Playskool Baby Dolls

The whole point of this page is to talk about the different years of baby dolls from the Playskool My Very Soft Baby Doll series. There is not a lot that I know about it, but I think it's very interesting seeing how the designs change from each year and how similar they are in some areas. Baby and Babysister are both from this series which is why they look so similar. If you find any photos of any babies from years I could not find anything for then please tell me. If you also find different versions (like a holiday themed one of some kind) of years that I do have or don't have then share them with me, too. Also, if you have any of these babies then please share photos of them with me by emailing me at seymourgalore@gmail.com. I love knowing when other people have the same babies as me.

1990

I like these babies a lot. They all have the same faces as Baby. I would love to have all of these if I ever had the money. I don't like the "boy" one that much. Maybe blue isn't as appealing to me as pink is. I think they would look better if their bonnets were the same as the "girl" version, but just blue. They could keep the stripes on there if they wanted to. I just think that the frilly bonnet is much cuter than whatever the boys have going on. The girl babies have some sort of design on their bonnets. They look like dots with tulips. That's quite an interesting pattern to use. The boys just get stripes and no added detail like a little flower. All of these babies are bald. They have very simple designs compared to the babies that come after them. I think it's interesting that the placement of their buttons corresponds with their gender. I often forget how women's shirts and men's shirts have the buttons on different sides. I like the embroidered logos on their chest.

1992

This baby is very cute, but their outfit seems so out of place. They're a bunny! Babies usually don't dress like that. This one stands out the most. This baby doesn't have the classic frilly bonnet with onesie. They did give this doll a bib which the ones from 1993, 1995, and 1998 have. The box for this baby is also different. It still has the blue gingham on it, though. Maybe this is supposed to be an Easter version since there was a Christmas version released in the same year. I don't know if Playskool is a Christian brand. The outfit is so cute for the Christmas one, but I don't like Christmas. I think it would have been cute if they did a normal version of this with all of the bows. It would be like the 1990 one, but the bows on the girl version are white and blue and with the boy version the bows would be white and pink so they're kind of like opposites. Maybe the bows could be a different color, but that's all I can think of right now. I also really like the stripes on these dolls. They should also keep the stripes, but replace the red and grey (perhaps that is green, I can't tell) with the pink and blue from the 1990 dolls.

1993

Here is the first version of Baby! They have hair now, too! The faces look the similar to the ones from 1990. The Black version looks quite different, though. Their eyes, nose, and mouth are all different. The outer corners of the eyes on these dolls seem to end in the middle of the eye instead of near the bottom of the eye. It seems like after this year they went back to the same face mold as before for the Black version of their babies. I wish the dolls had different faces each year because I think the face on this one is extremely cute and I like how they changed it up for 1999. I think it would be cool if they did that. I wanna know why the white version of this baby has green hair. I always thought that was odd because that's not a natural hair color. Maybe they were trying to do blond, but it didn't work out. I really want to know why it's like that. I guess we may never know. The heart pattern on them is SUPER cute. I REALLY love the green bottoms of their feet. It really compliments the pink on the rest of their outfit. I think the red box with the purple background is supposed to be the nylon version of this doll. I found the blue box being sold on eBay and the seller said it was from 1993, but they never displayed a picture of the bottom of the box so I don't know if it's actually from 1993 or not. This one also seems to be the nylon version. I wonder if they went back to the first box for a while and then started using the red box later on. I'm confused as to why they would do something like this. The baby is the same baby as the one used for the 1990 box, they just pasted the new doll onto the picture. The shadows on the baby doll looks so weird. Maybe this is a prototype of some kind. Also, the Black version of these babies look different on the box than the ones actually being sold. The face is the same mold as before on the box, but the one being sold is really different.

1995

Baby comes back! He looks very beautiful! I don't have much to say because this baby is exactly the same as before. I hope to find a box for this one. I think I've seen one before, but I didn't save it. I also hope to find a Black version of this doll. I would assume the face for that one would be the same as the 1996 one. I don't think they would use the 1993 one again.

1996

I like these babies a lot. Their outfits are very cute. The face for the Black version looks different than the one from 1993. Their nose doesn't look as wide, their mouth looks different, and their hair doesn't look as clustered at the top of their head like the other one. It seems like they used the same face mold that they did for the white one for the Black one also like they did with the 1990 one and the 1992 one. I wonder why they changed it for the 1993 one. The white version still has that green hair that Baby has. It looks a little more blond than green this time, though. It could just be the lighting in these pictures that are making it seem that way. There seem to be other dolls and toys that are part of this snuzzles theme which I think is quite interesting and is also pretty cute. I don't know if they started doing this style of box with it being open and not behind clear plastic for this year or in 1995. I kind of like the open box concept more because then you can feel it in the store and see if you or your child likes the texture or not.

1998

The box is quite different for this one compared to the 1993 one. I can't believe Baby used to look like this! He used to be in a box like this! Such a perfect baby! All of these babies are so perfect. Their ankles are really getting squeezed. Let them free! Their ankles are hurting. Also, did they just stop making Black versions of these dolls at this time? You already have the faces and fabric, it wouldn't be difficult to just make some. That's really stupid and also an extremely awful idea.

1999

It's Babysister! But those first four photos aren't Babysister. She is not the same as those babies. They changed the hair for the white version. Their hair is blond and curly now. Their eyes are also a lot different, but they're still blue, just a different shade of blue. The eyelashes aren't black anymore and their eyebrows are different. I love this baby a lot! I really like the flower theme, it's so cute. The first ones are really different than the second ones. I had mainly seen the second ones before since that's exactly the one that Babysister is, but they seem to have come out later. The first doll is what's on the back of the box on the second version. It's interesting how they didn't change the picture. I wonder why they changed the doll a bit. They got rid of one row of petals around the face and made the logo an oval instead of a rectangle and they also made the bonnet to be all pink instead of that flower pattern. The back of the box on the second version says 2000, but the dolls say 1999 on them. I'm not so sure if I should keep them in the 1999 section or move them to the 2000 section. I think I'll keep them here unless I find one doll that says 2000 on the tag. I'm so intrigued by the baby with a white body instead of a pink body. What happened there? Is there also a Black version of this doll? I've never seen one before and there isn't on displayed on the box so I assume there isn't one. Why would they not have made a Black version of this doll? They've made them before.

2000

Listed as a "My Very Soft Bath Baby." I don't really like this baby that much. Their arms and legs not being covered up looks so weird to me and it being all nylon (I think that's nylon) isn't as enjoyable as the other dolls. They have the same face as Babysister. The paint splatters on these babies change colors. I wonder why they went with this baby for this year. They're not much of a pleasant baby. Maybe they were trying to make bathing fun for babies and little kids. How come there isn't a Black version of this baby? I assume they didn't make one because they didn't have a Black version of the baby from 1999 and I think they didn't have one for 1998, too. I didn't realize that this doll also has styrofoam pellets inside of them. The dolls I have only have stuffing and don't have any pellets so I assume the other ones don't have pellets in them. I wonder where the pellets are in this doll.

2003

This is the same baby as the one for 1999, but the box here says 2003 and the box itself is different. The baby doll on the back is exactly the same, but they edited the logo to match the updated version of the doll. This may have been the one I got since I obtained Babysister in 2004.

Unknowns

I saw one similar to these labelled as a "Playskool Puffalump Baby Doll." I'm not so sure what that means, but this one seems to be made of nylon instead of satin. I wonder why they would want two different versions of this doll. Maybe some kids prefer one material over the other. The Black one seems to have the same face as the 1993 one. I assume these versions were only available for the 1993 ones. They look so odd. I have no idea what's going on with these ones. Did they bring the nylon body back for the 1999 one because this version was more popular or it was cheaper to make? That last baby is making me lose my mind. I feel like it's also from 1993 since it's nylon and it's closer to when they would make "boy" versions of these dolls. This baby also has the stripes that the 1990 one has. Are stripes considered a boy thing?

Extra Thoughts

I wish I had more pictures of the Black versions. I wonder if there were any for 1998, 1999, and 2000. I would assume the 1998 would have one since that design has been used before, but there isn't one displayed on the box. I do like how there are more dolls now with varying skintones, hair color, eye color, and body types. I wish we had more stuff like that when I was younger because we mainly just had a white version that usually has blonde hair and blue eyes (that always annoyed me because I have brown hair and brown eyes) and maybe there's a Black version, but sometimes there might not be one at all. I wonder if there are any "boy" versions of the other ones. There doesn't look to be any after the 1992 Christmas one (or whatever year that nylon baby is from) and they don't appear on any of the boxes. Why did they stop? Are boys not supposed to be playing with baby dolls? Are girls not able to have baby dolls that are boys? I like that the boxes change every year. Also, I am confused as to why these are being advertised as your baby's first baby doll. Their faces are so hard and they hurt when smacked against your skull.