Charles's Pages about Doll Stuff - www.dollstuff.net

In the previous entry, I mentioned the Toy Story 3 Barbie and Ken Giftset that's going to be coming out as a tie-in for the movie. Well, Jef at Keeping Ken has posted pictures of the giftset! (They were supplied by Cool Toy Review, although I couldn't find them on their site if they've posted them there.)

BTW, before these pics were posted, Rodney was kind enough to send me a link to an eBay auction that shows a picture of the dolls in their packaging. I'm not posting it here beause I don't think the image is meant to be released yet, but if you go to eBay US and search for "toy story 3 barbie ken" you'll see it. (Just don't buy it. )

As you can see, the dolls really don't resemble the ones they're based on at all. They definitely aren't meant to be "reproductions" of the originals.

The Great Shape Barbie doll (apparently she's actually being called that!) has the 1998 "Generation Girl™" Barbie® head rather than the 1976 Superstar™ Barbie® head; she does have a belt (with a buckle) instead of a sash with tails; and her leotard is made of metallic blue fabric rather than matte fabric. Also, the doll shown in the pictures is wearing high heel shoes; the original doll came ballet slipppers. (Doing aerobics in high heels is not a good idea. Don't ask how I know.)

(However, it does look like those are the classic, used-to-be-ubiquitous high heel Barbie shoes that were used throughout the 1990's. They haven't been used in the playline in at least 10 years!)

As for Ken - while the character in the movie is a dead-ringer for the original Animal Fun Ken from 1983, the doll in the giftset is completely-not-a-ringer for it at all. The doll in the pictures has what appears to be a completely new head that looks only vaguely like the 1983 Ken® sculpt. His face paint has nothing to do with the original, either - he's painted exactly like a modern Ken doll.

If they were going to do this, I wish they could have taken the chance to resculpt the current 2007 Ken® head with an open-mouth smile, rather than creating yet another male head that doesn't resemble any of the others.

(On the other hand, like I said before, I don't like the 1983 head, so maybe I should be glad... At least they didn't recreate the original head's bizarre downward-pointing eyes. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll have to take a picture - it's hard to explain. ))

His outfit is different, too. Although the top has a similar print design as the original (blue leopard with gold glitter dots), it's made from woven rather than knit fabric, and his pants are obviously much longer, going all the way down to his knees. Sure, the original Animal Fun Ken "short-shorts" would look kind of strange in 2010 - but that's obviously kind of the point....

I was surprised to see that Ken is a bit of a "dork" in the movie, and not surprised to see that the doll is much less dorky.

By the way, Cool Toy Review also has a listing of the other Barbie dolls that will be released to tie in with the movie that I didn't see before. In addition to the Barbie and Ken giftset, there will be a solo Great Shape Barbie doll and three "Barbie Loves" dolls - one with Woody, one with Buzz Lightyear, and one with the Squeeze Toy Aliens.

PS: The Wikipedia entry for the characters from Toy Story currently has an entry for Ken that says he's "annoyed when being reffered [sic] to by the the [sic again] other toys as a girl's toy". I don't know if that's true (what - made-up stuff on Wikipedia?! Who ever heard of such a thing!? ), but it would be hilarious if it was.