Edited to add: Please at least skim to the end of this article, as I have some updated information about the dolls with “reflection eyes” that have been coming out fall/holiday 2014. Thanks.
Flynn Rider todder, Disney Princess & Me Rapunzel, “My First” Princess Rapunzel
One day, in Toys R Us, I saw a toddler doll of Flynn Rider (Eugene Fitzherbert) from Rapunzel. Had. To. Have. So I snatched him up and took him home while the gettin’ was good. I was on vacation, so I waited until I got home to go pick up a Rapunzel. Both of these dolls had “My First” on the packaging, but I didn’t think much about it.
Another day, shopping with my mom, I expressed a wish to have “all the Disney Animators’ Collection dolls” because they’re adorable. I now have a whole bunch. Thanks, Mom!
LIBBY for Disney Animators’ Collection Do you love how her little toes turn in?
I had no intention of unboxing the Animators’ dolls until I got a case for them (and who knows when that might happen), but, after I released the LIBBY pattern for the “My First” doll, I got an email from a mom who was trying to sew for daughter’s birthday. The pattern she had bought, for a 15″ doll, was way too big–I assume because it was for a 15″ baby doll and they’re chunkier, larger in scale. I could see by holding the “My First” up to the box that the Animators’ would be a little taller and a little chunkier. It wasn’t until I broke open the box that I realized there were a number of differences between the two dolls.
MIMI for “My First” Disney Princess
I did a handful of patterns for each of these dolls, including MIMI for the “My First.” MIMI has long and short sleeves, and I thought it would be a cute cover if I photographed the two versions on Anna and Elsa from Frozen (which I also had from my mom because I’m spoiled like that. 😉 ). So I broke into Elsa’s box only to find that the todder dolls not labeled as “My First” are much shorter and slimmer! A slightly different body style and a TOTALLY different size.
This really ticked me off. I could see the Animators’ being different because they’re very stylized and marketed to collectors as well as children. But for these two play dolls to be so similar and yet such different sizes–grr! It’s bad enough that the doll companies are treating our girls like adult collectors and hardly offering anything in terms of clothing for dress-up play. (There’s a rant for another day.) They don’t need to make it hard for us to sew as well.
Disney Animators’, “My First,” and regular line toddler dolls. (And an annoying cat’s paws.)
So this article is here to give a heads-up to all those sewing for and shopping for clothes for these girls that there ARE differences among these three doll lines. I want to try to give you some help if you’re not sure what doll you’re sewing for.
Animators’ Collection
This is what the Animators’ packaging looks like. (Not dented, hopefully.)
The Animators’ dolls are 15 1/2″ tall. They’re generally sold in Disney Stores and at the shops in the Disney theme parks and resorts. They’re adorably stylized with large heads, large eyes, and have the most expressive faces. The imprint on the back and back of the head reads (c) Disney and also China. Packaging indicates Disney as the manufacturer. Patterns in my shop that fit this doll should be tagged with “DAG for Disney Animators’ Collection Girl.
- Height: 15 1/2″
- Bust: 8″
- Waist: 9 1/4″
- Hips: 9 1/2″
“My First” Princess
“My First” Disney Princesses have the phrase on the packaging.
You can often find these at Toys R Us, Walmart, and Target. They are toddler dolls, and not to be confused with the baby dolls that share the same name and often similar packaging. Besides the obvious difference of the baby body with slightly bent limbs, the baby dolls also seem to all have short, molded hair, not rooted like the toddlers. The face is much more generic-child than the Animators’ (though I think there was a release of dolls with bigger eyes). The imprint on the back of the dolls’ head just says (c) Disney. Packaging indicates they’re made by Jakks Pacific. Patterns in my shop that fit this doll should be tagged with DMF for Disney “My First” Toddler Princess.
- Height: 14 1/2″
- Bust: 7 5/8″
- Waist: 7 5/8″
- Hips: 8 1/2″
(See also Stephanie’s comment below about two different sizes within this line.)
Toddler Princess
I’ll try to get a photo of the generic packaging. This is the Frozen box.
I’m not sure what to call this line. I’m not even sure how readily available these dolls are because I’m not coming up with much in a Google image search. Comparing my Elsa to my Rapunzel (see comparison photo above), the faces of these dolls are a little more sophisticated with a heavy black line to indicate their lashes. They are also smaller and slighter than the “My First” girls. The mark on the back just says (c) Disney. Packaging indicates they’re made by Jakks Pacific. Patterns for this doll should be tagged “DTP” for Disney Toddler Princess.
- Height: 13 1/2″
- Bust: 6 1/2″
- Waist: 6 1/4″
- Hips: 8″
I hope this helps you figure out what doll you have and what size pattern you need. All the patterns in my Etsy shop that are made for Disney character dolls can be found in the Disney Dolls section.
Edited to add: I need to find time to write this up new, but for now, I just want to let you know about the dolls that are new for fall/holiday 2014. These are the ones with the “reflection eyes.” They have large, plastic eyes rather than painted like the previous version. The body for the these is slightly different, but they share clothes with the 13 1/2″ princesses above. Going forward, I’ll be fitting to the 2014 doll.
The new “My First” collection dolls with “reflection eyes” seem to have the same 13 1/2″ body. Anyone sewing for that doll will want the “DTP” patterns, not the “DMF” patterns.
The Princess Sofia dolls with “reflection eyes” (I found this doll at Target) are much larger than any of the dolls on this page. None of these patterns will fit that doll. (But I hope to have some soon, so let me know if you’re looking.)
If you are rescuing an older doll of this type that has a Playmates 2002 marking on the backside, those dolls fit the patterns currently titled with “My First” and tagged “DMF.” Be aware that the fit is a little snug through the chest. You may want to add a little to the back seam.
Dolly Delicacies 
Thank you so much for this helpful article!!! But my granddaughter has yet another style of Rapunzel with jointed (extremely!) knees and elbows. I really like her because it makes her so easy to dress. When I look on line or at the stores I find only the ones you have talked about and I have a feeling she is yet another size. What do you know about her?
Kristy, I have never seen such a thing! And I love jointed knees so I’m very intrigued. Going to keep an eye out for that.
There’s more Toddler Disney Princesses than that ! Before Jakks Pacific / TollyTots (same company) got the license, Playmates had it first. And had it for years. I see them frequently on the second-hand circuit and eBay. They have different markings (of course), a different look (no painted panties, rotating wrists), and completely different sizing. At one point, I had the whole Playmates set, but now I’m down to a customized Belle and Beast pair. She’s 15 inches tall, with a 7 5/8 inch chest, 7 3/8 inch waist, and 9 inch hips.
Mattel also briefly held the license between Playmates and JPacific, and Disney Store had their own line of toddler princess dolls out at the same time as Playmates, but I didn’t like the look of either, and never bought them. But I’m willing to bet they have different measurements, too. The DStore ones especially looked thinner than the wider release PMates.
Whoever decides to document the world of Little Disney Princesses (how Playmates marketed them) has his/her work cut out for ‘em !
Dorrie, thanks so much for your information! I nominate you for said documentary, LOL. My daughter had some when she was a baby. I should go find those and check them out.
I’ve sewn a lot for my daughter’s toddler dolls, and then when we got her a Frozen Anna toddler doll at Christmas, it was a different size. She loved it so much that she wouldn’t let me return it for the “right” doll. Grrrrrr! Sooooo frustrating! This is great information! I wish I’d read it before Christmas.
the jointed toddlers are tollytots that come with a horse to ride
And of course u have seen the Anna and Elsa toddler set at Target LOL that has a larger Elsa and smaller Anna…
The Anna Animator dolls are shorter than the Elsa and other dolls. She has shorter legs and arms and seems like a smaller head. Probably because she is a “little sister”.
I enjoyed your post, and I was hoping to add my findings on this. I fell in love with the My First Disney Princess line when I found Rapunzel at Target. I began collecting them, purchasing them mainly from Amazon. I have come to find that there are actually two different sizes within the MFD line (this is not regarding the reflection eyes dolls). I found a line where the dolls are about an inch & a half bigger & the dresses are different, however the doll faces, hair & such are exactly the same. I started collecting the sets where the dolls were sold with the matching 2T-4T dress for little girls & noticed that some dolls were different size than others. That’s when I noticed the dolls themselves, aside from the size differences, also had different dresses completely. Now I am frustrated, having some dolls of different sizes & sets. A tall Belle, but a short Rapunzel, Aurora & Ariel. I love Rapunzel so much that I found the taller one & now I have two Rapunzels, which is fine, and also two different dresses for my little girl. I’m currently on a mission to find them all in the same size & I’m trying to compile pictures & save the boxes they come in to show the differences. I was quite upset to find two separate lines. To make matters worse & more complicated, the SKU/UPC is the same on the boxes so if I order one on Amazon, Target or Walmart’s website, I haven’t necessarily been getting the one in the picture. It’s been very aggregating. Maybe you can help incorporate this into your post, I haven’t been able to find anything online. The only thing I can assume is that one line might be a first edition, one might be a second. But there are no dates for me to reference.
Thankyou for this! I’m trying to make something for the Cinderella doll my niece got for Christmas, but she lives two states away so I’ve never seen the doll. I was going she’d be the same size as a Belle that I found at goodwill, but it looks like she’s not. Belle is 15 inches and Cinderella is 13 1/2.
P.S.- My cat always gets on the way when I’m trying to photograph dolls, too. 😉
If he’s not directly on top of what I want to photograph, I consider it a victory. I’m sure you know. 🙂
I’m from the Philippines and I sell preloved/second hand toys from US. I have difficulty finding the information about the Rapunzel doll I have found yesterday until I saw this page. It is an animator doll which is rare/valuable even secondhand in our country. But it is articulated so I found it very rare. Then I saw frankie’s comment which says it is tollytos. So when I searched the web I found t “My First Disney Princess Royal Reflection Eyes Toddler Rapunzel”. Yes this is what I found, and it says it is out of stock in toy kingdom. Will you please tell me if it still on sale there in the states? I haven’t found it in Toys R Us, Toy kingdom and Other stores here in the Ph. Is it rare already?
Is tollytots Rapunzel which is an animator and Articulated, rare?
Disney Animators Collection dolls are only sold in Disney stores and theme parks. They’re a very specific design. I do not believe the Animators Collection is produced by TollyTots.
There have been a number of different Disney Princess toddler dolls. Many are produced by the company Jakks Pacific. I believe that TollyTots is a division of Jakks Pacific.
I think there were a few Disney Toddlers by Jakks Pacific, under the TollyTots name, which had articulated knees to ride their ponies. They were sold as doll/pony gift sets. I know Rapunzel and Merida were both available at one time. I’m not sure if any other characters were sold with horses.
There is a version of the Merida doll currently available on the Toys R Us website, and the reviews suggest that she does have jointed legs.
As far as rarity…it’s difficult to call anything rare which is as mass-produced as the store shelf Disney dolls. But since the lines get changed up so often, to find one ten or twenty years from now which is still in the box or in mint condition…maybe?
Here is the link for Merida. Hope that helps: http://www.toysrus.com/buy/princess-fairy-dolls/disney-pixar-brave-merida-with-angus-doll-forest-adventure-76282-12918167
Coming to this extremely late but… I have just received a Belle wit bending knees and elbows and, frankly, they bend so little, they might as well have not bothered articulating them. The hip joins still splay the legs in the way a straight leg dolls legs splay when sat, and the knees don’t bend enough to turn the soles of the feet parallel to the floor so she can’t sit properly (except, astride the horse, but not on a chair). The elbows barely bend at all either. They do swivel, so there’s a little bit of pose -potential, but not much.
From the measurements I expected them to be a similar size to the Animators, but they are smaller and slimmer.
I now wish I’d waited for this first one to arrive before getting carried away by the idea of the extra joints and bidding on the other four that are on their way to me from Ebay sellers (including two different Anna’s, so it will at least be worth seeing how they differ).
So far I’ve seen two different Belle’s (longer blue “peasant” dress and shorter yellow dress), a Merida, a Cinderella, a Rapunel (possiby two – it was difficult to tell from the pictures), and two Annas (slightly different hair colour and dresses). Although there’s more than one Anna,I’ve not seen an Elsa listed anywhere, nor a Moana, Tiana, Mulan, Pocahontas, Snow White, Aurora, or Ariel.
Teddy
Help! Where do you find shoes for these dolls? Shoes are the first things to get lost.
You can get little pink ballet flats with bows and sneakers on eBay from China. You can use shoe color spray to change the pink to whatever you like or use a pair as a pattern as I am. ❤
I have a collection of Disney toddler dolls too but this line is not sold at Disney outlet stores ONLY. its a cheaper version of the Animator’s. I want to post the pictures but I can’t. If you’re interested I can send them to you. Maybe you can include them here too.
I’ve seen the other line of Disney toddlers at the outlet stores. I hadn’t realized they were only at the outlets, but that explains why I see them at one store and not the other! I haven’t bought any yet, but I should. I would love for you to post the chest/waist/hip measurements, and the height of the doll. If you’d like, you can send pictures to susanbischoff at gmail dot com, and I’ll share it here. Thank you!
Also wanted to note that I saw the “outlet” line of Disney toddlers in Belk (department store), in the children’s department, this Christmas shopping season. Still didn’t manage to get one.
Thank you so much for these comparison notes and measurements! I’m making doll clothes for my niece in California and suddenly realized that there are many Disney sizes. These will be awesome. Thanks again!
Agh, you’re a hero- I got a whole set of Disney toddler dolls at value village, in real good condition, but no clothes- and clothes is my baby girl’s favourite part! So now I know they’re DMF and will sew accordingly- thank you!!
Moana must be the biggest Animator She is adorable so much baby fat