Disney Princess Premiere Birthstone Series (ca. 2003-2006?)

[Shivatopia]

Hi all,

I recently started to gather up the pins from this set that originally dates back to 2003, and I have a few questions:

1.) Although they were originally released in 2003, a few of my pins have later years in the back stamp (2004,2005,2006). Were these pins open editions that were continuously rolled out during all these years at WDW & DLRP?

2.) Why is Esmeralda (May) so darn hard to find?

3.) Has the Alice (March) pin's gemstone always been so dark? It looks more like a London Blue Topaz than an aquamarine to me. My Alice pin is dated 2006. My Cinderella's gemstone (dated 2003) actually looks more like an aquamarine.



Thanks!
Shiva

 

[eeyorespal]

Oh shoot! I just mailed (traded) my Alice today, so I can't be sure -- but I am fairly certain that my Alice had a much lighter stone. Are all your pins from WDW? I think there were color variations between DLRP and WDW. The sleeves on my Snow White are purple with red inserts.

The pins were open editions that were around for a few years, and then they just stopped them. This is certainly not the only open edition series where that happened.

I think the Esmererlda and the Meg are hard because there are so few pins for those characters. So for people who collect those characters, they buy/trade for the pins when they come out, and they go straight into collections, so not as many seen as traders.

 

[Shivatopia]

Thanks for the intel, Robyn! I've been buying my pins through eBay, so I can only assume that they came from both WDW and DLRP. So far, I have: Megara, Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel, Alice, and Jasmine, with Jane on the way. I paid through the tooth for Megara, who was the first one I bought to add to my Megara pin collection, and then I just decided to buy more of the rest... you know how that goes!

 

[starry_solo]

Once I get home, I will check and see the colors on mine. I have a Tink, but that's from HKDL so the crystal isn't a peridot, but clear (although it looks green since the pin itself is green).

 

[leopardpolkadotspots]

Hi, I have loads of these pins (I have the full set + for each Princess a seperate pin for each pin bag) and my Alice pin is definitely light blue not the dark blue that you have. Your Alice pin looks a lot different to mine, it looks darker and her hair looks more yellow than blonde. Never noticed the backstamps before, though.

 

[Shivatopia]

Yeah, my Alice pin looks very different than the pinpics picture in terms of her hair color and the gemstone. Her gemstone is not quite as dark as Snow White's sapphire, but it's pretty close. My Alice is from 2006, so maybe Disney started deviating a bit from the original concept.

I got my Jane pin today. She's a 2003, and very pretty. I took a pic of my 8 girls today. The angle of the sun darkened Alice, Jasmine, Snow White, and Megara's gemstones terribly in this picture, but they do sparkle nicely under indoor lighting... My Snow White does have light blue sleeves, as opposed to the lavender ones she has on pinpics. And my poor Ariel arrived damaged, but the seller was nice and refunded me in full and allowed me to keep the pin.

 

[leopardpolkadotspots]

If I get a chance at the weekend, I will get my ones out and photograph them and we can compare

 

[tinkerbellfan117]

Sounds like we got a scrapper alert.

 

[eeyorespal]

Sounds like we got a scrapper alert.

No, I don't think so. These pins were produced for three parks on three different continents -- these are completely different production companies.

Also, in the early days of scrapping/counterfeiting, they didn't bother with embellished or pin-on-pins.

I think we probably should have been more careful about entering the three different series on PinPics. The pins were not truly identical (like many WDW/DLR) pins. We might have been better off with three, or maybe only two, variation listings per pin.

 

[PrincessBecky]

My Alice looks like your Alice, with the darker blue stone and different hair...mine is also from 2006. I am guessing the 2006 version is just slightly different from the one pictured on PinPics.

My other pins had the following years:

Megara- 2003
Ariel- 2005
Aurora- 2004
Snow White- 2003
Cinderella- 2003
Jasmine- 2005
Tinker Bell- 2003
Mulan- 2004
Jane- 2003

 

[hopemax]

My Alice and Belle have 2003 backstamps. I'm trying to remember when or how I would have gotten them because they were released after our trip in 2003, and I didn't get back to WDW until 2005. I'm thinking, my parents must have gotten them for me on one of their trips. My Alice's stone is the lighter color. These were open edition pins, so variations are probable. And for fun, here is the Dizpins news page announcing them http://www.dizpins.com/archives/2003/2003may_5.htm Scroll down to May 30th

Shadow on Belle, is just me not a pin defect.

 

[Megem]

Do any of the pins you have for this series seem to have a lacquered enamel finish? I received a Tink one for cheap and it has an odd surface that my others don't have.

 

[speedwaystar1]

Do any of the pins you have for this series seem to have a lacquered enamel finish? I received a Tink one for cheap and it has an odd surface that my others don't have.

I know there was a Tokyo version of Tink , I found it whilst trying to complete my set . Perhaps that one was different .

 

[Megem]

I know there was a Tokyo version of Tink , I found it whilst trying to complete my set . Perhaps that one was different .

Maybe it is Tokyo version but the seller just told me it's from the Disney store. I'm not sure he knows which one though. It's from 2004; the wings are bluer, hair is more yellow, and the oval part is greener, also the thickness is like a mm thinner than my other one that is 2004 as well.