Dakin Astronaut Dolls (1987)
The Dakin Astronaut Dolls are vinyl Barbie and Ken clones. The copyright date of 1987 on the box means they were probably introduced in 1988. NASA may have wanted to project a positive image of the Space Shuttle Program following the January 1986 Challenger disaster, in which the orbiter disintegrated shortly after takeoff, killing the entire crew. The next Shuttle missions were deployed in the fall of 1988.
The female Astronaut has a ball-jointed neck, and jointed shoulders, hips and knees. She has high heel feet under her astro-boots. She has painted blue eyes and rooted platinum blonde hair in a bubble cut. She is unmarked, except for a blank rectangle shape on her back.
The male Astronaut is 11.5″ tall (29 cm) and jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips. His arms and legs are flexible, but his knees and elbows aren’t jointed. He has painted brown eyes and black hair, with long sideburns and an engaging smile. He is marked MADE IN CHINA on his back.
They wear matching space suits of silver lamé, which is prone to rubbing off. The “helmet” has a vinyl face shield, and is elasticized around the neck. The helmet, gloves and boots are lined with fleece to make them look puffy. They each wear a backpack filled with a square of foam rubber. The suits have a NASA patch on the chest, a Space Shuttle Program patch on the right shoulder, and an American flag patch on the left shoulder.
The back of the box gives a little bit of history about astronauts. The Astronauts are packaged with a white plastic X-shaped stand, similar to but shorter than the ones that came with mod-era Barbies.
