Collecting Blythe has led me down the path of collecting other dolls. People in this community have influenced me in a variety of ways, being able to see other types of dolls beyond Blythe (and Middie, and Petites) has led me to acquiring an assortment of dolls.

From the more commercially-available standpoint, I have some Monster High dolls (5 out of the box, 2 NRFB) and a My Little Pony Equestria Girl doll (still in box…). What I would love to eventually do is get the rest of the MLP girls to complete the ‘set’.

There’s my BJD, Joy, that would be an on topic BJD for a certain online forum, she is a Doll Leaves Ding Ding (16cm):

Then there’s Kanin, my Petworks Usaggie, and my Hujoo Nano Freya in light gray, whom is oddly still without a name:

Who do you have in your doll family that’s not a Blythe?

The standard Kenner Blythe eye chip colours were described as bouncy brown, groovy green, pretty purple and beautiful blue. We know the colours better as orange, green, pink, and blue. Many people end up swapping them out for something else, I am no stranger to that either as I’ve done that quite a few times for colours that I just don’t think ‘fit’ well with a particular doll.

My favourite of the four standard eye chip colours would have to be pink, surprisingly enough. I’ve actually switched out stock blues and greens for softer versions of them in Brainworm or Cool Cat varieties, I find that the blues and greens don’t necessarily look good in all of my dolls, but I actually quite like the pinks!

Some dolls are lucky as they came with special eye colours, which I find tend to be very pretty. Middies and Petites are interesting in that there is no ‘standard’ eye chip colour for them, as they just have that one set. They do, however, end up with some beautiful colours that I wouldn’t mind finding one day for the Neo Blythes in my doll family.

What is your favourite stock eyechip colour?

I see it in for sale listings all the time:

“I just got her and I didn’t bond” or “Not bonding, doll for sale”

The Blythe community, and other doll communities really, are interesting in the way that people become affectionate and attached to their dolls. They form a bond with a manufactured item that they happen to play with and clothe. As a child, I became easily attached to stuffed animals and I had a polar bear teddy that I carried around with me everywhere. As an adult, I can still become attached to a doll, but not to the point where I feel the need to carry one around in my bag all the time.

For some, bonding means that they feel some kind of connection with the doll. For others, not bonding is realizing when they see the doll that they just don’t love her – and why should anyone keep a doll that’s worth a hundred or hundreds of dollars when they just don’t like her enough? Blythe is quirky in that way, especially when the dolls are expensive. For me, I’ve resold exactly one Blythe since I started (a Fancy Pansy) and she was the only doll that I ever bought that didn’t come right out of the box as soon as she arrived. In fact, she sat in her box (still NRFB) for months before I decided that I couldn’t afford to just have her sitting there, in her box, in the shipping carton, not doing anything. I sold her to a lady who had been searching for a stock Fancy Pansy to replace the one that she sold. She had a bond with Fancy Pansy, I did not. And honestly, I’m kind of glad that Fancy Pansy didn’t stay – having her stick around might have changed the composition of what my Blythe family looks like now.

I formed a near instantaneous sense of affection towards one doll in particular: Primrose. First saw her in a photograph without any legs and I just knew that I had to have her. I bought her, got her some legs, and now she’s one of my all-time favourites and it would take a lot for me to even consider selling her.

I form attachments to my dolls, just not in the way that I used to with stuffed animals as a child. Then again, things are a lot different now. I still form connections though, and I have dolls that I would not sell unless I absolutely had to and even then I’d be hard pressed to do it because there are some dolls in my collection that I just know that I would never be able to find another like her.

I love stock Blythe clothing. Some of my favourite Blythe clothing pieces are stock items. Off the top of my head, I adore: Fancy Pansy’s lingerie set and white capris, Simply Peppermint’s black top, Love Mission’s police pants, everything from Velvet Minuet, Nostalgic Pop’s hot pink flowered jacket, Monique Magnifique’s coat, Enchanted Petal’s butterfly dress, and the champagne dress that came with Cappuccino Chat.

Stock items are super useful, especially items that are solid coloured and not overly decorative – they are great for mixing and matching, they come with the smooth, thin dolly velcro for closures, and you know that they’ll fit Blythe = the most important thing. Having clothes that fit well is a glorious thing in the doll world – much like how I prefer clothes that fit me and look good on me, I love it when a dress fits Blythe amazingly.

Primrose is wearing Simply Peppermint (top), Fancy Pansy (capris), and Simply Guava (shoes).

Another nice thing about stock items is that you can visualize them on your doll a lot easier, especially if you have a stock doll, by going onto a photo sharing site like Flickr and seeing if someone else with the same doll has tried those clothes on their doll. You can also see more photos of those specific clothing items on a larger variety of dolls than you can if you’re buying something that is one of a kind. That isn’t to say that I think that stock clothes are better than one of a kind handmade items, but you do get a larger range in ‘models’ than you would with a unique piece. But I do love my one of a kind items as well, because they’re special in the way that stock items would never be.

What are some of your favourite stock clothing items?

There have been many collaboration dolls that CWC has done in the past for Blythe. To point out a few:

• B2 HOLic was a collaboration with Clamp,
• Ribbonetta Wish was a Hello Kitty meets Blythe release,
• Doronjo x Blythe was a Yatterman collaboration,
• Hoshinonamida Hime and Yuki No Namida Hime were both designed with Baby, the Stars Shine Bright,
• Strawberries & Creamy Cute was created with Emily Temple cute,
• And my beloved Margaret Meets Ladybug was a collaboration with Mamechiyo

Yes, pretty much all of the collaboration dolls have been with Japanese companies – but it is nice to dream about what other collaborations there could be.

For instance, they’ve already done a collaboration with Clamp… I wouldn’t say no to a Cardcaptor Sakura collaboration. Or perhaps an official Sailor Moon Blythe (or any of the other Sailor Scouts)? Or even a cross-over with American comics – I could see Poison Ivy being a pretty awesome Blythe!

What would be your dream collaboration Blythe doll?