accessories that make sense for her.

Compatibility - 6 - Most of the time parts of a Journey Girls outfit will fit American Girl dolls, but in this case, nothing really does.  The shirt, scarf, and hair clip are really the only parts that can be used with other brands of dolls.  That's not necessarily bad, since this outfit would not look right if it was loose on Chavonne.

Overall Score - 7 - With a new hairstyle, the New York release of Chavonne is worth picking up.  Her outfit is very cute and the individual pieces can be used with many other outfits.  The clothes seem to be higher quality.  The only thing that is not great are the shoes,  They match and are cute, but it would be great to see something different.  Pick Chavonne up when she goes on sale...she is well with it.

AG Note  Outfits from the Journey Girls do not consistently fit American Girls.  With this outfit only a few pieces of it fit American Girls.  The white top is the only thing that fits Alexis.

It is still tight on her, but it does fit.

As does the jacket, it is very tight on the shoulders and arms.

I had a very hard time getting the jacket's cuff over Alexis's fingers on the left arm, but only the left arm.

The jacket is so tight that it impedes Alexis's ability to move her arms up and down.  The shoes don't even come close to fitting, which is not a surprise.

What is a surprise is that the skirt does not fit at all.

The Journey Girls are thinner and the skirt barely fits on Chavonne, so it's reasonable to think that it won't fit well on the AG dolls.  It doesn't even come close to fitting though.  Obviously the scarf fits perfectly.

Buy Chavonne because you love her, do not buy her for the outfit if you want to use it on your AG doll...it really does not fit. It is a very cute outfit though.