Sunday randomness: just something...random!

A few days ago I opened up one of my doll boxes (I have several) to dig for my next Throwback Thursday victims, and I found two of my dolls like this.

The dolls in question are Tiana (left) and Tressy.  Ami, Chandra, and Apollo are also visible, as is another doll who has not been in the blog yet.  Tressy looks like she's had just about enough of being stuck in that box with the overly chipper Tiana.

Happy Easter, happy Passover, and God bless,
RagingMoon1987

Throwback Thursday review: Hasbro Maxie

Today is another stroll down Memory Lane.  During my childhood, in addition to my ponies and a couple of other dolls, there were three fashion dolls that joined in on my little dolly games.  I thought it was two, but now that I look back on it there were three.  One was Cool Times Midge, another was a red-haired Cut 'n' Style Barbie, and the third was Beachy Keen Maxie.  I wouldn't remember Maxie at all except that my mother had an adult-flavored nickname for her ("Maxie Pad").  There were also Maxie's adorable green triangle earrings.  How I loved those!  I could've sworn that Midge wore those, but I've not found a Midge with green triangle earrings so my memory had to have been flawed.  What fun I had with these dolls, though!  I distinctly remember playing in the bathtub with them, swirling their hair around in the water and making them look like mermaids.  I also clearly remember Mama and Daddy trying to get her swimsuit on right!  It was surprisingly easy to get the swimsuit turned the wrong way.  All this time I thought it was a Barbie, but Mama insisted that the box said "Maxie."  I did a little research and discovered that Maxie was indeed a member of my small childhood doll clique.

Twenty-four-or-so years later, I'm working to replace these lost relics of my childhood.  I've got a red-haired Cut 'n' Style Barbie (whom I've named "Marie"), and Cool Times Midge recently arrived too.  I didn't have to buy Maxie though; one just fell into my lap!  And danged if she isn't a Beachy Keen Maxie!

Maxie is another product of Hasbro, presumably created to pick up the slack when Jem and the Holograms were canceled.  Like Jem, Maxie's world focused heavily on friends and fashions.  Unlike Jem, Maxie was 100% ordinary child.  There WAS a music themed line planned for Maxie and her friends but the line got canceled before Hasbro could release it, planting Maxie firmly in the "normal" zone.  No fancy storylines, no double lives, no rivalries between bands or groups of friends.  Maxie was just an ordinary high school girl with a boyfriend and a couple of girlfriends.  Her storyline is so similar to Mattel's Starr that I thought the two were created to rival one another.  Surprise!  Starr, as you'll see next week, is a lot older than Maxie.  I wasn't too far off the mark, though; Mattel released another line of teen-themed dolls around the time of Maxie's run, and Jazzie happens to share a head mold with Starr's friend Kelley!  Jazzie and Maxie had quite a bit in common, too.  Both had multiple friends, and both had clothes that reflected the styles of the late eighties and early nineties.  Big hair was still in, but praise God, it wasn't stupidly big hair like Jem and her friends sometimes had.  Beachy Keen Maxie came in three different styles, and mine has the biggest hair.  What nice hair, though!

One of Maxie's commercials includes the jingle "Who's that girl with the beautiful hair?" and I have to say it's a very fitting jingle.  My doll's hair is crimped all over and with blunt, even bangs in the front.  It also once had a side ponytail, which I've chosen to recreate at the last minute.  Some pictures will have this ponytail and some won't.

If I had any gripes about Maxie's hair it would be those bangs.  They are nicely cut, but after seeing Jem's beautifully feathered bangs I can't help but find Maxie's a little bland.  That's the only complaint though, and it's a very small one.  The fiber is delightfully soft and smooth, and it's very easy to clean.  Maxie didn't even need a night in THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM.  A round of warm water and Dawn did the trick.

Maxie's makeup is tame compared to Jem's and P. Bo's, but it's fairly appropriate for the beach theme this doll once had.

Hasbro occasionally painted eyebrows too pale, as you saw with Jem.  Maxie fortunately does not have what I've jokingly dubbed "Johnny Winter Syndrome."  Even if they were too light it wouldn't be a huge deal because Maxie's bangs cover them.

Maxie's eyes are pale blue with long eyelashes and white and pink eye shadow.  White and pink eye shadow?  Who wears makeup to the beach???  The eyes aren't painted precisely either; notice that the left eye is missing some paint.  It doesn't show too terribly, especially under normal magnification, but it's there.  Some Maxie dolls have heavy blush in addition to the freckles, but my doll just has freckles and pink lips...and a scuff on her chin.

I'm glad my doll's blush is light, because the ones with heavy blush look sunburned.  Fitting for a beach-themed doll, yes, but hardly stylish.  In retrospect Maxie's makeup may not be as exciting as that of her Hasbro predecessors, but in this case less is definitely more.  As a side note, only the three Beachy Keen variations had freckles.  Again, fitting for a beach-themed theme; folks who don't burn or tan tend to freckle under the sun.  As an aside, Maxie's ears are pierced, but unfortunately her cute little earrings are MIA.

I loved those earrings when I was a little kid and I hope someday to replace them.  In the meantime I do have other dolls with detachable earrings.  Jenny's earrings (left) fit Maxie just fine, but Bratzillaz Jade J'adore's pretty bangles (right) are too loose.

I only own one pair of Ever After High earrings, those being Mira Shards' black dangle-bangles (left).  These are a bit loose like Jade's are, but not loose enough that Maxie would lose them if she wore them.  First-wave Spectra Vondergeist's earrings (right) fit perfectly...

...as do Moonlight Dance Daniela's earrings (left) and Sunflower Burst Cyanne's.

I wanted to try some Fashionista earrings, but China's blue dangles won't come out.  To make up for that I tried some Barbie Basics earrings, and despite their slim posts these fit Maxie with no trouble.

Even though Maxie doesn't have her cute green triangles, she won't have any problems finding other trinkets to wear.  The only earrings I tried that didn't work were Jade's, and I may very well have other Bratz/Bratzillaz earrings that do work.  The length of the post appears to matter just as much as the width does, thus why the Barbie Basics hoops fit.

Maxie has a body that's different from Barbie and Jem.  She moves like Barbie, with joints at the hips, shoulders, neck, and inside the knees, but that's where the similarities end.  She's about half an inch shorter than Gretchen (Hip 2 Be Square Barbie, left), and a full inch shorter than Jem.

Strangely, Maxie's hands are bigger than both Gretchen's AND Jem's.

Her feet are medium-sized, being bigger than Gretchen's...

...smaller than Jem's...

...and close in size to P. Bo's.

To my delight Maxie can wear Bo's shoes, though they're a bit tough to get on and off.

Aaaaand my woes with child-mangled dolls continue!  Happy D's body was broken, Rio's hair got cut and his hand broken off, and it looks like some little kid took scissors to Maxie's right foot.

I said this during Jem's review but I'll say it again:  if I'd ever cut, chewed, marked on, or deliberately broken my childhood dolls, then my rear would've been a bright shade of red and the victimized doll would've been confiscated.  Thus I've never understood why some kids are allowed to do this to their dolls.  Maybe they DIDN'T get away with it!  Maybe they did get their butts beat for such a shenanigan.  I'll never know, and it doesn't really matter whether the kid got punished or not because the damage is done.  It could be worse though; at least Maxie has her foot!  If you will recall, not all my dolls have their body parts!

In spite of the difference in size Maxie can wear some other dolls' clothes.  Key word:  SOME.  Jem clothes are too big and in most cases too long, Barbie's pants are too long, and Bo's things are too tight.  But Barbie dresses are a different story entirely.  Find a piece of TNT-sized clothing and make sure the armholes are big enough for Maxie's hands to go through, and it should fit just fine.  This vintage dress fits Maxie like a dream, and it looks pretty good on her too!

The trippy pink dress that Maxie wore at the beginning of the review is a Barbie dress as well.  This came in one of those multi-dress packs that Mattel used to release, and it fits Maxie better than it does Barbie!

As an aside, notice that this dress isn't printed on the back either.  Apparently this trick of Mattel's has been going on awhile.

I also tried Maxie in Gretchen's Hip 2 Be Square dress.

Gretchen's dress would be a two-piece job if it weren't for the plastic chain link that connects the two parts.  The skirt fits Maxie just fine, but the top is big.  It's not ridiculously big, but big enough that it slides around quite a bit.  The armholes are very large so they fit over Maxie's hands without any problems.

To round out the nineties era I tried Marie's Cut 'n' Style dress on Maxie.

The poor fit of the top is a little more obvious here; one can see how it gaps around Maxie's shoulders.  The skirt, surprisingly, was almost too tight to fasten.  I got the job done, but it was a little snug.  Once again, these armholes were big enough for Maxie's paws to fit through.  So nineties Barbie dresses are a little hit and miss in Maxie, but for the most part they're a good enough fit.  I like the pink dress best, but the two green dresses work well enough that I'd put them on Maxie in a pinch.

I doubt that many post-millenium clothing will fit Maxie since Barbie shrank during that time, but one of the Fashion Avenue outfits I tried on P. Bo might work.  It's got a loose top and elastic sleeves so I might be able to maneuver Maxie's paws in.

Indeed, I was able to maneuver Maxie's paws into the sleeves.  The problem is that the sleeves fit Maxie's arms very tightly and do not slide freely up and down like they do on a Barbie's slimmer arms.  This in turn caused the loosely cut bodice to bunch up and look unattractive.  I was only able to get the picture above after a lengthy battle to get said bodice to lie flat.  The Velcro closes in back and the skirt fits, but it was such a chore to get the blouse looking nice that I doubt Maxie will wear this again.

There's also this cute pink Fashionista dress that I picked up at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago.

I got that dress with the intention of putting it on Billie Jean, but Maxie may not be willing to give it back!  This fits Maxie reasonably well; it's a little loose, but not too loose for her to look presentable.  I've also got this cute orange and green jungle-print dress, also a Fashionista number.

This one is a little tight across the chest, but it's an acceptable length and fastens without a lot of fuss.  I love the colors with Maxie's sandy hair too.

The packaging said that those Fashionista dresses will fit all four body types, and since they fit Maxie so well I started wondering if Billie Jean's other outfits will work.  I've got that cute polka-dot outfit, and I've also got Billie Jean's stock outfit.

Unfortunately Billie Jean's skirt is way too loose for Maxie, while the top is ironically a teensy bit too tight.  The polka-dot outfit is loose all over as well, especially in the waist of the skirt.  It does stay on Maxie, however, and it looks pretty darn cute too.

At the last minute I added a LIV dress and a What's Her Face! dress to the lineup.  The LIV dress almost fits but is a little tight across the shoulders...

...and the What's Her Face! dress...well, I couldn't get it on Maxie at all.

I can't give a good review of Maxie's original clothes because she didn't come with any of her own.  She came in a frilly pink dress that fit her nicely but isn't on the website I found that helps identify Maxie clothes.

It looks nice on Maxie, but the bodice is a tiny bit big.  It isn't tagged so I have no idea who made this dress.  Maybe it's a Hasbro product and maybe it isn't, but it fits Maxie and makes her look presentable so that's really all that matters.  If Maxie's original clothes are anything like Jem's clothes they'll likely be well-made but with bits and bobs that either could get lost or wouldn't age well.  My old doll's swimsuit took a fair amount of punishment as children's toys often do, but as far as I can remember it held up well except for a little fading.

That's plenty to think about.  Maxie's pros and cons now.

BAD
*Not terribly original.  The doll world is crawling with beach-themed dolls.
*Hands are large, meaning it's a little tricky to dress this doll at times.
*Can't wear Barbie's shoes at all.
*Doll's overall measurements make clothes sharing a little hit and miss.
*My particular doll is missing part of one foot, though that's just a problem with my particular doll.

GOOD
*Lovely hair.  This doll was advertised as "the girl with the beautiful hair," and I agree.
*My particular doll is well painted, being neither overly blushed like other Maxie dolls nor too pale.  The tiny streak of missing paint in one eye is barely visible.
*Sturdy.  I can't illustrate the way a doll feels in my hands, but this doll feels very well constructed.  She doesn't feel like she'd break at the drop of a hat like some of my other dolls.
*Can wear some of Barbie's clothes, and some other dolls' earrings.
*Can wear Flavas shoes.  I'm hoping this may mean that P. Bo can wear Maxie's (if I ever find any Maxie shoes).

My childhood memories unfortunately bias my overall opinion of Maxie.  In my eyes she can do no wrong.  But in all fairness I feel like this review is incomplete, as I have no items of clothing to review.  The doll herself is great; she has pretty hair and a pretty face.  She's got all of Barbie's beauty but with some innocence added in.  The few problems she does have can either be rectified or blamed on something besides the doll.  Thus I'm a little bemused as to why Maxie was only around for three years.  She does have a lot of similarities to Skipper and to Jazzie, both of whom are relatives of the anointed one, Barbie. 

I don't have a Jazzie doll to show y'all, but she bears a passing resemblance to Maxie.  I don't recall how popular either doll was in the nineties, but since they were both in Barbie's family that might mean that they outperformed Maxie and her sun-loving friends.  Or maybe fans of Jem and the Holograms were underwhelmed by her girl-next-door image.  Hasbro did have a music-themed wave in the works, but the line got canceled before Maxie and her friends could hit the recording studio.  Kind of a shame too, because that music theme was cute.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Sunday randomness: one cute couple

There are few dolls cuter than Licca-chan and Penny Brite.

In a world full of Barbies, it's nice to have a dose of cuteness.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Alas, poor Emiko...

...we know her well!  Or we knew her before, when she was like this.

Now for awhile I'll know her like this!

Remember when I said that her neck was crumbling?  Well, it finally gave way last night, under the not-so-terrible strain of a hairstyling session.  And wouldn't you know, the plastic know that attaches a doll's head to its body came off with the head so I had to dig that out.  I got it out fairly quickly with the help of some hot water and two forks, but that came at the cost of a bent fork, two mildly scalded fingers, and a few cuss words.  I did get the job done though, and now Emiko's head is resting safely in Jenny's lap, waiting for her new body to come.

I hated to bid the old body adieu.  It wasn't flawless, having green marks on one arm and uneven legs, but those flaws added character.  Unfortunately a body with a broken neck has no use in the doll world, so I declared it obsolete.  I had the option of buying another Jenny body but the call of an Obitsu body, with its superior jointing and soft bust options, was too great to ignore.  I've never owned or seen an Obitsu body in real life, so this will be an exciting new thing to have.  I ordered the body late last night and received a notification that it was shipping today, so it'll likely be sometime next week before I have it in my grubby little mitts.  In the meantime I'll start throwing the next review together.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Throwback Thursday review: Jem and the Holograms by Hasbro

For this Throwback Thursday review I present a line of dolls that I never dreamed I'd fall for.  Jem and the Holograms hail from the 1980's, a time when hairstyles were big, clothing styles were bad, and music began focusing more on looks than on talent (Madonna, I'm looking at you).  Yeah, I can't say that I'm too sorry I missed out on much of the eighties; even Chicago's music took on that synth-heavy eighties sound!  Everyone knows Chicago is supposed to have a brass section, not a synth section.  The toys apparently weren't so bad though.  Girls got Golden Dream Barbie and Christie out of the deal (among others), and Micro Machines were big (LOL, bad pun!).  I've talked about a few other eighties doll lines in the past, most of whom were childhood friends.  Jem and the Holograms were not on that friend list, though I had a good reason for this oversight.  I was a mere toddler when the last Jem dolls hit store shelves, but even as my adolescence unfolded I never was even remotely curious about the garish Hasbro minxes that shook Barbie's world so.  That attitude didn't end until several months ago when I found these at a local flea market.  Here's how they looked immediately after I got them home.

From left, a trio of swelled heads...er, I mean Jem, Rio, and Roxy.  I found them nude, dirty, disheveled, and reeking of cigarette smoke.  A thorough bath removed the dirt and the Eau du Cigarette, but it took me awhile to get some clothes.  Thanks to some generous proprietors on Etsy and eBay (again) I got the job done.  So without further ado, here's the star of the show, Jem.

It's rare when I'll admit that Miley Cyrus did something right, but I thought the main premise of Hannah Montana was pretty clever.  Miley's character was a girl that lived a secret dual life as a normal high school kid and a famous pop star.  I wonder now if the producers of Hannah Montana got the idea from Jem, because Jem does exactly the same thing in her TV show, which is appropriately titled Jem.  She's really an ordinary young woman named Jerrica Benton, but thanks to some sort of fancy computer she can appear onstage as Jem, lead vocalist of her band Jem and the Holograms.  These dolls (and the TV show too) took everything about eighties fashion to the extreme.  Big hair, loud clothes, garish makeup, the works.  My particular doll is Glitter 'n' Gold Jem, who wore an ensemble that bore passing resemblance to some of Golden Dream Barbie's fashions.  My doll has only her original headband remaining from that fancy outfit, typical of a second-hand doll.  Fortunately, even without the golden clothes Jem has bits and pieces of her gilded self intact, namely her hair.

It's not uncommon to find Jem dolls with outrageous hair, and while my girl isn't as over the top as some, she's definitely got the eighties aesthetic going on.  Her hair is white-blonde with subtle pink highlights and golden tinsel.  Tinsel in doll hair isn't always a good thing as owners of early Cleo de Nile and Abbey Bominable dolls can attest, but Jem's tinsel is very smooth and fairly easy to manage.  It can have a life of its own, making the hairstyle a little wild, but it's not terrible.  I particularly like Jem's bangs.

You don't see feathered bangs on a doll this size too often.  Underneath the feathered bangs Jem has a surprisingly pretty face.  She reminds me a little of a young Dolly Parton.  However, this pretty face isn't flawless.  Her eyebrows are very, VERY pale!  I don't know if you can see them or not, but they're very pale yellow lines of paint above Jem's eye shadow.

I'll give Hasbro credit:  they gave Jem eyebrows pale enough to match her hair, which is realistic for humans.  Unfortunately this also makes Jem look a little less like Dolly Parton and a little more like Johnny Winter!  Anyway, under those pale eyebrows Jem has pale violet eyes with thick painted eyelashes and pink-red eye shadow.  Jem's cheeks and lips are colored with this pink-red stuff too.  At first glance it looks like Jem's mouth is poorly painted, but in fact a lot of that extra red crap came off when I washed her face.  It looks like some little kid may have used makeup on my Jem, and indeed there were other dolls during the eighties that came with makeup for that very purpose.  Luckily for me, Jem doesn't have a face that stains easily.  Overall her makeup is fairly tame for a doll that's supposed to be over the top, but she makes up for it by being very pretty in the face.

Oops, I almost forgot!  Jem's earrings.

The one on Jem's right (our left) is a little star, while the one on her left (our right) is a plain stud.  I think it was once a star too, but the star probably fell off long ago.  Now y'all might be thinking "Big deal, a lot of dolls come with earrings," but in Jem's case this little addition is important.  My doll has a battery compartment and an on-off switch in her back.

Stick batteries in there, flip the switch, and her earrings will flash.  This is crucial to the TV show's storyline.  In Jem Jerrica/Jem uses these earrings to project holograms around herself, both to enhance stage performances and to protect herself from danger.  It's also where her band got its name.

Normally this would be where I go into the body review and clothes, but I have a specific way that I want to do the body review.  So I'm saving those parts for later and going straight into the next doll, Roxy.

If you can believe this, Jem had villains in the form of rival bands and unscrupulous managers.  Roxy is one of these villains, playing bass guitar for rival band the Misfits (not THESE Misfits, thank goodness).  In the TV show she is depicted as a barely-literate high school dropout who causes a fair amount of friction within her band.  In true eighties style, she has a gravity-defying hairdo.

Hey Roxy, C.C. DeVille called.  He wants his hair back.  Believe it or not, Roxy's hair is fairly tame compared to that of her bandmates, all of whom had candy-colored tresses.  The style is definitely in for the time, though.  The bangs are cut short and some are sticking up, while the rest of it falls to Roxy's shoulders.  It felt nasty before I gave her a bath, but now that I've done that it feels great.  I didn't even have to use THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM.  This hair feels like it may be nylon, so this just shows y'all (and me) that nylon hair can be nice if a superior nylon fiber is used (MGA Entertainment apparently uses the cheap crap).

Roxy's makeup is more typical of the style found on these dolls.  The asymmetry reminds me a little of the paint job used on Sunflower Burst Cyanne.  The right side of Roxy's face has orange eye shadow, three chartreuse cheek lines that look like claw marks, and your stereotypical villain eyebrow that is mercifully darker than Jem's eyebrows are.

The left side has eye shadow is done up in a style that vaguely resembles David Bowie's alter-ego Ziggy Stardust.  Only instead of being a red and blue lightning bolt, the makeup looks more like a purple and chartreuse flame.  In my eyes the oddest thing about Roxy's makeup is the rouge on her left cheek.  It's yellow.  A very interesting combo, but unfortunately it can make Roxy look a little sallow if the lighting isn't just so.

Rounding out the face paint are these orange lips.

I think Roxy may be missing some paint from her lips, but it doesn't show too terribly.  It's not unlike a color I wore in high school.  Orange lipstick looked horrid on me, but I liked it so I wore it.  Roxy wears it better, though when paired with the yellow rouge it looks like she's going for a glowing-under-blacklight look.  Again, such a phenomenon would not be unheard of in the music world; Peter Gabriel did that with his stage makeup when he was a member of Genesis, and he may have during his solo career as well.  Peter Gabriel was fairly popular in the eighties, so maybe he was in the back of Hasbro's minds when they created Roxy?  I'll never know, but it's fun to speculate!

Now let's take a look at the main male character of the show, Rio.

Oh Rio, Rio, dance across the Rio Grande...I highly doubt that this was the Rio that Duran Duran had in mind.  LOL, for someone who supposedly hated eighties music I seem to be full of references!  Not all of it was bad, I'll admit!  Anywho, Rio is the road manager for Jem and the Holograms.  He is also Jerrica's boyfriend, though I question his loyalty because he's got the hots for Jem without knowing she and Jerrica are one and the same.  Further, Rio apparently has major trust issues, leading Jerrica/Jem to continue keeping her occupation a secret for fear that Rio will flip out over her deception.  So yeah, Rio doesn't sound like the greatest guy in the world.  He's a nice doll, though.  He's got a killer tan with lovely blue eyes.

Rio's hair is purple and rooted, and unfortunately it appears to have been cut.  Stock pictures of the original Rio show him with something of an afro, but my doll's locks are so short that one can see through to his scalp in places.

Curse the little brat who did this!  My parents would've blistered my rear if I'd cut my dolls' hair.  Oh yes, Rio's also missing his left hand.

Some little kid certainly was rough with her things...or she had siblings that were.  Sometimes siblings do things like this to things that aren't theirs.

From the photographs I've taken it may look like Jem is Barbie's size and thus can wear Barbie's clothes.  But noooooooooo, Jem and her flashy buddies are very statuesque.  They're taller than both modern and vintage Barbie dolls by about half an inch and are larger all over than Barbie as well.  Here's how Jem compares to Cassandra (Made to Move Barbie, left) and P.J. (right).

See how much bigger Jem's feet and shoes are?  Sheesh, and I thought Ami had big feet!

Jem is even bigger than the tall Fashionistas.  I was hoping that she would be able to share clothes with Gertrude and her tall cronies, but after looking at the two of them together I find that doubtful.

It's the same story with Rio.  He towers over Toby, one of my nineties Ken dolls.

He's also taller than Masaharu (DOTW Japan Ken, left) and Apollo (2011 Fashionistas Ken, right).  Masaharu's thick boots make him look taller, but he's still not as tall as Rio.

Obviously Barbie and Ken clothing are out of the question with Jem and her splashy friends.  Luckily some things on Etsy and eBay fit my dolls.  Most of it's for the girls, but I was able to find most of Rio's original suit.

I darn near never found shoes for him.  The ones he's wearing are the only, repeat, ONLY pair that I saw on eBay.  They're big, just like Jem's are.

Jem shoes are the same size as the recently reviewed P. Bo's shoes are, but their shoes don't have the details that Bo's do.

I was hoping Bo could wear Rio's shoes, but they are ridiculously big on her.

Normally Rio would be wearing a yellow t-shirt underneath this outer shirt, but mine doesn't have that so he goes bare-chested.  Hey, if Roger Daltrey can wear an open shirt at his age, so can Rio.  The shirt has one button on the right side, but no cooresponding buttonhole that enables it to function.

The rest of the shirt is made out of this soft woven fabric.  The dominant color is purple, but there are plenty of other colors mixed in.

It's a little wrinkled, but it's also a well-made garment, very fitted.  In fact, it fits Rio a little TOO close!  It wants to stick to his vinyl arms instead of sliding over them.  The seams are cut well, but the bottom hem is a little raggy-looking.

I shouldn't have been surprised to find that the shoulders were padded, but I was.  More cringe-worthy eighties fashion.

Rio's slacks are purple as well, and they're very soft.

They stretch a little, but again these are a chore to put on because Rio's vinyl legs create a lot of friction.  These do close in the back, which is more than I can say for the shirt.  The pants also have this non-functioning belt.

The back closes with a little patch of Velcro.

I'm glad Rio's britches have a belt as it breaks up all that purple, but I wish I could tighten it or something of that sort.  I also don't like the fact that these pants are so fitted at the ankles!

That was apparently another hideous eighties trend, as All-American Ken wore jeans like that too.  I do appreciate the accuracy of these pants, but the style still gets a big fat YUCK!!!  I prefer bell-bottoms...which a lot of people happen to hate.  How tastes differ!  These gathers are nicely done, though.

Rio may not have all of his original outfit, but at least he's got most of it.  Roxy and Jem aren't quite as lucky, though I do love what I've got for them.  Jem is wearing Flash 'n' Sizzle Jem's dress.  It's just the dress; the tights and jewelry probably got lost or wore out years ago.

It's a little worse for wear, as secondhand fashions often are, but when I say a little I mean a little.  The shoulder strap is broken.

Easily remedied by tucking the broken strap into Jem's bodice and rearranging the tulle trim.  Problem solved.  The rest of the dress is in great shape.  The bodice is made of stretchy ruched pink fabric that hugs Jem's body.  

The skirt has a sky blue base layer and an outer layer of sparkly tulle.  Both layers have an asymmetric hem.

This is a cute dress.  Yeah, I do sort of wish that the straps were intact, but the bodice fits so well that straps really aren't needed.  In fact, the bodice is a lot like Rio's clothes in that it fits a little TOO well.  It didn't slide over Jem's legs without a fight.  That may be how the shoulder straps got broken, in fact; maybe someone tried to use those to pull the dress up?  I'll never know for sure, but I do know that I've done the same with doll dresses in the past.  Definitely time to break that habit.  As an aside, these shoes are not original.  But they match nicely!

Roxy's dress once belonged to a Rock 'n' Curl Jem.  It too is missing its accessories, and I can't say that I like this dress as much as I like the other one.  It does its job, though; it suits Roxy's style and covers her nakedness, so no biggie.

The bodice is a lovely royal purple and has one shoulder.  The shoulder is decorated with a pink shabby-chic bow.

The waist is cut in a diagonal manner, and the lowest point is decorated with another pink bow.

The bodice itself was once decorated with sparkly little polka dots, but those have worn off with time.

The skirt is short, almost obscenely so.  It's made out of silver lame that has started to lose its shine.

Neither the skirt nor the bodice are things I can't fix without a little fabric paint or silver beads.  Unlike Jem's dress, Roxy's has a Velcro opening in the back, along with some loose threads.

I even have some shoes that match...sort of.

So these dresses may not be the original things that my particular dolls once wore, but they'll definitely do.  Aside from showing typical wear of age and use these clothes are nice.  They feel like they were built to last, and for the most part they have.  No holes or rips or anything like that, just faded spots and a torn strap that doesn't harm the rest of the dress much.  I'm a little sorry that Jem's dress doesn't have its Day-Glo yellow accessories, but at least she's not naked anymore, right?  

As a last little touch, I've got this!

This little number came from Cazjar on Etsy.  The proprietor makes clothes for Hasbro Jem and for Integrity Jem, with this one being intended for Hasbro Jem.  It's a full outfit; the only thing that didn't come with the outfit are those pink shoes.  Everything closes with snaps, including the tights.  The tights do not slide over Jem's rubbery legs easily, but the final look is worth the effort.  Cazjar warns that these dresses are NOT toys, and it shows.  This outfit is extremely nice, but it's got parts that would not hold up in the hands of a child.  For you adult collectors though...go for it!  Cazjar's clothes are fabulous!

Unfortunately these three are going to have to get naked again!  As I said above, these dolls are quite statuesque, and yet they're also very shapely and graceful.  Rio, being a boy, has a heavily muscled body with flat feet and molded skivvies.

His feet have big holes in the heels for reasons I've not yet figured out.

He has joints at the shoulders, hips, neck, waist, wrists (wrist?), and knees.  His arms have lateral movement...

...as do his hips.  Rio can do a full sideways split, but not a full front-to-back split.

His waist twists halfway around, which looks a little odd.

Rio's elbows feel like they can bend, but they don't.  His head makes up for that by tilting a teensy bit.

Very few of my boy dolls have heads that do tilt, so it's nice to see one that can.

Roxy, being female, has a female body with boobies and a trim waist and all that jazz. 

Her feet have an elevated heel.

She has major cankles, and I wondered if that meant she had joints there.

Unfortunately these ankles are not jointed.  Roxy has the same number of joints that Rio does, and they all move in the same way.  She can't do a full front-back split either.

She can do a very nice side split, though, and a decent bridge.

Roxy has rubbery arms like Rio does, but hers don't hold a pose either.  Too bad too, because one of her hands is designed to hold a microphone.  Notice that Roxy has pink nail paint, by the way.

Such a shame that Roxy can't bring that mic closer to her face!  If only these dolls had elbows that bent!  Oh wait...Jem does!  Jem has all the joints that Roxy does, but she's got some extra bits that put her ahead of Roxy in the posing department.  For starters, notice that the two girls have bodies that differ slightly.

Jem's torso is shorter and curvier, though not enough so to make clothes sharing a pain in the butt.  The subtle differences in shape do offer a clue though, that Jem's body is different from Roxy's.  Not only are Jem's arms rubbery like those of her companions, but they actually do bend and hold a pose!  That's not all, either.  These elbows have three clicks of rotational movement.  This means that I can move her lower arms towards the center of her body or away.

The knees have the same feature.  I can make Jem sit slightly knock-kneed...

...or with her ankles crossed...

...or I can tuck her legs off to the side, like Miss Emily likes to do with her dolls.

Up until this point in the eighties the most flexible dolls manufactured had been Sindy, Living Barbie and Uneeda Dollikin, and as far as I know none of them had rotating joints like this.  That would mean that this particular Jem doll may have been a bit groundbreaking.  Granted my Jem doll couldn't bend her waist or ankles like Dollikin and Living Barbie could, and she has nowhere near the posing abilities that Made to Move Barbie dolls do, but she's still got an impressive set of joints!  

 Sooooo...was adding these dolls to my collection worth it?  Let's weigh the pluses and minuses.  

BAD

*Fairly difficult to dress.  It's especially hard to find clothes for Rio.

*Can't share clothes with Barbie, or with any of my other dolls.

*Fragile wrists, maybe?  I'm not sure how much strength it took to pull Rio's hand off, but apparently it can be done.  I'm marking this wrist joints as slightly fragile for that reason.

*When new these dolls had lots of easily lost bits and bobs.

GOOD

*Concept is original, or it was at the time.  

*The clothes that I do have are of reasonably decent quality.

*Hair is nice

*Faces are well-painted

*Joints are articulated.  Jem is the best in this category, but all three dolls have decent joints.

I'm pretty hard-pressed to find anything majorly wrong with these dolls, or at least anything that was the fault of Hasbro or the dolls themselves.  Rio's cut hair and missing hand are a bummer, but neither of those are Rio's fault so I'm not going to gripe too loudly about it.  I'll gripe about kids who mistreat their toys instead!!!  Ahem...where was I?  I have to confess that I like these dolls, but I'm not going to become a hardcore Jem collector.  The three I've got are enough, and I look forward to digging up some more pieces of clothing that fit.  I also look forward to grubbing up some more pieces of original clothing, because what I have is well made and cute.  My dolls' clothes have some minor cosmetic issues, but nothing terribly detracting.  I can either fix them or accept them as normal wear and tear.  The dolls themselves have stood up relatively well to the test of time, proof that as recently as the eighties toy companies were taking pride in their products.  Nowadays there are times when it seems like all the company cares about is making a buck and saving a buck.  There's nothing cheap about Jem and her friends though, and that's given me a new appreciation for this doll line.

Love,

RagingMoon1987