088 Barbie

Barbie is one of twelve dudettes from 2002.

In release-order, she is the 6th dudette.  In numerical-order, she is the 12th and last dudette.  

Barbie is all kinds of odd because she looks a lot like a dude.  I think the most confusing thing is what appears to be a soul patch.  But, if you really look at it, I think this is actually supposed to be a labret piercing. Also, notice that her eyes are closed and she has long feminine eye-lashes.

Also, could you imagine making a feminine figure named Barbie?
Mattel would surely sue your pants off...

None of the dudettes were ever re-released.  All twelve designs were confined to the original G1 run. However, Barbie is one of four dudettes that were redesigned with arms, as shown on the TDD website.  In fact, she is only one of two dudettes given a serious makeover -- at least suggesting that there had been some intention of a re-release, once upon a time. This is a decidedly more feminine Barbie probably intended to clear up any gender confusion with the original design.  

 

This image of Barbie was also used in the first series of Tech Deck Dude trading cards, which came out in 2003.  All dudettes were included in the first series of trading cards, however only five characters were drawn with arms.  Overall, the trading cards seem rushed and confusing since some characters have arms and some don't. For the second series of trading cards (2004), all dudettes were replaced with filler cards which were either an image of multiple dudes hanging out together or these strange meta cards where a dude with arms was looking at a picture of himself without arms.  However, this betrays the overall sloppiness of the second trading card series since some characters were still drawn without arms on their primary cards.

At any rate, so long dudettes!