The story of the 1988 High End Red Dress Jem started with my acquisition of the Ruby Red Deco Guide. One of the doll designers recognized the concept of Ruby Red Jem as being the 1988 High End Red Dress doll. But after some research, I found the model number of the Ruby Red Jem Deco guide is the Glitter’n Gold Jem/Jerrica model number.

There is really little known about this High End Red Dress Jem that seems to have been planned for 1988. We only know that she had a red dress. She would be fancier, because she seemed to have a high end/higher price point style. But Carleigh Hoff mentioned a doll with a red dress which had fur around her shoulders when I asked about Rockin’ Romance Jem. My thought in 2002 was Carleigh was talking about an early version of Rockin’ Romance Jem. Carleigh may have been thinking about this High End Red Dress Jem instead.

With 1988 seeing a Valentine’s Day type dolls with Rockin’ Romance Jem and Rockin’ Romance Rio and a 4th of July/patriotic themed doll with American Beauty Jem, I have to wonder if that High End Red Dress doll has some connection to the Christmas holiday. There is nothing to indicate this doll having a Christmas themed, or this doll having any other theme associated with it. But I find it suspicious that Mattel decided to bring out Holiday Barbie for the first time in 1988. So, I have a feeling that Mattel saw this High End Red Dress Jem and assumed it would be a Christmas themed doll because of Rockin’ Romance Jem and American Beauty Jem. Or Mattel could have known it was going to be a Christmas themed Jem. We know Mattel found out about Jem in 1985 and created Barbie and the Rockers in 16 hours. “Scented” Hollywood Jem would have been a 1988 Hasbro release and Mattel put out the 1989 Super Star Barbie the following year. Mattel releasing the Holiday Barbie maybe the closest we come to knowing Hasbro’s intentions for the 1988 High End Red Dress Jem. We have no way of knowing what lead Mattel to releasing the 1988 Holiday Barbie doll, but it seems to coincidental with Mattel’s track record of flanking their brands.

With all the prototype images sent to Sunbow, they have a yellowish hue because of the tungsten lighting used in the 80’s. So, I color corrected this “scented” Hollywood Jem photo to pull the yellow out. I applied that same correction to the scene from the animation. It does not give me the result I want, or seem to be a big color shift for the dress in the animation.

But it just feels like this dress could be that High End Red Dress doll for 1988. I thought it might have been animated less red because of the tungsten lighting. The color change does not really make a significant change to the color of the dress. I wish that I had sent Carleigh Hoff this dress, since she referenced a dress with fur over the shoulders.

The intent of this dress being red is a long shot, at most. Even if Sunbow was given a photo that had this dress in yellowish tungsten lighting, Hasbro should have also sent the PMS Pantone color of the dress. More than likely Hasbro would have not just told Sunbow the PMS Pantone color, but included a swatch with the specific color and/or sample of the fabric.

A trend in the cartoon was to make Sunbow fashions that mimicked the Hasbro doll. Examples are Hasbro’s Glitter’n Gold Jem and the Sunbow Hologram fashions that mimic it in the video. Those Sunbow Hologram fashions have the same skirt, the same “pattern” and a ruffle --with just a different cut of the top of each Hologram dress. For American Beauty Jem, the Holograms wore identical patriotic themed fashions. For Wedding Kimber the Holograms and Jerrica had bridesmaid dress that are the same top in pink, with the same ruffle sleeves, and same ruffle at the waist. The bridesmaid dresses were missing the pink roses, and had a different skirt. So Jem’s dress in the Rock Hard Café scene Jem dress feels like it was treated the same way. The Holograms have similar style dress to Jem’s dress, but just missing the elements over the arms and the fur at the bottom. The Holograms had a shorter cut dress, but the fashions included a feather boa to mimic the bottom of Jem’s dress. Those Sunbow Hologram fashions are all identical to each other like American Beauty and Wedding Kimber Hologram dress, but in different colors like the Glitter’n Gold.

There is the only four times this happened in the series, and thee of the four are known to be Hasbro doll fashions. Sunbow Hologram fashions almost always coordinated with Sunbow Jem fashion, but they were not identical. Meaning they shared some elements, and those elements they share may not be in every coordinating band fashion. An example would be like a repeating pattern in different colors or elements like cutouts and/or studded hem. Except for three times where the Hologram fashions and the Jem fashion was completely identical, but in different colors. Those were in 5205-22 – “Intrigue at the Indy 500” and two sets in 5205-25 – “Culture Clash.” That’s why I consider the three dolls below to had Hologram fashions that mimic the doll release, and why I think the Rock Hard Café Jem dress may fall into that same category.

With being told there was a Hasbro High End Red Dress Jem doll and the way Sunbow treated this specific Jem fashion with mimicking it with Hologram fashions, it seems like this dress could be the missing doll.