For those who are unaware, BlytheCon 2013 in New York City this year in October is going through a period of uncertainty right now. If you haven’t seen the posts yet, you can find out the information on the Facebook group for BlytheCon 2013 or over on Bad Dolly Deals. At first, I cringed when I read the initial details. The doll community had been a bit on the edge lately, what with other drama (regarding some certain Tumblr accounts) and just idle gossip. I thought the comments would be a lot more negative in general, and I was pleasantly surprised! Not only have people decided to band together to figure out how to make the event happen this October.

Dolls and their owners are great at coming together for a cause and we make things happen!

The Blythe community has done a lot of fantastic things in the past that makes me proud to be part of the Blythe community. Fundraisers for sick/injured friends, Japan, 4Alissia and other fantastic causes. I think that the doll community has a great way of joining together to make things happen. I know that there are a lot of hurt feelings right now about what’s happened with BlytheCon event, but there are a lot of people who also want to attend and make things happen. From what I’ve seen, this community is filled with some pretty fantastic people and we make things happen. It’s what people in Blythe do in the best way possible.

I adore doll shoes (this you probably already knew…). There’s just something about the dainty little doll shoes that exist in the world and how they’re so very small! I wish I had a shoe collection like my dolls did, I really do. If I did though, I think I’d struggle to figure out where to stash all the shoes and boots (I may have more than a few pairs of dolly shoes). There’s just something really great about the small plastic shoes that I love. Maybe it’s how adorable they look on small dolly feet, or the level of detail that can go into a tiny shoes. Exploring the idea further, maybe it’s just the fact that that I can have dozens of doll shoes and not take up a lot of space and it adds to my need to collect All. The. Things. I can’t afford to have all the Blythes ever released (and wouldn’t that just be the dream?!) but I can have many pairs of tiny doll shoes and no one would be the wiser because they all just mix in together so well.

There’s just something about them that is so wonderful. And they can be so incredibly detailed – both new boots and vintage ones.

And I just love choosing them to go with outfits or organizing them. They even look great against mundane things (like my study notes for my pathophysiology final exam last term!).

And the thrill of buying yet another organizer box because I’ve finally exceeded the two that I had? Because life is too short to restrict your shoe collection to two organizer boxes – trust me, I tried.

It’s a wonderfully fun to get to play with boxes full of doll shoes and to pick out what doll is wearing what. And even more fun to get new shoes in the mail and to decide who will be wearing what first!

Whenever new dolls are announced, I always have high hopes for them. The illustrations are typically cute, I find a lot of people speculate about if the new doll’s hair colour will be similar to one that already exists. I find myself looking forward to the promotional photos of the actual doll. The way that they’re styled, how the clothes really look, if the hair guesses were right. I find myself looking at Middie photos primarily, but also the Neos. Those in my local Blythe group joke that I have a photographic memory for Blythe – I’d hate to let them down by not knowing one of the newer releases!

The best example I have of perfect-out-of-the-box bangs, Simply Sparkly Spark.

At this point, it seems like it’s the luck of the draw if you get a “good” doll or not. There are a lot of quality issues that have been plaguing the new releases for a long time now. Choppy hair that looks like a toddler got a hold of it, clothing that’s not necessarily made out of fabric (ew), but the shoes are still – generally speaking – pretty good. Despite seeing photos and hearing about the horror stories – Ambrosial cracking apart when opening, broken baskets for Nellie Nibbles, faces that look like a TBL/fake that were bought from a trusted source – I still find myself with high hopes for what new Blythes come out. A lot of them look adorable in illustrations, and after someone has taken some time with them to style for photos.

I know a lot of people have started looking at only older releases or customs, and I do agree that it’s a good idea. With customs or older releases (that are no longer in the box), you have the opportunity to see more photos and you get to see the actual doll rather than a stock photo that the shop is using for a preorder. But people are still preordering dolls, buying new dolls direct from online shop. And really, I’m not one to talk because I did buy my Jackie Ramone (Kitty Brighton) sight-unseen based off of promotional photos. I had really high hopes for her, but based on the talk of the quality – I had low expectations when it came to what she would be like after she arrived. I was pleasantly surprised, because I didn’t feel the need to do any work on her. High hopes, but definitely low expectations now when it comes to what the dolls look like.

I do still like new releases though, and I’d love to get my hands on a doll from the new Radiance+ mold. At the same time, I’m still searching for the perfect BL to join the family and I fully intend to buy a used BL where I can view lots and lots of photos so I can see what I’m buying before I pay for her.

Since Flickr announced, and unveiled, their big changes in May, the doll community has remained rather split on if the changes are good or bad. I asked then if people were wanting to stay with Flickr or move to another photo sharing site. A lot of people migrated to Ipernity, but then people moved back for whatever reason.

I personally found Ipernity a bit of a pain to use. Yes, it had some fantastic features that I think a lot of people enjoyed (e.g. journaling capabilities, the fact that the Ipernity staff is okay with people using images to sell items), but a lot of people eventually moved back to Flickr. I had opened an Ipernity account, but I found it cumbersome and honestly, I didn’t want to maintain two social media accounts for photos when I had already established myself onto Flickr for years now. As a non-Etsy/Artfire seller, I haven’t been reported for selling on the forums and I know some people have and found it frustrating that Flickr takes selling so seriously – especially when there are some that get away with selling without so much as a peep. I found Ipernity to be slow at times, and I felt that it could have been better organized. Plus, initially I did not have email notifications turned off so when people were adding me as a friend/contact, my email inbox just imploded upon itself and I was suddenly faced with a staggering number of new, unread emails in a very short period of time. But I feel that the community’s stance on Ipernity has also declined as well. While I don’t actively use Ipernity (this may be because I can directly upload Instagram photos onto Flickr…), I’ve noticed a decrease in the number of photos being uploaded there, as well as a decrease in activity amongst the people I had added as contacts. Was the community’s mass migration from Flickr to Ipernity too hasty?

If you are still on Flickr…

1. Have you gotten used to the changes by now?
2. Do you still prefer the old Flickr to the new Flickr?
3. Are you having trouble finding certain pages still or has the navigation system become like second nature?
4. What is, in your opinion, the worst aspect of the ‘new’ Flickr?

If you made the move to Ipernity…

1. Do you find Ipernity active?
2. Do you still check Flickr to see if there are photos you’ve missed seeing?
3. What are your favourite Ipernity features?
4. What is your least favourite aspect of Ipernity?

Remember, if you have a Pro account now, you still have until August 20th to change your account from Pro to Free status and get a prorated refund on your annual subscription. However, once you change to a Free account, you are no longer eligible to subscribe at the same rate (annual fees will double).

When I was in Hong Kong, I stayed with my cousin and his family. Part of that family was my 8 year old second cousin, who primarily had stuffed animals and gifted toys. Apartments in Hong Kong are small, so a lack of space is a real issue when it comes to bigger things like board games and puzzles. She had very little in terms of dolls, but she adored mine.

She recognized Blythe instantly, and knew before I told her that the eyes changed colours. She had seen them before in shop windows, you see, but she also didn’t have one. This was primarily due to cost, and the fact that her father (my cousin) thought that they were scary. Good thing that he’s not part of their target market audience, or Blythe would be failing in the market. She was enthralled with Eden, loving the small stash of clothes I’d brought along for her and the shoes! She adored the shoes (a girl after my own heart) and thought that the boots were super neat. Plus she greatly enjoyed the whole pulling the pullstring and seeing the eyes do their thing. I let her handle Eden (with supervision), but I’m afraid after a while she got a wee bit too familiar. My cousin had her friend over and then said that they wanted to play dollies with Eden. I was going to be going out, so I flat out said no. She got very upset with me, until I had to explain that Eden was a special doll and that she wasn’t allowed to touch Eden without permission and without me around. But overall, she was quite hooked onto Blythe while I was there and was infatuated with all the tiny things I had for Eden. Overall, the introduction of Blythe to my cousin was quite successful (she wanted one and asked for one)!

How have you successfully introduced Blythe to other people?