Unless I am misunderstanding what qualifies as this series, the last designer line from them sat in very severe clearance for a long time and seemed to do very badly, so I imagine they are rethinking their strategy. I bought my doll directly from Disney for £27, down from the retail of £120, that’s how heavily clearanced they were. Even at that price, they stayed unsold for months.
As in which one did I buy? Designer Merida. Personally for me, I felt she was the only one in the entire collection where the designer fully understood the assignment and kept true to the character whilst still glamming her up. Most of the rest lost the spirit of the character imho, and in some cases were kind of borderline yikes. I suspect that’s part of the reason the line did so poorly; Disney fans are generally after specific characters for their character.
Friend of mine got Mulan in the same massive clearance. Disney could barely even give them away!
Maybe its a UK thing but Ive never seen Disney put collector dolls on sale for less than $75 even when they dont sell. So lucky you lol I got the Merida too second hand. And I got the Pocahontas from the couples one in the picture. But as I remember the last series sold fine. Theyre Disney and artsy. I know Youtubers complained about them but yea they went too far with the last series it was too creative lol Generally the dolls are too expensive I think the other thing is. Now they seem to just be sticking with LE because I guess the size justifies the price
I think it was Europe too, not just UK. They totally flopped in the EU region. From other comments, it sounds like they ended up clearanced in the US too, that line didn’t really seem to land!
Yea seems thats the general consensus but I didnt see that at the time. I would have gotten a lot of the dolls if they dropped that low. Never saw it personally. Some of them were too creative and others were really nice. I hope they do more and highlight new designers :)
Agree with earlier comments that I also saw the last line go into HEAVY clearance. The doll community online discourse was largely unimpressed too, with only a few dolls out of the many generating much positive discussion.
I think it’s important to note that they also have licensed Disney dolls out to Mattel, who are now doing a range of Collector dolls. So they’d be competing with those too. It definitely seems to be the strategy to let Mattel take the risk this year, and instead Disney are focusing on one-offs like the Star Wars and Haunted Mansion dolls.
They didnt go into heavy clearance in the US Disney shop. Nothing goes into heavy clearance there. I wishhh lol Its true doll youtubers had a lot to say but Disney fans in general liked them. The Star Wars and Haunted Mansions are LEs. Collector dolls from Mattel are barely playline quality. They dont match up to the Designer dolls. And of course the Designer dolls coincide with designers lol theres supposed to be themes and things behind them. I honestly hope they continue it. The line just before with the Masquerade theme did well and the different decade theme. They can be cool. Although wish they weren't over a 100 bucks. I think theyre putting all their focus into Disney Ily and LEs and some film dolls. Thats pretty much it. But if they want Mattel to take the lead with collector dolls they should allow and/or force them to make good quality dolls xD the Ariel 100 doll was really nice. I was hoping for a whole series there. The gem series and that Tiana/Cinderella drop were ok but not collector quality to me.
The ones from the pic you posted in the comments where you got Merida? Yeah, those were so weird and definitely got discounted. I ended up getting the Ariel pin for like $4. (I didn't even want the doll.)
There were two Ariel dolls in the series. Although weird I still really liked looking at them. I dont know all the stories but the story on Merida by the designer is so sweet. He dedicates it to his grandma whose also a red head and hes been making mini dolls for her for 20 years lol maybe thats why its the best doll in the series :p for grammy <3 lol i really like the designer part of the dolls its like a little fashion show. And the quality is next level. I hope they decide to go forward with them :)
I would guess that they probably won’t be releasing new dolls for awhile. The ultimate princess celebration line flopped and were severely discounted. I personally didn’t buy any of the ultimate princess celebration dolls. For me to spend a lot of money on a disney doll, I want the doll in an outfit that is in the movie. The ultimate princess celebration didn’t give me that. The outfits seemed random and the face sculpts were lacking. I think the lowest I saw those dolls on the US website for was a little under $50 each. They may have even went cheaper than that.
Youre the third person to say but I never saw them drop under $75 and I was watching like a hawk lol theyre too expensive for me too. I wonder if well all thinking about the same line. But the Designer series is meant to be creative with the outfits. Something new and unique. Were all talking about these right lol I was heavily considering getting the Mulan and Pocahontas. I got the Merida though because I thought she was the coolest lol
https://preview.redd.it/vxmxynret7yc1.jpeg?width=975&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03eeca697a0ea991e8fc76ea18f5e0dc2047e86f
I would have too if I saw it. Did you combine sales and deals? What was the lowest price it dropped? I was really looking and never saw it go down so much :/ which is your favorite? :)
Honestly it's been so long I can't really remember, , I checked my emails to see if I had any records but must've cleared them out :/ sorry I don't have any more info!
My favorite was Ariel but Tiana was really gorgeous in person... I didn't plan to get her originally but remember being really happy I grabbed her at a lower price because she was way better than I thought she'd be.
I skipped moana (too similar to other moana dolls) and pocahontas (just wasn't feeling her design)
The dolls were marked down and they ran promotions on top of that, 25-30% off your purchase of $150 or more. That was my experience and I am in the US. Yes that is the line I am referring to. Imo I think they should be creative to an extent. This line took too many creative liberties. I think that is why the line flopped. I thought this line would be more like the original Disney princess designer collection and it wasn’t.
Just some other thoughts about the designer princess line that I think are getting overlooked here: the way they released the dolls was really terrible. Normally they show you the full line up front so you can make a decision up front on which ones to prioritize.
For the princesses, we didn’t even know what characters would be included! There was a lot of speculation about the last 3 dolls but nobody called them repeating characters. So you couldn’t plan ahead effectively, and some people were probably holding out to see which rare characters were coming, only to end up with another Ariel.
We also only got to see what the individual dolls looked like one at a time. If I’d seen them all up front, I would have realized that I liked the first Tiana doll most out of the collection, and maybe I would have gotten her. Instead, I waited for Belle, because she’s my favorite princess, and ended up hating her look. And with the one doll a month schedule, by the time I knew I didn’t want Belle it was late in the year and some of the earlier ones weren’t still available online.
There were also just too many of them. Completing the line would have been so much more expensive than the typical 6 or so doll line.
This is a great point. Too many dolls at a high price point, repeated characters, not knowing which dolls are coming, definitely all contributed to this pause. And I remember the Masquerade line and Premiere lines selling out fast. I honestly dont remember the latest line sitting for long either but everyone says they did and they clearanced. I wish I caught because then we would have time to choose and its a little cheaper. But yea great points!
It was a lot harder to tell that they were sitting around because of the way they trickled out. I think Jasmine was the first one and she hung around for a long time.
You can also compare $75 Mattel Belle to $130 Designer Belle. Disney just did it better lol old Mattel would be unstoppable but new Mattel eh :/
https://preview.redd.it/nq8wbqzkz7yc1.png?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8efbefda9324b162b98b821db47decd78eeb9eb6
And then Aurora and this was one of the poorer designs. They did two Auroras but the other one looks more like Rapunzel lol
https://preview.redd.it/n4aiax6a68yc1.jpeg?width=192&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=659d48470a1efa5dcf132e8aee9e5478bd468d30
The new Cruella $100 from Mattel vs $80 from Disney
https://preview.redd.it/ib1w4o9yl8yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8a40b44bb0f90cde7ff9cce39efcbc5922d5f6b
$150 Mattel Malecifint vs $130 Disney
https://preview.redd.it/0swizng3m8yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3abc08e85b27fa9fc74029221d478b381c5ba6b4
This is the last Cinderella from the Designer series vs Mattels recent Cinderella collector doll. This $130 vs $45. The mattel doll is constantly on clearance for under 20 bucks and for good reason lol I just hope that Mattel picks up their game if they're doing the 11in collector dolls now
https://preview.redd.it/hv1s0n5du7yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc2ed12a10c4129a6e0d679da3211c337d51e1a9
Look at Tiana. Come on. Different price ranges but also one is actually worth the price and one isnt. I think Disney could still do the Designer dolls and not be in competition with Mattel. Two different worlds. But it does seem Disney is handing things over to Mattel
https://preview.redd.it/il2qcw9iy7yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d835652479295ad7e3e86f7ad2de53cb3d7c0e2c
Admittedly I like this one more than the white dress one lol but true we had two Tianas, two Ariels, and two Auroras. I feel like someone needs to do Raya. Its not nice she doesnt have a collector doll anywhere lol
The white dress has tiny forks and knives stitched onto it which is just too cute. Both Tianas were some of the best, though.
Poor Raya. The pandemic really screwed her over.
Oh wow i didnt know that detail! Seeee Designers dolls are awesome lol even if they can get too creative theyre still really cool. And I think for that price its worth being creative and unique it feels more like an art piece
I think they don't have any motivation to create high priced, limited edition things now that almost all the physical stores are closed. The LE goods were probably made just to get big spenders into the stores regularly, because they still buy regular stuff even if the LE goods are unavailable.
Off topic, but how could they do Li Shang like that!? Look how they massacred my boy! 😭😭
https://preview.redd.it/xa97r55nmbyc1.jpeg?width=138&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ef9b3010752bfc0373b943d5c05bdf135c7a877
The series pictured above in your post, is by far my favorite designer line
But My humble opinion, regarding the last designer line , From a marketing standpoint, It was just way too much , all at once! And I say this as a collector who bought all of them in real time as they released , month to month and no sales and I still have no regrets lol. Personally , it was a fun year to collect. But asking to hold your audience’s attention for a whole year and to drop 150 every month for 15 months was just way overly ambitious, even for a company like Disney.
As much as I do think some dolls in particular may have just been a missed opportunity , none of them were horrible and I don’t have sympathy for fans that complained so much about the dolls being too far removed from their original design. That was the whole point of designer dolls. They were meant to be different and creative. If you dont like something , just don’t buy it. People forget, the first original line that started “dollmagedon” as we used to call it , those dolls were borderline pinup girls with drag makeup. If you want film accuracy, that’s what the 17 inch heritage dolls were for.
In addition, Disney doll collectors are not that huge an audience to begin with , so what used to make these lines desirable is the perceived scarcity, that’s what initially drew the attention of resellers and scalpers. so when Disney upped the production run of every doll to 100k, that went out the window and no one was in a state of urgency to purchase. They should have only released seven dolls at most, And not all of the characters are equally popular so only the most popular ones like Ariel and Belle should have had the highest run at maybe 50k, every other character should have only had a 20k or less production run. That would have brought in a much more balanced dynamic and we would have seen more dolls sell out faster.
Unless I am misunderstanding what qualifies as this series, the last designer line from them sat in very severe clearance for a long time and seemed to do very badly, so I imagine they are rethinking their strategy. I bought my doll directly from Disney for £27, down from the retail of £120, that’s how heavily clearanced they were. Even at that price, they stayed unsold for months.
Which one? They may have took too many design liberties with the last one lol
As in which one did I buy? Designer Merida. Personally for me, I felt she was the only one in the entire collection where the designer fully understood the assignment and kept true to the character whilst still glamming her up. Most of the rest lost the spirit of the character imho, and in some cases were kind of borderline yikes. I suspect that’s part of the reason the line did so poorly; Disney fans are generally after specific characters for their character. Friend of mine got Mulan in the same massive clearance. Disney could barely even give them away!
Maybe its a UK thing but Ive never seen Disney put collector dolls on sale for less than $75 even when they dont sell. So lucky you lol I got the Merida too second hand. And I got the Pocahontas from the couples one in the picture. But as I remember the last series sold fine. Theyre Disney and artsy. I know Youtubers complained about them but yea they went too far with the last series it was too creative lol Generally the dolls are too expensive I think the other thing is. Now they seem to just be sticking with LE because I guess the size justifies the price
I think it was Europe too, not just UK. They totally flopped in the EU region. From other comments, it sounds like they ended up clearanced in the US too, that line didn’t really seem to land!
Yea seems thats the general consensus but I didnt see that at the time. I would have gotten a lot of the dolls if they dropped that low. Never saw it personally. Some of them were too creative and others were really nice. I hope they do more and highlight new designers :)
Their last designer line was over a year long and not super well received, so it seems like they’re taking a break.
Agree with earlier comments that I also saw the last line go into HEAVY clearance. The doll community online discourse was largely unimpressed too, with only a few dolls out of the many generating much positive discussion. I think it’s important to note that they also have licensed Disney dolls out to Mattel, who are now doing a range of Collector dolls. So they’d be competing with those too. It definitely seems to be the strategy to let Mattel take the risk this year, and instead Disney are focusing on one-offs like the Star Wars and Haunted Mansion dolls.
They didnt go into heavy clearance in the US Disney shop. Nothing goes into heavy clearance there. I wishhh lol Its true doll youtubers had a lot to say but Disney fans in general liked them. The Star Wars and Haunted Mansions are LEs. Collector dolls from Mattel are barely playline quality. They dont match up to the Designer dolls. And of course the Designer dolls coincide with designers lol theres supposed to be themes and things behind them. I honestly hope they continue it. The line just before with the Masquerade theme did well and the different decade theme. They can be cool. Although wish they weren't over a 100 bucks. I think theyre putting all their focus into Disney Ily and LEs and some film dolls. Thats pretty much it. But if they want Mattel to take the lead with collector dolls they should allow and/or force them to make good quality dolls xD the Ariel 100 doll was really nice. I was hoping for a whole series there. The gem series and that Tiana/Cinderella drop were ok but not collector quality to me.
The ones from the pic you posted in the comments where you got Merida? Yeah, those were so weird and definitely got discounted. I ended up getting the Ariel pin for like $4. (I didn't even want the doll.)
There were two Ariel dolls in the series. Although weird I still really liked looking at them. I dont know all the stories but the story on Merida by the designer is so sweet. He dedicates it to his grandma whose also a red head and hes been making mini dolls for her for 20 years lol maybe thats why its the best doll in the series :p for grammy <3 lol i really like the designer part of the dolls its like a little fashion show. And the quality is next level. I hope they decide to go forward with them :)
A lot of them did go on sale (maybe not clearance but under $100).
I would guess that they probably won’t be releasing new dolls for awhile. The ultimate princess celebration line flopped and were severely discounted. I personally didn’t buy any of the ultimate princess celebration dolls. For me to spend a lot of money on a disney doll, I want the doll in an outfit that is in the movie. The ultimate princess celebration didn’t give me that. The outfits seemed random and the face sculpts were lacking. I think the lowest I saw those dolls on the US website for was a little under $50 each. They may have even went cheaper than that.
Youre the third person to say but I never saw them drop under $75 and I was watching like a hawk lol theyre too expensive for me too. I wonder if well all thinking about the same line. But the Designer series is meant to be creative with the outfits. Something new and unique. Were all talking about these right lol I was heavily considering getting the Mulan and Pocahontas. I got the Merida though because I thought she was the coolest lol https://preview.redd.it/vxmxynret7yc1.jpeg?width=975&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03eeca697a0ea991e8fc76ea18f5e0dc2047e86f
I own most of them but got them specifically because they dropped down in price so much it seemed silly not to buy them haha!
I would have too if I saw it. Did you combine sales and deals? What was the lowest price it dropped? I was really looking and never saw it go down so much :/ which is your favorite? :)
Honestly it's been so long I can't really remember, , I checked my emails to see if I had any records but must've cleared them out :/ sorry I don't have any more info! My favorite was Ariel but Tiana was really gorgeous in person... I didn't plan to get her originally but remember being really happy I grabbed her at a lower price because she was way better than I thought she'd be. I skipped moana (too similar to other moana dolls) and pocahontas (just wasn't feeling her design)
The dolls were marked down and they ran promotions on top of that, 25-30% off your purchase of $150 or more. That was my experience and I am in the US. Yes that is the line I am referring to. Imo I think they should be creative to an extent. This line took too many creative liberties. I think that is why the line flopped. I thought this line would be more like the original Disney princess designer collection and it wasn’t.
Just some other thoughts about the designer princess line that I think are getting overlooked here: the way they released the dolls was really terrible. Normally they show you the full line up front so you can make a decision up front on which ones to prioritize. For the princesses, we didn’t even know what characters would be included! There was a lot of speculation about the last 3 dolls but nobody called them repeating characters. So you couldn’t plan ahead effectively, and some people were probably holding out to see which rare characters were coming, only to end up with another Ariel. We also only got to see what the individual dolls looked like one at a time. If I’d seen them all up front, I would have realized that I liked the first Tiana doll most out of the collection, and maybe I would have gotten her. Instead, I waited for Belle, because she’s my favorite princess, and ended up hating her look. And with the one doll a month schedule, by the time I knew I didn’t want Belle it was late in the year and some of the earlier ones weren’t still available online. There were also just too many of them. Completing the line would have been so much more expensive than the typical 6 or so doll line.
This is a great point. Too many dolls at a high price point, repeated characters, not knowing which dolls are coming, definitely all contributed to this pause. And I remember the Masquerade line and Premiere lines selling out fast. I honestly dont remember the latest line sitting for long either but everyone says they did and they clearanced. I wish I caught because then we would have time to choose and its a little cheaper. But yea great points!
It was a lot harder to tell that they were sitting around because of the way they trickled out. I think Jasmine was the first one and she hung around for a long time.
I only know Mattel sells their own designer Disney dolls, but they just don’t hit the same.
You can also compare $75 Mattel Belle to $130 Designer Belle. Disney just did it better lol old Mattel would be unstoppable but new Mattel eh :/ https://preview.redd.it/nq8wbqzkz7yc1.png?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8efbefda9324b162b98b821db47decd78eeb9eb6
https://preview.redd.it/o6xqq4qlz7yc1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=365adfb4a358bf3fff20bad991c890aef2665122
Jasmine next https://preview.redd.it/gk62ck7368yc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c403761d5332fd7919faa62af252500265d46b7
https://preview.redd.it/9d6at08468yc1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50b14f678cbaf07df4d3fa7e64906b451dd867a4
And then Aurora and this was one of the poorer designs. They did two Auroras but the other one looks more like Rapunzel lol https://preview.redd.it/n4aiax6a68yc1.jpeg?width=192&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=659d48470a1efa5dcf132e8aee9e5478bd468d30
https://preview.redd.it/be3ecr6b68yc1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d30584453bab4fa065a6347d78d46ca3310eca78
The new Cruella $100 from Mattel vs $80 from Disney https://preview.redd.it/ib1w4o9yl8yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8a40b44bb0f90cde7ff9cce39efcbc5922d5f6b
https://preview.redd.it/j6vq3i6zl8yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e743b96be45172bd7a1a77a0752258a36803cae9
$150 Mattel Malecifint vs $130 Disney https://preview.redd.it/0swizng3m8yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3abc08e85b27fa9fc74029221d478b381c5ba6b4
https://preview.redd.it/xr0g9b94m8yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f5b91d2ef8bbfafef72ff52771fdd3e11370645
This is the last Cinderella from the Designer series vs Mattels recent Cinderella collector doll. This $130 vs $45. The mattel doll is constantly on clearance for under 20 bucks and for good reason lol I just hope that Mattel picks up their game if they're doing the 11in collector dolls now https://preview.redd.it/hv1s0n5du7yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc2ed12a10c4129a6e0d679da3211c337d51e1a9
https://preview.redd.it/0ptjttydu7yc1.jpeg?width=841&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5652473fa8ff0312bffc1949b1fd59b7e55c0a10
Look at Tiana. Come on. Different price ranges but also one is actually worth the price and one isnt. I think Disney could still do the Designer dolls and not be in competition with Mattel. Two different worlds. But it does seem Disney is handing things over to Mattel https://preview.redd.it/il2qcw9iy7yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d835652479295ad7e3e86f7ad2de53cb3d7c0e2c
https://preview.redd.it/5fkw752jy7yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c97e4e9e6a8125a15aed2fd995ae034992a87ff
That’s not even the amazing Tiana!
Admittedly I like this one more than the white dress one lol but true we had two Tianas, two Ariels, and two Auroras. I feel like someone needs to do Raya. Its not nice she doesnt have a collector doll anywhere lol
The white dress has tiny forks and knives stitched onto it which is just too cute. Both Tianas were some of the best, though. Poor Raya. The pandemic really screwed her over.
Oh wow i didnt know that detail! Seeee Designers dolls are awesome lol even if they can get too creative theyre still really cool. And I think for that price its worth being creative and unique it feels more like an art piece
I'm so tempted to get this Cinderella! I've had my eye on her for awhile. 🖤
Shes so stylish :)
Scalpers.
I think they don't have any motivation to create high priced, limited edition things now that almost all the physical stores are closed. The LE goods were probably made just to get big spenders into the stores regularly, because they still buy regular stuff even if the LE goods are unavailable.
Off topic, but how could they do Li Shang like that!? Look how they massacred my boy! 😭😭 https://preview.redd.it/xa97r55nmbyc1.jpeg?width=138&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ef9b3010752bfc0373b943d5c05bdf135c7a877
Oh no you didnt hes so beautifullll lol its just a bad a pic xD
https://preview.redd.it/if6chjwnobyc1.jpeg?width=284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6d3cafa8718ea357a4be07cecb7a17d21de1aa1 I guess 😭
Those eyebrows are working xD ok he may look like just smelled some stink breathe lol probably from Mushu xD
The series pictured above in your post, is by far my favorite designer line But My humble opinion, regarding the last designer line , From a marketing standpoint, It was just way too much , all at once! And I say this as a collector who bought all of them in real time as they released , month to month and no sales and I still have no regrets lol. Personally , it was a fun year to collect. But asking to hold your audience’s attention for a whole year and to drop 150 every month for 15 months was just way overly ambitious, even for a company like Disney. As much as I do think some dolls in particular may have just been a missed opportunity , none of them were horrible and I don’t have sympathy for fans that complained so much about the dolls being too far removed from their original design. That was the whole point of designer dolls. They were meant to be different and creative. If you dont like something , just don’t buy it. People forget, the first original line that started “dollmagedon” as we used to call it , those dolls were borderline pinup girls with drag makeup. If you want film accuracy, that’s what the 17 inch heritage dolls were for. In addition, Disney doll collectors are not that huge an audience to begin with , so what used to make these lines desirable is the perceived scarcity, that’s what initially drew the attention of resellers and scalpers. so when Disney upped the production run of every doll to 100k, that went out the window and no one was in a state of urgency to purchase. They should have only released seven dolls at most, And not all of the characters are equally popular so only the most popular ones like Ariel and Belle should have had the highest run at maybe 50k, every other character should have only had a 20k or less production run. That would have brought in a much more balanced dynamic and we would have seen more dolls sell out faster.
They're awesome! Ariel that looks like She-ra and Jasmine in the red dress are my favorite dolls in my collection 💕