The Seven Dwarfs Through the Years 1955- Present

1955-1959: Ice Capades Dwarfs
For the first few years of Disneyland, the seven dwarfs appeared. They mainly appeared in parades. The dwarfs costumes used at Disneyland were created and used by The Ice Capades. These dwarfs have unique features and individual looks. If you look at them, in a way, they're sort of cute and full of fantasy.

Dwarfs at the Ice Capades. These costumes were used at Disneyland. credit

1960-1969: Burlap Dwarfs
The Disney costume department has created their version of the seven dwarfs. They designed the dwarfs with big heads, big hats and small bodies. The dwarf's faces and beards were made out of fin rubber, giving them a bulky, wrinkly look. The faces look similar to halloween masks and the hats are almost look like over sized pillows. The hats have screens in the middle were the performer sees out off. The performers had no control over the dwarf's arms. The arms just hang there freely, letting gravity do the work. Since the performers have no control of the arms, they use the dwarf's facial features to give the dwarfs more life. They would wiggle the tongue or the nose. Dopey and Bashful had special features; Dopey could move his ears and Bashful could blink. Doc was able to move his glasses up and down.

The reason I call this era of dwarfs "Burlap Dwarfs" is because they look like scarecrows. They look like something a farmer would put together and place on a field. Typically, scarecrows are made out of burlap, burlap is a rough fabric and rough describes these dwarfs.

Snow White and the Burlap Dwarfs at Disneyland, 1963.

Dopey at the World's Fair, 1964. credit

Grumpy at Disneyland, 1966. credit

1968-1980: Disco Dwarfs
These dwarfs were created for Disney on Parade and later adopted by the Disney parks. The dwarfs were redesigned to have new heads with similar expressions as before, new hats, new wardrobe and new hands.  Their new wardrobe had unique color schemes and did not match the ones from the movie.

Doc: Orange hat, red shirt and blue pants

Grumpy: Lavender hat, orange shirt and red pants

Happy: Yellow-green hat, dark green shirt and brown pants

Sleepy: Fuchsia hat, orange-brown shirt and blue pants

Bashful: Red hat, indigo shirt and red/pink pants

Sneezy: Green hat, blue shirt and purple pants

Dopey: Purple hat, green shirt and pants

They all wore the same black rubber boots. The performer has now control of the hands. The dwarfs hands were plastic hands attached to sticks, with fixed gestures. Like before, the dwarfs have rubber beards. The hats are now pointy and made out of rubber or plastic, coved with fabric. I call these dwarfs "Disco Dwarfs" for two reasons. One, these dwarfs were used during the 70's and the 70's are know for the disco craze. Second, I needed to call them something friendly because the original name I was going to give them was "Cond*m-Head Dwarfs."

The Disco Dwarfs at Disneyland. credit

Odd thing: for the Main Street Electrical Parade 1970's run, the dwarfs appeared at the parade. What's odd about this is that they appeared with live hands and fur beards. Yeah, with live hands and fur beards. Why didn't Disney do this on the first place? I think this is a premeditated introduction for the next versions of the dwarfs.

Doc and the rest at Disney World, 1979. source

1980-Present: Modern Dwarfs
The dwarfs have are now completely redesigned. One of the most notable changes is that the dwarfs now have fur beards. Their bodies are redesigned to suit the performer. The performer's hands are now the character's hands. All of the dwarfs have unique, individual body shapes, like Doc has a muffin top and Happy is completely round. The heads are smaller and more comfrotable for the performer. The dwarfs lose their "disco hats" and get new hats that cover their entire head, minus the face. All of the hats rest with ease. When this new version of the dwarfs debuted, Bashful had a pointy hat, resembling the hat's point from the movie. This was latter removed for a standard hat.

The dwarfs also changed in facial futures and color schemes:

Doc: Orange hat, yellow-ornage shirt, blue pats and orange shoes

Grumpy: Purple hat, red shirt, brown pants and green shoes

Happy: Yellow-green hat, dark green shirt, dark brown pants and red shoes

Sleepy: Fuchsia hat, orange-brown shirt, teal pants and red shoes

Bashful: Turquoise hat, red shirt, blue pants and brown shoes 

Sneezy: Green hat, blue shirt, khaki pants and purple shoes

Dopey: Purple hat, green shirt and pants and brown shoes

Dwarfs at Disney World.

Doc, Grumpy, and Sneezy stayed with the same facial features as before. Happy also stayed the same, but with black eyebrows instead of white ones. Sleepy has sleepy, non-drowsy eyes, with bags under his eyes. Bashful has half closed eyes, which are similar to Sleepy's. Sometimes guests at the parks confuse Bashful for Sleepy and vise-versa. Dopey has a grin with the under lip sticking out. Giving him an over lip, or under lip. This Dopey was used until the mid 90's (can't find exact year.)

For the holiday season, all of the dwarfs wear green hats with ribbons and bells sewing into them. When Disney on ice uses the dwarfs on their shows, their color scheme changes to completely match the color scheme from the movie.

Bashful's hat, resembling to one from the movie; 1981. video

1990- Present: Dopey's Grin
Although I'm unable to pin point the correct year, around this time Dopey got a new smile. He now has an opened mouth smile, eliminating the previous one with the over lip. His hat is now shorter than before.

Dopey at Disney World, 2014. credit

2013- Present: Happiness Dwarf

One iconic scene from the movie is when Dopey is on Sneezy's shoulders and dances with Snow White. For Tokyo Disneyland's 30th anniversary parade "Happiness is Here," they made a special costume of Dopey on Sneezy's shoulders. The illusion works and looks really well. Sneezy has a happy expression on his face, instead of his regular expression. Sneezy also has a mechanism that makes his eyes move back and forth while the performer walks.

Sneezy and Dopey at Tokyo Disneyland, 2013. d23.com

2015- Present: Updated Dwarfs
A recent update has happened to the dwarfs. This new change is mainly their clothes. Their shirts are redesigned to have patches on the elbows, like they do in the movie. They also have rounded, stuffed cuffs, like Goofy. Their new shirt design is meant to keep the performer cool while in costume. The shirts have open vents on the sides. Everybody kept their color scheme epcept for Happy, which he got new orange sleeves. The dwarf's beards now go around their heads and underneath their hats, while Doc and Happy have beards made out a shorter fur pile and Happy now has white, fur eyebrows. The dwarfs heads (minus Dopey) have been re-designed on the inside to allow more movement from the performer. The heads used to rest on the performer's shoulders and now the can move with ease.

It's possible that this new rendition of the dwarfs are the new official costumes. They debuted at Disney World for Halloween 2015, with the previous costumes still in circulation. Maybe by the next year or two, these new dwarfs will be at all the parks.

The New Dwarfs at Disney World, 2015. source

Through the Years List:

Mickey & Minnie (Original)
Mickey & Minnie (Updated)

Donald Duck Family
Clarabelle & Horace (Original)
Clarabelle & Horace (Updated)

Winnie the Pooh
Pinocchio
Chip & Dale
Pluto
Goofy
Three Little Pigs
Tigger

I'm an Indigo

This post is an open letter about me to everyone. At the same time this letter is not for everyone, so if you don't get, it's probably not meant for you.

Before continuing with the letter, there's going to be a delay on the "Through the Years" posts. I'm currently writing one about the seven dwarfs, but I'm struggling to finish it. Upon a request, there will be one about Dumbo and one about the Winnie the Pooh characters in the near future.

Dear World,

I'm an indigo being. What are indigo people? Indigo people are rays of light that are incarnated on this earth to help humanity and Mother Nature raise their positive vibration and sent light into the darkness.

The world that we live in is in a state of negative vibration. It has been this way since Adam and Eve bit onto the forbidden fruit. Today the negative vibration has drastically increased since then. People today are blind and unconscious to the lies that they're living in. The same group of creatures that are feeding us these lies are the same ones that tempted Adam and Eve. Humans are divided into two equal parts, physical and spiritual. Mother Nature created the physical part and God, the Universe, or whatever you want to call him, created the spirital part; the soul. The soul is a portion of God himself and that is incarnated on Earth to accomplish a mission. While in the transition from God, to spirit, to physical form (a.k.a birth) we lose consciousness of our mission. We are unaware of our higher purpose in life and it's our job to regain that knowledge again before it's too late.

Sadly, the negative vibtation gets in the way of us reaching our true purpose. God sends special portions of himself onto Earth to help Earth and humanity raise the positive vibration and illuminate the darkness away for good. These special portions of God are classified as starseeds, crystal children, rainbow children and indigo children. I'm classified as a starseed or indigo child. I'm nearly 20, so I'm an indigo adult or indigo being.

Indigos struggle to connect with other people because indigos are in a higher level of sprituality and consciousness. Meaning they have a special balance in their life. They are connected with the Universe, with themselves and their chakras. Because they are so connected with themselves they struggle to communicate to the level that humanity is in. Sometimes people misinterpret them and classify them as kids with mild autism or with asperger's syndrome; which is what happened to me.

For many years I thought I was autistic, untill I had my spiritual awakening. My spiritual awakening happend in the fall of 2010 when I was 14. I'm not going to go into detail of how this happened to me, but it happend. Now I'm aware that I'm a higher being on Earth to help my fellow brothers and sisters and Mother Nature. I want to spread my light that I revice from the universe and illuminate the way for others that are living in darkness.

As an indigo, I can't stand how humanity is living in darkness and how they are unaware of the things the keep them grounded in nagative vibration. Is like saying humanity is living in a dark box and indigos and other higher beings are the ones who are going to get them out of the box and help them enjoy real life, not the "matrix" they are living in.

I'm not saying that indigos are better than everyone. We are different beings with special purposes. I believe we are all equal and together, united we create a powerful critial mass of positive energy to help Earth transform it self and the beings of light living on it.

Indigos are also creative people and full of ambision. I have learned that I have physical abilities and spiritual abilities or gifts. Physically, I'm an artist, a puppeteer, a performer, amateur tailor, musician and a teacher; just to name a few. I'm still experimenting with my spiritual gifts. I'm able to open my crown chakra with ease and connect with the Universe. This a good thing and a bad thing. Good because I can receive the energy from the Universe and do its willing. Bad because it makes me spiritually vulnerable and exposed. So if someone or thing with negative vibration comes in contact with me, that bad vibration can harm me and make me ill both spiritually and physically. Sometimes I suffer in silence because of the bad vibes I receive from this world. That's why one must be really carefull and take extra precautions. Something as simple as someone stroking your hair can harm you.

I always try to spread the joy I feel to others and help the Earth. I try to stay positive at all times and do things that make me happy, helping others and staying away from darkness. One of the many things that brings me joy is the Disney characters. It might be childish, but my spirit is ageless. That's why I write so much about them. Also, I started to collect Disney character costumes and so far I have a number of great pieces. This will be the subject of a future post.

My goal on Earth is to find peace within myself and with my brothers and sisters, to shine my light on Earth, to be in the hands of my creator and let him do what he whats with me and to spread love. All I have to give is love and light. Love is a strong vibration and changes everything. Love needs to reign on Earth, not with words but with true actions.

Get ready world, here comes Sammy!