OVERVIEW: Disney Fairies Part 1 (The Book Fairies)

Disney Store Fira

Oh, Disney Fairies. This is going to be a long ride, guys, so get a drink to stay hydrated.

The Disney Fairies franchise began in September 2005 with the release of the first book. I believe it was created due to the popularity of Winx Club. Winx had several different fairies with different powers. Disney Fairies had several different fairies with different powers, only they were called "talents" in Neverland. While the Winx girls did big time stuff like saving the universe over and over, the Disney Fairies had much smaller, more mundane, but no less interesting trials and travails. Oh, they did save the Neverland from time to time, mostly in the big Gail Carson Levine books (not my favorites, except for the first one which is the best of the three by far), but by and large, they spent their time on character development.

Disney Store Prilla

I can't remember where I first encountered Disney Fairies. I remember looking at the website and knowing Vidia was going to be my favorite character. I was not wrong and she's still a hardcore fave to this day. I do remember going to the Disney Store in my local mall and looking for the dolls. I came home with Fira and Prilla, the only two who were there.

I also brought home the PVC figurine set, pictured below. This was my only Vidia toy for awhile and she was well-loved. Vidia was actually lucky to be included in this set. Bess and Lily, who also didn't get dolls in the initial line-up, were left out and didn't appear until later.

Disney Store PVC set

I had to rely on ebay for Tinker Bell, Rani and Beck. 

The original Disney Store set of dolls is my favorite from the entire 12 years of the franchise. They have lovely delicate bodies and adorable faces. The hair was decent quality and the outfits were very well-made. The wings are sewn on, which I both like and dislike. I like it because it helps the thin plastic wings be a bit more sturdy and because on a lot of plastic wings like this, they don't stick very well if they're held with velcro. But they do get in the way sometimes and on a character like Rani, they're not character accurate. (She gave up her wings at the end of the first book.) 

Disney Store Tink

These girls were pretty accurate to the book illustrations. Prilla's footwear was the one clothing piece that was really off. They gave her these ugly yellow boots when she has really cute leafy slippers. Fira's not the best representation either, but it's really her head mold that's not very flattering. There are far prettier Firas in other lines. And I remember some of her flowers falling apart when I opened her, so not the best made member of the set either.

Disney Store Rani

The Disney Fairies share a body with the Disney Store's W.I.T.C.H. line, although for the life of me, I cannot remember which one came first! I want to say W.I.T.C.H. did. 

The next thing I got, aside from books, which aren't going to be discussed here, was a set of the PVC figures from the UK. This set included Lily and Bess, the missing characters from the US set, but oddly, they didn't have Vidia in their set. The UK set wasn't as nicely painted as the US one and the easiest way to tell them apart is the wings. The US set has transparent glittery wings, while the UK set has painted wings. 

Rani US vs. Rani UK

Writing this is slow-going right now, because I'm poking through my ancient Disney Fairies Livejournal community, trying to figure out the order of release on these earlier items. It's getting late though, so I'm going to abandon this plan in a few minutes. I just want to get one more date firm. 

The Playmates Toys prototypes were shown at 2006 Toy Fair. These included 8" dolls of Tink, Fira and Rani and awesome 3.5" figure dolls of many characters. 

Disney Store Beck

In March 2006, I got a catalog that contained some new Disney Store DF merchandise. The main thing I mentioned in the community was the trio of fairy houses. These were fabric houses with plush furniture and small plush dolls. They were a rather steep $34.95 and you could choose from Tink, Rani or Fira. 

I was annoyed at the time, because Fira had done nothing at that point, yet she was getting a lot of merchandise. She was pretty, but that was literally it. 

I had no plans of spending that kind of money on the fairy houses, but I played a game on one of the Disney sites and won a $50 gift card. So I ordered both Fira and Rani's houses. 

Fira's fairy house

When they arrived, I was surprised because Rani turned out to be the cuter one. I had thought from the photos I'd seen that it would be Fira. I ended up giving away Fira's set, I think, or selling it. Rani's I kept for quite some time, but ended up getting rid of the house part and keeping the little doll. I still have her!

Rani's fairy house mini doll

The end of July brought the Playmates line as shown at Toy Fair. I bought a bunch of the little 3.5" dolls, but none of the bigger dolls, because they were not as pretty as my Disney Store girls. Although Fira was prettier actually, but I didn't want one doll that was shorter and different, so I kept with my DS set. 

Playmates Rani and Prilla 2-pack and single Rani

The 3.5" figures were gorgeous. They had fabric skirts and semi-brushable hair, but their little faces were super cute. I ended with one of each character and doubles of several. The only flaw of this line was the lack of one very obviously missing character: VIDIA. 

Playmates Tink and Queen Clarion 2-pack

Being a huge Vidia fan, I thought her absence was ridiculous, since she was in so many of the books and one of the major players in Quest for the Egg. I don't know if Playmates thought she was the villain and they were scared to make her or what. I'll never understand companies' lack of interest in villain toys. I had plenty of them in the 80s and they made play more fun. Vidia's not a true villain anyway, but she never did get any sort of toy from Playmates.

Playmates Fira and Beck 2-pack and single Bess

The 3.5" Lily and Bess were my first poseable toys of those two and I loved them. The Fira figure is also hands down the best representation of her. The hair is a little too purple, but she's got the prettiest face of any Fira toy. Queen Clarion made her first appearance in this line and her figure is lovely.

The end of August 2006 gave us an updated set of PVC figures from the Disney Store. Finally, Lily and Bess were included. This made me want their bigger dolls even more! 

Playmates Pluck (US Lily PVC in background)

In early October 2006, I found a surprise 4-pack of 3.5" figures. This set included yet another Tinker Bell, but also three characters that had never gotten toys before and never would again. These three were Dulcie the baking talent, Iris the garden talent, and Pluck the harvest talent, as seen in my horribly blurry old photo to the right there. I was a bit mad they got toys before Vidia. I was still holding out hope for her, but that was not going to happen. Pluck is my favorite from the 3.5" line simply because she reminds me of Vidia. She's got sass. Why they made her and not Vidia I will never understand. 

Playmates Iris

In November 2006, the Disney Store released a lovely set of ornaments for the book fairies. They left one out. Guess who! My poor Vidia. I have the ornaments and they're lovely, but they would have been lovelier with Vidia. 

Thankfully, mid-November brought us what we'd all been waiting for: the Disney Store Vidia, Bess and Lily dolls!

Not being one for patience and remembering how poorly my stores had stocked the first line, I got the trio off ebay. 

Disney Store Vidia

I finally had my girl! This original Vidia doll remains her best representation much like the original set of five are the best versions of most of those characters. Vidia's outfit is gorgeous and the colors are perfect. I braided her two little loose locks of hair in front, because I dragged her around with me so much that they started to go wild. Her face though is the best part. That pouty, supremely beautiful face! She's one of the most lovely dolls in my entire collection.

Disney Store Bess

Bess was one of the more popular characters in those early days of fairies. Bess, because so many either identified with or just plain loved that she was an artist, and Rani, who was incredibly popular for either her sacrifice or her sensitivity. I actually disliked Rani a lot for years. I thought she was really overrated, even though her doll was so beautiful that I wanted to adore her. It took me ages to finally like her, after all the hubbub over her had died down. (Same thing happened to me with Flora from Winx Club.) The Bess doll has a cute, if somewhat lumpy, outfit, but her poor hair was kind of a mess. It took a lot of work for me to fix it.

Disney Store Lily

Cutie pie Lily was one of the best-dressed of the original line. I love the colors and details of her outfit, especially the pants and shoes. Lily's hat thankfully stays on really well, because I still struggle with poor Prilla's to this day. 

In January 2007, some prototype images were found for new Playmates toys, but most of them never came out. Sadly, I don't have the images anymore either and I'd actually forgotten about them until going through my old comm. 

Iris, Dulcie and Pluck were released separately in February 2007. 

Playmates 8" Prilla

Prilla got a surprise 8" Playmates doll in March 2007. She was my first of the 8" dolls and she was pretty cute, although I did end up selling her later on. (I'd like to re-add her to my collection now!) Kudos to Playmates for getting her shoes right, where the Disney Store could not. 

Prilla was a surprise, because we were expecting Iris. I can't remember which show she appeared at, but I still have this photo of an 8" Iris doll years later.

Prototype Playmates 8" Iris

Iris would have been my favorite of the 8" dolls hands down! I'm still upset they never made her. 

Some variants from the 8" series were found, but I've completely forgotten about them, so aside from Tink, I think they're pretty rare. I believe there was a Fira variant and she got a 3.5" figure with a bedroom playset, too. 

In August 2007, the book fairies sadly were dying out. Playmates released a couple new toys, but the look of Tink was clearly based on the new movie and no longer the books. 

Playmates 3.5" Silvermist

October 2007 brought a new series of 3.5" figures. These were clearly based on designs from the new movie. Silvermist, Rosetta and Iridessa made their first appearances, but they looked nothing like their book characters. Well, sort of. Silvermist was probably the closest, because her outfit was always blue, but both Iridessa and Rosetta lost their multicolored fashions from the book art.

Playmates 3.5" Rosetta

I had all three of the new characters, although I just rehomed Rosetta and Iridessa. I kept Silvermist though, because she's very delicately beautiful. Sil and Rosetta were sold separately, as was yet another version of Tink, but Iridessa came packaged with yet another Tink. 

Playmates 3.5" Tink and Iridessa 2-pack

Iridessa was given crazy long hair, when she typically has everything in an updo. I prefer her original book outfit with the blue and yellow. Rosetta, too, isn't nearly as pretty as her book art. That one had long flowing wavy hair and a lovely green and pink dress. I will have more to say on the movies in Part 2 of this overview. 

Playmates Silvermist 3.5" and 8"

I got the 8" Silvermist doll, who ended up getting sold along with Prilla. Again, one I'm looking to adopt again. She's not the best Silvermist by a long shot, but hey, I kinda like her still. Her outfit is cute because it's not her typical long, sweeping dress.

There is one other type of toy I didn't mention above, because I can't remember when exactly they came out. The Disney Store UK released three larger soft dolls for the Disney Fairies line. Tink was one, of course, but the other two were Fira and Prilla. I think I was happy Rani was left out at the time, but now I would love a plush Rani, so I wish they'd made her. 

Disney Store UK plush Fira doll

I bought both Fira and Prilla well after they came out, which is why I don't have them documented in my LJ comm,which is where I've gotten all this chronology from. I also don't have a cute picture of Prilla, so just Fira will have to do for this overview. 

The book fairies had a good run, but I was sad to see them go. Their replacement by the movie fairies was the beginning of the end for the DF franchise, even though it would still go on for many years. But the range of products would never be as wide character-wise. The movie merchandise stuck with Tink, Rosetta, Fawn, Iridessa, Silvermist and Vidia for the most part. Terence and Clarion got some toys, as did a handful of background characters, and of course, Periwinkle once her movie came out. I kept waiting for the movie that would introduce a book fairy and celebrate a new arrival, but they kept telling other stories and never tying things together like they should have. Thankfully, the book series held on for quite awhile and now we still have occasional books from the Never Girls line that keep our book fairies alive. 

I'll continue this possibly tomorrow with the rest of DF history. This just got to be too long! I don't have nearly as many photos or details from the movie fairies lines, because I didn't collect the majority of them, so we'll tackle that next time. 

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine except 8" Iris (Figures.com, I think) and 3.5" Rosetta, Silvermist and the Iridessa set (LJ user Wichita98)