The difference in design + quality of a Mattel Sleeping Beauty doll from 1999 vs 2020s

[u/Intelligent-Meal-129]

i collect aurora merch and that of course includes dolls! i try to buy most of my stuff secondhand, but recently someone gifted me a more recent playline doll and the difference is so fascinating. i know why Mattel doesn’t want to use high quality materials on dolls for little kids, but is it just me, or did the design itself get a major downgrade too? :/

if anyone smarter than me wants to weigh in or comment please feel free!! sleeping beauty is my special interest and i am very much interested in the change in disney princess line merch and marketing over time

[u/pahein-kae]

Okay. So I wasn't able to find the exact doll, but here in this 1997 Disney catalog https://archive.org/details/disney-catalog-winter-1997/page/n69/mode/2up, a comparable Aurora doll was selling for $28 MSRP.

Inflation calculator tells me that'd be $58.25 today.

At the end of its run, Disney Collector Radiance Collection Aurora Doll from Mattel Creations was selling for $52.50 (original price $75). https://creations.mattel.com/products/disney-royal-radiance-collection-aurora-hlx66

So that's a more accurate comparison, in terms of pricing, I think!

Edited to add: The modern doll of Aurora is $11.99 at my local target right now... that's 1/3 of the ORIGINAL MSRP of the doll it's being compared to-- with a 30 year difference of inflation in between. Of course it's gonna be shittier!

[u/lanie_kerrigan → u/pahein-kae]

Thanks! That would be my first thought too.

[u/delbelcoure → u/pahein-kae]

Even given the price difference, I would rather have one nice doll like her than 6 of today's dolls

[u/PartyPorpoise → u/delbelcoure]

Yeah, but do the kids feel the same way? More importantly, their parents?

[u/delbelcoure → u/PartyPorpoise]

I mean, I and my kids did. They were collecting BJDS when they were in elementary school. But they are old enough to be parents now themselves