I love miniatures, but I also like to do things on a budget. I’m a huge fan of my own smartphone, so I decided that it might be time for my dolls to have one of their own (and I am planning on making a few more after this!). In no time, your dolls will be busy with texting, calling their best friends across the country and racking up phone charges by paying to move onto the new chapter of Candy Crush Saga.

Scissors are involved in this project – so please get an adult supervision if you’re a kid! BlytheLife is not responsible for any injuries or increased cell phone bills that may be a result of doing this project.

Click to read more of this entry.

Image by sxc.hu user alicja_sto.

I’ve noticed that over the course of the last year, there’s more and more Facebook groups dedicated towards Blythe. For those who are blissfully unaware: there are a lot of Facebook groups dedicated towards Blythe. I love sharing Blythe with the world as much as the next collector, but sometimes it still feels strange to have Blythe on Facebook. I spent a lot of time establishing a presence online that was distinctly Blythe and not-Blythe. I started adding (and being added by) Blythe people on Facebook after Portland and meeting more Blythe friends in person. I’m expanding my social circle, which I enjoy, but it’s still weird seeing Blythe photos sandwiched between nursing school blurbs and status updates from people I went to high school with.

Since Flickr’s changes in May, I’ve been finding that I spend less and less time on Flickr. The overall design is less inviting to me now, and I find myself scanning through some photos and then making my usual visits to specific pages (groups, recent activity) before leaving. I now spend more time on Facebook than I do Flickr, which is odd for me because since beginning to collect Blythe I’ve spent a lot of hours on that website (mostly scanning through pretty photos of dolls and daydreaming about who the next dolly will be). Now Facebook takes up some of my online free time, because it can and it doesn’t cost me anything to keep a tab open.

Funny enough, I don’t actually go seeking out Blythe Facebook groups to join! Yet I am a part of quite a few. I’ve grown to enjoy it, although I don’t post very much in the groups at all. I get notifications when there’s new posts, so I can keep up to date when people are posting about new items in their Etsy shops (which is always exciting when I’m hoping to get something elusive), when someone has a new doll and just when someone has something new to share. In a way, it incorporates a lot of things that I enjoyed with the old Flickr (the social media/commenting aspect of it), but it’s still weird to see real people’s names with real people’s photos. Whatever happened to seeing avatars all the time? I’m far too used to seeing people’s dolls as ‘them’. This leads to the unfortunate aspect of me expecting that people look like their dolls. It’s like “What, you don’t have a giant head and four sets of eyes?”.

Needless to say, I think the influx of people into Facebook groups since Flickr decided to do a big overhaul has been a welcome thing on the internet. Not everyone goes to the forums, or onto Twitter, but many people do go onto Facebook! And it’s been fun seeing more pictures of Blythe on the good ol’ Book of Face.

Are you in any Blythe groups on Facebook? How do you feel about having Blythe mingling in with your non-Blythe cohorts?

Shopping for dolls in Hong Kong is very, very different than shopping online. When I’m usually shopping for dolls, I can do it from the comforts of my own home where I could be sipping tea while hitting the tempting Buy It Now button and waiting for a shipping notice. I’m sure this is a very familiar setting for most of us when we’re purchasing dolls. It’s either that or waiting for a private message from a seller to let us know that “Yes, that doll is still available”. But buying dolls in person is an interesting experience!

My first Blythe (Sophie) was bought in person, but she was bought in British Columbia at a small, now-defunct store that had a small number of Blythes. My latest doll (Monique Magnifique, still lacking a ‘real’ name) was also bought in person, but in Hong Kong.

There are a few shopping centres that I will mention here that you can go to in Hong Kong to look for dolls. Some of these have multiple Blythe/doll shops, and some aren’t well labelled, so if you’re shopping, you just need to look for the tell-tale signs of dolls. All shopping centres in Hong Kong are multi-floored, so be sure to check out all the floors and the side hallways as they’re not always well-labeled. I wish I’d gotten more photos (or better photos!) of the shop displays, but they were very strict (and upset) over having cameras out and I got yelled at (twice).

CTMA Centre
1N Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong – noted by the “A” on the map.

Ginza Plaza
2A Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Sino Center
582-592 Nathan Road, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong

All of these shopping centres are easily accessible from Mongkok Station (oval red icon on the map). There is also fantastic shopping in the Mongkok area for human-sized goods!

One thing to note about these shops is that most do not have what I consider to be “normal” business hours (e.g. 9am-5pm). Many of them opened at around 5-6pm and would stay open until 10pm or so. If you are looking for dolls, I would recommend making two trips – one to go to all of the stores and get a feel for what is available and pricing, and then the second trip to do the actual shopping and perhaps some price negotiation.

Not all shops will have clearly marked pricing. Many of them also had dolls behind glass displays or up on shelves – so feel free to ask if they have a specific doll if you’re looking for on. I was initially looking for University of Love and some of the shops had to pull her off a shelf for me to look at before I hemmed and hawed over the pricing. It’s hard to negotiate with sellers about pricing because Blythe has such a high suggested retail price, but it can be done. It helps if you know the language (Cantonese) for negotiating though! It is easier to negotiate if you are buying multiples (e.g. more than one doll) or a lot of items in general.

Many of the shops that carry Blythe dolls also carry clothing and shoes. Some are familiar brands (e.g. Sugar Mag, Azone) while others are created for those shops. I found that, in general, prices of clothing and shoes was on par with pricing found online (via forums, eBay, Etsy) so I didn’t actually purchase many pieces. My big purchase was Monique Magnifique, although I may have eyed the Ambrosial that was on the shelf next to her quite a bit as well! Next time I go to Hong Kong, I’ll definitely have a better game plan (and more spending money!).

Summary of my shopping tips:

• Go check out the doll shops at least twice. Once to scope out what dolls are on hand (and pricing!) and the second to actually purchase a doll (or five).
• Be sure to walk through the shopping centre completely, even the littlest stores in the corners will have Blythes or Blythe clothing for sale!
• Price negotiation is difficult to do – it is easier if you are buying a lot of dolls or items from the shop. They’re more likely to give you a discount of some kind, but don’t expect to save on hundreds of dollars.
• If you don’t see something that you’re looking for, ask! Most of the shops are small and they only put out a portion of their products out.

I am a blogger.

This seems like an obvious statement, but sometimes it still takes me by surprise when someone refers to me as a blogger. It feels like it should be capitalized and properly trademarked. Like “Michelle: Doll Blogger™”. Although, more accurately, it would be “Blythe Blogger” but that requires too many trademark icons to make it flow nicely. If you’re new here, this site recently (two days ago!) had a birthday and I couldn’t be happier. But the when I thought about it – I’d been doing this for three years and I’m still coming up with new material for every single week. It sometimes takes me longer than I care to admit to put together a post, and sometimes it just flows right out of me and onto the screen like it was nothing.

For the readers of this blog who are also bloggers, this post is for you! And if you’re not a blogger, but perhaps like to journal or just want to write a post somewhere (e.g. Flickr, Ipernity), this is also for you. These are, in short, my doll blogging prompts for you to use when stuck for an idea about what to blog about. Enjoy!

1. Write about your first experience with seeing/finding Blythe.
2. Share your first doll, the buying experience, what you thought about.
3. Share your first customization mishap.
4. Talk about your new dolly purchases.
5. Write about your first ever doll meet/doll convention.
6. Do a post about shoes (note: Sophie approves of this!).
7. Write about Petites – Takara, LPS or new LPS.
8. Do you love Middies? Talk about that!
9. Do you loathe Middies? Share why you feel that way.
10. Do a review of something you bought!
11. Post some crafts you made recently for your dolls.
12. Have Re-ment? Why not pose your dolls with it and share pictures?
13. Do a stop-motion video of your dolls.
14. Do a Blythe photo challenge – 365, A Doll a Day, etc. – share the photos!
15. Write about your family’s thoughts on your dolls.
16. Did Blythe cause you to have a secondary hobby? Tell your readers about it!
17. Share your favourite hair styles for Blythe.
18. If you’re prepping for a BlytheCon or regional doll meet, share some sneak peeks.
19. Talk about your experiences at a recent doll meet.
20. Discuss the interactions between your kids/pets/spouse with your dolls.
21. Share why Blythe is special to you.
22. Talk about you – why dolls? Did you play with dolls as a child?
23. Scrapbookers – share the pages you’ve made for Blythe!
24. Post about taking your dolls out in public (for the first, second, umpteenth time) and people’s reactions.
25. Share your method of keeping bangs straight and flat on a doll’s head.
26. Talk about that fun new find at the thrift store for your dolls.
27. Share how you come up with doll names – is there a method behind your madness?
28. Do a mini-interview between yourself and your dolls – just don’t give into their new dress demands.
29. Wish lists of stock dolls, custom dolls, clothing, shoes, etc. Share! Maybe one of your readers has one for sale?
30. Do a “Life in the Day of _____” post for one of your dolls – start at the morning and end at bedtime.
31. Start making up doll blogging prompts of your own, and keep those creative blogging juices flowing!

I hope you use some of these blogging prompts! And share below in the comments if you do – I’d love to read some posts!

I’ve posted a lot about Kenners on this blog already – I’ve talked about buying Kenners, some restoration tips that I come across when wanting to restore my own dolls, and just in general the wonderfulness that are the 1972 vintage beauties.

I was previously of the opinion that Neos were just as good (or better!) than the Kenners that I saw. I mean, why would I want to spend hundreds of dollars on an old doll when I could get a few brand new dolls for the same amount of money? It did take me a while to ‘see the light’, as they say, but see the light I did. And now I’m all “Kenners are Awesome!”, but I know a lot of people aren’t.

Let’s consider the history of Blythe. It’s 1972 and a big-headed doll comes onto the scene. With a pull string and mod 70’s outfits, she sat on the shelves waiting to be bought. And waited, and waited, and waited. That doll’s original 1972 price? About $5-6 USD. And she sat on the shelf. What I wouldn’t give for a time machine to snatch up some Blythes at the 70’s pricing! Now that she’s worth well over 100x that original amount, why are people still buying her? Why are people paying hundreds to a thousand-plus dollars for her?

Because Kenners have a certain charm. She oozes it – not to be confused with scalp ooze that sometimes happens with the older girls. There’s just something special about a doll that’s older than I am, with personality to spare.

I’ve read posts online about how some people don’t think that Kenners are worth the price tag. That’s fair enough. I’m sure there’s people who don’t think that Neo Blythe dolls are worth the price tag either. Same goes for Middies or even Petites. Worth is a relative term. What a Kenner is worth to one person isn’t the same worth to another person.

For me, personally, my Kenners have been worth the amount I paid for them. They still cost me many pretty pennies, and I’m not a fan of overspending, but they have been worth it to me. But what I paid for a Kenner may not be how much you would pay for one. For instance, I would never pay the price for a NRFB Kenner… but I don’t have $1500-2000USD that I can afford to spend on Blythe dolls right now. Plus, the moment I unbox her (and I would…), her value would go down faster than a new car depreciates when you drive it off the lot. Kenners fluctuate in prices a lot. No two Kenners are exactly alike and they all have their own little quirks that need to be taken into consideration when trying to consider a value.

All original make-up, eyelashes, clear eyechips, original body with no cracks or tears, all plugs, thatching, a pull-string that works, knees that bend – all of these add to a Kenner’s value. Missing legs, frizzy hair and an obviously replaced string? Definitely takes its toll on the value of the doll. Just buying a head? I hope you’re paying less than the price of a full doll with a full head of hair. Because the value is less.

Let’s put it into perspective. You can buy a single Kenner Blythe leg, depending on which side and if the knee still holds position, from $50-100. A Kenner hardcap can run for about $50. A Kenner pelvis, I’ve seen them go for about $30-75, depending on if there is one crack, two or none. A pristine Kenner scalp (with no tears, with hair) could run upwards of $250 – depending on what the rooting pattern is and the colour of hair. Heads alone (with an eye mechanism, hopefully working) can run for $400-500, easy. By the time you start trying to find a torso with arms and without cracks, you’d be better off finding a Kenner with poor auction photos and ratty hair than to piece one together yourself. But you could be ambitious, or needing a part to ‘complete’ your doll. And that’s totally okay too.

I find joy in doll ownership. I would like to think that most Blythe collectors/hobbyists do. I find it fun to dress my dolls in new clothes, collect tiny shoes and attempt to sew (even though I often fail miserably). When this hobby stops being fun, I’ll know that I’ve overstayed my welcome. Until then, I find joy in the world of Blythe. And that includes the Kenners, because there wouldn’t even be Neo Blythes, Middies or Petites today if it weren’t for Kenners.

I definitely think that Kenners are worth it, but like everything else in the world of dolls, you need to find the right one at the right price for you. I don’t think that people should dig themselves into debt over Blythe. I think that the responsible thing to do is to budget money for Blythe – Kenner or otherwise. It’s a hobby, not a necessity (as hard as that may be for some people).