Passport Friends

2004 brought us a few doll lines in a style featuring younger characters. I've never been quite sure how old these girls are supposed to be but I'm thinking tweenish. Mattel had Wee 3 Friends, featuring Stacie, Lila (Midge's sister) and Janet (apparently no relation to Christie, Nikki or any other black Barbie character). The dolls were sold in themed sets of three. MGAE's version was 4Ever Best Friends, sometimes sold in pairs or even in packs of four. 

Funrise got in on this game and produced a small line called Passport Friends in 2005. These dolls had the obvious world locations theme. 

Unfortunately, Passport Friends are incredibly hard to find. Thankfully, information on Passport Friends proved slightly less hard to find, though it's definitely still pretty scanty. 

After many years of searching, I finally came across one of the dolls for sale. This one is named Manhattan. The same seller had her top and jeans, though everything was in separate auctions. I believe the doll was originally dressed and the seller chose to separate the pieces, because the clothes are in no way marked and couldn't be IDed easily unless they came on the doll. 

Manhattan's hair is a little rough. No way of telling if this is from play or just because it's a cheaper fiber. 

Her face is really cute though. I always love a brown-eyed blonde. 

The body is simple. These were the days before a ton of articulation. She's articulated at the basic points of neck, shoulders and hips, although she does have the bonus of click knees. 

 

So here are Calista from 4Ever Best Friends, Manhattan, and Lila from Wee 3 Friends. 

All three have the same basic points of articulation. 4Ever Best Friends have an additional point at the wrists. Passport Friends is the only line with bendable knees and the hip joint also has way more range than the other two lines. So it's actually the line from the smallest company that made the best body. Unless you really, really value wrist articulation over knees, I guess. 

That's all I've got on the dolls themselves, but I have compiled some promo pictures from Google searches. 

Sadly, these aren't very big so you can't see much detail. They all came from a Polish website that seems to be dead now. 

Here's Manhattan in her box. 

And a shot of all the pieces. You can see that the outfit I have is definitely hers. 

I love the animal passport stamps. 

Here's a fashion pack for her. 

Here's Sydney. She's the one we previously had the most info on, because for a while, she was the only boxed pic I had. 

I couldn't find the more detailed promo pic for her, but I do have a fashion pack. 

This one is named Paris. 

She's got curly hair. I think she may have green eyes? I'm sure she's different from Manhattan somehow, considering they have a rather similar hair color. Paris's hair might be a little more brown than Manhattan's. 

Paris fashion pack.

Here's Rome. 

I love her. I like that she's all brown and gold. It's a nice change from the constant pastels that we see more than ever these days. 

There's actually a commercial for these on Youtube. You can see there's a fifth doll in a collection. She's East Asian and has a panda, so she's likely representing China, but I have no idea what her name is. 

Here's Manhattan.

Paris. Green or blue eyes for sure. 

Rome.

Rome and Sydney. I totally love Rome. 

Rome, Sydney and Paris. 

Sydney and the Chinese girl. She's definitely very Bratz Jade. The hairstyle. The pink streaks. The black and pink in general. She and Rome are the two I'd love to find the most, but honestly give me any of them at this point. I'm so happy to have Manhattan. I love modern lines, but little obscure lines like these are like a fun treasure hunt for me. A treasure hunt that takes a very long time!

PHOTO CREDITS: 

-Actual doll images are mine. 

-Promos photos are from a Polish website: merlin.pl

-Commercial stills were taken from here:

https://youtu.be/3hy3uDxUNm4