Everything you need to dress-up like Jem, Pizzazz or Synergy
-- officially licensed by Hasbro. spirithalloween.com
Get your officially (USA) licensed Jem t-shirts at welovefine.com thanks to the first welovefine/Jem contest, many Jem fan
made designs are available for purchase. Congratulations to the Winners! You are Superstars!
Nov 2011 - Get your officially (UK) licensed Jem t-shirts at truffleshuffle.co.uk
JEMstars - JEM Character Bios Graphix™ / Gwendolyn "Graphix"
Snyd™
of the Misfits™
Gwendolyn “Graphix” Snyd™ was to be the 2nd non-band member of the Misfits. She was the only doll 1988 unproduced doll never introduced in the series. Pictures of her were sent to Sunbow with the new 1988 Holograms, Jem dolls and the Stingers. But Hasbro decided to cancel the Misfits for 1988 do to slow Misfits sales in the fall of 1987, so she was dropped. Graphix was added to the Jem Bible by Christy Marx, and there was at least two episodes Premises with Graphix. Christy Marx wrote her as a valley girl graffiti artist turned graphic designer for the Misfits and Stingers. The prototype doll had an strand “X” on a stick for an instrument/accessories so I always thought it was some type of T-square to use with her spray paint to make sharp angles.
In 2011 I was fortunate enough to give the Girls’ Soft Design Director for Jem and she said it was video distorter magic wand type instrument. Sounds like it would have corrupted Hollywood Jem’s movie footage. Again leaning away from the doll lines rock music video organs, but Graphix instrument was geared for Jem’s new career as an actress. I asked one of the designers of Girls’ Hard about the dots in Graphix’s hair, and she was thinking the factor was going to screen the dots onto the hair – I can’t quote her on it, because Graphix was not her creation and she doesn’t remember 100% for sure.
Jem (1986-1988)
1985 as part of Super Sunday / Super Saturday
Because Hasbro was pulling the Misfits from
the 1988 doll line, Graphix was never included into the
show. Most of what we do know of her character is from
the Jem Bible.
Doll Development
Each doll was given a model number, consisting
of the date and the order it was recorded in for that
day. Polaroids were used to show the model, and any additional
Polaroids showed changed after from the original. They
also created an official “confidential” rendering
(illustration) approved by the designer and their supervisor.
A second larger presentation art illustration was created
to get final approval from the board. There was along
process of created the head molds, and once the doll was
ready to produce a Deco Guide/Paintmaster and for some
dolls Rooting Guide were sent to the factor(s) to show
exactly how the make-up and hair should look. Hasbro also
sent slides to the factor(s) to show what the final doll
should look like.
* = for prototypes, the designer
and prototype creator are not always the same person //
only known artist, but other artist may have been used.
Sharon Knettell was the exclusive artist box art for the
1986 dolls and playsets, Hasbro had other artist manipulating
and copying her style for the 1987 boxes to save money,
so it is unclear which are specifically her designs. There
is no sign of box art being included in one the 1988 doll
boxes.
Dolls
Because of the demand and the chance for international trade conflicts, Hasbro employed multiple factories to produce the 1986 line. Two factories were responsible for the exact same doll and fashion, which gave us mold and fabric variations between the two factories. Because of less demand in 1987, each doll was only produced in a single factory limiting these variations. Of the 1988 line, the only known doll to be produced was Rockin’ Romance JEM® in very small numbers.
If the Misfits had not been
dropped from the 1988 line early on, Graphix
might have had a Misfits version of the new smaller
boxes, similar to Astral™. (to the above right)
In 2012 Integrity Toys, Inc. released a
Hasbro licensed adult collector line called “The
JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS™ Collection” The collection
was launched with the 2012 San Diego Comic Con Exclusive
Basic Hollywood Jem™, a first wave of dolls came
out in December with Classic Jem™, Jerrica Benton™,
Synergy™, Rio Pacheco™. With success of the
first wave and 3 more waves which included the original
band members for the Holograms, the Misfits and the Stingers
in 2013, the licensed deal was expanded to include more
exclusive dolls, along with additional band members and
friends based on the Hasbro dolls. The collection has
grown into included characters that were developed Christy
Marx as secondary characters in the cartoon.
