Obviously I don't get to post on the boards much anymore. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is my first post on the "new" board. This seemed like as good a time as any to finally make an appearance.

We've all "wished" on a twinkling star, for the glorious return of our beloved Rainbow Brite - something a bit more awe-inspiring than the last few pathetic attempts that have been made to remarket her (anyone remember the color castle playset from a couple years ago? The Color Console was referred to as the Rainbow Pole). At every turn, Hallmark (and whatever partners they had to make the toys) more than proved that they had absolutely no idea what the *bleep* they were doing, and most of the hardcore fans repeatedly whined about not having a wallet thick enough to outright buy RB from Hallmark and give her the red... and orange, and yellow, and blue, and indigo, and violet carpet treatment she deserves. What's that, I missed green? Sorry, I must've used that talking RB doll to remind me what colors are in a rainbow.

Based on the information we currently have about this latest comeback attempt, I think that once this reaches its peak (if it even gets off the ground) we're going to still be whining the same thing about wanting to own the franchise ourselves.

My first exposure to this new 'reborn' Rainbow came from the front page of RB.net, so I'll start with that.


Considering I've thought for many years that Anime would be the best medium for any return of RB, it'd be hard for me to ever be completely satisfied with this. Fortunately it isn't completely slutty like I feared last year when rumors about this first started buzzing. It really wasn't hard to imagine the Pimps of modern corporate America forcing her to wear the stripper outfit of the Bratz formula.

That aside though, what to we have, really? Aside from the sleves of her classic outfit, which have either become gloves or a collection of bangles, and a more stylized version of the Color Belt (if it'll even still be worthy of that name - more on this later), her wardrobe, amazingly has remained pretty much the same.

As for the artistic style... meh. It reminds me a bit too much (particularly her on Starlite) of a lot of generic artwork I've been seeing on toy boxes and stickers in the past few years. Not too much of a big deal though, since a lot of cutesy stuff has been done with this style, except for the fact that I just somehow find this less than cute. At least they managed to keep the "come hither" look out of her face, but it also seems like the innocence has somehow been lost. The child-like joy and laughter of Rainbow is completely lacking behind those makeup-eyes and plucked eyebrows. It just screams, "I'm here to save the world, but only after my makeup looks right." This is something that Rainbow simply wouldn't have cared about. She had far more important things to keep her busy, and her self-confidence was high enough that she wouldn't have worried about it anyhow. Lala Orange might've, but not her. And yeah, I'm pretty sure I know why they did this, which brings me to the other tidbit of info we have: the United Media Licensing Press Release.

I'll include only the guts of what they plan to do here, rather than include the history of RB (as if we didn't know that already) and the corporate profiles.

Empowering a new generation of girls to spread hope and happiness, a new innovative program launch is underway featuring Rainbow and her best friends Tickled Pink and Moonglow. Rainbow Brite marks the third addition to the United Media and Hallmark licensing relationship, which also includes the popular hoops&yoyo and Maxine brands.

Alright. First part of that sentence seems fine enough. Spreading Hope and Happiness? Yep, that sounds like Rainbow to me. I find the mentioning of Pink and Moonglow as being her friends, rather unsettling though. They seem to be implying that this is all we're getting, and that's not really too out of the realm of possibility. I've seen this kind of streamlining done to re-hashings of franchises more than enough times. The Care Bears boasted (well, ok... they don't really boast... ever) a cloud population of 18 when the two feature-films were made - 29 if you include the cousins. Looking on the official Care Bears website now, you will find... 5.

Have all the other characters been removed? Are there Color Kids? Sprites? Villains? Is there even a Rainbowland?

In support of the launch, Playmates Toys has been tapped as the new master toy licensee for Rainbow Brite. Playmates will unveil a complete line of new fashion dolls, plush and role-play toys to retailers in time for holiday 2009, honoring the nostalgic look, indomitable spirit and energy that Rainbow Brite embodies with a trendy tween...

I had to pause here, because right after seeing the words, "trendy tween", I jumped up and peered out the window. I could've sworn I heard someone slamming on their car brakes, followed by the sounds of a massive crash of twisting metal, and one very terrified cat. The view out the window revealed nothing but an empty road illuminated by the florescent streetlights.

I can't fathom how it is even possible to honor anything Rainbow Brite, with a trendy tween redesign. That's like the President of Greenpeace showing up for an Earth Day convention, driving a Hummer. This just goes right back to my fear of them turning Rainbow into a Bratz clone.

...redesign that girls will adore. Playmates Toys and Hallmark will support the Rainbow Brite product launch with character content online and inpack and through the “Share A Rainbow” challenge, an inspiring socially conscious program that taps kids’ desire to “help” and encourages girls to channel their energies into creating a better world.

This sounds interesting, at the very least. What it entails remains to be seen, but it's benevolent - as long as 'better world' is the kind that we're all thinking of. There's another kind of better world that some believe in, the kind that the corporations want. And that means ushering in a new generation of consumers who are even more addicted to shopping than their parents. This is the essence of trendy tween marketing: getting little girls addicted on keeping up with fashion trends, so every month when their clothing falls out of style, they immediately go out and get the brand new thing that Claire's, Hot Topic, or Abercrombie has on their shelf.

The above scenario not being the case, it sounds like a very cool initiative, even if it's a bit more like what Care Bears were about, rather than Rainbow. Not that she wasn't caring of people and the world, and supportive of her friends, but her responsibility to Earth was handled through the application of colors as a metaphor for happiness, rather than going out on the street and handling problems on an individual basis. We learned those things through her interactions with the Color Kids, not her interactions with Earthlings.

Rainbow Brite’s refreshed design shows girls a role model who is socially-aware, inspirational and innovative. In her collection as well as her digital space, Rainbow Brite will help girls develop an inner strength, while focusing on the importance of being confident and caring about the world.

Socially-aware... is a very open-ended phrases going in hand with "better world." These are the kind of things I'd really like to hear specifics on.

Inspiration and innovation certainly sounds like the Rainbow we know and love though.

I'm not sure what they mean by "in her collection." Are they referring to the collection of merchandise, or something else? The digital space sounds a bit confusing. I presume this means that Rainbow is now going to have a blog presence? Direct interaction with humans on Myspace, Live Journal, or Facebook? Well, there goes that rule about keeping hidden from humans (except for Brian of course).

Caring about the world, fine. Inner-strength, great! Confidence, also great. But wait... if someone is trendy, how is that confident? How can anyone say they're truly confident, if they're just rolling with whatever the rest of the crowd is doing? This is another one of those things I'd like to see explained better.

So there we have it. What we've learned about this relaunch creates more questions than it answers.

I'm partly hoping the artwork is simply concept art someone made for the public, rather than the final product. I hope that the original story (and 80% of the characters) hasn't been completely lost in the mad rush of whatever they're trying to do here. I hope that Hallmark is actually being confident, rather than trendy. I hope they believe in Rainbow Brite enough, to think that she can hold her own in the current stampede society is in, without her just running in the same direction that the rest of the toy market is.

Hallmark, don't give us a Sellout. Give us Rainbow.

Amen *-*

Definitely agreed. The current photos we have are not the same Rainbow at all. You can't just take something and redesign it like that and then try to pass it off as the new generation.

These vintage relaunches of various products have the wrong mindset... the old version can and will sell if marketed properly. But everything for today's girls has to portray a certain image before they think girls will buy it. Also, they've upped their target audience as well... which may play a hand in it.

Perhaps they should look to shows who have been around years and decades. Actually what comes to mind is Power Rangers. They still launch the same types of merchandise, after decades (Japan) or a decade and a half (America). Sure the Ranger style changes with each year, but the concept of a group of people chosen for the greater good with zords and suits stays the same. They don't have to redesign and make it marketable to tweens... they still stick to the 5-8 year old group, which is where Rainbow should have stayed as well.

Chibi Rachy wrote:Definitely agreed. The current photos we have are not the same Rainbow at all. You can't just take something and redesign it like that and then try to pass it off as the new generation.

These vintage relaunches of various products have the wrong mindset... the old version can and will sell if marketed properly. But everything for today's girls has to portray a certain image before they think girls will buy it. Also, they've upped their target audience as well... which may play a hand in it.

Perhaps they should look to shows who have been around years and decades. Actually what comes to mind is Power Rangers. They still launch the same types of merchandise, after decades (Japan) or a decade and a half (America). Sure the Ranger style changes with each year, but the concept of a group of people chosen for the greater good with zords and suits stays the same. They don't have to redesign and make it marketable to tweens... they still stick to the 5-8 year old group, which is where Rainbow should have stayed as well.

Everything today is made to look like MyScene Barbie or *shudder* BRATZ *cringe* To cater to Hilary Duff/Lindsay Lohan wannabe's.

It seems to me that the number one way to market Rainbow Brite would be to either remaster the original show and air it again, or do another series (God help us all, if that's the case...I shudder to think of what they'd do to the show if they tried to do it again from scratch). Most cartoons today are half-hour long product-placement advertisements, and hey, it works. That's the only way I see this stuff getting popular again. No matter how nice the dolls turn out to be, they're just not going to be very popular when the little kids are going "Huh? Who's that? Oh, hey, a Bratz doll!"

FanChan wrote:It seems to me that the number one way to market Rainbow Brite would be to either remaster the original show and air it again, or do another series (God help us all, if that's the case...I shudder to think of what they'd do to the show if they tried to do it again from scratch). Most cartoons today are half-hour long product-placement advertisements, and hey, it works. That's the only way I see this stuff getting popular again. No matter how nice the dolls turn out to be, they're just not going to be very popular when the little kids are going "Huh? Who's that? Oh, hey, a Bratz doll!"

I've been thinking the same thing. Doesn't look like they'll be doing a cartoon series this time around either. You'd think Hallmark would've figured out by now that the toys by themselves don't mean jack without the story. And every couple years they try selling them again without the story, and to nobody's surprise except them, it doesn't do well.

The only other possibility I see, is maybe they're planning to do a new cartoon exclusively on-line - probably as flash animations (which might partially explain the character redesign). But there's no real evidence of that at all in the press release.

But yeah, if they DID make another cartoon, and they're just trying to ride the popular wave... gawd, either just sell the franchise to someone who can do it justice, or don't do anything at all. We don't need "High School Rainbow Musical."

Exactly. Thank-you >.< What we really need are a couple of RB fans that can do animation or something of that sort. I've even thought about contacting Hallmark about doing a comic for the show - maybe turn the series and movie into comics, though now that someone else has partnered with them, that'll have to wait until this time around bombs again. But if we had a few more fans with the time and talent, it'd be interesting to all come together and buy the rights and do the franchise some justice. Ah well.

Heck, there's a hundred deviant art people who have done updated drawings of RB that look better than Hallmark's new design. Really makes you wonder where corporations get their talent from. Must have something to do with that whole "It's not what you know, it's who you know" philosophy.

That, and college degrees. Those of us who haven't gone to college to get a degree in art find it rather difficult to get a job as an artist. Unless your portfolio is above and beyond outstanding, then you're pretty much stuck just trying to sell your work on your own. That, and yes, knowing people.

Ah yeah, that college thing... the place where they teach you to do things the so-called "right" way - as if there ever was such a thing in art.