Redesign Woes

[Chibi Rachy]

Note: All right. I need to explain some things first, and this is one of those notes you have to read, especially if you're planning on commenting. It's been well-stated that I don't care much for the redesign for many reasons, even though there are a few things that are okay. Moonglo's design is the one that boils me most. Anyway, this is a story I got the idea for in the shower last night, of all places. Basically, the idea was to take some of the most common complaints of the redesign and turn them into the involved characters voicing their opinions to the CEO of the toy company in charge of merchandise. It's all in fun and was fun to write too. Believe it or not, I wrote it in about 3 hours or so, which is a record for a 6 page oneshot story. Anyway, enjoy, and don't be too offended...you know you've thought some of these to be true!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, neither the Rainbow Brite franchise or the CEO guy.



Redesign Woes


“The CEO will see you now,” called a secretary in a pleasant voice. She didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see the quartet sitting in the plush chairs across from her.

“Thank you,” answered the blonde girl, who slid off the chairs along with her friends.

Rainbow Brite had come this far, yet she still felt nervous. It had taken a lot to bring her to show her own self, let alone Tickled Pink, Moonglo, and Twink. Rainbow had never made an appearance to any human on Earth, not since Brian. She had been thankful though, that he’d tipped her off about this. He used the secret key he’d kept to visit Rainbow Land and had brought pictures along with him. These weren’t the usual pictures you’d expect. They weren’t pictures of his family, or his growing daughter, but pictures of new designs. New toy designs. New toy designs for herself, and her friends. The faces that had glanced up at her were dull. Dead. Fake. She was determined to do something about it.

Brian had helped with the research, and still begged them not to. He didn’t want word to get out that Rainbow Brite was indeed real and not a cartoon, as his father had pitched the idea to a cartoonist years ago. Rainbow would not listen. She wouldn’t let this stop her. She’d kept quiet years before, when they’d tried to change her design then. Now, she was going to speak her mind. And they were going to listen.

“Are you sure about this, Rainbow?” asked Moonglo in a timid whisper. She had been the most angry out of them all, but she kept it well hidden. It simply wasn’t in her nature to go crazy as some might expect.

“Yes,” nodded Rainbow, “I won’t let this be like the last time.

With those words, all four of them went through the door, crossing into the office of the CEO. They had no time to oooh or ahhh over the décor of the office, or care that it was carpeted. They were interested in the man behind the large desk, so large that it was taller than any of them. He gestured to the two large plush chairs in front of the desk. “Have a seat and we’ll talk,” he stated.

Tickled Pink and Moonglo climbed onto one chair, while Rainbow and Twink sat in the other. Tickled Pink set a rolled up piece of paper on her lap. They settled themselves before looking to the CEO, who looked back at them, apparently bored. “What brings you to my office?” he asked.

“Your secretary told you why,” answered Rainbow calmly.

“I know what she told me. What I don’t believe is that someone would dress up children and have them impersonate a cartoon character, all for the sake of complaining. That seems rather childish, don’t you think?” He glared at each of them.

“We’re not just cartoon characters,” answered Tickled Pink. “We’re real too, just like you.”

The CEO raised an eyebrow. “You expect me to believe that? Someone skilled with needle and thread worked very hard to make your costumes look exactly like the cartoon characters’.

“What she says is true. We’re real and not dressing up.”

“Prove it,” demanded the CEO with a smug look on his face. He was certain that this would catch them in their lie, and out the door they’d go, back to their normal lives of playing with dolls and socializing with friends.

“Twink, some star sprinkles,” said Rainbow as she held her hand out to her right hand sprite. Twink complied, searching his pouch for the few sprinkles he’d placed inside, just for something like this. Rainbow held the star sprinkles to her Color Belt, where they vanished as a bright white light formed. A colorful rainbow shot forth, swirling around the room.

“Amazing tricks,” sneered the CEO.

In response, Rainbow directed the rainbow toward him, using it to pick the CEO up from his chair and wrap him in the colorful beam. He squirmed and wiggled, but did not say anything. He didn’t need to; Rainbow could read the fear on his face. It was not something she had wanted to resort to, but if it meant he’d believe that they were real, that more than justified the cause. She placed him back in his chair and watched him straighten his tie. “Do you believe us now?” she asked in a calm voice.

“All right. So you’re real. Now why are you here? Do you want first dibs on the new merchandise?”

Moonglo shook her head, and Rainbow nodded to her. “We’re here about the merchandise, but not because we want any of it.”

“Why not? We designed it with the classic characters in mind,” replied the CEO, surprised.

Rainbow shook her head. “What we’ve seen… is not us. It’s something entirely new. We’ve seen the press releases and the stickers with the designs.”

“Why don’t you tell me what you find some bad about the new look?” suggested the CEO. He wasn’t sure he’d just heard himself suggest such a thing. The designs weren’t going to be changed and he planned to continue with the release of all planned merchandise. He’d humor these children though, just so they’d leave him be.

“Let’s start with the designs,” began Tickled Pink. “You make us look older, but we never grow. We’ve been this way for a very long time.” She paused for a moment, trying to remember what Shy Violet had told her. “Over 700 years.” She nodded, as if confirming to herself that this was indeed the number she had meant to say. “We don’t grow at all, not like human children.”

“We wanted to make you older. The five year old look wasn’t going to do as well as the pre-teen look. Our test market showed us the data.”

Moonglo spoke up. “And then there’s the faces. They look so fake. There’s no…character to them.”

“That’s what little girls these days buy. They love this style, and we’ve tried to continue with this new line. What else do you have to complain about?”

“Me,” replied Moonglo.

“You? I don’t recall creating a new version of you. We only did Rainbow, Tickled Pink, and Moonglo. I’d have remembered a character dressed like Alice in Wonderland.”

Moonglo leaned forward in her chair. Outwardly, she showed no anger, but one look at her eyes and any sane person might back off. “That’s because you completely redesigned me. I don’t look like me anymore.”

“Ahh…you must be Moonglo then. That one is easily explained. Your outfit was too different from the other two. It needed some changes to make it more similar.”

Moonglo banged her small fist on the arm of the chair. “What about my hair? Why do I need to have hair that is two colors, instead of the pale pink it is now?”

The CEO shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps someone on the design team didn’t like your hair color. It’s changed now though. Are you done yet?”

“Not yet,” answered Moonglo, redirecting his attention back to her. “Why do I need a horse now? I never needed one before.”

“We wanted to balance things out. The other two had horses, and you needed one too. It made for balance.”

“Sunriser has never been my horse,” replied Tickled Pink. “She’s a wild horse that I befriended. I would never force her to let me ride her. Why does she have to be mine?”

“Just as I said. It balances out the merchandise.”

“And why did my sprite’s name have to change? Why Twilite?”

“It went with your power of course.”

“But you changed my powers. I have never done anything with the sun. I mixed up the pastel colors with the girl sprites helping me. That’s why my outfit looked the way it did.”

“Your power was too similar to Rainbow Brite’s. So we made some changes. We had one of you in charge of the colors during the day, one of you in charge of the night, so it made sense to have one of you in charge of the sunrise and sunset. Your outfit was changed to match that. What else?”

“I still wasn’t finished,” spoke up Moonglo. “Having a horse defeats the purpose. Nite Sprite and I can easily handle the sky by ourselves. That’s how it’s always been. It didn’t need to change. You have no idea how much energy goes into making myself and Nite Sprite invisible. A horse would be too draining and too unnecessary.”

“You needed to be like the others and have a horse too. So we gave you one. Now you’ll have another companion.” He held up a hand to keep Moonglo from replying further. “And I think I know what your next question will be. If you’re going to ask about Nite Sprite’s name change, it was easy. Why do all the other sprites have the “sprite” dropped from their name and not him? It could get confusing in the market. So we changed it to be sure that there was no confusion.”

“What about my name?” asked Twink. He’d kept quiet the entire time, watching the exchange between his friends and this CEO. “Why was my name changed? Why am I now…” Here he cringed at the mere thought, “Twinkle?”

The CEO shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Well…” he stalled.

“Why?” asked Twink again.

“Because… of the meaning your name carries today. It’s too easy for kids these days to Google it and find the true meaning. So we decided to keep that from happening.”

“What does my name mean?” asked Twink, confused by the answer.

“Well…if you must know… Come up on my desk and I’ll tell you.”

Twink complied with the request and moved onto the CEO’s desk, mindful of the stacks of paper and other supplies it was currently covered with. The CEO, looking quite embarrassed, leaned over and with cupped hands, whispered something into Twink’s ear. “What?” asked Twink, unable to hear such soft whispering. The CEO whispered it again, this time slightly louder. Twink recoiled quickly. “That’s what my name means?! You have a very bad, bad mind!” he exclaimed, rather shocked. “That’s terrible! You think children would think that about me? You…I…” Twink hopped off the desk and back into his seat beside Rainbow. He crossed his arms, fuming at the thought and what’d he’d just heard.

“If you don’t have any other complaints…” began the CEO.

Rainbow, who’d begun comforting Twink and trying to calm him down, looked up at the man. “Why do we have to look the way we do? Why are we so fake?”

The CEO rubbed his temples. This was becoming a nightmare. He’d not expected such a barrage of questions from these brats. “I thought we’ve been over this already.”


“Not completely,” replied Rainbow calmly. “Why do we look nowhere near like ourselves?”

The CEO sighed heavily. They’d already been over this topic before. “Because you were modeled after designs that girls of today would go for. We didn’t want you looking like you did in the 80’s. So we changed it.”

“So you decided that we had to look fake so that girls would buy us?” asked Tickled Pink. She took the rolled up piece of paper from her lap and began unfurling it. “You could have still designed us with our looks in mind. Like this sketch.” She slipped the piece of paper over to the CEO, who looked surprised.

The CEO looked down at the sketch. “Where did you get this?” he asked. “Some random internet search?”

“That doesn’t matter,” answered Rainbow. “What matters is this person gave us an older look and a redesign. Yet, their work looks more like us than what you’ve created.”

He studied the sketch more closely. It was a sketch of the original Color Kids, with Rainbow Brite in the very front. It had a distinctive anime feel to it, and the characters resembled eleven-year olds. Gone were the moon suits and boots.

“Flip the page,” replied Tickled Pink.

For the first time, he noticed that the top of the paper had two staples in it, reminding him of book binding. He turned the page and was met with a colored version of this new Rainbow Brite, with an unknown character over her and some crab-like creature as well. “If you wanted to pitch an anime cartoon, you’re in the wrong country,” he commented lamely.

Moonglo snatched the sketches from him. “That wasn’t our point. We wanted to show what an artist could do to our characters. Apparently, this artist rises above your expectations for what might sell.” She handed it back to Tickled Pink, who rolled it up once more.

“We do have some more redesigns in mind…” began the CEO. “I believe the next one is Stormy from what the design department tells me.”

Rainbow shook her head. “We don’t want to see your next designs or ideas or plans. If they’re as bad as this one, then you’d only hear more of the same from us.” She slid off of her chair, and the other three soon followed.

“I take it that you’re finished here?” asked the CEO, trying to confirm his guess. He felt overjoyed at the mere prospect of them finally leaving his office. He’d never heard so much ridicule over a franchise in all of his life. And from the characters of the franchise, no less.

Rainbow looked up at him. “We’re done. We wanted you to know how we felt about these terrible redesigns. We know you won’t change a thing.”

“We just wanted to confirm one thing,” added Twink.

Tickled Pink picked up where Twink left off. “Right. We got our answer too.”

“We did hope we’d be proven wrong though,” tacked on Moonglo.

“What exactly are you talking about?” asked the CEO, confused.

Rainbow looked up at him, a hand on her Color Belt. “You and many others have forgotten the heart of the characters you design, the uniqueness to each of us. We’re not all the same, and we don’t all need to have the same things. We continue to exist, and those who knew us back then will continue to love us for who we are. We don’t need to be redesigned and aged beyond recognition. You’ve forgotten this…it’s saddening to see.”

The quartet turned away from the CEO, not caring to see his reactions to Rainbow’s statement. They didn’t want to feel the heartache they knew would be there if they saw the uncaring look on his face. Instead, they ignored it, exited the same way they’d come. Together, they walked quietly down the hall, toward the elevators, and eventually out into the bright sunlight. As they journeyed back to Rainbow Land, they felt better that they’d made their voices heard, but unhappy about the entire event.

Rainbow looked at her glum-faced companions. She felt terrible, but knew she needed to say something to lighten the emotional burden the others felt. “Cheer up, everyone. No matter what they do on Earth, we’ll never change. We’ll still be loved for who we are and we’ll still love each other. No matter what they do or create, they can’t take ourselves away from us.”

The other three kept looking down, but Moonglo was the first to look up. “You’re right, Rainbow. I just wish others would see it.”

“We don’t have to prove ourselves to anyone. We are who we are,” replied Rainbow. “If someone doesn’t understand us, or even care, then they don’t need to. We’ll still live on, and we’ll still do our jobs, no matter what happens. They can’t take away the real Rainbow Land.”

“But they can be as bad as Murky,” spoke up Tickled Pink. Twink nodded, agreeing with her.

“Let them design what they want. We knew they’d do it anyway. It doesn’t change any of us. Those who want to know the true Color Kids will find us. They always have before, and they’ll keep doing so. What we can do is continue our work, for them. For those who matter.”

The comment elicited the first smile out of the three that Rainbow had seen since they left the CEO’s office. After that, they continued to make their way back to Starlite, and then to Rainbow Land. Time passed, and though things changed in the real world, Rainbow Land was as timeless as ever.

End Note: I don't usually add these, but I had to for this one. The pictures Tickled Pink showed the CEO were the ones done by Fanchan, to which links can be found in her Recent Development thread, or here: Redesign for Main Group and Colored Scene. Obviously, I can't draw worth a lick to produce those and they are all her work.

[IndigoJoy]

...

[SunSpire]

This is an interesting story, you made yourself very clear about what you think of the redesign. It would've been even better if you had not provided the pictures, leaving it to a reader's imagination what the color kids showed the CEO. I wonder what Playmates would think of it if they saw this, they do check the boards for fan input after all, I was told.

Coming from a toy retailing background, I know that often the ideas and opinions of an individual employee are overshadowed by what the company actually wants, and so it might be that the person who worked on the new design had to follow set rules and guidelines and thus was limited in their creativity. If that's the case, it'd be wrong to blame that particular person for the outcome.

I think another reason for their dramatic changes to the series, and also why it took Hallmark so long to re-introduce Rainbow Brite again, is the fact that their last 2 attempts failed miserably - the latter in 2003 being remarkably true to the original show, because of this they are not wanting to repeat this failure and so they looked long and hard to find the "right" company to overhaul the design. That this new design doesn't match our criteria, is unfortunate for them, but if they had not brought it back at all then we'd be complaining now as well, so it's a bit of a no-win situation for them, right? I also agree with what StarVoyager said in another thread, without TV show this merchandise won't sell at all, period.

No remake can possibly outdo the original .. hasn't it always been like that?

"SunSpire"

[FanChan]

That may well be the case, Sunspire, but just because there might have been good reason for certain changes, or no other choice in some respects, doesn't mean we have to roll over and take it. We can be miffed and disgruntled. Some of us choose to let that out in different ways. At least she was precise and articulate in what she didn't like about it.


Leaving the description of the pictures out would have been slightly counter-productive, in my opinion. That guessing game is what got us where we are as it is. If they don't know what we want, we're kinda left with precisely what they came up with.

[Major Ursa]

There was the 1996 remake that did fail miserbly. I did a fan fic called Rainbow's Nightmare (which is here in the archives portion of the forum as well as at Fan-fic.net) where Rainbow herself had a nightmare about having to be a totaly different person. At least the redesign stays within the 1980s characters.

[Chibi Rachy]

There was the 1996 remake that did fail miserbly. I did a fan fic called Rainbow's Nightmare (which is here in the archives portion of the forum as well as at Fan-fic.net) where Rainbow herself had a nightmare about having to be a totaly different person. At least the redesign stays within the 1980s characters.

I did allude to that in my story. I read up on it awhile back, even looked at the products. It was what prompted Rainbow to speak up this time around.

As for the thing about giving images to the picture descriptions, I wanted to use Fanchan's because I did like it. I wanted to provide the images to match the story to show what someone else could do. I didn't want to be ambiguous with it.

True, without a TV show the merchandise won't sell as well as it could. That's how some shows get to be so big and last so long. With a TV show, they have the capabilities to add more and more toys as the story progresses.

Anyway, the story's all in fun. I was tired of stating what I didn't like and instead of repeating myself decided to have some fun with it and write it all out. I understand there are those who do like the redesign and this fic isn't for them, which is why I provided the long note in the beginning. It's also on ff.net, as all my works get posted there. Playmates should expect both ends of the spectrum anyway.

[Tom-sprite]

I like this story a lot Chibi Rachy ... I have the same opinion ... a real rainbow&friends would not like the new designs ... I think the new designs are mainstream-garbage !
Your writing-style is very vivid and entertaining ! :-)

[Blondine Arc-En-Ciel]

I think you hit it right on the head Chibi Rachy.

Well, almost.

I'd have had RB, TP and MG moon the CEO as they left his office.

The original Moonglow was really the most beautiful and most delicate of all the RB dolls. I think what they did to her is a crime.

[Chibi Rachy]

I think you hit it right on the head Chibi Rachy.

Well, almost.

I'd have had RB, TP and MG moon the CEO as they left his office.

The original Moonglow was really the most beautiful and most delicate of all the RB dolls. I think what they did to her is a crime.

Thanks for the feedback At the time, this fic really helped me come to terms with the release, so I dubbed it Rainbow Brite v. 2.0. Helps keep it all separate.

[Blondine Arc-En-Ciel]

But it's actually Rainbow Brite 4.0

The original 80's dolls were Rainbow Brite v.1.0

The 1996 dolls were Rainbow Brite v.2.0

The 2003 dolls were Rainbow Brite v.3.0

And the 2009 dolls were Rainbow Brite v.4.0

And I hope the originals will become Rainbow Brite v.5.0 in the future.