Here we go again! Time for another Pop Dream.

-Before we commence with the silliness, I’d just like to apologize to you all for letting so much time lapse between entries. No new posts for 13 days isn’t something I wish to get into the habit of doing. Generally speaking, we try to post a minimum of 2 entries per month, which roughly equates to at least 1 new entry from each of us every 2 weeks, if not once a week; there hasn’t been anything serious going on, just more dumb commitments, incidents and shenanigans occurring recently in real life that we needed to address. Among the things I personally needed to take care of during this time was compiling research and material for the remaining Pop Dreams (there are going to be 5 of these in total–suffer!). I’m committed to completing all 5, but again, I won’t be doing them all in a row; I’ll still be producing new entries for the other segments as well, in order to space the Pop Dream entries out since they’re a finite number of them and so you (and I) won’t get bored reading nothing but Pop Dreams. We have more stuff in store, and, although with the holidays just around the corner I can’t make any promises, I’m going to try to get the rest of these (and the other stuff I have planned) out in a more timely fashion from now on.

-That said, on with Pop Dream entry #2.

The Barbie Sister we’re spotlighting today enjoys blogging, texting, making movies, DJ-ing, music and trying out the latest gadgets and techie toys, she’s made 287 blog posts (to date), and 26 short movies, owns 18 techie gadgets and has 57, 283 followers online. Her chief dislikes are low-tech, low wi-fi signals and low game scores. Today’s Pop Dream is all about…Skipper Roberts.

OVERVIEW

Skipper Roberts (yes, that’s really her name, and it’s freaking adorable)…

…is the second oldest of the Fab Sisters, right after the sparkly teen dream Barbie herself. Having been bounced from numerous other jobs, she currently works alongside her big sis at the Barbie Boutique, as the general tech chick. The oldest of the three younger sisters of Barbie, Skipper is a tech guru/budding filmmaker. When she’s not directing her fam in her next movie masterpiece, she’s texting, gaming and talking… sometimes at the same time. Of all the sisters, she’s the one who wonders, “Should I do what Barbie does or do the last thing Barbie would do?”

APPEARANCE

Skipper is the only Barbie Sister who’s not a blond. Presumably this is because after Skipper was aged from a little girl to a teenager like Barbie in the doll line, they wanted a way to distinguish her from Barbie. I don’t know whether in-universe Skipper’s hair just naturally changed from blond to brown/brunette or if she dyed it dark in order to stand out from her sorority, but either way it helps her to stick out among her sibs. The purple streak is a nice touch.

Skipper also boasts a very unique and distinctive manner of dress. She seems to have a thing for stars, as evidenced by her daily outfit in the early seasons of the web series…

…To this snazzy little number that she adopted later on.

PERSONALITY

As previously stated, Skipper is the Dreamhouse’s resident tech-head and gadget guru.

She’s rarely seen without some form of tech, like a laptop, tablet or smartphone on her person. It comes in handy for texting, blogging and getting down her latest artistic masterpiece…

…Not to mention utilizing that convenient little flashlight app when Little Sis needs to take a trip down the hall.

Skipper typically has her nose buried in some handheld device and her eyes are instinctively set to roll. She typically groans at the prospect of having to do family stuff; her instinctive response when asked to do something is: “Can’t someone else do it?”.

This isn’t because she’s lazy (she is lazy, but that’s not the only reason), but because she’s usually wrapped up in her latest pursuit or trying out her newest piece of tech. She lives half her life in the real world (well, the real doll world) while part of her remains footed in the electronics store.

Despite basically living in her own world of tech, Skipper seems to be the most grounded and pragmatic of the Roberts Sisters. She’s the one who makes the pithy comments and astute observations, such as pointing out how weird it is how Barbie has only just now gotten her driver’s license when she’s had a past career as a race car driver, and like most teens she’s quick with the quips and gentle (sometimes not-so-gentle) jabs at her siblings.

FUNNIER MOMENTS

“Doctor Barbie”: Skipper and Stacie jostle with each other throughout this short, each of them vying to be Dr. Barbie’s Little Helper. Poor Stacie is worked down to her last nerve. We see her on the confession couch venting.

Then we immediately cut to Skipper on the confession couch, who says:

“Ooh, How Campy Too”: Skipper again goads Stacie by telling her (as she’s attempting to spend an entire day alone roughing it in the woods) that she and the others are about to get ‘mani-pedies’ in the camper, which is parked right next to Stacie’s tent.

When Stacie adamantly replies that she “needs to do real camping!”, Skipper shoots back with “Hey, we’re doing real camping! Tonight we’re gonna watch a movie about the great outdoors on the big screen!” You can imagine Stacie’s reaction. We then cut to Skipper on the confession couch (which is now housed outside) where she says:

“Day at the Beach”:  Skipper spends the bulk of this short texting away on her handheld and staying apart from the beach festivities that Barbie, Ken, Chelsea and Raquelle (who failing hard at trying to outdo Barbie) are involved in. Barbie tries to convince Skipper to “ditch those gadgets and get in the game”, which goes over as well as you’d expect it to.

I could just cut to myself grinning and giving a thumbs-up whenever Skipper talks. Almost everything that comes out of her mouth is gold!

Later in this same short, we get a rare glimpse of Skipper coming unglued; after the dump truck driver Chelsea has hired to bury Ken in the sand has also dumped a ton o’ sand on top of Barbie’s car (we’ll get to Chelsea in due time), Skipper panics and starts digging for her HG-3D-4G Mini-Cam, which is in the backseat. Ken attempts to be the voice of reason, advising Skipper to just “leave it be”, only for Skipper to emerge with her precious device a second later. Now completely composed again, she matter-of-factly states “Got it. Let’s go”, then buries her nose in her device one again.

“Sisters Ahoy”: Skipper’s head acts as a magnet for coconuts in this episode. The poor girl gets conked on the cranium exactly THRICE in this short.

CONCLUSION

Anyone who’s read my Top 9 Favorite Characters list knows that I was looking forward to this particular Pop Dream, since as I expunged there, Skipper is my favorite character on Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse and my favorite Barbie Sister. Skipper is totally what I’d be like if I were a fashion doll. As an identical twin I can relate to wanting to stand out just a little, I’m a techno-geek and an artist who’s constantly distracted by the nuttiness surrounding me, and I can definitely relate to the desire to sometimes rag on your fellows, though you’re still devoted to them and have their backs. I wonder what Skipper would say about such glowing praise.

Next up is Stacie. Hopefully the wait for the next one won’t be as long. See ya there.