I was chatting with a doll friend recently (who asked to remain anonymous) and we were talking about Middies, and then she said this gem:

I don’t really get the point of them.

The point? The point is that they’re cute! They’re adorable and pocket-sized! They have even tinier feet that demands a tiny shoe collection all to themselves! But I don’t throw all of these points at her, instead I simply go “What do you mean?” – the response I got wasn’t surprising, but was a good point.

“I’m worth every penny!”

On a good day, a Middie costs roughly the same as a Neo Blythe – but she doesn’t have the same characteristics as a Blythe. For instance, a Middie doesn’t have the famed changing eyes that a Blythe has, instead she has a dial and can just move her eyes from side to side (much like a Pullip). The functionality isn’t the same as one doll has one set of eyes, the other has four.

Isn’t the whole point of Blythe is to have the oversized head and the changing eyes?

I thought about this – and I thought it was a yes and no type of answer to that question. Yes, the classic (vintage) Blythe was well known (and feared by children?) for having the changing eye colours. That’s also one of the features that drew me to her when I first discovered Blythe on the internet because it was quirky, weird, and cute. But I tend to consider Middie to be a different doll altogether. Sure, she shares a lot of similar qualities with Blythe (large head to body radio, similar facial features), but she’s not a smaller version of her big sister.

Middie is her own doll-self (so to speak). After all, nobody looks at Petites and go “Ugh, she doesn’t have changing eyes like Blythe does!”.