Pre-Mattel Dolls - HELP!

[mazie1120]

Can someone please tell me how to identify a pre-mattel doll? Tan body? White body? Tag on body? No tag? Artist mark?

Also, everyone talks about Pleasant Company on the back of the neck, but even my Marisol has that!

HELP!! Thanks from a newbie!

[dolllover]

Welcome to the board! The artist mark usually means a doll is PM (except for Addy's- they all have the artist mark for some reason). Some Kit's may have the artist's mark (it mostly depends on when the doll was made in Kit's case).

[brazilian_girl]

Hmmm, I have the same question as well, but I think it depends on the doll. I have two Felicities and they are so different, I know the ugly one (greenish complexion) is Mattel because she has a body tag (Made in China for American Girl) and the other one came with an outfit with "Made in China 1993", she has redder hair, her eyes are smaller and her cheeks are wider, her face is wider. She has a rosy complexion and her eyelashes are soft and auburn, not black like the Mattel. Not all Mattel Felicities are green, some are lovely, but the hair is auburn, not red.

About the eyelashes, my oldest Samantha (both are PM) have longer eyelashes but they are not thick and soft like my "younger" (around 1995). The only clue I have for my Sam #1 is her meet outfit that says "Made in West Germany 1986". She also has a very large "Pleasant Company" on her neck.

I think it depends on the doll. Photos from Ebay sometimes are enough to tell if a doll is PM or not, sometimes only when the doll arrives we can see is she is PM or not.

I am still in doubt about my Josefina. I think she is PM, her eyelashes are so soft, but I am not 100% sure.

Of course, a WB doll is PM, no doubt about that...

Didn't help much, did I??? [img]confused.gif[/img]

[wicksasc]

If the eyelashes are soft and any color other than black, the doll is PM. Mattel dolls all have shiny black lashes. If there are any tags, PM ones say made for Pleasant Company, Mattel ones say made for American Girl. I have a PM and a Mattel Felicity as well as a PM and a Mattel Kirsten that all have the artist mark behind their ear, so I don't think that is an accurate way to tell the difference. If you know when the doll was made, anything manufactured prior to 1998 is PM. For me the only thing that I have found "for sure" is the eyelash differences.
~Stacie

[horsemom]

I've chronicled some of the differences in charts in my website I'm building. The website is incomplete (most notably lacking pictures and some of the dolls' text), but it will (hopefully) help in the German vs. PM vs. Mattel issue for at least some of the dolls.

www.freewebs.com/historicalamericangirls

[QNPoohBear]

My 1992 Felicity has a peach body and not a tan body. I have seen only a few on ebay with the peach body and a few Mollys too. She has copper colored hair and normal green eyes and reddish lashes. Her face color is nice and subtle too.