Mars Explorer Barbie

Barbie® Doll is an iconic toy, and sure, she's gotten quite a lot of flak in recent years over her body size issues and bubbleheadedness. But Mattel, now the largest toy company in the world, has been taking some steps to revamp Barbie's image. Am I saying that there aren't still primped, empty-headed ones out there? No, there are still plenty of those. I mean, all University Barbie dolls are cheerleaders? Really?

But, on the positive image side, Barbie is also a computer engineer, a paleontologist, an architect, a pediatrician, a veterinarian, and even ran for President in 2012. Now meet Mars Explorer Barbie. Mattel released this new doll on Monday (Aug. 5, 2013), as part of their "I Can Be..." series, to coincide with the first anniversary of NASA's Curiosity rover landing on Mars. She's got a spacesuit, helmet, space boots, air tank, and is packaged with a cardboard cutout of the six-wheeled Mars Science Laboratory. All decked out in pink, of course. And while this isn't Barbie's first trip to space (there were Astronaut Barbies in 1965, 1985, and 1994 and a Space Camp Barbie in 1998), this is the first to be produced in partnership with NASA.

Sources/Articles:

CinemaBlend's "New Mars Explorer Barbie is Stylish"
Space.com's "Mattel's Astronaut Barbie Becomes a Mars Explorer with NASA Help"
CollectSpace's "Mattel's Astronaut Barbie becomes a Mars Explorer with help from NASA"

Images from Space.com's "Barbie in Space: Iconic Doll's Astronaut Looks (Photos)"