Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Disney Dolls!

Hey Gang!

The other day a person contacted me who I had sold doll bodies to on the Dollpage
Show and Sell. Sadly the page is no longer there, but she had my email.  She wanted
a doll bodies to match Disney Snow White.  I think she thought that all Disney Snow
White dolls were the same complexion.

Disney is not a manufacturer of their dolls, it contracts the manufacturing out. This 
provides for wide variety of head sculptures, body types and complexions for Disney 
dolls. They can have different face screening, head sculptures, body types and poses. 
So Snow White and most other Disney doll's complexions differ depending on when 
they were made and who was the manufacturer. Disney often does theme dolls to 
(what I think) freshen demand. There will be ballet dolls, Sparkle theme dolls 
(I hate having sparkles everywhere) and others. All this gives you tons of heads
and bodies.

This was made more important to me when our doll
club had a remake challenge for Snow White.
My Snow

Juanita's Snow
I love her! (I recently found her head in a thrift store)

They are not the same doll. (We should have specified which doll we were going
to use.) So we didn't use the same doll and they are not the same complexion.

So lets look at Snow!

All three of these dolls have different complexions, different face screening and they
are all made by Mattel.

I got these dolls at a thrift store. I had to purchase these dolls to get other dolls
I really wanted.  It seems the two most common dolls to find in my local thrift
store is Snow White and Ariel!
The doll below with the red bow is also a Snow White.
I didn't realize that was who she was at first. She is also a different complexion.
Here are two Mulan dolls. One by Disney Store and one Mattel.
Note the different complexions and head size.

Some productions of Disney dolls are only sold in certain countries! Every now and 
then I will see a Disney doll on the web that I have never seen before because it id
from another country.

So why so many dolls and manufacturers?

Disney The Great Merchandiser!

Disney did not just make their money on cartoons, movie and theme parks. Hand in 
hand with all of those was the merchandising of Disney characters! Disney seems to 
be the best at it... since way back!  They know how to drive up demand for their brand!

For example, my older sisters were crazy about the Micky Mouse Show! (big age gap)
They can still sing the theme song!  And when she and her husband took their kids to 
Disney World, she wasn't coming back without mouse ears! 

A few years ago, Disney had the Disney Experience in a local hall of a department store!
I took my niece and nephew.  It was a show with characters and singing like you would 
see in Disneyland.  You could really see how well they promoted there parks and there 
was plenty of Disney stuff to by.  Me being Auntie Mame and not having any children....

Yes this is how I am with my nieces and nephews!
Oh, you want a six foot giraffe, OK!

I had to buy them something!

Merchandising!

One of Disney's big hits was Frozen!
"Disney's 2013 hit Frozen grossed $1.3 Billion at the box office-- and perhaps as much in licensing merchandise," Says Forbes.


The major studios realize that not only can the sale of movie-related products generate 
substantial revenue, but these products can be used to effectively promote films. 
Typically, 40 percent of movie merchandise is sold before a film is released!
Can you say Cha Ching! 

For its 1996 live action film 101 Dalmatians, Disney made deals with more than 130 
companies including cross-promotional deals with McDonald's, Dr. Pepper, Frito-Lay 
and Alpo. Warner Bros. entered into more than 200 deals for Space Jam. And that was
in 1996!

The numbers on merchandising aren't in for the new Star War but I bet it is a bunch too!

Any way, as long as Disney can make that kind of money from merchandising, they will 
keep giving us plenty of dolls and bodies!

Bodies will be my next post!  So stay tuned!  Please check out my other Disney dolls,
Disney Male and Disney doll tags!

OK, Thank For Looking!


4 comments:

RoxanneRoxanne said...

This is a great informative post! I don't purchase many Disney dolls, but I recently purchased one that I could not resist.

Georgia Girl said...

Great post! I have only a few Disney dolls.

D7ana said...

Thanks for the background about Disney using multiple vendors.

Thanks for getting me that Snow White head for the doll club project; she's still one of my favorites. Usually, Disney heads seem too big and/or too cartoony for my taste. I do find some that I like though.

Good luck with your sales - you're inspiring me to get mine sold. (The ones I no longer want.)

Ms. Leo said...

Thanks for your comments RoxanneRoxanne, Georgia Girl,D7ana! I had to gather all the information I found on Disney dolls! There may be a book in this!