HAD Winter 2013 Newsletter Collect 3

1985 Dream Glow Ken®

#2250 Dream Glow Ken®- His name alone would make any little girl desire to play with him! To this day, I still get excited at the mere mention of the word, “glow.” So much so, that I recently purchased some glow in the dark bracelets for New Year’s Eve from the dollar section at Target.

The 1980’s dolls present some of my favorite editions. Not just because the late 70s and early 80s were my play years, but the dolls were just beautiful and had such fun clothing and accessories. Dream Glow Ken® became my favorite Ken® to take over to my friend Angela’s house to play with. He also was the last Ken® I would “play with,” before I started calling my dolls “my collection.” I immediately was drawn to him because of his unique hair color. I did not have any Ken® dolls with brown hair. Blonde, and black hair yes, but no brown. His hair was light and reminded me of my sepia Crayola crayon. His eyes were a bright shade of aqua and he had a warm “ you can trust me” smile.

Dream Glow Ken® came handsomely dressed in his 2 piece grey tuxedo. The tuxedo consisted of a grey jacket with a pretend lace handkerchief in a pretend pocket, and a snap closure that had a pretend grey button sewn on the other side. Inside was a one-piece suit. It had grey pants attached to a shiny, white sleeveless shirt that had silvery sparkle thread through it, a glittery silver vertical thick line in the center where buttons would go, a pink vest with stars that glowed in the dark, and was topped off with a pink bowtie over a white plastic collar. He came with sheer grey socks, and grey dress shoes, as well as a glow-in-the-dark corsage for Barbie® in a plastic case, just as if he had stopped off at the flower shop and picked it up for her.

ABOVE: Dream Glow also came in a black version #2421.

BELOW: The left box panel tells a story.

His box on the front panel says, “Starry vest & corsage glow in the dark!” The left panel shows four photos. The first photo on the top of the box shows Ken and Dream Glow Barbie and says something we all know to be very true, “Ken® is the perfect date…” The second picture shows a chest and head shot of Ken® and continues the last statement with, “with his starry glow-in –the –dark vest…” The third photo is of Ken® doll’s hand holding the corsage and says, “and glow-in-the-dark corsage…” and finally the last photo is of Dream Glow Barbie® and says, “for Barbie®!” Put all those phrases together and it reads, “Ken® is the perfect date with his starry glow-in-the- dark vest and glow-in-the-dark corsage for Barbie®!”

On the back of the box, there is a picture of Ken® in his glowing vest, handing his glowing corsage to Barbie®. Her dress and parasol are shown glowing. The panel reads, “Dream Glow Barbie® & Ken®- Glamorous by day, glowing at night!” Notice that even though this is a Ken® doll and Ken® box, Barbie® is listed first. I’m guessing to encourage the additional purchase of Barbie®. I never did buy that particular Barbie®. Instead I paired Dream Glow Ken® with Peaches and Cream Barbie® who I thought was one of the most gorgeous dolls ever! He and she would be packed in my Barbie® case for the trip across the street to Angela’s house where we would make up stories for hours on end. Angela had both Dream Glow Ken® and Dream Glow Barbie®, so we would pretend the two Ken® dolls were twins. Since their jackets were removable and the shirt underneath was sleeveless, we’d pretend they worked at Chippendales as dancers. All heck broke lose when Dream Glow Barbie® and Peaches and Cream Barbie® went out for a “girl’s night out” at Chippendales only to find their boyfriends up there being screamed at by other Barbie® dolls and the Brooke Shields doll, if I recall correctly. What fun! This Ken® represents some of my most favorite Barbie® memories from my childhood. He is still to this day a handsome addition to any Ken® collection.