The 18″ Doll market is exploding right now, and when it comes to affordable options that don’t sacrifice quality, I often recommend the Our Generation line of dolls and accessories by Battat, sold exclusively at Target here in the United States. We’ve reviewed some of the items here on THE ROCK FATHER Magazine over the years, and there have been plenty of others that we’ve purchased that haven’t made it into my virtual pages. Recently, I ran into the folks from Battat at The Toy Insider’s HoliDAY of Play in NYC and took a peek at some of their new offerings, but what they didn’t tell me was something that arrived in my email via press release last week – that they’d partnered with Target to create special “shop-in-shop” Our Generation destinations as a concept inside 19 select stores. Seeing as one of them happened to be located just a short drive from Rock Father HQ, I took our resident OG Doll expert, Addie, to check it out.
“The deployment of this new concept is the result of a close collaboration between Target and Battat. We wanted the children to be able to build a whimsical universe around Our Generation dolls in which they could dream up their own stories embodying our brand values. Our partnership with Target has allowed us to use their retail space in order to conceive a unique, immersive and fun experience,” according to Dany Battat, co-owner – Battat.
As someone that has retail and design in his past lives, I appreciate what the folks at Target and Battat have done here – essentially giving a massive footprint to one brand at the center of their toy department. Our Generation has long had some fantastic, very large playsets and vehicle themes that are traditionally hard to display in a standard aisle, and this open layout gives the product room to breathe, while putting encased displays at perfect kid-height to explore. There’s also plenty of new items, including matching outfits for doll and child, and new doll sets including a doctor (which Addie really wants) and a scientist, perfect for the growing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) movement.
The 19 stores included in the Our Generation Concept test are as follows: Acworth, Algonquin, Birmingham, Broadview, Champlin, Cordova, Huntsville South, Huntsville West, Lakeville, Miramar, Mount Laurel, Mundelein, Naperville, Ocean Township, Plainfield, Royal Palm Beach, Sanford, South Elgin, and Viera. For whatever reason, the exact states were omitted in the original announcement, so while I know a few of them are here in Illinois, I’m not sure on the others.
Regardless of whether or not your local store has one of these special Our Generation shops, the product is still available at Target stores nationwide, and online.
