Disney Character Dolls: 1970 - 2019

For more animated characters see also Animated Character Dolls and Simpson Sears Canadian Winnie the Pooh Puppets.

Disney Characters, 8 inch dolls by R Dakin company, early 1970s

In the 1970's the R Dakin company produced an impressive collection of cartoon character dolls based on Disney, Hanna-Barbara and Warner Bros. properties, among others. Above are the Mickey Mouse and Pluto figures. Mickey is 8 inches tall, has fabric clothes and plastic shoes, all of which are removable. Both figures have movable arms and legs and the head turns.

 

Here is a back view of Mickey to show the snaps on his shirt. Other Disney characters available in this series include Donald Duck, Goofy, Mini Mouse, Pinocchio, and Dumbo.

Disney Characters, plush dolls by Knickerbocker, 1970's to early 1980's

Here is a 12 inch plush toy of Mickey Mouse made by Knickerbocker in the 1970's (most likely in the mid 70's prior to 1977). The blue bow tie was missing from this doll so I made a new one, which is much larger than the original bow tie. The red shorts are removable with a Velcro fastener at the back. The yellow buttons are made out of felt and glued on which is a clear sign that the toy is from the 70s rather than the 80s. Mickey also has a small red tongue made out of felt. 

Mickey's hands and feet are made out of a flat cotton that is not plush. The nose and eyes are hard black plastic, with the white areas of the eyes painted on. The paint scratches off quite easily so it's hard to find these dolls with undamaged eyes. Knickerbocker produced a variety of Mickey Mouse plush toys in different sizes, both smaller and larger than this one, with different outfits. Below is another example.

Here is a small 9 inch plush toy of Mickey Mouse by Knickerbocker from the late 1970s or early 1980s. This was one of my favourite plush toys when I was around 8 or 9 years old and it was played with a lot. I brought Mickey with me on family outings, or to dentist appointments, and so on. Mickey's shirt says "Mickey Mouse Power". The eyes are plastic with the white area painted on, and the nose is a glued on pom-pom. 

There is also a Donald Duck and Goofy in this series with sayings on their shirts. Donald's shirt says "You quack me up" and Goofy's says "I'm a Goofy Guy". I received this Mickey doll brand new from the store in the early 1980's (and I recall seeing them at the toy store when I was a kid), so I know they were still being made at that point. However I don't know for certain when these 9 inch plush toys were first made available, which may have been in the late 1970's.

Disney's Pinocchio, 10 inch doll by Applause, 1990s

Applause did an excellent job on this Pinocchio doll. It looks exactly like the Disney character. The head is especially well sculpted. I only have two complaints: 1) the arms only move back and forth, they can't be positioned out to the side. A ball joint at the shoulder would have been better. 2) It would have been nice if the inside of the mouth was painted black instead of just the tongue being painted.

Collectors who are interested in variations might be interested to know that there is a version of this doll that doesn't have the black lines above the eyeball (where the white part of the eye is).

Disney plush dolls, 10 inch dolls by Applause, early 1990s

These Applause plush toys are about 10 inches tall and do not have a date on the tag. They were made during the early 1990s. I find that these Applause plush toys are not as common as the Mattel dolls. Above is the Beast plush toy likely from 1991 when the film was released. This plush toy is amazing to me because of the soft-sculpting and detail in the face. There are many small pieces in the pattern for this doll, and it is quite impressive that something with such detail could be mass produced. Below is a closer view of the detail in the face.

Applause also produced a nice series of Aladdin plush dolls in the early 1990's, likely 1992 when the movie was in theatres. Here is Prince Aladdin in his white wedding outfit and Abu the Monkey (a hand puppet of Abu was also made). Both have plastic heads, and Aladdin has plastic hands. His hat is removable. I've also seen an Aladdin from this series that is wearing the city outfit (purple vest and white pants). That doll has the upper half of the body in plastic, and only the legs are stuffed. 

Other characters in the series include the Genie (10 inch and 16 inch dolls were available, and there is a version of the Genie doll with a tuxedo front piece attached as part of the body, as well as a doll-like hand puppet), three Princess Jasmine dolls in different outfits (her white wedding outfit, the more common light blue two piece outfit, and a purple outfit), Rajah the Tiger, lago the Parrot (a hand puppet of lago was also made), and the villain Jafar with a removable staff. 

All 12 of these dolls and the three hand puppets were done in the same style with plastic heads and stuffed bodies. Finger puppets of Aladdin and Jasmine were also made in addition to a series of PVC figures. Below are closer views of the faces for Aladdin and Abu.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast, 12 inch doll by Mattel, 1991

Since the early 1990's, Mattel has been offering a variety of Disney doll collections "for girls" which include the male characters from the movies. These dolls use a Ken doll body with a Disney character head. Above is the Beast Prince doll which came with his Prince outfit and his Beast outfit. I'm missing the Prince's shoes. The Beast's jacket has stuffing in it to make it bigger.

To me, the Disney Beast Prince looked like he belonged on a surf board. I think it's because of his long scraggly blond hair. So I found this Ken doll scuba outfit and turned him into a Surfer Dude! It suits him!

Disney's Aladdin, 12 inch and 10 inch dolls by Mattel, 1992

This is Mattel's 12 inch Aladdin doll which came with two costumes: his prince outfit and his city outfit. Above is the same doll dressed in each. I found this doll second hand so I'm missing the fabric boots, the lamp, and the plastic figure of Abu the Monkey.

 

Mattel also produced a 10 inch plush toy of Abu the monkey. There's no date on the tag so I'm assuming that this toy was made at the same time as their 12 inch doll series in 1992. A side view is included below to show Abu's hat and tail. 

Disney's Pocahontas, 12 inch doll by Mattel, 1995

Here's the very handsome John Smith doll made by Mattel, complete with his knights armor and long blond hair. I've never seen the movie or read the book, so I don't know what happens or how it ends. However, if Pocahontas doesn't end up marrying him, I will! LOL 

I found this doll second hand. His hair was originally tied in a ponytail but I like it this way much better. It gives him that surfer dude look. If only I had another wetsuit to put on him, he could hang out with the Beast Prince at the beach! Ha ha! (see Beast doll above)

At some point in the early 2000's I had found the Beast Prince at a second hand nostalgia store wearing John Smith's outfit complete with boots, helmet and sword. Both dolls have long blond hair so it's easy to confuse them. When I later found the Beast Prince's original outfit I switched costumes and have been trying to find a naked John Smith ever since! LOL (Story of my life!) In January 2022 I finally found one and so I put the costume on him that I've been saving all of these years. Ta da! A complete John Smith doll! And it only took 20 years! It was worth it, he's a very cool doll!

I'll post better pictures of this doll with his helmet and sword next time I update this page. 

Disney's Peter Pan, 10 and 12 inch dolls by Mattel, 1997 and 1999

This Peter Pan doll by Mattel was made in 1997. It came with strings to be hung up across a room so that the doll could "fly". The plastic feather in his hat is shaped like a hook to glide the doll along the string. This doll was part of a series of three dolls, the other two being Tinker Bell and Wendy.

 

In 1999, two years after the above Peter Pan doll was marketed, Mattel produced a special collector's edition 12 inch doll of Captain Hook. This is a very well made doll with a lot of detail. The '97 Peter Pan doll has very limited articulation, however the doll body used for Hook has several points of articulation which allows many different poses. Mattel never issued a special edition Peter Pan doll to go with the 1999 Hook doll, so it's logical to consider Hook as completing the set of Peter Pan dolls from 1997.

Disney's Tarzan, 12 inch action figure by Mattel, 1999
 

This is the 12 inch "Rad Repeatin" Tarzan figure that was sold at the Disney Store while the movie was still in theatres. I have a huge collection of Tarzan figures which I've shown on the Tarzan page of my action figure blog: http://mikeysactionfigures.blogspot.ca/p/i-have-huge-of-tarzan-stuff.html

Disney Beanies, 10 inch dolls (unknown manufacturer), early to mid 2000s

 

These four Disney beanies were sold at Disney Stores around the early to mid 2000s. They are from a very extensive series of beanie dolls based on Disney characters. There must be at least 100 dolls in this collection, however I'm just interested in the boy dolls. Above are (left to right) Eric from The Little Mermaid, the Prince from Snow White, Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty, and Burt from Mary Poppins. I've also seen an Aladdin beanie doll for this series, but have yet to see a Prince Charming doll from Cinderella though I assume one was made.

The Nightmare Before Christmas, 10 inch doll (unknown manufacturer) mid 2000's

This is a 10 inch doll of Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas movie. The doll was sold only through the Disney stores. Jack has movable arms and legs but they have a flat/basic joint so the movement is very limited. The head also turns. The bat bow tie is plastic and glued onto his neck. The shoes are painted. The jacket and pants are fabric and well made. Aside from the limited movement this is a very well made doll that looks very much like the original stop-motion character. The front and back view are shown above. A matching Sally doll was also available.

Disney's Aladdin, 9 inch plush toys by Imports Dragon, 2019

 

Disney's live action Aladdin was released in 2019. These dolls, based on the original animated movie, were marketed to promote the new film and sold at Cineplex movie theatres. Below, I've shown the Aladdin doll next to the 12 inch and 10 inch Aladdin dolls for size comparison.