Box and Outfit Release Dates information








Pleasant Company owned American Girl until 1997. All outfits until then come with the date they were made and made for "Pleasant Company." When Mattel bought the company, Pleasant Rowlings, the founder of American Girl, stayed on for 4 years to help in the transition. The dates were removed and the tags then said "made for Pleasant Company." When Rowlings left, Mattel change the tags to read "made for American Girl."

The charts show the box that would have been used when the item was launched. The first boxes called the "ribbon box" had actual fabric ribbon. The outfits came in a box like a large envelope, made from a single piece of cardboard. The cardboard closed over and slipped into a notch. The ribbon was held together by a heart sticker with the product code on it. The type was red in 1986 and then switched to black.
In 1988, the boxes were changed to a 2-piece box with a cardboard band that slid over the box. The band was closed with a notch but held together with a rounded corner rectangle sticker also printed with the product code in black capital letters.

The 1990s boxes were white with burgundy bands. From 1991-1993 the boxes had iridescent silhouettes pattern on the box. In 1993, the boxes were changed to a pinstripe textured box. There were 5 band designs in the 1990s plus one "Special Edition" band.

When Mattel took over completely in 2001, the logo design changed and the band boxes were eliminated. The first Mattel box was only used in 2001 and had the seven cameo design printed on the lid. It was dark burgundy.  The only outfit launch in the Samantha line in this box was the Travel coat and Accessories.

Kaya was released a year later in what is now called "the red box."  It is more of a red burgundy and is marbled with dark burgundy. The logo is printed gold. This was the first box with a cellophane window. This box had the contents printed in white on a clear pressure sensitive label that was on the front side panel. 

Late in 2004, Nellie O'Malley was released in the revised dark burgundy box with no marbling. The contents labels were removed.  The front is solid with the window removed. 

The last box that the original Samantha had items sold in was the "Mattel star box". It came out in 2006. The box has a round die hole with cellophane on the cover. The box is sold burgundy with a red stripe on the front with another re-designed logo in white. Pink and red stars are on the sides. 

Contents were not removed from already filled boxes, so you could buy an item in 2006 in a 2004 box, even though 2006 had new boxes. However you could not get a 1993 item like the Kimono in an earlier 1991 box. The only exception to the contents being removed from their boxes was with the 1997 Special Edition outfit. In Samantha's case it was the first version swimming costume. After a year, a decision was made to continue selling the unsold supply until it was sold out. In 1998 the bands were switched to the six cameo box without the "Special Edition" type on it. The last of the supply was sold in the very dark burgundy 1st Mattel box. 

In 2004, Mattel released new items in each seasons catalog. So items could be in the red box in the Spring and Summer and in the Burgundy box in the fall/winter.







No comments:

Post a Comment

Samantha Doll, Meet Accesories and Trunk

1986/87 Doll, 1986 Made in West Germany Outfit, RARE 1986 Meet Accessories