Blaine

In 2004 the day before Valentine's Day and, as if they were human celebrities, a press release announced that Barbie and Ken weren't together anymore. One of the most famous fictional couples had split and Mattel suggested that parents explained it to their kids as something natural "much like a parent may someday have to explain a divorce" (said by Russell Aarons from Mattel)

Soon after that was announced that she had a new love interest, Blaine and this break with Ken together with the short lived relationship with Blaine raised the eyebrows even of people who weren't much into Barbie world. I remember friends and family saying "Oh my God! Have you seen it? Ken and Barbie split!" According to Mattel was on good terms but Ken, the "1000 facemold boy", was put aside and... who was the new guy?

Apparently Blaine was a surfer sweetheart who had appeared previously in the Generation Girl Barbie line that was already discontinued in 2004. He wasn't going to be a Blaine but a Zach friend of Skipper who was unproduced but, at the end, Barbie took away the friend from her sister and Mattel named him Blaine who stuck as a character and was included after in the Cali line with the Ken "Barbie and Ken Tango giftset" facemold.

So we could say that Blaine stole his mold to the collector Ken just like the playline Ken had done in the past with the handsome mold of his bestie Allan but that went involutioning over time.

We don't know if Blaine was maintained in the "friend zone" like, apparently, was Ken but the truth is that the new love interest of Barbie had the looks of a model for Dior mixed with an australian tan, a surf board under his arm and a little bit of family background being the brother of Summer, a friend of Barbie that came with the millenia too. That group of new friends were more into pool parties, horseriding and earpiercing.

Maybe Blaine was an attempt to boost sales and help Barbie to surf the wave of oblivion but, in my opinion, was futile. The millenia had changed and with it new trends and other "dolliez" threatened the queen until that date. Ken ended having a makeover without trouble or fanfare, so did Barbie but our inner 80s-90s little kids knew that, with the playline Barbie, it wouldn't be the same anymore. Nonetheless Blaine is an undeniable chapter in Barbie's history.

Actually no news of Blaine have trascended. He must be still riding waves and who knows how many cougars he had after Barbie.