White body doll question

[Skittl1321]

Were all of the original dolls made in white bodies? There is an ebay seller claiming a 1986 Kirsten that is not white body. (The one who just sold the signed samantha.)

And my Kirsten, which I bought at least a year and half (possibly as early as 1988) before Felicity was debuted, is not white body, has no marks that I can find and does not have body tags.

Does anyone have information about other ways to date your dolls? She did not come in the box with the girl's siloutte on it. I think she came in a maroon one.
Thanks

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ August 27, 2005 10:43 AM: Message edited by: Skittl1321 ]</font>

[LindaL]

Yes, they were. I have a white bodied Molly, and my oldest daughter has a white bodied Kirsten.

I can't help you with how long the bodies were white, though, before they changed to match the limbs more closely.

Linda

[robin0850]

I think the bodies changed to tan in 1991, the year Felicity was released; it's generally assumed that the reason was Felicity was the first doll to have lower-necked clothing. (A tan face and white body would look kind of strange.)
The ebay seller may have a Kirsten with a body tag stating 1986--many people assume this to be the year the doll was made, when actually it was meant to comemmorate the year the company was founded. So confusing! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Skittl1321]

I have always thought the reason they changed the bodies to tan is because of felicity's lower neckline, but my Kirsten is at least a year and a half younger than the Felicity release. Which is what confuses me- she is most a tanned body. Surely they produce the dolls before they release them and maybe my Kirsten was made as they were preparing the Felicity dolls for their upcoming release.

[historylover]

If you look at Meg's site, www.midnightmo.com, you can see the history of the company. According to Meg, all the dolls came with a white body until 1991. It was during this year that the body color was changed. Felicity came out in this year as well.

[lorak79]

I'm not so sure about that.... my samantha that I got in 1989 had a tan body, and my molly that I got a year later has a white one. I can under stand getting an older molly that my mom ordered in 1990, but my sam has a tan body and was in my little hands the christmas before... Sam was made in west germany, and I think that molly was made in just germany...

[carolinapooh]

RNseamstress, you must be on the same wavelength as me...I just realized the other day that my tan bodied Samantha is wearing a meet dress tagged "Made in West Germany for Pleasant Company", the same as my white bodied Kirsten's meet dress. I know the Samantha is all original; the girl I got it from sent me her and her accessories in matching white pre-Mattel boxes and said the doll had been in her basement for ages - her sister had pretty much forgotten about it - and BOY did she stink when I got her. A musty smell; not damp like water, just CLOSED UP.

She also has no body tag. I wonder how old she is? I think she's a lot older than I thought! I know her hair is LOTS curlier than my niece's Samantha from 1999 and feels/looks more like real hair - more like my Kirsten's. Could she be German?

[irishjennyfer79]

We actually received our first dolls in 86 or 87 (first year they had the catalogs), I had Kirsten, my sis had Samantha, and I had Molly....I looked at my mom's Molly (who has literaly never been removed from my mom's cabinet or played with etc- She definately does ot have a white body- it's tan and I know for a fact that she's close being original- might have actually been '87 because of not having the real ribbon box closure and that's the year I have pics of them from.)

Jenny =)

[Skittl1321]

Well I'm glad to hear other people have pre-felicity tan dolls.

Although I feel cheated that my Kirsten isn't white bodied. Poor thing was having an identity crisis for awhile... she didn't know how old she was. I looked at old christmas pictures and she is definetly from December 1989, tan body, no body tags. Her dress says Made in West Germany for Pleasant Company.