The Many Boyfriends of Skipper Roberts
This article was originally printed in the Winter 2022 (Volume 71 Number 2) issue of DOLL NEWS and is being reprinted here with a few edits for posterity's sake.
One of my passions is collecting Skipper dolls. My collection encompasses Skipper from all eras, because there’s something to love about each iteration! While Barbie and Ken might have had an epic love story that’s been told many times in the past, we don’t often hear about Skipper’s love life. Today, we’re going to explore the many boyfriends of one of my favorite dolls, Barbie’s original little sister, Skipper.
Introduced in 1964, Barbie’s little sister Skipper has a long history of breaking hearts. While not a boyfriend per say, Skipper’s first platonic male friend, Ricky, made his debut in 1965. From promotional material, “Ricky's the cutest, freckle-faced kid in town—and he's Skipper's special friend. Red-haired, with blue eyes, he's as tall as Skipper, has movable arms, legs and head. Ricky is dressed in a blue and red striped beach jacket, bathing trunks and sandals.”
Mattel produced a total of six fashions for Ricky during his 1965-1967 run. Ricky was your classic ‘boy next door’ character and fit in perfectly with the original Skipper and her friend Skooter. Whether “special friend” means Skipper’s buddy or potential crush is up to your imagination, but there’s no denying his cheeky grin was contagious, making him a must have among Skipper collectors.
After Ricky disappeared, it would be over a decade before Skipper would receive another male friend. 1980 brought along the most polarizing of Skipper’s male companions in Scott. Scott was very much a product of his time.
Released along with Super Teen Skipper, Scott was the first doll to be truly marketed as ‘Skipper’s Boyfriend’. Gone were the days of platonic relationships. Skipper had grown up and found herself a cool roller skater who Mattel marketed as, “Today's active super teen-always ahead of the crowd" in tandem with Skipper’s new glamorous, yet sporty persona.
As I mentioned, Scott is a true product of the early 80’s. Decked out in a yellow and blue tracksuit paired with jeans and roller skates, Scott sported a unique head mold with a wild head of curly brown hair. Permed? Natural? Who knows, but there’s no other way to describe it as anything but big and curly!
One interesting factoid about Scott, besides the fact that he didn’t last long and was only released one time, is that, while his head was unique, his body actually belonged to Mattel’s previously manufactured Jimmy Osmond doll, which is why Scott had two different arm molds.
Originally for the Jimmy doll to hold a mic and look cool ‘on stage’, the arms coincidentally worked well with the idea of Scott being a skater and gave an ‘active’ look to Skipper’s short lived first love. While he wasn’t given any fashion packs, he was portrayed as a paper doll along Skipper.
The times changed as quickly as Skipper’s face molds, as she moved from the 1980’s into the 1990’s, holding steady after a few unstable years with the introduction of a trio of Teen Time Skippers in 1988. These dolls introduced us to a more youthful, anime inspired face mold with large, round eyes, colorful make up and more 90’s inspired hairdos. This interpretation of Skipper is my personal favorite and holds a special place in my heart; much like Kevin, the male doll introduced alongside her, had stolen Skipper’s heart.
Kevin, similar to Scott, is very reminiscent of the decade he was released. Marketed as “the cute boyfriend of Skipper”, Kevin made his grand debut in 1990 with Cool Tops Kevin. Kevin was given the same anime-like look as Skipper with big blue eyes. Similar to Skipper’s very first boyfriend Ricky, Kevin had painted brown hair with caramel highlights. He was very much inspired by the clean cut boys on the cover of teen magazines and headlining boy bands.
Kevin’s look, specifically his hair, would change slightly through the six dolls released during his four year run. His hair would eventually change from the brown we see in Cool Tops Kevin (1990), Kevin (1990) and Pet Pals Kevin (1991) to blonde with the release of Basketball Kevin (1992), Cool Crimp Kevin (1993) and his final release, Pizza Party Kevin (1994).
Not only did Mattel include him in more lines than Ricky and Scott, but they also provided him with three unique fashion packs. Are they the coolest fashions? No, but they’re more than poor Scott got!
By the time Pizza Party Kevin was released, Mattel had re-worked Skipper’s face mold to give her a more mature look. Kevin’s eyes were painted to be a little smaller than in the earlier releases, but for the most part, the rest of his look went unchanged, which was probably a good sign that his days as Skipper’s boyfriend were numbered.
In 1997, Mattel chose to age Skipper up to a 16 year old. Similar in height to Barbie, but with a new older teen face mold, Teen Skipper was due to have found love in the YoYo Fun line. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this new boyfriend, dubbed Zach in promotional material, was never released.
Instead, Mattel re-bodied the head mold and restyled the look to make Skipper’s almost boyfriend Zach into Generation Girl’s Blaine. It’s a shame that we never got to meet Zach outside of two promotional photos, as it seemed like he’d fit in well with Skipper, Courtney and Nikki, but I’m glad his sculpt could live on for a short while in Blaine.
Technically, Skipper’s relaunch in 2018 with Babysitters Inc brought a few new male dolls into the fold. Disappointingly, they have no backstory, not even a unique name. They are just male babysitters manufactured with different skin tones and molded hair. They lack most of what made Ricky, Scott and Kevin special, as those dolls were given at least some semblance of a character within the Skipper world, and don’t count as boyfriends.
Whereas Barbie had her one true love in Ken (with a short misguided fling in the 2000’s with Blaine), Skipper has had far more options in terms of boyfriends over her nearly 60 years of being on store shelves. They are all unique reflections of the times they were originally dreamed up and manufactured. Who your favorite is probably largely depends on who was around when you were the age to best connect with Barbie’s original little sister. It’s hard to say which is truly the best, as they were all great fits for the Skipper’s of their era and will live on in Mattel history as the many suitors vying for Skipper’s heart.