While pretty much every most days I’m all about Prim the Kenners, it’s always nice to give some recognition to some of the other dolls that live here as well! So what better way to show some love than to focus on the three most brightly-coloured haired dolls that I have? In case you haven’t seen their photos before here on BlytheLife, here is (from left to right): Mollie (Molybdenum), Moxie, and Minnow. (Mollie and Moxie are the fraternal twins, Minnow just happens to have equally bright hair.)

The thing about having super bright, highlighter worthy hair is that I cannot help but smile when I see them. Ever so cheerful and sunshiney bright, I love the bright saturated colours, and how also how they look together. Out of my entire doll family, these are the only three that have brightly coloured locks. While I do have other dolls with fantasy-coloured hair (Tertiary Jane is a Simply Peppermint, and Sophie the CapChat has silver coloured hair – not completely unnatural for a person or doll to have, but she’s a young’un), these are the bright ones, whom I cheerfully refer to as my little brightheads.

Highlighters to match!

Do you have brightly-coloured fantasy haired Blythes? Do you happen to give equally ridiculous names to your brightly-coloured fantasy haired dolls like I do?

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I didn’t have smart phone, I had to go through the process of finding cables and turning on my computer and actually remember to upload photos in order to photos of my Blythes up onto the internet. Since joining the modern era, back in 2012, the majority of my doll photos have been courtesy of my smartphone and the exorbitantly priced data package that I pay for on a monthly basis. While I don’t have a problem with spending money on Blythes and other dolly things (hello, doll boots!), I greatly enjoy the fact that many app makers make them available for free, or associated with their websites where they run ads. I’m going to go through a few of my favourite apps, and why I enjoy them! Because I have an Android device only, and no Apple devices, I’m only going to be going through apps that I’m 100% sure are available for Android. Most should have an Apple-equivalent though, so don’t despair!

Instagram is a fairly popular one already. I take a lot of my doll photos with the Instagram app and then apply filters or edit them as I wish. Instagram did recently have a major update with a lot more features for finer control over the photo editing process. New features included changing the contrast and highlights, as well as adding a vignette or sharpening the details of the image. Bonus points to Instagram for the fact that I can choose to directly upload to Flickr, as well as other sharing places like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter or Foursquare. You can see what other people have uploaded via Instagram by searching tags – a good one is #blythe.

Flickr is the website that everyone now loves to dislike, especially since their major revamp of their website. However, I must give them props, because their (Android) app is so much nicer to use now. The app nicely mimics the website, but the functionality is more present when it comes to the app. I greatly enjoy it and I find that the app doesn’t lag for me like the website does. There’s also more options now when it comes to uploading photos via the app. Previously I found it nearly impossible to tag photos or to make them private when uploading via the app, now I find it’s a lot easier and more intuitive to use. These days, I’m more likely to go onto Flickr via the app than the website.

Aviary is a fun photo-editing app. There’s all sorts of things you can add to the photos – borders, ‘stickers’, effects, and more. I like Aviary because it loads pretty quick, and you have the option of adding on more ‘packs’ of effects, stickers, etc. The thing about the add-on packages is that some of them do cost money, while others are free. I can’t talk about the paid packages (I’m sure they’re nice!) as I’m still quite happy about the free add-on packs that I’ve downloaded so far. One cute bonus is the ability to ‘meme’ your photo, just by adding text across the top and bottom of the image. I’d recommend looking through all the add-on packages before downloading them, you may find that you don’t need (or not won’t use!) that may additional filters.

Pixlr-o-matic is one of my favourites when it comes to editing photos on the go. It is very easy to use when it comes to applying effects, filters and borders to your photos on your phone, or even a tablet. The other great app by Pixlr is Pixlr Express, which is fun for doing collages, and more editing magic. The nice thing about Pixlr is that both of their apps are also available as web-based photo editing websites! So for those who do not have Photoshop or another photo editing program on your computer, this is an option for you.

What are your favourite apps to use when doing Blythe-related activities?

Whenever I see listings for dolls that are up for sale or “adoption”, I frequently see phrases like:

I didn’t bond…

She’s just not what I expected…

She doesn’t fit in with my family…

And it got me thinking – with how often people use phrases like this, it makes me wonder why this happens. Sure, a lot of dolls are very pretty and attractive in photographs online, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to go out and buy them just to see if I’ll like them in person as well. It’s  costly endeavor to buy all the dolls just to see if you like them. Not only will you likely be out some money if you’re the first one to remove her from the box, there’s also the costs associated with shipping (that you paid originally) and shipping materials (that you need to buy in addition to ship her out). Plus there’s the cost of your time, since time is money! This seems to happen most frequently, it seems, with new releases. Since nobody has seen them in person, or had the opportunity to buy one secondhand, it stands to reason that there may be those who decide that the doll is too far off from the promotional photography that it isn’t worth keeping around. And then you have those who buy a doll that costs nearly $200 just to “steal” the stock outfit from, and then resale at nearly the same price due to high demand of a popular doll.

Kitty Brighton, my Jackie Ramone, is the only Blythe doll that I have ever
bought based on promotional photographs alone.

For me, Blythe shopping is an event that happens far and few in between. I don’t buy new dolls frequently, and nor can I afford to do so. I also cannot afford to buy dolls just to see if I will like them, so I tend to stick with dolls that I’ve already seen in out-of-box photos. The doll itself may still be never removed from box, but I will have had the chance to see other people’s dolls out of box, and the general quality of the hair, how well they look with chip changes or new (better!) outfits. The ability to do this is so wonderful because it means that I can imagine what my doll will look like in other clothes besides the stock outfit. Older releases or secondhand dolls are great for this reason, if you’re buying them on the secondhand market, you’re more likely to get to see photos of the doll from various angles, with flaws magnified in photos taken with the macro function. And if you ever have questions, you can always ask for more photos! This is definitely something that you cannot do with brand new dolls that are still in the box. So there are always pros and cons to the condition of the doll that you’re buying.

Was it love at first sight for you? Or do you resell dolls after not bonding?

My dolls have a decent amount of handknits, because that’s the majority of my contribution to their wardrobe. But weather appropriate clothing? It’s hard to do when it’s sunny one day, rainy the next, and then a mix of both the third day of the week. The beginnings of summer is always rough. The weather isn’t quite so predictable yet, so weather appropriate dolly clothing still consists of a few cardigans.

As I’ve been on a self-declared clothing diet lately, I’ve been having to make up outfits based on what I already own. So here are some selections for the warmer days and for cooler days. Some shorts, a few light-coloured dresses. The duck cover-up? For the days that my dolls deign to go near water, or a beach, which is very rare.

I know that to non-dolly people, it seems weird to consider dolls needing to dress for the weather, but there’s just something about dolls wearing swimsuits out in the snow, or big jackets at the beach, that just seems wrong to me. People dress appropriately for the weather, and so should dolls!

Junie Moon recently made the unpopular choice not using their regular lottery system to decide who gets a chance to purchase the anniversary Neo and Middie dolls on their international online shop. Regina Erwen (Neo) and Contessa Margherita (Middle) were available for pre-orders on June 6th, last Friday.

Previously, Junie Moon’s method of conducting pre-orders of limited dolls was to collect the information of those who wished to get the chance to buy the dolls, and then see what Lady Luck had to say about it. This made for a ‘cleaner’ and probably less anxiety-filled shopping experience. Pros to the lottery system is that there is less of a rush to go and get the doll, but also you can sleep on the decision a bit more. If you’re on the fence about buying, you can put it up to chance. If you “win” the lottery and you’re not that excited, clearly the doll was not meant for you. Cons for the lottery system was that it wasn’t first-come, first-serve, and there was more wait time in determining if you would actually be able to purchase the doll or not. While the new way of selling anniversary dolls closely mimics what you’d go through in a real shopping experience, it led to a lot of emotions and annoyances – at least what I read on Facebook!

Between the website not loading or refreshing properly, and some people never being able to make it past the shopping cart screen before some of the dolls “sold out”, it led to a lot of people not being happy with the way that Junie Moon had decided to run the pre-orders for this year’s anniversary dolls. However, if you are still looking for either anniversary dolls, they are sure to come up on other official retailers of Blythes. Junie Moon had stated on Facebook that they were taking pre-orders of 300 of each doll. Given that the Neo is limited to a count of 2,500, that means there are still 2,200 available. Fingers crossed you find the anniversary doll of your dreams somewhere! I’m quite fond of the look of Regina myself, but I’m still searching for a money tree!

Were you one of those who were trying to pre-order one of the anniversary dolls from Junie Moon?

How did the process go for you?

Do you prefer the lottery system or the new pre-order method?