OVERVIEW: Global Friends

Clio

I somehow did not know about Global Friends until 2014, when I learned about them through my friend Q. Q. Kachoo. They were out in the late 90s, but I never got one of their catalogs or saw anything about them. Still, those were my fledgling days of online collecting, so I can see how I missed them.

Global Friends are a line of 15" girls from around the world. From the US, we have Marissa, Emily (Jewish), Jody (Native American), and Brianna (African-American). Then there are Clio from France, Gretchen from Germany, Elizabeth from England, and Katrina from Russia. Mei Ling is Chinese and Mariko is Japanese. Aziza is from Egypt, Akua is from Kenya, and Camina is from Brazil. For the most part, the girls look different. The ones that look the most similar to me are Akua and Brianna. Both appear to have the same skintone and hair, so they're basically the same doll in different clothes. Very different clothes though. Jody and Aziza also look similar, but Aziza has shorter hair and darker lips. There may be differences between Akua and Brianna, too, but since I don't have them, I can't compare.

Hearts For Hearts Girls Mosi with Jody

I got Clio first in April 2015. I won her mint in box off ebay and the seller was really awesome and sold me a Jody, too, though she was missing some pieces. I got Gretchen not long after (missing her hat), then Mei Ling in May. Aziza was in July, Mariko in September, Katrina in February 2015, and Elizabeth in March. Emily is my most recent Global Friends purchase from March 2016. Akua, Brianna and Camina are in my want list, but they either appear on ebay incomplete or I miss the good ones when I have no fun money available. Marissa I'm not sure I want, but if I saw her for a decent price, I'd grab her.

Gretchen, my second fave

The girls have well-made outfits and expansive collections. I bought a lot of outfits and I've got almost all of Mariko's collection that I won along with her. I think I'm only missing her table and one slipper from her PJs. Most of the collection pieces I wasn't interested in, but Mariko was an exception. Her stuff is lovely. The other one I have a lot for is Egyptian Aziza, because her artifacts and outfits are also awesome. I even have the huge boat, which is one of the largest items in my entire collection.

Aziza's Egyptian boat

The catalogs are really fun to look through. I only have one so far, but I'd love to get the others. They're set up like American Girl with the big splash page for each signature doll and then the following pages would show her collection. They're also a little different in that they have random outfits that don't necessarily go with a specific girl.

Mei Ling's splash page

The prices on these were pretty reasonable, especially the lowered ones in the catalog I have! I wish I'd known about them back then. I could have bought a ton of stuff for very little.

The girls didn't come with books, but there was an accompanying book series where the girls solved mysteries. Sigh. What is it with doll book lines and mysteries? They're also on the unrealistic side, because these girls just travelled around everywhere all the time! The art is decent when it bothers to show the characters, but lots of details from larger paintings are splashed throughout the books and they don't feature the characters at all.

Mariko, my favorite girl

Overall, I quite like these girls and their quality is mostly excellent. Because they have inset eyes, you have to watch for eye wonk, but most of them are okay. The biggest issue I've had is that my poor Emily has an old vinyl smell that usually you don't have except in older dolls. I had a couple Maxie items with that smell, but they're from way back in the 80s.

They're been affordable to collect, although I wish new items turned up more frequently, or at least when I had money available! Ha. And their size is nice, so I can fit several of them on the same shelf as my Hearts For Hearts Girls. Maybe next year I'll add another girl to my collection!

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.