This is part two of my “Thoughts on…” mini series. Part one was on Kenners.

I had just stock Blythes for a very long time. For just over three years, that’s all I had. Sure, I did minor customizations here and there, but I didn’t really count them as ‘custom’ Blythes. Gaze lifting, sleepy eyes, chip changes. Such things do not turn a Blythe really into a customized doll, at least not a fully customized one.

I saw fully customized Blythes for the first time in 2011, in a little city called Portland. I saw many types of Blythes for the first time. I saw BLs in person for the first time, Kenners, customs, dolls with little teeth (vampire and otherwise). But customs were something that I love to see in photos. Well done customs can be amazing works of art. Good customs are also many pretty pennies. I understood the appeal of customized Blythes – they are unique, they have pretty chips, they have neat hair, their arms bend in funny locations. They’re interesting and it’s nice that they’re theonly one in the entire world that looks exactly like that. You don’t get that feeling with stock Blythes.

And then in July I got my very first custom Blythe. Spray matted, all pretty new chips that don’t come standard with any stock Blythe.Mohair with streaks. She even came on a Licca body. Suddenly I was thrown into the deep end. I knew how to pose Takara bodies easily, I’d been used to them for three years! But a Licca body? I was not use to posing those… Nor was I used to the giant poof of mohair. I was use to straight plastic hair that stayed the way I wanted it to.

But I have to say… It’s nice not to see my reflection in the mirror. It’s nice that she’s boggled and that her eyes roll easily. It’s also nice to have some more expression in the body with the Licca arms and legs.

I’ve become quite smitten with customs since Halo arrived. I don’t know if she’ll be my only customized Blythe in my dolly family, but for now she is my only one.

And that makes her pretty special.