Hello Rainbow Land!

I'm new to collecting the RB line. I was interested to know if anyone can shed some light onto some variations I have found in the dolls?

I notice that there seem to be two kinds of shoes on the dolls; some that have a silkscreened detail, and others that just have stitching detail. Can anyone tell me if there is any rhyme or reason to this? Different years? Different manufacturers? Is one harder to find or worth more than the other? All my dolls seem to say ©1983 Hallmark Cards, Inc. regardless of the differences.

I did notice that my dolls without the silkscreened shoe seem to be a bit taller as well.

If you can help shed some light on the situation, I'd love to know more.

Thanks!

I've noticed the differences too and I still haven't figured out why. Like one of my 10 inch rainbow dolls has green eye shadow and my other 2 have brown. I don't get it.

I think it depends on where they have been made and from who...I have got 2 indigo's sprites and both have the same tag reading hallmark 1983 etc. but the face expression and nose size is totally different, so I guess must be the same for the dolls! Even the Tickled pink dress white star border at the front sometimes is shaped in a different way!

Interesting. I wonder if there were multiple manufacturers, but the dolls all got the same tags and Hallmark © info?

StarKidd'78 wrote:Interesting. I wonder if there were multiple manufacturers, but the dolls all got the same tags and Hallmark © info?

Yep they all do, funny isnt it!

The original dolls were made in Taiwan, S. Korea, China, Spain, France, Mexico and Brazil. There could have been multiple factories making them in any or all of the Asian countries. If you read the fine print on the boxes, it says "Made for Mattel in ..." and never Made by "Mattel in...".

When you have that many production sites spread all over the place, you're bound to have variations.

There was also a Japanese issue but I don't know where they were made.

The big reason for the non-Asian manufacturers was import duties or tariffs in various countries. The Asian made dolls would have been priced too high for the local market. It was cheaper for Mattel to find a local partner and make them where they would be sold. In some cases (France, for example), part of the line was made locally and the rest imported. Had this not been done, the dolls may not have been sold there at all.

There's also a variation between the old box dolls and the new box dolls, at least for Patty O'Green. The old boxes had an image of RB in the lower left corner of the window. This was left out on the new boxes. The differences in Patty's clothes are obvious between the versions.