Happy Valentine's Day
Cutest Couples in the Doll World
It’s February 14th, a day to celebrate love. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share a short post on a few of my favorite couples in the doll world.
Barbie and Ken:
Since Ken locked eyes with Barbie in 1961, it’s been true love. Yes, there was that brief stint in the mid 2000’s when Mattel’s Barbie decided to have a fling with ‘Cali Guy’ Blaine, but in the grand scheme of things, Barbie and Ken are and always will be made for each other.
An interesting factoid about Blaine is that the face sculpt was originally supposed to be for a brand new character in the Teen Skipper line, Zach. Zach was to be Skipper’s boyfriend in 1998’s Totally Yo-Yo line. When that character was cut from the Teen Skipper line up, they aged up his face paint and switched up his hair to make him look a little more appropriate for Skipper’s big sis.
Jem and Rio:
No Valentine’s day post wold be complete without this next outrageous couple- Jem and Rio. Both Jem and Rio were introduced in the original wave of Hasbro’s Jem and the Holograms doll line in 1986. Not only could we create our own escapades for the pair while playing dolls, but we could also watch their relationship in the Saturday morning cartoon of the same name.
The box and promotional art for Jem was done by the amazingly talented Sharon Knetell. An illustrator contracted to work on projects for Hasbro, the Jem illustrations involved airbrushing over colored pencil to give her drawings a realistic appearance. She now works on life size paintings in the vain of Edgar Degas. I doubt Hasbro ever will do this, but I would love one day to be able to buy an art book with all the designs Sharon created for this line (even the Stingers). To this day, Jem has the best promotional imagery of any doll line.
Back to Jem and Rio, there were some instances where Jem seemed to be falling for another, namely Riot, lead singer of the Stingers. Riot debuted in the third season of Jem and the holograms. He and his band mates, Rapture and Minx, were supposed to be in the third year of the doll line in 1988, but unfortunately Hasbro scrapped the project. Riot’s interest in Jem could never compete with her relationship with Rio, but it did result in some tense moments between the three— ohhhh the drama!
Holt, Jackson and Frankie:
Our final couple for the post is one of the original Monster High power couples, Holt Hyde and Frankie Stein. Their relationship was mostly shown through webisodes, but nevertheless, is one of my favorites. This one is truly a love triangle, but with two people, as Holt is the alter ego of normie Jackson Jeckll. When the two personalities couldn’t get along due to their feelings for her, Frankie broke it off. While this relationship did not work out, it’s still one of my favorites in Monster High lore.
For folks who are curious, all the valentine’s here in this post were made free via Canva. It’s a great tool. I encourage you to create something fun with your favorite dolls! Who would you have spotlighted in this post? Let us know in the comments and have a happy Valentine’s day!