OVERVIEW: Winx Club Part 1 Mattel and Giochi Preziosi

The first glimpse!

My gods, where to even begin with Winx Club? This is an even bigger topic than Barbie, because it spanned so many years and I was far more into it than I ever was into Barbie. It's so big that I'm not even going to try to match years with dolls. It's too hard. Nor is this going to be a resource of every Winx doll ever made, because that's pretty much impossible. The best I can do is take you on a journey through my Winx collecting.

I opened the doors of my Winx community on Livejournal on June 22, 2004. Over twelve years ago. Yikes! The original picture most of us old-timer US fans saw was this one to the left. These are the earliest Mattel dolls. Was I ever excited! Thanks to ASM's images from ToyFair 2004, we knew that there would be the six dolls and the dance fashion pack plus the moving mini figures and the figures with the Alfea playset.

My first Winx! Well, technically, Trix.

I had a pre-order for Tecna with a dealer, but Icy actually came in first on July 7th. I switched my order to her, being that impatient, and had her in hand on the 12th. Then two days later, I was in the KMart next to my workplace at the time and was shocked to see the five Winx girls on the shelf! I bought all five and it was love.

The dolls were unlike anything I'd had before. they were tiny with skinny little arms and legs. (I still say that Winx was the precursor to Monster High.) And they could bend! I still love those bendable limbs. They look a little odd, but they have way more range than joints.

My first girls in their casualwear

My next purchase was the Dance Night fashion pack, which I adored. I loved all the detail and the cute accessories. They didn't exactly match the show's designs, but they were a good effort and the quality made up for the lack of accuracy. That, as it turns out, would be Mattel's bread and butter. Their detail and quality surpassed any other Winx dolls, but their accuracy wasn't the greatest.

Also, this would set the bar pretty high for fashion packs, and it would never be met, because the only other packs we ever got were those three random outfits that didn't fit in with anything.

Why did we get so many basic lines and not more packs like this?

I picked up the moving action figures and eventually the Alfea playset, which was bought solely for the Icy figure. I always was and still am a big fan of the Trix.

I also noticed the Italian dolls produced by a company called Giochi Preziosi. These were Barbie-sized dolls with larger heads. They seemed very cartoony to me compared with Mattel's lovely little fairies. It would be awhile before I fully appreciated Giochi.

The next character released was pretty exciting, because it was our first boy!

"Brandon"

I know I was pleased, because while Sky wasn't my fave boy, I thought we'd be getting more. Nope. I was wrong. To this day, there were only two male dolls other than Sky produced and both were Brandon. (The actual Brandon, Stella's boyfriend.) Several companies made some pretty goofy-looking Skys, but only Giochi ever made Brandon and then it was only once (one casualwear, one Specialist uniform). I remain disappointed still, mostly in Jakks, because the action figure line would have been the perfect place to put the boys. I think the boys would have had a chance if Mattel had handled Sky better. Like Icy, they put him in his own case and stores could choose whether to order him or not. As it was, I saw him in a store all of once. I didn't see Icy often either, which is why we never got her sisters, something I remain angry about to this day over twelve years later.

Mattel Icy vs Giochi Icy

Giochi Preziosi stepped up their game around the same time as Mattel's Sky release. I bought my first Giochi doll, the witch uniform Icy. Giochi had the guts to give her the right makeup, which was something that always irked me about the Mattel doll. I could see that the quality on the Giochi doll was nowhere near Mattel's, but that one little detail made all the difference.

When I got Icy, I saw in the booklet that came with her both casual and Specialist uniform Sky and Brandon dolls, plus dolls of the new girl, Aisha/Layla.

Then next big thing was images from I believe ToyFair 2005. These showed the new Pixie Magic Winx dolls. These were the same girls we got before, but with long rooted eyelashes, different materials for their costumes, and a pixie friend for each girl. Icy was rereleased basically the same but with lashes. And Sky was shown in packaging that actually identified him as Sky, not Brandon, but I don't think he ever made it to shelves.

The Giochi boys

Impressed enough with Icy, I ended up ordering more Giochi dolls. I got Specialist Brandon and Casual Sky. They were on the goofy side, but I still loved them.

I also got the new girl, Aisha. She was Aisha in Italy, but we knew she'd be Layla for us in the US, so for this article, I'm going to keep referring to her as Layla, since that's who she was at the time.

Giochi Aisha/Layla

While waiting for the Pixie Magic dolls to come, I bought another Giochi, which was Stella in her fancy dress from the very first episode. I got Flora from the same line, wearing Giochi's version of the Dance Night gown, as a prize for someone in my community. I was impressed by her quality and she's on my list of "I regret I never got this Giochi doll at the time."

Then Pixie Magic began showing up. I don't remember if I was going with dealers, ebay or stores for these, but I got Icy and Flora first.

The Pixie Magic packaging

Bloom appears next in my Photobucket album, alongside the first Mattel Layla any of us got: the dance one. Mattel, for some crazy reason, released skinny box dolls wearing the outfits from the Dance Night fashion pack. Layla was included in this line wearing one of the ugly single fashion packs. I've got a picture of Pixie Magic Musa next, then we jump to what still remain my favorite Winx dolls: the Giochi Trix.

Thank you, Giochi, for making my favorites right. 

Giochi released Darcy and Stormy in both their Trix uniforms and casual wear. I got all four dolls and they are still my favorite Winx item and take pride of place in my display space. At some point, I got the casualwear Icy, too, so I have two of each girl.

Pixie Magic Tecna shows up next in my albums, so that just leaves Layla and Stella. I somehow never took a boxed picture of Layla. She just appears deboxed right after Tecna, so I can't say when exactly I got her. Apparently, I also got Stella, because Amore is in a group shot of the pixies. My documenting skills were not as good back then!

Pixie Magic Layla

Mattel's next bigger line was the Singsational dolls, which looked very different with their open mouths and outfits that weren't necessarily in the show, while Giochi cranked out line after line of dolls that mostly looked the same, but wore very show accurate outfits.

I fell in love with one line in particular, what I call the Eveningwear 2 line. It was fancy outfits like the original Eveningwear (Dance Night) line, but even better. I ordered Stella, which was a bit of an odd choice, but she was one of my favorites at the time, being the funny one quite often.

Eveningwear 2

My biggest Winx regret to this day is not ordering this entire line. Tecna is one of my most wanted dolls. I was able to pick up Flora and Musa in 2007 and thanks to a generous friend, I got Aisha just a few months ago, but I still need Tecna and Bloom.

Singsational

The Singsational dolls were not my favorites. Most of them were a bit odd-looking. I think I still have a few, but I know I sold Tecna and Layla. Musa is easily my favorite and one of the only cute ones. Flora is cute, too, but it's in a distinctly odd way. Bloom, Flora and Stella were of course the easy ones to find. My Photobucket shows a gap between them and Tecna and Layla with Musa coming last. I do give Mattel credit for trying something new, but this line was a bit too out there.

Shopping

The next two lines would be hits though, at least in my opinion. My only issue was that they released two lines with three dolls each and both lines contained Bloom, Stella and Flora. The gorgeous Shopping line I was okay with, because that Bloom and Flora are hands down my favorite Mattel versions of the characters, and Stella is tied with Denim Stella as my fave Mattel Stella. But the School line had the girls in their new casual outfits from the show, so not including Layla, Tecna and Musa was a pretty glaring error.

Wardrobe playset

While I was getting the Singsational dolls, the awesome wardrobe playset came out. I loved this for the outfits included, particularly Musa's.

The next thing after the School and Shopping lines was the Pixie Kisses line. These were little dolls of the six pixies with rooted hair. They were attached to a clip and had wings filled with lop gloss, which I thought was kinda gross, but the little dolls were cute anyway. Lockette was my favorite of these and the only one I still have.

Pixie Kisses Lockette

Giochi made some pretty excellent pixie dolls, too, and I ended up getting Chatta, Tune and Digit. They also made little house playsets for Ninfea, Livy and Glim.

Mattel's next effort at a skinny box line was the Beach line. This was also the first time that everyone EXCEPT Tecna was included. Sadly, it would not be the last. I bought this entire line, but ended up selling them all off eventually. The tiny swimsuits were nice pieces though. My original Musa has worn nothing but that red bikini for years!

We knew from toy shows at this point that there would be more lines like this coming. We saw pictures of both a Slumber and a Disco line, neither of which included Tecna.

Beach dolls

The Slumber line was actually really pretty and I still have almost all the clothes from it. I regret selling my Layla, because she was gorgeous.

These lines would not be easy to find though. Winx was already suffering in stores, thanks to the continual repeat of the same costumes over and over. After the original line, Pixie Magic and the skinny box Charmix line, which I totally forgot to mention, parents weren't buying Winx anymore. I remember seeing the Beach line just shelf sit except for Musa. While I think Pixie Magic was different enough to be a success, they should have released more big fashion packs and the entire Charmix line was unnecessary, because that could have been a large accessory pack. Making everything a new line was to be the line's downfall in the US.

Slumber dolls

I never saw the Slumber line in stores. I think I got them all on ebay.

Meanwhile, while we in the US were frustrated over the lack of character diversity and outfits that didn't exactly come from the show, Giochi Preziosi was doing well in Italy by thinking outside the box and releasing different characters. They expanded their pixie line to include some of the older pixies, like Concorda and Athena. (Although sadly, never Discorda, though she did get made as a figural phone charm.) They also released three mermaid dolls, which were stunning.

Kalia, Nesia and Tala

Another of my big collection regrets is selling this gorgeous trio. At the time, I was torn, because I both loved the mermaids, but also felt their spots could have gone to characters that were actually in the show more. Mirta never got a doll and neither did perpetual villain Diaspro.

While I was importing mermaids and pixies, we saw our first promo images for the Enchantix line, which looked pretty awesome with two pairs of giant wings. I wasn't a huge fan of Enchantix, because it was a little too frou frou skimpy for me. I prefer the more functional, almost superhero-esque outfits like the original transformations, Believix and especially Bloomix.

Disco line

Then the Disco line came out. These never saw the light of day in my area, so they were another ebay purchase, I believe. Actually, come to think of it, I never saw another Winx product on the shelves after Pixie Kisses, the Beach line and the big pixie dolls (which I didn't collect so that's why this is the only mention of them).

As Disco was coming out, we saw the promo image of yet another Tecna-less skinny box line: Denim.

Denim Winx

But before the Denim line came out, Giochi Preziosi changed things up and put out their version of the Enchantix dolls, which were only 10" tall and much smaller scale than their original line.

I began importing both Enchantix lines at the same time. I got Mattel's Tecna and Stella from Germany, while all six Giochi dolls were coming from Italy. 

At the same time, a friend bought me all five Denim dolls at the Mattel store! So it was quite an awesome time with all those packages coming in. 

Giochi's new smaller size!

I ended up keeping only Musa, Stella and Layla from the Giochi Enchantix. The others became contest prizes in my LJ community. 

After that, we saw images of fancy dress Winx from two different lines released overseas, plus more gimmicky Enchantix dolls and a full release of the School line that included Musa, Tecna and Layla! I was pretty upset, because importing everything sucked.

Giochi's "School" girls

  

  I did end up importing a few of the Giochi 10" girls. I got Musa and Tecna in their casual outfits, Club Birthday (their name for the Disco line) Stella and Tecna, and Millennium Ball Bloom and Stella.

Mattel-wise, I finished my Enchantix line, although I was never really enamored with it. All of them eventually got sold off.

I got all six of the ballgown girls, but sold them all off.

Aerobic line

I never got any of the Aerobic ones.

The Picnic line actually appeared in Canada, I believe, and I had Layla and Tecna from that. The Picnic line flipped the script because Musa was the one left out and Tecna got made

The Rainwear line was cute and I wanted Musa, but never got her.

I did get my Mattel School Musa, Tecna and Layla finally.

Racer Musa

The line I liked best that I couldn't get easily was the Racer/Biker line. I got Musa, because she was a must have. I also got Tecna, but have since sold her, and a couple years ago, I finally got Flora. Stella remains on my want list.

The final and hardest to find Mattel line is the Concert line, which in my opinion is nowhere near as good as Simba/Witty's line. I would have bought them from the shelves, but I would never pay the prices necessary to get even one of them nowadays.

Whew, I kinda ran out of steam here! Talking about Winx is frustrating, because it's both overwhelming and it brings up how annoyed I was that Mattel didn't handle things better. We didn't get most of the really awesome lines. I spent loads of money importing things. We never got characters we should have. Gripe gripe gripe.

Anyway, this is enough for the first part of my Winx overview. I'll be back maybe later, maybe another day with the rest. I've got to cover Simba/Witty, Jakks and what I've been getting for my collection more recently.

PHOTO CREDITS: All are mine, except for the promo images, which are the first image, Singsational, Shopping, Denim and Aerobic. I apologize for the quality on most of these! A lot of them are from so long ago I had to save them off my Photobucket account because they're not on this computer.