My Scene is an American series of fashion dolls created by Mattel in 2002 as a Spin-Off of the Barbie brand. Mattel's Barbie character is one of the dolls in the My Scene line, and the My Scene dolls have slim bodies similar to earlier Barbie dolls, but with larger heads. The New York Times described their features as "exaggerated lips and bulging, makeup-caked eyes." My Scene were designed to appeal to the tween market and compete with the Bratz dolls from MGA Entertainment. The series originally consisted of three female characters, but was expanded to eventually include ten different dolls.
The My Scene series of dolls was first introduced in the fall season of 2002, before the 2003 Flavas (which was a flop), to compete with the Bratz dolls. It included three dolls: Barbie (later renamed/replaced with Kennedy who served the same purpose), Madison, and Chelsea, with different ethnicities and personalities, and 2 extra fashions for each character. The characters were named after different locations in New York City.
By the beginning of 2003, new characters were in production—Nolee along with three male characters: Bryant, River, and Hudson. Delancey and Ellis premiered in the "Hanging Out" line which debuted in late 2003. Kenzie debuted in the "Getting Ready Line" of 2004 and Nia debuted in 2008. In total, there are seven characters in the My Scene series (Kennedy/Barbie, Madison, Chelsea, Delancey, Nia, Hudson, and River), six discontinued characters (Nolee, Kenzie, Bryant, Ellis, and Sutton) and four special edition dolls (Lindsay, Jai, Tyson and Ryan). Each of the My Scene girls (and three of the boys) own pets.
A web series was available on the website, along with two direct-to-video specials, Jammin' in Jamaica and Masquerade Madness, and a full-length movie, My Scene Goes Hollywood.
Productions:
- My Scene Jammin In Jamaica (Summer 2004)
- My Scene Masquerade Madness (Fall 2004)
- My Scene Goes Hollywood (Summer 2005)
The line was officially discontinued in 2011, though the website wasn't completely shut down until 2014. There were rumors of the My Scene-line making a comeback in 2016, but these were eventually proven false. However, recent articles show that some My Scene dolls are returning as collector's items in August 2024.
My Scene contains examples of:
- Animation Bump: The animation of the specials and movie are much more smooth and detailed compared to the animation of the webisodes.
- Big Applesauce: The series takes place in New York City, with all the characters (except for Barbie, Kenzie and Nia) being named after places within New York City. Also, all but four of the characters are NYC-natives:
- Delancey, who happens to be Chelsea's cousin, is originally from Southern California (the Los Angeles-area).
- Kenzie, a friend of Nolee's that the other girls met during the "Shopping Spree" line, moved to New York City from Atlanta, Georgia.
- Sutton, Madison's love interest, is originally from England.
- Nia (a character from the reboot), was born in Mexico City, Mexico but lived in Miami, Florida until moving to New York City—Kennedy (after replacing Barbie) met her while on vacation in Miami (before Nia moved to NYC).
- Bookends: My Scene started and ended with a trio of female dolls (Barbie, Chelsea, and Madison at the beginning and Kennedy, Chelsea, and Nia at the end).
- Expy: Of the Bratz, considering that they were designed to compete with them around mid-2002.
- Five-Token Band: Chelsea is the group's redhead, Barbie (later Kennedy) is the blonde, Madison is Ambiguously Brown, Nolee is Asian and Nerdy, Nia is the Spicy Latina, and Delancey is of mixed Irish and Italian ancestry.
- Gag Lips: The New York Times described the dolls' features as "exaggerated lips and bulging, makeup-caked eyes."
- Gender-Blender Name: "Kennedy" is usually a boy's name.
- High School: Combined with Artistic Age and Vague Age—the characters are supposed to be high school students, with Chelsea and Nolee being the only characters to have confirmed ages (Nolee's 16 as of Club Birthday and Chelsea's 16 as of Masquerade Madness). However, from the way they and the others look and act, they could easily pass for college students (or even older).
- Hipster: The dolls and their friends have various hipster traits, particularly when it comes to their tastes in music and fashion.
- Implied Love Interest: Madison and Sutton—while they were often romantically linked, they were never confirmed to be an Official Couple.
- Limited Social Circle: The girls and their boyfriends don't have any major interaction with anyone outside of each other and their parents (Madison's father in particular).
- The Noseless: Similarly to their MGA counterparts, the Bratz, the dolls' noses are either very tiny or not very noticeable.
- Odd Name Out: Madison and Nia are the only My Scene girls whose names do not end with a long 'e' sound.
- Official Couple: Four of these —
- Barbie and River (later Kennedy and River, when Kennedy took Barbie's place).
- Chelsea and Hudson
- Nolee and Bryant (until Bryant was discontinued).
- Delancy and Ellis (until Ellis was also discontinued).
- Put on a Bus: Only three of the characters (Bryant, Ellis, and Barbie) have an in-universe reason why they were phased out of the line: they moved out of New York City. The other three discontinued characters (Sutton, Kenzie, and Nolee) are implied to have that same in-universe reason as well.
- Sudden Name Change: Madison or Westley?
- Theme Naming: As mentioned above, the doll line takes place in New York City and all but three of the characters are named after places within NYC.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Delancey's probably the most tomboyish of the female characters, and she and Chelsea (who also happens to be Delancey's cousin) serve as an example of this trope.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Yes.
- Vague Age: They're high school students (either sophomores or juniors). But they dress and act older and they have a lot of freedom (such as going out to club parties at night). Chelsea and Nolee are the only characters to have confirmed ages (they're both 16, as of Masquerade Madness and Club Birthday, respectively).
