Another 1996 Rainbow Brite

Are there just the three dolls in the 1996 series? I have to say that if I saw these in the store, I would walk right by. The packaging looks like some weird imitation of Rainbow Brite and the dolls just look cheap. I'm not sure if they looked better in the stores or not because I've only seen them online.

1996 20th Anniversary Rainbow Brite Doll

I have to admit that I missed the re-release of the 20^th Anniversary Rainbow Brite dolls. Then again, I was a 16-year-old girl who just got her driver's license, so I think you can forgive me. I'm not sure why they even bothered using the name though because these dolls look absolutely nothing like the originals. I haven't found much information about these little guys, but you can leave me a comment if you have any info.

Photo courtesy: rainbowbrite.tv (now defunct).

The History of Rainbow Brite

For my first post, why not offer up a short history of Rainbow Brite? I'm sure that at some point I will go into a deeper history of the different stages, but let's just start at the beginning.

Hallmark Cards brought Rainbow Brite into the world in 1983. The doll and toys were so popular that a TV show started the following year. A two-part nighttime special aired on my fourth birthday: June 27, 1984. Titled, “Perils in the Pits,” it was a hit with girls my age. That led to “The Mighty Monstromurk Menace” and “The Beginning of Rainbowland.” A lot of people my age think that it was instantly an animated series, but it actually didn't start airing as a show until 1986. Sadly, the show lasted just one year.

The story of Rainbow Brite starts when a magical force takes a small girl to the Colorless World. This tiny orphan is faced with the daunting task of tracking down the Sphere of Light. She meets an adorable little white sprite named Twink, who introduces her to her horse Starlite. The orphan manages to track down and save the Color Kids, a group of kids who represent the colors in the rainbow. She also gets the Color Belt (shameless plug!), which lets her give the Colorless World its color back.

The little girl wins in a fight against the King of Shadows and officially earns the name Rainbow Brite. As part of her reward, she gets to stay in this world, now named Rainbow Land/Rainbowland, and control the colors of the rainbow. Including the original two-part episodes, the show ran for just 13 episodes.

Rainbow Brite disappeared for nearly a decade before new dolls landed on the store shelves. The new dolls had little in common with the originals save for Rainbow Brite herself. Not surprisingly, the series failed miserably.

Hallmark held on though, releasing a new line of dolls in 2004 as part of the 20^th anniversary of the franchise. Toy Play, a division of Hallmark, was in charge of this line.

In 2009, Playmates Toys got the rights to produce Rainbow Brite dolls from Hallmark. The company released several dolls and other items as part of the 25^th anniversary. The line did not do as well as expected and Playmates passed the name back to Hallmark. Hallmark currently licenses the name and likeness to other companies.