Background of SSC Doll Lines:
Strawberry Shortcake is notable for the many different doll lines that it has spawned, spanning decades and many different toy companies as the license transferred. In the 1980s, Kenner was the first to release Strawberry Shortcake dolls. They wore striped tights, big hats, and had dot eyes. This is the most well-known SSC doll line. The next line of SSC dolls was released in the early 90s by Hasbro (after Hasbro acquired Kenner). This run of dolls was relatively short-lived. These dolls had similar proportions and styling to the original dolls, but they had updated, more detailed eyes. In the early 2000s, Bandai got the rights to SSC and reimagined the line. The Bandai Strawberry Shortcake dolls still wear moderately sized hats, but they wore more modern clothing (jeans), and there were fewer (redesigned) characters. After Bandai, the line moved to Playmates, and they reimaged the line again. The Playmates dolls, catalogued here on this site, are taller and more teenage-looking.
After the Playmates line, Hasbro got the rights again, and went back in a younger direction. The dolls had very large cartoony heads, colorful striped tights, colorful hair, and big-eyed faces.
Around 2016, Bridge Direct/Basic Fun began to release retro/reproduction dolls- the original Kenner dolls reissued, designed to look exactly like their original counterparts (except cleaner, without that nice sheen from 30 years of good hard living).
Playmates:
There are eight themed lines in the Playmates run, plus some miscellaneous dolls and a line of horses.
Aaaaand, also here:
Toysisters is ad-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission (at no cost to you), which helps to keep the site online and updating. Thanks!