The Mystery of Battat’s Designer Girl Dolls
Battat is a Canadian toy company that has been in business since 1897. They are widely recognized for their preschool toys and their popular 18-inch doll line, Our Generation. Starting in 1998, Our Generation was meant to provide families and their children with more affordable options for 18-inch dolls, clothes, and accessories. They have since then become one of American Girl’s greatest competitors. They are currently sold exclusively at Target stores, in an array of different hair and eye colors, skin tones, outfits, and characters.
In 1998, Our Generation was introduced as Collector’s Lane Kids, with 5 different dolls to choose from. Among those dolls, four were marketed as girls and one was marketed as a boy:
Although I couldn’t find exactly when the name change to Our Generation happened, I believe it happened around the early-2000′s. According to an article I will link below from Just Magic, dolls produced from 1998-2004 were stamped with the year 1998. Dolls produced 2004 and onward were stamped with the year 2004.
Just Magic’s article on OG: http://www.justmagicdolls.com/meet/Battat/ourgeneration.htm
I am not sure how long Battat used the 2004 stamp on the OG dolls, as one of my own OG dolls (identified as May Lee) does not have a year stamped onto her and she is a relatively modern character (introduced in the mid-2010′s). Just Magic’s article on OG has not been updated since 2007, so if there is an OG expert out there who could help with identifying specific stamps and markings, I would appreciate it.
Here are just some of the Our Generation dolls sold today:
Recently, I ran into a mysterious doll that has popped up on secondhand online stores twice so far. Battat had what seemed like a spinoff doll line from Our Generation in the early-to-mid 2000′s called the Designer Girl dolls. Based on the images and descriptions provided by both sellers, there was at least one doll from this line named Hannah.
(Photos courtesy of eBay seller kathy7323)
On eBay, seller kathyg7323 describes their doll as a possible “prototype”. It was purchased at an estate sale of a doll collector. There is no date on the box whatsoever, and the seller attempted to identify this doll by contacting Battat and sending them photos. However, Battat confirmed to the seller they have no idea when this doll was made and have no record of it. In addition, there is no information about this doll online.
Another seller, this time on Mercari, recently sold their Designer Girl Hannah doll. The seller, Mochabacon, stated in their description that their doll was trademarked by Battat, and it was purchased in the early-2000′s (although they did not specify where). Upon reading this, I made an attempt to access Battat, Our Generation, and Target’s websites via the Wayback Machine around that time period. However, I still did not find anything on the Designer Girl dolls.
A doll blogger named PennilessCaucasianRubbish posted about a thrifted Battat doll they found and custom-made into a boy doll, back in 2017. Link to their blog: http://pennilesscaucasianrubbishdolls.blogspot.com/2017/01/new-custom-boy-from-thrifted-battat.html
What is interesting about this blog is that the thrifted doll shares the exact same facemold as Designer Girl’s Hannah:
As we can see here, PCR’s doll’s original appearance was light skin, sandy-blond hair, with blue eyes. This must have been one of the additional characters available for the Designer Girl line, although his original marketed name is currently unknown.
That is not the only finding from this blogpost; PCR stated that the stamp on the back of their doll’s head reads “Battat 2002″. This may indicate either Designer Girl was produced in 2002, or this particular face mold was produced in 2002. But, if you scroll down to the comments section of this blogpost, there is an interesting comment from a person named Kaffrum:
So, based on this description, we can confirm that Designer Girl was, in fact, sold in stores at one point. The question now is when exactly the doll line was launched. See, Kaffrum states they’ve held onto that Designer Girl packaging since around 2002, which aligns with the timeframe the Mercari seller gave as to when they first purchased their Hannah doll. However...
I found a trademark website that has all of Battat’s trademarked names. Among those trademarks was the name Designer Girl! Link to Designer Girl’s trademark profile:
https://trademarks.justia.com/784/22/designer-78422206.html
Based on this profile, the name was first filed by Battat in 2004, registered in 2006, but then was cancelled in 2012. If you scroll further down the page to the Classification Information section, it says that the name’s first use in commerce was in 2005. If I’m reading this correctly, this means that Designer Girl was actually released to stores back in March of 2005. That date may also align with the timeframe in which the Mercari seller stated they first purchased this doll. The Trademark Events section gives a more detailed view of how the name was used between 2004 to 2012, although I’m not entirely sure what the entries from 2005-2009 mean. If you are familiar with trademark laws and understand the words used here, a clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Finally, we can see that in 2012, the name was cancelled under Section 8. Specifically, its current status is under “710- Cancelled- Section 8″. What my two remaining brain cells could gather from a quick Google search, this simply means that this trademark was cancelled because Battat did not file the required proof that the name was still being used in commerce. So it is likely Battat gave up on Designer Girl sometime between the late-2000s and early 2010′s.
Another doll with the same exact facemold and 2002 neckstamp as Hannah and the unnamed blonde was found on Google Images, using the keywords “2002 Battat”. The photo’s true origin, although found on Worthpoint, is currently unknown, but it shows what looks to be a Designer Girl doll with light skin, red hair, and green eyes:
List of all identified Designer Girl dolls:
Hannah- light skin, straight brown hair, brown eyes
Unknown #2- light skin, straight blonde hair, blue eyes
Unknown #3: light skin, straight red hair, green eyes
What we know so far about Designer Girl is that they were “a complete line of fashionable dolls and cool accessories”, based on the description of the Hannah doll’s box. Both the existence of PCR’s doll and Kaffrum’s comment confirmed that there were other characters besides Hannah in the line, and there must have been additional outfit sets and accessories. However, there are still so many questions left unanswered:
Were the dolls released in 2002 or 2005? How long were they around for? When did Battat stop selling them? WHERE did they sell these dolls? We still have no confirmation as to where the doll collector mentioned in the eBay auction or the Mercari seller got ahold of their dolls. PCR stated they had thrifted their doll at Goodwill.
In addition, I would still like to know how many other Designer Girl dolls were there, what did they look like, and how come most of them besides Hannah, the blonde doll, and the redhead doll are still unaccounted for as of now? I am going to attempt to get in contact with Kaffrum in hopes that they still have their Battat package, and if they can provide pictures of it.
But the biggest question of all is, why doesn’t Battat have any records of this doll line ever existing?
Does anyone here remember this doll line from the early-to-mid-2000′s? Admittedly, as a child who was at the target age for those dolls during that time period, I have no recollection of ever seeing them in any store. If you have any theories or leads, you can dm me here or on my Instagram @harajuku_starpower and I will update this blogpost.
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