I've been puzzling over these Care Bear poseables on Taobao, which definitely aren't from the 80s because 80s Share Bear had a milkshake symbol, not lollipops. It's possible they're bootlegs, but the seller is a wholesaler (sells extra goods from various factories) so they could be legit.
Anyway, by happenstance I saw a picture of a Care Bears Water Babies doll from 2003:
And they came with a poseable figure! And Share-Bear-with-lollipops is pictured on the back of the box.
So with the year, brand name, and company, I figured I could easily google the information. It turns out, NO. It kind of shook me because information was definitely being compiled and tracked by collectors at the time. But probably on Angelfire and Geocities pages, which are now dead.
So now the information is . . . not totally lost, I guess, because the merchandise from that era still exists, but you have to stumble on it, like a lost artifact; it's not compiled anywhere. (That I know of. If you know of a Care Bears website with all the merch, point me to it!)
I think one of the issues is few people have personal websites anymore, but personal websites are the best way to catalogue information. Not Instagram, not Reddit, not Twitter, not even Tumblr, because they all encourage a constant flow of new information which supplants old information. Whereas to catalogue What Was you need the same information to remain static and findable year after year. (I know this is a difficulty people run into searching for comics on my blog.)
Just some reflections. Anyway, there was a Share Bear figure from this line, so maybe that is where she comes from. Naturally I ordered the Taobao one to find out! :)
I had one of these growing up! The friend bear one! If I remember correctly, the little figure that comes with it has beads or something in it to act as a rattle! So if what you ordered rattles, then it's from the water babies, if not then it's probably still officially licensed because I did have several figures in that same style when I was little. I might still have them, actually...
I believe the regular figures, not the rattles, might have been from a kids meal...? Like burger king or something maybe
Wow, thank you for this info!! I went to eBay again and managed to find pictures of the bears you were talking about! Defintiely looks like the Taobao figures!
And there's Share Bear! Now I just need to wait for the Taobao one to arrive and find out if she rattles or not . . .