Manufacturer/

Götz Puppenmanufactur/International Playthings

Precious Day:

2002-present 

2002-2003 face mold same as Little Sisters

Precious Day: Elizabeth (brunette), Jessica (blond), Julia (redhead), Kimberly (Asian), Alicia (Latina)

Götz makes many dolls that it calls "articulated soft body standing dolls". (See the Overview and History page for more on Götz terminology.) This type of doll has the American Girl body type and they are very popular with American Girl collectors who want variety in their collections since they can share clothes.

Other Meet the Dolls profiles cover the similar dolls that Götz has manufactured for other companies (like Little Sisters and Starshine Dolls), but this one covers the dolls that Götz sells under its own label.

There are several older, usually Limited Edition dolls sold with this body, but for the last five years or so the dolls with this body type have been all play dolls.

The Precious Day name has been used by Götz for many years, first just for babies then also for 18" girl dolls starting in 2002. This was the year after Götz stopped making the Little Sisters dolls for iDolls.com/Dolls Unlimited and the Precious Day Girls were almost identical to the Little Sisters. The main difference between the blond, brunette and redhead girls, beyond the outfits, was that the Little Sisters had wigged and the Precious Day girls had rooted hair. The Precious Day line also included Asian and Latina dolls in the first two years.

The Precious Day girls are given new starter outfits each year. They are always modern day styles and they have gotten trendier over the years.

In 2004 the dolls got a new face mold and the two ethnic dolls were dropped leaving just Elizabeth, Jessica and Julia. The new face sculpt was a commonly-used mold for Götz playdolls over the years, including for the Starshine Dolls. Starshine Dolls was a separate company that made Native American dolls starting from Götz dolls with black hair and dark eyes. Because of this, collectors often refer to this mold as the Starshine face on many doll message boards.

In the holiday season of 2004, the discount store Costco sold two Gotz dolls, a blonde and a brunette, that were called Stolle dolls. These dolls were packaged with an extra outfit. The Stolle dolls are very similar in quality and have the same body style as the Precious Day dolls.

In 2006, the discount store Tuesday Morning has been selling dolls in boxes marked Precious Day but with the Stolle face mold. The picture on the back of the boxes showed the Precious Day dolls (including Kimberly and Alicia) with their original, 2002 face mold, so Götz may have just been closing out extra dolls using some boxes they already had.

Götz has been making 18" articulated soft body standing dolls for many, many years. In recent years, the only ones that have been part of their play doll line have had the Starshine face mold, but in the past several other faces were available, including this Limited Edition doll.

The 18" articulated soft body standing "doll type" (Götz terminology that you can read all about in the Overview and History page) is the American Girl doll body. American Girl dolls were originally manufactured by Götz so the body sculpt is the same. The play dolls often have a plastic zip tie attaching the head rather than a neck string, but they are otherwise identical. This means that Precious Day, Stolle and dolls from the Götz play doll line can wear American Girl doll clothes and shoes and vice versa.

The Precious Day clothing sold for these dolls is of medium quality. It is not as detailed, of the same quality or realistic design as American Girl doll clothes. However it is less expensive and cute.

The quality of the dolls themselves is quite good. Other than the hair, they are comparable to American Girl dolls in quality. The hair on all the dolls is the same style: rooted, long, layered and with very full bangs. Actually, the factory that makes Götz playdolls seems to be only capable of producing this one hairstyle since it is used on virtually every doll. A little variety would be nice, especially since bangless styles are so much more "in" these days on real little girls. Other variations would be nice too, like freckles, shorter or wavy hair.