Disney Animator Dolls

[katrine2309]

Hi

Anyone knows anything about these dolls? I know there is a difference to the animator and the toddler dolls, and that some of the older animator dolls are more sought after by collectors. But I have no idea how to spot the difference. I found a Merida in a flea market and she is an animator doll. She is really cute!

Anyone collects them here?

[brightberry]

I only have one... I think.  She is a Baby Moana.  So cute in the movie, I teared up.    

So, when I saw her on the Disney Store site, I couldn't resist.

https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Animators-Collection-Moana-Doll/dp/B07T2FZN6D

[katrine2309]

She is adorable! Love that movie

[toyjunky]

Yes, there is a difference. I am going to split these into two groups when it comes to the Disney dolls. There are "Animators' Dolls" and then all the other "Toddler Dolls".

Animators' Dolls were sold at the Disney Store and Disney Theme Parks and the boxes specifically were marked as such. They have large heads, large eyes and detailed expressive faces. These were first released in 2011 and the company has continued production since.

"Toddler Dolls" - This is a VERY large category that covers all the other dolls. Disney toddler style dolls have been being made for about 20 years. They have been made by a variety of companies. You will often see toddler dolls listed as Animator dolls on places like Ebay. The two companies listed below have made most of them, there may be others.

Playmates - "Before Once Upon a Time" was one of the earlier style toddler princess type dolls (early mid 2000's, around 2006 or so). At this time Playmates had the license, so a variety of Disney Princess toddler dolls were made and sold in regular stores. There were also other dolls that were made by them not under the "Before Once Upon a Time" title. There were prince dolls made however they were only sold in sets.

Jakks Pacific - "My First Disney Princess" is another toddler princess type doll line that was sold in regular stores. These boxes may be marked as Totallytots on the side of the box which is a subsidiary company of Jakks Pacific. There were a lot of these made and they also made prince dolls.

The link below gives some good body size information (doesn't cover the Playmates).
https://dollydelicacies.com/2014/08/09/the-differences-among-disneys-toddler-dolls/

This is also something I found doing a quick Google search that shows earlier versions of the animators dolls.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/applecandy_mela/24773401341/in/photostream/

[katrine2309]

Toyjunky: Thank you! That helped a lot! Looking at those Flickr images I see that my Merida is the 1st edition Animator doll. I was looking into starting a collection, but now I realize I have no room for these dolls. I’m thinking I have to let her go. Do you guys now of a doll forum or something where I can look into prices and such?

[Lady Frostbite]

We used to talk about them on the Monster High forum, not sure if there is a dedicated forum but considering it's Disney, there's bound to be!

I'm still really hoping for a Maid Marian toddler doll, she would be SO CUTE!!!!!

[katrine2309]

We used to talk about them on the Monster High forum, not sure if there is a dedicated forum but considering it's Disney, there's bound to be!

I'm still really hoping for a Maid Marian toddler doll, she would be SO CUTE!!!!!

Thanks!

And oh wouldn’t that be cute!! And the bunny and fox from Zootopia! I can’t remember their names , but that is one of my fav newer Disney movies. It has such a great message!

[LadyAmalthea]

Just joining the thread because I am interested in knowing more about them, too. My son wanted a Pocohontas doll for his 4th birthday, so I ordered the Animators Pocohontas for him. She has such a beautiful, expressive, melancholy face. Unfortunately, these were apparently not designed to be play dolls, because she had the worst quality hair I've ever seen on a toy in my entire life! Within 4 days, it was in dreadlocks. There was some substance applied to her hair to keep it neat and shiny in the package, but when combed through, it  turned powdery and clumped up. 3 years later the hair is just destroyed. My son is very bothered by it and wants me to fix her, and I've looked into a few options, including rehairing her with nylon hair or buzzing her existing hair and finding a kanekelon wig. But her head is bigger than the standard size of most doll wigs, and she is very tightly rooted, so buying enough nylon hair to re-root her would cost more than I paid for the doll! So I'm kind of at an impasse. My son just now turned 7 and still sleeps with the doll, so I probably won't go to any drastic, expensive measures to restore her hair until he is done doing that.

I recently saw a Merida animator doll at Goodwill and was tempted to buy her, but she was naked and I don't have any clothes to fit that scale of doll. Her hair was a mess, but wasn't the same crappy quality of Pocohontas's; if I had wanted to take on another project, I could've fixed Merida's. A woman I talk to on IG has a Pocahontas doll, and claims her hair is nice, but she's a collector and likely hasn't played with the doll. I saw a review online about someone with a Mulan Animator doll who seemed to have the same problem I did with her doll. Maybe it was just a bad batch of the black hair used on these dolls.

ETA: pics!
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[brightberry]

That's some wild hair!   

It's cute that he still loves his doll.  If it can't be washed out... maybe cut it off and get a tie-on hat for her? 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1119139698/ooak-handmade-panda-hat-for-disney?click_key=2d3857ee13d7dfcf1359e3e33c583303b3506f1c%3A1119139698&click_sum=c9df9a41&ref=search_recently_viewed-3

[LadyAmalthea]

That's some wild hair!   

It's cute that he still loves his doll.  If it can't be washed out... maybe cut it off and get a tie-on hat for her? 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1119139698/ooak-handmade-panda-hat-for-disney?click_key=2d3857ee13d7dfcf1359e3e33c583303b3506f1c%3A1119139698&click_sum=c9df9a41&ref=search_recently_viewed-3

That's a really cute hat! I could do that, and maybe it wouldn't take much to reroot just some bangs kind of like the doll in the photo has. Thanks for the idea!

Her hair is wild! I've never seen this type of doll hair before. Even on the worst, cheapest pony fakies I've come across, I don't think it's this bad! I'd like to know what it is, so I can avoid it in the future.

[freezestime]

Oh no poor Pochahontas! I had never encountered that type of hair before, and I don't know how feasible it'd be fix it or reroot it. Is your child okay with the hair?

[LadyAmalthea]

Oh no poor Pochahontas! I had never encountered that type of hair before, and I don't know how feasible it'd be fix it or reroot it. Is your child okay with the hair?

I've never seen it before, either! It's the worst I've ever seen. My son is upset about the hair, but when I suggested cutting it all off so that we could reroot or put a wig on her, he got agitated. He really just wants me to fix it, but I'm afraid it's unsalvageable.

[toyjunky]

Curious, have you tried washing it to see what happens?
 If you haven't, I would just take one dread-lock group and wash it carefully to see what the hair does. Assuming that it is also all knotted/tangled you could also try a conditioner on the one section to see what happens and if it could be combed through.

[LadyAmalthea]

Curious, have you tried washing it to see what happens?
 If you haven't, I would just take one dread-lock group and wash it carefully to see what the hair does. Assuming that it is also all knotted/tangled you could also try a conditioner on the one section to see what happens and if it could be combed through.

I haven't tried it. I should, just to see what happens. It can't get any worse!

[Pokeyonekenobie]

Curious, have you tried washing it to see what happens?
 If you haven't, I would just take one dread-lock group and wash it carefully to see what the hair does. Assuming that it is also all knotted/tangled you could also try a conditioner on the one section to see what happens and if it could be combed through.

I read somewhere that liquid Fabric Softener can help detangle doll hair.