When the uninitiated are introduced to Blythe, I often get asked what’s so special about her? People automatically assume there has to be something special for an adult to be carrying around a doll. And there’s a lot to be said about those big-eyed beauties that have a place in our homes and in our hearts. I got my first Blythe when I was in an unhappy point in my life, so to me Blythe will always represent happiness. There’s just something joyful in their cute faces, stock or otherwise. And you cannot deny the magical pull that Blythe has on our heartstrings.

I talk about Blythe a lot to people who probably don’t really care too much about them. But my boyfriend listens (and I listen when he talks about cars) to me when I talk about Blythe. He knows there’s different molds (even if he can’t tell them apart). He knows my dolls’ names, he knows that Eden only wears pink and he always asks before pulling on the string of a doll with sleepy eyes that he’s pulling on the right one. He says that I always smile when I’m talking about Blythe, that something about those dolls just makes me light up. And he’s right, there is something wonderful about Blythe that just makes me happy.

But we all have our own reasons for falling in love with Blythe. Some can’t resist the urge to customize and make the dolls their own, others love them for the cute faces and fashions.

What are your reasons for loving Blythe? What makes them special to you?

It happened to me while I was in Portland. Random passersby would come up and go “What’s so special about these dolls?”. People are naturally curious about things like that, especially since it was a large group of people all with these strange dolls in their hands with the big heads and big eyes and small bodies. I’ve also explained what Blythe is all about to coworkers before.

I always start at the beginning. That Blythe was mass produced for just one year (1972) and that they stopped making her because kids didn’t like her. Something about the eyes, probably, and the pull string. (It does happen to creep out other people too.)

I try explaining what makes them so special now. About the dolly community, how creative people can be, how people customize their dolls. This almost always seems to lead the conversation to “What do you mean people ‘customize’ them? I though they were expensive/hard to find/imported only!”. The uninitiated seem to think about the monetary value a lot of the time. Maybe because they ask me how much a Blythe costs and I generally tell them – people tend to hand the dolls back straight away, or decline on wanting to hold her (kind of like me and when I first met a Parco).

Going over the basics tends to help – don’t overload newbies with too much information. I tell them a little about the history, that they’re now made by a company called Takara in Japan (but manufactured in China). They have four eye colours, two face forward and then the other two face to either side. The dolls are about the same height as Barbie, but have similar body size/shape to Skipper (I only mention this when people go “Why don’t you just get a Barbie instead?”). Please don’t tug on both pullstrings at the same time (if the doll in question happens to have sleepy eyes).

Most people are politely interested. Most people are curious, only because they’ve never seen a Blythe before and want to know why she has such a huge head (all the better to hold an eye mechanism, my dear!).

What do you tell people when you’re explaining Blythe?

Budgeting can be a very personal thing. We’re taught early on that it’s rude to ask people about money or wages and to only discuss such things amongst close family members. With Blythe, it’s kind of an open secret. Secret only to those not familiar with the costs of pocketed dresses, embroidered hats and that special custom doll by a certain designer. After all, we know how much a Goldie usually goes for, especially with uncut stock hair. We know that a NRFB Kenner goes for well over a thousand dollars. There’s no hiding how much we spend on dolls. If you’d just bought a Princess a la Mode, you’re not going to fool anyone in the dolly community into thinking that you got for her a low hundred dollars (even if you can get your non-Blythe friends and family to believe you!).

When I don’t get a new doll, my spending for this dolly hobby of mine is typically $25 (Canadian) or less. During the school year, the most spending I do is usually just for fabrics and trims at the crafts store because even though I spend a lot of time looking at dolls and sundries – I hardly ever buy anything (sad, but true). I go through long dry spells of no dolly mail and then I’ll do a little bit of spending get a lot of mail and that’ll tide me over for a few months again.

Heather (of Claribari Blythe) asked on last week’s Blythe On A Budget:

If it isn’t too personal, I would be curious how much the typical Blyther spends in a month (the ones where they don’t buy a Kenner…that would blow the budget!)

So… What’s your typical dolly budget look like when you’re not making extravagant purchases? Unless, of course, you do buy a Kenner every month, in which case that’s part of your regular budgeting!

Before my first Blythe Meet (which happened to be the Early Bird Meet that happened in Portland the day before BlytheCon), I had never met another person who was interested in Blythe dolls and I had never seen anyone else’s dolls in person besides the ones that I own. And as lovely as my dolls are, none of them are Kenners or BLs or FBLs or customized (well, besides chip changes, gaze correcting and sleepy eyes).

I got to meet people that I had spent the last two years talking to online. I got to meet people from all over that all share one thing in common: love for a certain type of dolly with big eyes that change colour with a blink.

It did take me a moment to warm up to people, I wasn’t entire sure what to expect because I had never been to a Blythe Meet before. To me, a meet was all about meeting people. And their dolls. I wasn’t sure what people would end up discussing, I didn’ t know what to expect because all I ever saw in photos of people’s meets were of dolls and people holding onto dolls.

I got to see Kenners for the first time. I even got to hold a Kenner and hear that soft and quiet little pip that they make when their string is being pulled. I got to meet people who share a love for Blythe, which was a great experience because it was something I had never had the chance to do before.

Some tips that I do have for other people who don’t know what to expect but are going to attend a meet:

• Have water with you – getting to talk to people is fantastic, but it does make you feel thirsty after a while.
• Have food! If the meet is for more than a small handful of hours, it’d be a great idea to have food. The Early Bird Meet that happened in Portland went for about 2.5hrs and I was hungry at the end of it.
• Dress appropriately for the weather, especially if the meet goes into the evening. I was also cold (and I wasn’t the only one).
• Have spare camera batteries! I definitely needed to swap out my battery partway through the meet.
• Wear your name tag somewhere that is easily seen. Also, put both your first name and the screen name that people are most likely going to know you as.

Two years ago on June 28th, 2009 I had purchased my very first Blythe doll ever. It was a Cappuccino Chat doll from a now-closed store in Richmond, BC. I got her in person, didn’t have to pay for shipping (but did have to pay taxes) and no waiting around obsessively refreshing the tracking information page to see if the box had been scanned again.

I named her Sophie on the car ride home while I kept on looking at her.

Blythe heads were a lot larger than I thought they would be, based on photos I had seen on the internet.

Two years ago on June 28th, 2009:

Last year, during my 365 with Sophie:

And yesterday, when she got her birthday dress:

I’ve done a lot since I started in this whirlwind of a hobby. I’ve made friends, expanded my dolly family, sewn a lot, knitted and crocheted a lot, participated in swaps, I went to BlytheCon in Portland, OR. I’ve had a lot of fun over the past two years, and it’s partially thanks to Sophie and her demanding needs for new clothes and shoes. My little fashionista would like to also thank her adoring public for hitting fave on her photos, despite my inabilities to take a decent photograph. And she’s still wondering when she’s going to officially sign with a modelling agency!