Barbie and The Rockers 1985

One of the most iconic Barbies of the 80’s was “born with a Mike” in her hand! She’s a singer-songwriter and the frontwoman of Barbie and the Rockers, the most popular rock band in history! Now she is ready for a TV interview where she will give all the details of the next Barbie and The Rockers concert!

It was the mid-80’s. There were many popular rock bands then. It was something that the toy industry had to take advantage of, and Mattel could not be left behind, especially when one of its main competitors in the market was about to throw a sure blow. I’m sure almost everyone knows the story of how our rocker Barbie was born, but in case you don’t know, this is what happened. Toy company Hasbro was about to launch its popular JEM doll line. The information was leaked, and Mattel was aware of it. Surely, they should do something about it! So, Mattel and its great minds, like Judy Shackelford, Former Senior VP of girls toys at Mattel, got to work. It normally took 18 months to create a new Barbie doll, but Mattel set out to do it in 4 months! Well, they did it in literally 16 hours! You can believe it! Barbie and the Rockers was released before JEM, and everyone thought Hasbro had copied Mattel. What a strategy! But for some kids like me, Hasbro’s publicity was more impactful because for that Christmas I asked for a JEM doll. Sorry, Barbie!

Barbie and The Rockers line created in 1985 includes Barbie, Dee Dee, Dana, Diva, and Dereck dolls. It also includes beautiful and striking rock fashions as well as several fun and very cool playsets with musical instruments, concert stage, and tour bus! This line was launched in 1986 and a year later a second wave of Barbie and The Rockers would be released but this time it would also include Ken. Also came out a movie entitled Barbie and The Rockers: Out of this World. The film is a 1987 American animated television special created by DIC Animation City with Saban Productions. In 2009 Mattel released a reproduction of Barbie and The Rockers doll commemorating Barbie’s 50th anniversary, and the line was brought back in 2017 as a Target exclusive. As you can see, Barbie and The Rockers was and is one of the most famous and recognized Mattel lines in the history of Barbie!

My Barbie and The Rockers doll was made in Philippines. She’s Mattel’s doll #1140 and resembles the female rock stars of the 80’s. With big teased blonde hair and bold makeup this rocker Barbie breaks with the parameters of the Barbies dolls of the time. Until then we had seen Barbie dolls with sweet, elegant and glamorous look. But Barbie and The Rockers showed us an audacious side of Barbie that we hadn’t contemplated before. The same Superstar face shows us a different fresh look with silver eyeliner and dramatic eye shadow in soft and strong violet tonality. There is no way you can confuse this Barbie doll with any other! She’s unique!

Barbie comes dressed in an outfit that rocks! She wears a sleeveless sparkly silver crop top with a hot pink jacket with silver dots, hot pink tights with thin silver lines, a white mini skirt with violet velvet belt, and white heels with cuffs. The material of the mini skirt and cuffs peels over time. She also comes with pink and silver pendant earrings, pink ring, bracelet, purple scarf with furry pink hairpiece, an extra purple scarf, hot pink t-shirt with Rockers vinyl print, microphone, hair brush, cardboard pressouts that include doll-size poster of The Rockers, gold record award, 2 photographs, 3 record album covers, 5 concert tickets, and 2 sheets of music, a child-size iron-on decal, and a free cassette with 4 original rock songs: The Rockers-Theme, Dressin’ Up, Born with a Mike, and Stretchin’ It.

Barbie and The Rockers are waiting for you soon at their concert. Get your ticket before everything sells out and go sing with Barbie the biggest hits of the most famous rock band of all time, The Rockers!