There is a different size of doll family for every person. Some people have one Blythe, some have two, others have twenty. I told myself at the beginning that I would only have one Blythe – this lasted for all of a month, by the way. I’ll admit that I wish I had the funds and the space for over a hundred Blythes, or more, but I don’t. As it is, I find it difficult to make time for all of my Blythes, but it’d be nice to have quite a few more dolls. I would enjoy having a rainbow family with all the hair colours, and a gaggle of Kenners. I like the size of the family that I have right now (a dozen), but I don’t know if it consider it to be small or large. Small and large are both such relative terms. In comparison to someone with over a hundred dolls, I have a puny doll family. But compared to someone who has two Blythes, I have a lot of dolls. But a dozen is a nice round number and I think that I can handle it for now.

Do you prefer having a small doll family or a large doll family?

I had a lot of fun with my interview with Kimberly, the creative mind behind Rosiee Gelutie. With her and her Donutzies, she’s sure she go far with her endeavors and I’m so glad to have been able to share a little bit about her with all of you. It’s not every dolly designer who creates toys for their dolls, as well as playsuits/rompers, dresses and more! That’s pretty creative, if you ask me!

Regarding the Rafflecoptor: I found several people who were using the Tweet/Twitter and Blog Post (not comments) entry methods who were not including links to their Tweets or blog posts. These entries were deleted prior to selecting a winner. As with all my giveaways, I verify to see that Tweets and blog posts were completed with the relevant information. I do not appreciate people trying to gain extra entries without earning them and those people have been noted down.

And the winner of the cute Donutzie and Donutzie-fabric playsuit is…
Click to read more of this entry.

When I first joined the doll hobby, I told myself that I was going to go into the doll hobby with a strict maximum that I would spend on things. I can’t remember how I came up with the numbers, they may be completely arbitrary. But I told myself that I wouldn’t overspend, that there was no doll worth that much. By the numbers, I told myself that I wouldn’t spend more than…

• $5 for a pair of doll shoes
• $10 for a doll dress, pair of pants, shorts, hat or coat
• $200 for a Blythe

And I bet quite a few of you are laughing at the fact that I thought that I could adhere to those limits. Arbitrary limits that I give myself in order to keep myself in check. As I got more involved in the community, and more interested in learning how to sew, I learned why people charge what they charge. When it took me nearly 3 hours to sew one doll dress, $10 seems like a bargain. Heck, even $15 for a doll dress is a bargain – and no, I’m not dropping big bucks on doll clothes on a regular basis. I wish that I could, but I don’t.

I’m a lot more selective with my purchases now. Mostly because I’ve just become more picky in what I dress my dolls in, that and after I’ve built up a bit of a wardrobe (and shoe closet), I can afford to be more thoughtful of each piece that comes into my dolls’ closet. It helps that I spend more time with research now, and thinking about how each piece goes with what I already have. Like “Oh, cute pants… but it would go with NOTHING that my dolls’ already own…”, much like I do when I go clothes shopping for myself these days. The combination of having a limited spending capacity results in me being able to afford to be picky. Nowadays, the “upper limit” is a bit more like:

• No more than $50 for a pair of doll shoes
• No more than $60 for a doll dress, pair of paints, shorts, hat or coat
• Erm, no more than $1000 for a Blythe (Kenner…)

Yeah, lets just say that the limit was raised – significantly. Raising the limit isn’t something that everyone is capable of, but nor is it something that needs to be reached – either consistently or even once. Do I need to spend $50 on a pair of doll shoes? Not every day, and nor is it healthy to do so (in my opinion) for the bank account. But it sure can be fun to splurge from time to time on something really special, even if everyone in your life (that doesn’t collect dolls) thinks that you may be completely insane.

What may be the most important aspect of the Blythe hobby? Actually having a Blythe doll.

I decided to do a little research (also known as searching on eBay for lowest non-inflated pricing). To make it the same across the board, I decided to include prices for brand new, in box dolls. Additionally, I decided not to focus on ADG Blythes. Here are the top 10 Neo/Takara Blythes that I came across at affordable prices. I’ve also included any notes that should be considered prior to buying them.

These prices do not include shipping, they are in $USD, are from BIN (Buy It Now) listings and I am not responsible for any transactions that you decide to take part in.

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1 & 2. Simply Guava ($99) and Simply Mango ($99)
The big thing to watch out for with the Simply Guava and Mango twins is that there are a lot of fakes floating around. Both are RBLs, came with cute Converse shoes that are quite collectible and small dogs (which don’t tend to be that collectible). Overall, Guava and Mango have been at low prices for a while now and the pricing hasn’t changed much since the influx of fake Guavas and Mangos into the market. But if you’re looking for a legitimate SG or SM, it pays to do your research first.

Photo of Tang (Simply Mango) by Johnathon/alain l’étranger.

3 & 4. Simply Vanilla ($110) and Simply Chocolate ($120)
Simply Vanilla and Chocolate are the FBL twins. Their stock isn’t typically desirable, but they look gorgeous when customized – which I noticed that quite a few have been customized. That said, SV and SC are both really cute as stock dolls (and not). As far as I know, there are no fakes floating around of SV and SC, but always be vigilant about what you’re buying. When in doubt, always ask someone else that you think might be more familiar about the dolls.

5. Lavender Hug – $120
An adorable FBL with light hair that reminds me a lot of Simply Lilac – but with rounded bangs. She has very adorable boots (that look like Blythe-sized Uggs, if you’re into those) and white fluffy ear warmers. So if you’re looking for a pretty cute doll and stock that’s usable, Lavender Hug fits the bill pretty well. I don’t think I’ve seen very many photos of her on Flickr, but if you’re looking for a doll to customize and get cute stock, LH would work well.

6. Nicky Lad – $130
Nicky Lad comes with cute stock. I see her getting customized quite a bit – but she comes with pink glasses, pink hiking boots, a cute shirt and shorts with a rain poncho. Yes, that’s all fantastic and cute. So cute stock, cute girl (with a set of special chips) – what else do you want in a Blythe?  I think $130 is good value for the quality of stock you end up with, and I don’t believe there were many complaints about NL’s quality – she’s an overall win!

7 & 8. Simply Love Me ($130) and Simply Delight ($130)
The two underrated Simply twins (both of the RBL face mold) – one has Aubrena/Aubrey-coloured hair (Simply Delight), the other has yellow-blonde hair (Simply Love Me). Both dolls come with long-sleeved A-line dresses, along with cute tights and useful boots that can be utilized with other outfits (black from Simply Delight and red from Simply Love Me). These two Simply dolls are another couple of dolls that don’t come up as often as they could. Given that they’re both RBLs, it’s likely that they get used for customizing quite a bit. Overall, I think they’re both pretty cute. Simply Delight is a good alternative if you do not have Adorable Aubrey or any of the Aubrey/Aubrena incarnations.

9. Bohemian Peace – $135
Still quite the looker, Bohemian Peace (RBL) with her long, dark red/auburn locks, she’s an older girl (if 2010 can be considered old), but still very affordable. She has lace tunic top that goes over her dress and the most adorable light blue ukulele. So not only does she come with cute stock, and she has very gorgeous hair, I adore the colour.

Photo of Eudora (Orange and Spice) by Johnathon/alain l’étranger.

10. Orange and Spice – $135
Cheerfully called “Spicy Orange” by a dear Flickr friend, O&S isn’t very popular in the world of Blythe. Yet another RBL, she has a special pair of dark blue chips that go well with the blue eyeshadow that she has. She’s one of the dolls that I’m hoping to get very soon, as I love her in photos (her and Ambrosial, but that doll isn’t on this list).

Photo of Often (Blythe) and her husband (Carter) by Meg/irulethegalaxy.

Blythe is an interesting topic of choice to bring up to a significant other, or a potential significant other. Especially when you consider that the original Kenner Blythe didn’t exactly take off due to people being scared of her abnormally large features (and the changing of the eyes).

I can’t entirely remember how I introduced my boyfriend to Blythe. I’m about 99.99% sure that I had shown him a bunch of photos and just went on and on about the pros and cons of each doll. For instance, I was pretty sure that my first doll was going to be Natasha Moore (long dark pinky hair, houndstooth coat, beauty mark, SBL). This was before I knew anything really about molds (or telling them apart)… I’d send photo after photo of Natasha Moore this and Natasha Moore that. But it didn’t take until the first moment that I bought myself a Blythe doll that he realized that the eyes changed. Apparently I managed to neglect that fact that the eyes changed at all. I guess I was so excited over the idea of getting a Blythe that I didn’t think about how to explain it to someone who didn’t understand it (or necessarily want to discuss dolls) – I have the luckiest boyfriend who gets to listen to me yap about dolls all the time.

How well does your significant other get along with your Blythes?

Photo of Hopalong (Wonderfrog) and her husband (Carter) by Meg/irulethegalaxy.
(I was told I’d get bonus points for including this photo.)