I've just added a new item to my Amazon Wish List, thanks to an entry in Boing Boing today: Barbie and Ken as Arwen and Aragorn.
I'm serious. I have to have this. I'm no Waylon Smithers with his "Malibu Stacy" obsession, but I do own a few Barbies: specifically, Barbie and Ken as unnamed Star Trek (the original series) crewmen, with Barbie looking sort of like Yeoman Janice Rand; Barbie and Ken as The X-Files's Scully and Mulder; Barbie and Ken as Morgan LeFay and Merlin; and the Barbie Fairy of the Forest and Fairy of the Garden (for my fairy and elf collection).
Funniest, though, is the reaction of one of the reviewers on Amazon's site, "lotr_gurl":
For shame mattel. You've taken one of the greatest epics in history and made it into a brabie doll!! Don't you even care that barbie stands for a materialistic snob and that Aragorn is no pampered "Ken"? Arwen may be a princess, but she is loyal to her man and Aragorn may be a king, but it is he unique qualities as a friend and ranger that make him so great. If I was ever given this set as a gift, I would personally burn it and dispose of the ashes. Lord of the Rings is no barbie doll matter. It is that of friendship, loyalty, strength, and honesty. For shame.
Wonder what lotr_gurl thinks about the Gollum plushie, the Pubs of Middle Earth shot glasses or the entire line of, *gasp*, Lord of the Rings Bobbleheads?
You would have loved this house in Provincetown Kat and I passed by last time we were there. A whole lot of Ken dolls hanging out in there front yard. I believe some where in drag. There was one or two barbies as well. I'll try to find the photo for you.
That Theoden Bobblehead is scarily accurate. And I do mean scarily. I wouldn't want a collection of those things staring at me from my shelves.
Tin Man: I hear you. Even in general, bobbleheads make me uneasy, but the Uruk-Hai and Gollum in this group make my flesh crawl.
This is what comes from having seen, at age 13, the 1975 Karen Black TV movie, Trilogy of Terror, in one segment of which a knife-wielding Zuni fetish doll comes to life and chases her around the apartment.
I have been tempted by the LotR Barbies, myself. The costumes are really quite beautiful.
Bobbleheads, on the other hand, are an abomination and should be stricken from the annals of history, all memory of their existence erased.
Not that I have strong feelings about it, one way or the other....
Ooh, me wants the Barbies... my preciousss...