A series of 18" dolls meant to teach about Canadian geography, history, and culture. The story goes that a group of four (later seven) girls who met on holidays now share their everyday experiences and the differences between their provinces and their lives.
Heavily marketed as the Canadian version of the American Girls Collection, though it doesn't have a historical line (though there are some historical reenactment outfits). The manufacturer relates that many Canadian parents lament that their kids are glorifying the already spotlight-hogging neighbouring country — a legitimate complaint, what with the need for CanCon regulations and the fact that a lot of blatantly Canadian media when shown to kids can provoke Cultural Cringe. However, a Fandom Rivalry hasn't exactly picked up, with many American Girl fans in and out of Canada being perfectly fine with the other line and even blending the brands in collections.
Their website can be found here
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Tropes:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Some outfits, like Market Magic, Amazing Amauti, and Outdoor Odyssey.
- All There in the Manual: In the absence of books, characters are largely developed by their journals. Where this gets difficult is that you collect journal pages by buying
all that character's merchandise. You even get a set of pages by sending your doll in for replacement (as they don't actually do repairs)! - Ambiguously Brown: Alexi. The company officially doesn't elaborate on her racial background because, as she was for a long time the only racial minority in the main cast, then every kid could project their own ethnicity onto her. #1 of the Friends looks like this, too.
- Ambiguously Christian: Brianne, Jenna, and Léonie "celebrate Christmas"; nothing else is really described. The others' faith backgrounds are officially "whatever you want them to be".
- The Artifact: The logo displays only the colours of the original four.
- Artifact Title: The manufacturer, Avonlea Traditions, is named such because they used to make Anne of Green Gables merchandise first; they even used Jenna and her Anne outfit to hawk it in the catalogue. Soon enough, they sold off the Anne merch rights they were built on to focus on Maplelea. Because Maplelea is named after Avonlea, that's an Artifact Title too.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The initial lineup read as "Blonde, Brunette, Redhead, Token Minority".
- Canadian Equals Hockey Fan: Invoked with Léonie. The submitted suggestions and focus groups involved in her creation overwhelmingly asked for her to play hockey because they couldn't believe that anything trying to be the Great Canadian Toy Line didn't have a hockey fan or player yet.
- Colour-Coded Characters: Jenna is blue, Alexi is orange, Taryn is green, Brianne is pink, Léonie is red, Charlsea is Yellow, and Saila is purple.
- Eskimo Land: Averted with Saila, whose creation and story extensively relied on cultural panels and research to tell a modern, realistic story in Nunavut.
- Farmer's Daughter: Brianne is a younger version.
- Homemade Inventions: These and computers are Alexi's passions.
- The Moral Substitute: Not from a religious standpoint, but from a national one; they're the Canadian equivalent of American Girl, albeit only modern-focused.
- Outdoorsy Gal: Taryn, who's from Banff and heavily into things like hiking and camping.
- Pet's Homage Name: In a suitably patriotic fashion, some of the pets available have names like Laurier and Diefenbaker.
- Pink Means Feminine: Brianne is the requisite blonde dancer in pink that every doll line has to have.
- Plenty of Blondes: The named characters meet the "half the white cast" criteria and thus count. However, only two Maplelea Friends are blonde.
- Redhead In Green: Jenna's line heavily pushes her Anne of Green Gables costume.
- Take Our Word for It: The original four met "during an incredible adventure they'll never forget". We've never actually seen this adventure or had it described. Until we actually get an Origins Episode, we may never know.
