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Rainbow Brite is an American media franchise by Hallmark Cards, introduced in 1984. The animated Rainbow Brite television series first aired in 1984, (2025). 9781538103739, Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781538103739 the same year Hallmark licensed Rainbow Brite to Mattel for a range of dolls and other merchandise. A theatrical feature-length film, Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer, was released by Warner Bros. in 1985. The franchise was rebooted in 2014 with a three part mini-series released on Hallmark's online streaming video service, Feeln. A line of new merchandise by Hallmark online and in its shops debuted in 2015.
A theatrical feature-length film, Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer, was released by Warner Bros. in 1985. The specials became part of DIC's weekly syndicated Kideo TV block of programming starting in April 1986, which were followed up with eight more episodes for a total of thirteen, which is one season in American television, and were rerun until the end of March 1987, after which the show was replaced on the Kideo TV schedule by Lady Lovely Locks & the Pixietails. All were published on VHS in the United States and other countries, along with two live-action programs. One of these was a program intended for use at kids' birthday parties ( "It's Your Birthday Party"); the other was made on location at the San Diego Zoo ( "San Diego Zoo Adventure").
The Color Kids spread color across the universe from the Color Console inside the Color Castle. Each Color Kid is in charge of their respective color, has a personal sprite and manages a number of like-colored sprites that mine Color Crystals from the nearby Color Caves. These crystals are processed into Star Sprinkles which are the essential components to brightening and coloring any object or place. The Star Sprinkles also power Rainbow Brite's Color Belt, which manifests a powerful multicolored energy force she uses to fight evil and help Starlite travel on. Rainbow Brite and the Color Kids' mission is often complicated by the likes of Murky Dismal, his sidekick Lurky, and other . Brian, a boy from Earth, sometimes assisted Rainbow Brite in her adventures.
In the movie, Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer, the setting expands to include the diamond planet, Spectra. All the light in the universe must pass through Spectra before coming to Earth. However, Earth soon falls into a wintry darkness when the diamond-obsessed Dark Princess decides to steal Spectra for her own. Rainbow Brite and her horse, Starlite, must team with Spectra's boy warrior, Krys, and his robotic horse, On-X, to defeat the powers of darkness and save Spectra, Earth, and the universe.
Gen 2 continuity took a radical departure from any other generation's story, focusing as much on Multiculturalism as the colors of the rainbow. Rainbow Brite had an entirely new and smaller group of friends called the Color Crew. Despite distribution and marketing in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia, the toy line never reached the success of its predecessor and ended after little more than a year.
Gen 3 was basically a relaunch of Gen 1 in 2003, with the same story, but a smaller range of characters produced. The dolls from licensee Toy Play were similar to but not exact copies of the Gen 1 versions. There was also a sizable amount of Rainbow Brite merchandise from various other manufacturers just as in Gen 1.
Gen 4A celebrated the 25th anniversary of Rainbow Brite in 2009 with continuity returning the setting again to Rainbow Land, which looked nothing like the original version. This time, Rainbow Brite and her friends' mission was to bring hope and happiness to the far corners of the universe, making hearts lighter and worlds a little more colorful along the way. The story focuses on Rainbow Brite, Tickled Pink, and Moonglow, each representing one of Rainbow Land's Sky Powers, which determine the cycles of the days and seasons. Gen 4 continuity makes Rainbow Brite a girl originally from Earth (Return to Rainbow Land). Rainbow Brite's absence from the world is explained in a story that sees Rainbow return to her home on Earth for a brief visit with her family after many adventures spreading color throughout Rainbow Land and the universe. But when the Dark Princess erases Rainbow Land from Rainbow Brite's memory while on Earth, she never returns to her duties in Rainbow Land. Rainbow Brite eventually returns to Rainbow Land with the help of Starlite and Puppy Brite. These dolls had a fashion doll-like design, which was a departure from the previous dolls in the series. The line suffered a delay, which caused the toys to not be available until after the holiday season that year. It saw scarce distribution as retailers were not impressed with it and was canceled after just seven months and before the first release was completed.
Feeln's (part of Hallmark) Gen 4B animated reboot retained most Gen 1 story elements and recognizable but not identical character designs. It introduced a few new story elements, one being the Sentinels of Light, which included Rainbow Brite as a guardian of light and color and Krys as the protector of light unseen. Stormy also played a more prominent role. After a falling out with her pal, Rainbow Brite, Stormy joined the forces of darkness and became a formidable frenemy. As the Dark Princess's manipulations became more transparent, Stormy started questioning where her true loyalties lay and returned to Rainbow Land as Rainbow Brite's friend. Gen 4B consisted solely of web content from Hallmark and only resulted in a minuscule amount of give-away merchandise. None of the items were available for purchase.
Gen 5 began in 2015 with dolls and toys very similar to those of Gens 1 and 3. Hallmark worked on the design, storylines, distribution and sales which have, so far, been limited to Hallmark shops in the United States and Canada, and the Hallmark website. The line began with a limited production of Hallmark's Itty Bittys plush miniatures before expanding to larger Twink & Starlite plushes, a 16" Rainbow Brite doll, a series of hard cover story books, women's clothing, and an expansion of the Itty Bittys line. In the fall of 2016, Hallmark released a Stormy doll with her own horse.
Televised commercials for Mattel's Rainbow Brite dolls frequently featured the song, "Over the Rainbow," from The Wizard of Oz, often with altered lyrics or arrangements. Child actors Tracey Gold, Kellie Martin and Heather O'Rourke, famous for their roles in 1980s television and film, also appeared.
Rainbow Brite no longer had anything do with making colors and was now in charge of diversity. Although this version did have rainbow-colored hair, the characters resembled real-world children more than their previous animated and doll counterparts. In the second generation's story, Rainbow Brite had four friends, called the Color Crew, which included Amber (Latina), Cerise (Asian), Ebony (African-American) and Indigo (Middle Eastern, the only character name borrowed from the original Color Kids).
Rainbow Brite was produced as large and small dolls while the Color Crew was represented only in the small doll range. The large Rainbow Brite dolls came with three pots of Color-Glo Paint and a brush, while the small dolls included a single pot of Color-Glo Paint and a brush. The large doll was released in two different boxes, the first lacking a window so buyers could not see the doll inside. As the doll was sold with three different wardrobes, buying one was a gamble regarding which look she would have (unless one read the small code box on the bottom of the package indicating the doll's shoe color). The large doll later came in a window box with a simplified single wardrobe. The small dolls came boxed at first and then blister carded on two different types of cards. They are noted for being the only Rainbow Brite dolls ever produced with Dutch text on the packaging.
The Canadian importer was Irvine, a company which is currently still in business, and their product packaging was printed in both French and English texts. Ideal Toy Company was the importer for most of Western Europe, though Euro Play imported the line for Germany. The large doll was also distributed in Italy by GiG with only Italian text on the box. There were no other toys or accessories for the second generation dolls other than additional pots of Color-Glo Paint, which were sold in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. There was also a version of at least the large doll in a box with Spanish-only text. Another 15" Rainbow Brite doll with a Color Glo Bear and paint set was prototyped, as was a black version, which was produced in very small numbers. But only the black version was ever produced and then in very limited numbers. There was a Gen 2B which had simplified packaging and outfits as an effort to keep the line going by cutting costs. The second generation had nowhere near the success the first generation had at retail and was discontinued after less than two years on the market.
Without being an exact copy of the originals, this generation returned to the look and feel of the Mattel line. Toy Play followed the first generation's character roll out, producing Rainbow Brite, Red Butler, Canary Yellow, and Patty O'Green characters, but no more Color Kids followed. Starlite, Puppy Brite and the Sprites were also represented in various merchandise.
Characters were produced in different sizes, from three to twenty-eight inches tall across the line, which went from PVC plastic figurines to plush dolls. Toy Play produced both retro-style plush dolls with wiring in their limbs to make them poseable, along with plastic dolls wearing soft clothing and having articulated arms and legs. Some dolls were sold with a Region 1 DVD in English featuring a single episode of the original cartoon. Some Toy Play products were sold in Canada with English-French packaging. Toy Play's 18 inch talking Rainbow Brite doll notoriously omitted the color green when 'speaking' all of the colors of the rainbow. Toy Play indicated that the missing color would be added for future production runs, but there were none.
Toy Play was the first (and so far only) merchandiser to produce a Color Castle playset, the Light Up Musical Castle, which included small articulated figurines of Rainbow Brite, Red Butler, Twink and Puppy Brite. The playset's box showed pictures of forthcoming product (a Rainbow Brite and Friends Sprites' village playset, an in-scale Starlite with brushable mane, as well as figurine 2-packs to include Rainbow Brite and Twink, Red Butler and Romeo, Patty O'Green and Lucky, Canary Yellow and Spark, and Murky Dismal and Lurky) though these were never produced. There was also a wide range of other merchandise, mostly clothing, that was available during Gen 3.
The line's initial product release only included three plastic fashion dolls (Rainbow Brite, Tickled Pink, and Moonglow) and three plastic horses with rooted manes (Starlite, Sunriser, and Shimmer). A larger 15" Rainbow Brite doll was also produced. The line initially omitted the Color Kids altogether in favor of a more sky-power oriented storyline. The packaging art hinted at a possible Stormy doll to come, though yet again she never arrived.
The Playmates line never caught on with its target audience. Most retailers refused to carry the line and those that did saw stock run out by July 2010. If any reorders were placed, they were not in quantities that justified continued production. The line was only on the market for about seven months and was not available in all of the USA.
In the Fall of 2010, three Sprite dolls appeared at retail in Mexico. These included Twinkle (a renamed Twink) for Rainbow Brite, Nite Sprite for Moonglow and Twilite for Tickled Pink. These were already in production when US retailers dropped the line. The fourth generation saw a number of licensed products similar to the third generation, some in the original Gen 1 style and some in the new Gen 4 style. This included mostly clothing and stationary, plus a small bicycle. The final products during the fourth generation came from Madame Alexander, and included a traditional Madame Alexander-style Gen 1 Rainbow Brite doll with Twink, as well as Gen 4-style plush dolls of Rainbow Brite and Tickled Pink.
In 2016 Hallmark released another Itty Bitty boxed set featuring Patty O'Green, Buddy Blue, Lucky & Champ. A 24" Rainbow Brite Jumbo Itty Bitty arrived in December. A limited edition Shy Violet Itty Bitty was released as a Hallmark online exclusive that Summer. The sole Color Kid never produced in Itty Bitty form was Canary Yellow. In Fall of 2016 many new Rainbow Brite items were available at Hallmark stores and online, including several new story and activity books, a new range of greeting cards, and a 1,000 piece Rainbow Land puzzle. A Starlite Itty Bitty was released in November, as well as 11" Sunriser and Skydancer plushes, and for the first time ever a 16" Stormy doll. Packaging for the single items consists only of attached tags with the product name, Hallmark logo, copyright notice and barcode, while the boxed sets feature Rainbow Land displayable backgrounds. These toys are sold only in the United States and Canada. Additionally, Hallmark Keepsake Rainbow Brite holiday ornaments were sold in 2015 (a reissue of Hallmark's 2013 ornament) and 2016.
A Rainbow Brite comic was published by Dynamite Entertainment for five issues from October 2018 to February 2019.
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