Barbie and the Rockers (or Barbie and the Rock Stars in Europe) was a doll line made in the mid-1980s by

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

to compete with

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

's popular Jem doll line. They were on the market for roughly 3 years and there was a

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

film made to go with the line titled '' Barbie and the Rockers: Out of This World''. This was followed by a sequel called '' Barbie and the Sensations: Rockin' Back to Earth''. The line was brought back in late 2017 as a Target exclusive. The characters include Diva (a Scottish-Irish-American redhead), Dana (a Korean-American) and Dee-Dee (an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

Home media

Beginning in 1987, select episodes were released in the United States on Hi-Tops Video NTSC VHS tapes by

Hi-Tops Video Hi-Tops Video was a children's home video sublabel of Media Home Entertainment (a division of Heron Communications), active from 1986 until 1992. Some of its releases include some Charlie Brown specials, ''Madeline'' and primarily some of the or ...

's Hi-Tops Video Mini Features line. Beginning in 1987, 1989, 1992 and 1994, select episodes were released in the United Kingdom on 30-minute, PAL VHS tapes by Channel 5, Mia Video, rated U for "Universal" and deemed suitable for all ages. The series was distributed by Saban Productions, which was owned by

, the makers of the "Barbie" dolls. As a result, Mattel must give approval before any future home video release of the series is made available. In the UK, the series was released on VHS by Channel 5 and Mia Video in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1994.

References

External links

Rock Jem: Similar Dolls
– Dolls and cartoon information. Rockers, Barbie and the 1980s toys {{Doll-stub