Looking all vintage with their own kind of style, this series of dolls had it going on in their day. Manufactured by Bikin in the 1980s, the fully jointed Barbie-size princess stood 11.5" tall. The Seven Dwarfs about 6.5". A Queen, Witch and Prince completed the set.
The dolls were sold individually, but the Prince and Snow White were also found packaged together in their wedding garbs. The Dwarfs too were marketed separately, but if you had a car big enough to get them home in, you could buy the seven all crammed together in one giant box.
Snow and the gang didn't seem to change over the years, but the design of their packaging did. According to Snow White enthusiast, Peppermint Snowdrift, the boxes with the apple and diamond designs were sold circa 1983. The forest animal and carved wood/pick axe boxes were issued in 1987.
The Apple Boxes...
The larger dolls were sold in boxes with an apple graphic on the front.
A shot of the back with the "© Walt Disney Company" label. Manufactured by Bikin Express Ltd. (Hong Kong) and Bikin USA Corporation.
Although I've not seen as many of these, some of the boxes had the "Walt Disney Company" logo printed along the bottom left front rather than on the back.
Another box came packaged with two extra dresses.
Joining Snow were the Prince, Witch and Queen.
Both French and English language text on this box indicates a Canadian sales destination.And finally, nestled together in the apple box is the wedding couple set.
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The Diamond Boxes...
The Dwarfs were sold separately, not in apple boxes but in ones with a lantern and diamonds graphic on the front.
The all-in-one giant box.
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The Forest Animal Boxes...
In a separate Bikin marketing campaign, Snow White came in a box with her forest animal friends on the front.
More of her "favorite dresses" were sold with the doll or without.
The Prince, Queen and Witch all came in the forest animal boxes as did the wedding couple.
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The Carved Wood with Pick Axe Boxes...
In this alternate Bikin universe, the Dwarfs came individually packaged in boxes with a pick axe design in the lower front corner.
And in the mambo set.
Now that's a lot of boxes and that's a lot of dolls, but that was the Bikin way. In another Archive entry, see the Bikin promotional booklet for the complete doll set.
Impressive that you have all of those in the original boxes!
ReplyDeleteNot all these are mine, but Bikin sure did make a bunch o' dolls back then.
ReplyDeleteI have a large set of theses dolls. I have always wondered what they are worth.
ReplyDeleteHi EMW. The dolls do appear on ebay quite often and some sellers are asking a good price. Not sure if they always get it. I guess the dolls' "worth" is relative to who's buying. It's still an interesting set, though, no matter what they sell for. :)
DeleteThese dolls have intrigued me for years, because, even though I was a kid back then, my childhood was spent on my medical issues; my family wasn't poor, but we didn't exactly have any money until the late 1980s.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why, but sometimes, the actual products that were available in the 1980s clash wildly with my preconceived notions about what would've been released back then; in this case, I would've thought that brighter, flashier dolls would've been available between the mid and the late 1980s, while these actual dolls look simple, slightly spooky (Spookiness isn't without its fascinating factor, though!), and almost....primitive for the 1980s.
I mean, the plastic looks really cheap, the outfits look super simple, and a few of the dwarfs' expressions are not exactly movie-accurate, but, overall, the dolls, and their elaborate BOXES (Check out that carved wood-look cardboard!) are fascinating as heck!
I am more partial to the dolls from the early 1990s, and those from now, but, then again, I first saw the movie as a teenager during 1993, and so I really love the fruit snack-shiny advertising images from that year (Between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s (?), the Disney movie posters for animated movies featured extreme shine, which mirrored the extreme shine found on the fronts of fruit snack boxes from that era. I am an advertising fan, and I must confess that some of my knowledge comes from making long trips with my father during that time....with shark, etc. fruit snacks at my side! LOL!), and the super cool trailer, too.
Even so, the Bikin Express, LTD. company was bold during the 1980s, giving "Snow White" fans not only the regular characters, but removable clothing for the dwarfs, a doll of the witch, and Snow White's prince, too! Super cool! Don't even get me started on how awesome that dollhouse is; the only cooler "Snow White" doll cottage is the one that was created by Simba during the 2000s.
Did you know that Simba also made a Seven Dwarfs sleep set, with beds, dwarfs, and pajamas? I WANTED THAT set, but it was foreign, so I settled for the dwarfs that were available at The Disney Store. One can DREAM, though. :)
Oh! Supposedly, the apple and diamond boxes were sold during about 1983 (?), and the forest and wood-look boxes were sold during 1987.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info Peppermint. We'll add it to the post along with a credit to you.
DeleteThanks. :) I only hope that my memory has served me correctly. I sure wish that there was an entire book about Bikin's dolls.
ReplyDeleteI have two very small dolls twin boy and girl dressed in satin pajamas and caps "Remi and Claire"atomically correct dolls by the binki company anyone know anything about them?value,year??
ReplyDeleteWhy did some snow white dolls (the character snow white) in her "signature outfit" had a velvet torso fabric?
ReplyDeleteThey did different releases of this set. Maybe they updated or changed them slightly.
DeleteThe freshest in-box dwarf dolls will have orange noses instead of yellow; the nose color should give away how fresh, or worn, these dolls are.
ReplyDeleteDoing an attic clean out and just came upon my old box of this set from when I was a little girl! Obviously well loved and well played with but brings back a lot of memories for sure!!
ReplyDelete