TLSM is proud to have so many sweet friends all over the world and FN Al Fayhani being one of them! She has done research about Fashion Girl” no. 44489, circa 1983-84 and wanted to share her conclusion here:
“Fashion Girl” no. 44489, circa 1983-84
“Sally Dixon owns an unknown Pedigree Sindy box/doll from the early 80s that seems to be used for old stock Sindy dolls and outfits! “Fashion Girl” is the name of the doll, the box has the reference no. 44489, and the dolls and outfits that come with this box seem to be released between the years 1982 and 1984.
The uncatalogued “Fashion Girl” Sindy is most likely from 1983 or 1984, but for sure NOT from 1985 as all dolls released that year have blue banner background for all the dolls’ names and the Pedigree logo shown on the boxes. Add to that, in 1985 Pedigree was already using the “Miss Sindy” boxes for the old stock dolls and outfits.
Another thing about dating the “Fashion Girl” boxes is that all the pink boxes with the same pink and white horizontal stripes background inside them behind the dolls; are mostly common with the Sindy doll boxes of 1983, it was the first year when this new box design had been used, however, only “Funtime” Sindy from 1984 has this similar background as well. While all the other 1984 dolls, and all the 1985 dolls collection have different uniquely designed backgrounds inside the boxes. This could mean that this concept box was perhaps designed and produced in 1983 even if it was unofficially released the next year to use up old stock dolls and outfits Pedigree had.
“Fashion Girl” Sindy could have been a concept prototype doll that Pedigree was intending to release but was canceled later, as it seems the dolls and outfits inside these “Fashion Girl” boxes are used up old stock dolls and outfits from previous years Pedigree trying to sell, similar to the “Miss Sindy” dolls that came in later years, 1985 and 1986 respectively.
So far we only managed to get confirmed images of 5 “Fashion Girl” boxes/dolls, one is new in box and already with Sally, and she found another image from the internet, while we managed to find 3 more extra images searching the net and past auction results.
As we only got few pics of this “Fashion Girl” Sindy box; this could mean that, unlike the “Miss Sindy” 1985 boxes/dolls, this concept doll box is rare and Pedigree had only produced few of them back then. The images we found of the “Fashion Girl” boxes tell us that these boxes seem to look bad and in poor condition, maybe they could had been made of poor material and in short quantity for a concept doll before getting the green light, this could also explain why they are rare to be known and found by collectors today.
The used up Sindy dolls and outfits that come with the “Fashion Girl” boxes we have seen so far vary from 1982 to 1984. They include sad face Sindys, short haired Pop Singer Sindy with her original outfit 1983, part of Rain and Shine doll’s outfit 1982, Lazy Days outfit 1982, Dreamboat outfit 1982, and Outward Bound outfit from 1984.
Special thanks to Sally Dixon who brought her doll to our attention and for providing the main images of this box and doll for our research article. Other images found are from Pinterest, Vectis Auction and Google search.”
Written by FN Al Fayhani for The Little Sindy Museum
December 2022
Thanks for all your great work FN Al Fayhani!