When a new toy line becomes successful, there are usually a bunch of cheaper copies created
to look like the originals, and to sell like originals. This was no exception for the Jem dolls.
Jem was Hasbro's flagship, and there were all kinds of knock-offs and cheap imitations.
Some are obvious bootlegs and are mostly done by smaller companies,
while the bigger ones tries to hide their attempts by making their own and a little different
version of the original idea without stepping on any copyrights and trademarks. Then of course there
are those dolls that just happen to be lookalikes, and sometimes it's hard to tell
which ones are what.
Too much competition is believed to be one of the reasons that eventually caused the Jem doll
line to be discontinued, since it prevented the sales of the Jem dolls. But Jem obviously made it's
mark and lasting impression in the history of doll lines,
and even today you can find new dolls that are clearly inspired by Jem dolls.
Here are some dolls that have some thing in common with the Jem dolls in one way or
another, either they are direct bootlegs, just rockstars, have punk hair colors, were made by
the same company, were made in the 80's, or have some characteristics that reminds of Jem.
Barbie dolls
Barbie and the Rockers, 1985 by Mattel
In 1985, Mattel learned that Hasbro was releasing the Jem dolls.
Barbie was Mattel's biggest brand, and Mattel apparently felt that the Jem
dolls, even with the differences in size and theme, and even before they were released,
posed a big threat. This was going to be the biggest
competition that Mattel had faced for their worldknown doll line Barbie.
Mattel was terrified of the competition and decided to give Barbie a rockband too,
"Barbie and the Rockers", or "Barbie and the Rockstars" as in Europe. This was a
completely new direction of the Barbie doll which had been pretty harmless in
her previous releases, usually as a princess or a ballerina or such.
The first set of Barbie and the Rockers dolls to arrive were Barbie,
Diva,
Dana, Dee Dee and Derek. The dolls came with a fashion, a microphone, socks, shoes,
a sheet of cardboard prints, iron-on decal, and the females also had a hairpiece,
ring, bracelet, extra t-shirt and a hairbrush. Everyone came with a
cassette which all included the same songs "The Rockers Theme", "Dressin' Up",
"Born With A Mike", and "Stretchin' It", only two of which were included in the
cartoon.
The second edition of the doll band was called "Real Dancing Action" for the
females, and "Hot Rockin' Fun" for the males. Now there was one more male added to
the group: Ken of course. This edition of dolls would kinda move their arms when you
turned their body, they had new fashions but included no cassette.
The third set of dolls included the four female dolls:
Barbie, Diva, Dana, Dee Dee, as
"Barbie and the Sensations"
and had a 50's look to them. They resembled what Barbie and the Rockers looked like when
they went back in time in the cartoon.
There were two sets of fashions released: Barbie and the Rockers fashions included 12
different fashions, two of which were for the male dolls. The second set of fashions
included 6 fashions, one of which was for the male dolls, and was called
"Concert Tour Fashions" or "Tour Fashions" in Europe.
There was a playset of a stage called "Hot Rockin' Stage", a pool called
"Rockin' Pool Party", extra instruments set called "Live Concert Instruments" and
"Rock Concert", and other playsets like "Vanity Set",
"Dance Cafe",
"Recording Studio",
"Hot Rockin' Van" and a remote controlled "Rockin' Cycle".
As mentioned, there was even a Barbie and the Rockers cartoon made, in two parts,
called "Out of this World" and "Rockin' Back to Earth", which featured
all the characters, and several of the outfits and playsets.
In the cartoon, Barbie and the Rockers were the only band around and
loved by everyone in the whole world.
There was certainly no competition from a band like the Misfits.
Alot of the cartoon was about being friends and having a good time. At their worst,
the Barbie and the Rockers characters were tired or disappointed for second, then it
was time to sing and dance again. They even went into space to perform.
Similarities to Jem, other than colorful rockstar dolls,
were that the Barbie and the Rockers
dolls had an edition of the leadsinger with star earrings,
there was a male doll with combable hair, the group
had one black and one asian member, the dolls came with a cassette
with songs, and there was a Stage playset and a car. While the Jem dolls had more
realistic and more bendable bodies, Barbie and the Rockers had their
"Real Dancing Action" edition of dolls.
Both of the cartoons had music videos
that were blended with the action.
The cartoon included some similar storylines as
in the Jem cartoon, including stories with time traveling and
fifties style theme.
With all the similarities, Barbie and the Rockers were
still apparantly of lower quality, as could be expected
since they were made in a hurry and rushed out. Half of the about
10 songs sang by Barbie and the Rockers in the cartoon were covers of
old songs, some by the Beatles. While the Jem cartoon contained over a
hundred songs, with no covers.
Mattel didn't seem to care at all about Barbie and the Rockers once they
managed to silence Jem.
Today however there is no question about which of
these 80's rockstar cartoons and dolls are more remembered and
popular. Try to search for a better site about Barbie and the Rockers than this one for example.
And take a look at the auction site eBay, Barbie and the Rockers dolls are barely selling.
While Jem dolls are selling better than ever. This is probably also how the sales would look
today if Jem made a comeback into the toystores, even if Barbie and the
Rockers made a copy-comeback (infact Mattel re-released an anniversary issue of Barbie from
Barbie and the Rockers in 2008). Especially since the only thing
that speaks in Barbie's advantage is that it's a wellknown brand and
that Barbie has set the standard of doll fashion sizes, so that they won't
fit dolls in bigger sizes like the Jem dolls. But those are easy fixes for Hasbro.
Offsite link: More info about Barbie and the Rockers on this page.
Foam 'n Color Barbie, by Mattel
Barbie with pink or blue hair streaks.
Mermaid Barbie, 1994 by Mattel
When the rights to Disney's "Little Mermaid" went to
Tyco, Mattel did the same thing as always, their own
version, but with pink hair? This might have been the very first time Barbie actually appeared in
completely pink hair. It only goes to confirm how much Mattel really feared Jem back in the 80's and
wish they had made her, now they're halfway.
Beyond Pink Barbie, 1998 by Mattel
Ever since Barbie and the Rockers time, Mattel has
continued to use the ideas and looks of Jem, on
several more Barbie dolls. In the early 90's there was an edition of rocker dolls called
Barbie and the Beat, which consisted of Barbie, Midge and Christie, had glow in the dark
outfits and came with a cassette with songs. Then in the late 90's when
girls groups was the big thing and some of the girlgroups were released as dolls, Mattel did
it again, they responded with a rockband for
Barbie, named "Beyond Pink". Beyond Pink consists of
Barbie and her friends Teresa and Christie. Mattel
seemed to have learned from Jem, and also this time
included a music cassette tape, with the song "Think
Pink", and on the other side an instrumental
version. This time the dolls even had parts of their
hair in punk hair colors, and Barbie's dress even resembles Jem's.
Happenin' Hair Barbie, 1998 by Mattel
If you dip this Barbie's styling tools in cold water,
you can stamp or stencil pink and purple hair
tattoos. As usual there's a Teresa and Christie
version also with punk hair colors.
Hula Hair Teresa, 1998 by Mattel
Barbie got pink hair once more. There's also Barbie and Christie, both with the
haircolors pink, orange and yellow. But Teresa was
the most interesting of them. Teresa has light brown
hair, plus the "hula hair" with the three punk
colors, red, blue and purple. The same three colors
as the Holograms dolls, Kimber (red), Aja (blue),
Shana (purple).
Hasbro dolls
After the Jem doll line was discontinued, Hasbro
continued to use accessories from the Jem dolls, like
bracelets and necklaces, on their other and new doll
lines. It's possible there are even more similarities
of Jem and other Hasbro dolls. These dolls are the
closest other dolls can truly come to the Jem dolls,
since they're made by the same company.
Space Fantasy Sindy, 1985 by Pedigree
An older version of Sindy, with the bigger head. From before Hasbro bought the rights to Sindy from Pedigree.
It's supposed to be a space doll, with the pink
hair, silver top, a silver/pink cummerband, pink skirt and sandals. There were also a couple of Sindy dolls called "Starlight".
Now Hasbro had taken over the line and changed the mold, made it a little smaller, but not as small as
it was going to be. This doll, although it was made by the same company as Jem, seems to have been
inspired by Jem, and it does share the same mold and color of earrings as the Raya doll has. Came with a
microphone.
Maxie Dance 'n Romance, 1989 by Hasbro
It seemed that Hasbro thought a rockstar doll like Jem was too hard for
little girls to identify with. And instead of changing Jem, Hasbro threw
Jem away and started over.
Still, Maxie inherited several things from the Jem dolls, as Hasbro
re-used some molds for dolls and accessories, and used
some of the ideas that were supposed to be used on the Jem dolls before the line
was discontinued.
Maxie also had her own 32 episodes long cartoon called Maxie's World,
which included some music, in which she was a blonde high school girl
with her own tv show. The dolls were more similar to Barbie in size. The line
only lasted three years though, and before it ended Maxie was even
planned to get her own rockband, much like Jem.
This is an example of the newest version of Sindy's
head, which was more in size of Barbie's head. These dolls provided Barbie with a lot of
competition in Europe. This particular doll is interesting because it came with three
bracelets, a pink, a yellow, and a black which have the exact same shape as the armrings that came
with the Clash doll from the Jem doll line.
Other dolls
Lace, by Creata
This doll is from the late 80's, right after the Jem
dolls were released, and is an obvious copycat of Jem and the Holograms.
The box says "The Celebrity Rock
Star with Fashion & Fame", which is partly the same
as in the Jem theme song. Other versions are a black
doll with black hair and blonde bangs, and a blonde doll. It even had a line of
fashions.
This is one of atleast four dolls called "Popstar/Popstyle styling heads".
This is the most interesting of the dolls, it very
much resembles Stormer. The flower in the blue curly
hair, and that make up. The other three have white hair and are called "Princess" or
"Rock Star".
Sailor Mercury, 1999 by IGEL
A blue haired sailor girl from the anime show, Sailor Moon. It seems that many fans of Sailor
Moon are also fans of Jem. But are the shows really that alike, other than that both the main
characters has a secret identity?
Other similar dolls include Spectra by Mattel, the Spice Girls by Galoob, Moon Dreamers by Hasbro, Golden Girl
by Galoob, Princess of
Power: She-Ra by Mattel, Lady Lovely Locks, Bratz, Moxie Girlz, and Monster High by Mattel.
As mentioned, there was even a Barbie and the Rockers cartoon made, in two parts,
called "Out of this World" and "Rockin' Back to Earth", which featured
all the characters, and several of the outfits and playsets.
In the cartoon, Barbie and the Rockers were the only band around and
loved by everyone in the whole world.
There was certainly no competition from a band like the Misfits.
Alot of the cartoon was about being friends and having a good time. At their worst,
the Barbie and the Rockers characters were tired or disappointed for second, then it
was time to sing and dance again. They even went into space to perform.
Similarities to Jem, other than colorful rockstar dolls,
were that the Barbie and the Rockers
dolls had an edition of the leadsinger with star earrings,
there was a male doll with combable hair, the group
had one black and one asian member, the dolls came with a cassette
with songs, and there was a Stage playset and a car. While the Jem dolls had more
realistic and more bendable bodies, Barbie and the Rockers had their
"Real Dancing Action" edition of dolls.
Both of the cartoons had music videos
that were blended with the action.
The cartoon included some similar storylines as
in the Jem cartoon, including stories with time traveling and
fifties style theme.
