I have referenced Unicorn Goddess Barbie a few times in answers to asks and things like that, but not spotlighted it in its own right. Unicorn Goddess is one of the more interesting and elaborate Barbies to my mind, in kind of an unexpected direction.
Designed in 2018 by Bill Greening, she definitely strikes me as a contender maybe not for "best" Barbie, but one of the more interesting.
The idea of Barbie being a unicorn is not outrageous: there's been a number of other fantasy-themed Barbies. Innumerable. But something about the design of this one really strikes me; I don't know how to put it into words, except that if you had asked me to picture what Mattel would do with the prompt "Barbie, but as a unicorn", I woudn't have pictured this.
This was part of the Mythical Muse series, which also contained a mermaid and a dragon. The mermaid doesn't move me as much, probably because there's been ten thousand Barbie mermaids over the years and there's only so much you can do with the concept. But the dragon Barbie, Dragon Empress, is pretty good.
Not as good as Unicorn Goddess, but still pretty good.
But you know, Unicorn Goddess was not the only attempt Mattel made at depicting Barbie as a unicorn.
Eleven years earlier in 2007, none other than Bob Mackie had an attempt at a similar concept with Lady of the Unicorns Barbie.
This kind of straddles the line: she is titled of course Lady "of the" Unicorns, so perhaps this combined with her medieval garb is supposed to imply that she is a human woman who merely has a special relationship with unicorns, and is not herself a unicorn. But then again, there is a unicorn neck and head coming fully out of her side.
Actually, a really long neck. Downright swanlike. The longer you look, the more you can't see it as real anatomy. But of course, it isn't meant to be real, biologically accurate unicorn anatomy (whatever that means). Don't think too much about it. Just appreciate the fashion.
