OVERVIEW: Shimmers (and Sea Wees)

Sunstreak and Baby Winglet

Sea Wees were a line of mermaid bath toys produced by Kenner from 1897-1985. I never got real into the Sea Wees, but I did get two sets in childhood. Icy Gals Breezy, Baby Rory and Whiskers were my first set in 1983, then I got TropiGals Camille, Baby Cascade and Pelly. TropiGals came out in 1982, so they were still on the shelves after I got my Icy Gals set.

Sea Wees originally were just single-packed mermaid dolls in floating sponges, but starting with the second release, they gained little babies to sit in the sponges with them. The TropiGals line added merpets. The pelican, seagull, dog and cat pets all had mermaid tails instead of legs.

Windbelle and Baby Whispy

Bubble Ballet, the 1985 line, dropped the pets and were just adult mermaids and babies again.

I loved to play with these toys in the bath and Pelly, the merpelican, was a special favorite toy, but I never got any other sets. I don't think they were expensive, but my attention apparently was on other things.

I don't have any photos of my Sea Wees, although I believe I still have my childhood set, plus a couple pets from other sets. I never got back into these as an adult collector, although looking at the sets now, a few of them look appealing. Maybe I'll pick up a couple more someday.

Pepper and Baby Pearl (2 variations)

The Shimmers line followed in Sea Wees' footsteps and came out in 1986. These were also produced by Kenner, but they were a bit more out there than the Sea Wees. Everyone knows mermaids and centaurs, but the Shimmers had these two hybrid mythical creatures plus butterfly women, bird women and deer centaurs. Each of the five types of creature had two characters in different color variations. The molds for each type were the same, so both centaur adults were in the same poses, but with different color schemes. Same goes for the babies.

I have absolutely no idea why I never got into this line in childhood. The only thing I can think of is that I never cared for Mom and baby toys. I didn't mind whole families, like the Sylvanian Families, but I never really cared about the baby figures from the Sea Wees and preferred the animal figures, so maybe that was it? I have no idea, since I certainly liked mythological stuff, monsters and such.

Marina and Baby Flutter (2 variations)

As an adult collector, I got the entire Shimmers line, minus their accessories. The combs were fairly easy to find and are very pretty, but the clothing pieces for the adult characters were not. My Sunstreak is complete and I had a complete Deerlene, but I think that was all the clothing bits I had.

Most of the pairs are easy to find, although like I said, the clothing pieces are not.

There are many variations within the line. Different face styles and coloring are very common. You can see the variations on the babies in the photos above and to the right.

Skylite face variations

                                                                                                                                                                                                                I ended up with two different versions of Skylite as well. As you can see in the photo here on the left, her eyes are printed differently. The doll on the left has narrower eyes set higher on her forehead, while the one on the right has wider eyes set lower. The one on the right also has darker, fuller lips. When I parted with some of my collection, I ended up keeping the doll on the right, because I think she's cuter.

Plume's hair variations

Plume is the only character I ever noticed with two very different hair colors. The doll on the left has green hair. The doll on the right has a blend of bright blue and neon yellow hair that gives it the appearance of being green. Normally, I would have kept the Plume on the left in my collection, since she has the lower set face, but I kept the one on the right due to her unique hair. And prettier wings!

Glade and Baby Speckle (prototypes)

The Shimmers line only lasted one release sadly. It's especially sad, because 1987's line had some amazing new designs. The plan was to rerelease six of the ten original sets and add nine new adult and baby pairs. Glade and Baby Speckle were the deer type, Seafin and Baby Finlet were mermaids, Sunset and Baby Dusky were centaurs, Skye and Baby Downy were birds, and Sundown and Baby Luffy were butterflies. In addition to these five new additions using the original creatures, there were two new types of creature. Coral and Baby Shelly and Seawave and Baby Foamy were seahorse mermaids. These two are really lovely, although Seawave looks a lot like Marina. Then Swirl and Baby Swizzle and Zebrina and Baby Zebrette took the centaur mold and became zebra centaurs. Also included was a family set of centaurs with a mother, father and baby (Mist, Swiftburst and Baby Flicker).

Seafin (prototype)

Many years ago, somewhere between 2003-2005, a handful of these prototypes appeared on ebay. I believe they had most of the pairs, although I think Coral the yellow seahorse was missing, along with maybe Sundown, the blonde butterfly woman. It's been so long I can't recall and I stupidly did not save all the auction photos.

Swirl and Baby Swizzle (prototypes)

I was a poor student at the time, but I bid. Hoo boy, did I bid. I lost auction after auction to the same person. I don't know which lucky collector got so many of these sets. I managed to win one pair: Swirl and Swizzle, the zebras. I was pretty happy and they were really cute, but the ones I fell in love with were Glade and Speckle, the deer. I love Glade's widow's peak and the soft, warm coloring. Well, I ended up being contacted by the person who won Glade and Speckle, because back in that day, you could actually see who won stuff and contact them. It turns out the pair she most wanted was...Swirl and Swizzle. So we swapped! I was incredibly nervous about it, so I agreed to do it only on the condition that she ship the deer to me first, then once I had them, I'd ship the zebras to her. Clearly, it all worked out, as you can see Glade and Speckle in my photo up there. I still have the old photo of the zebras from when I got them. The sellers also sold me Seafin in a separate transaction, cheaper because Finlet wasn't with her. I ended up selling her a few years ago though. As much as I love prototypes, there are only so many to go around and I don't like to hoard things and keep them away from others that love them. Since I had my faves, I didn't need Seafin, too, so she's in a home where she's more loved now.

I sold several of my pairs a couple years ago and my collection is smaller now, cut down to my faves.

Both of these lines are really cute and relatively cheap in price for 80s toys. They're fun and I recommend them!

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.

RECOMMENDED SITES:

http://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/seawees.php
Ghost of the Doll is the bestest. Maybe not the most complete Sea Wees resource. I haven't checked. But definitely good enough for a quick look!

http://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/shimmers.php
If you check out their Shimmers page, you can see the gorgeous prototypes in catalog pages.