Something that seems to confuse people is that I am perfectly comfortable with opening up a 1972 Kenner Blythe doll when I’m not comfortable with customizing a newer doll (basically, any of the Takaras – nothing against ADG, I just don’t own any of them). It seems weird to me too, when I really think about it. Considering one is generally more expensive than the other, older plastic and is less replaceable than the latter. Granted, I haven’t done any ‘serious’ fixing work for my Kenners, mostly because I’ve grown to become attached to their primarily unfixed charm. But my dolls need to have limbs and fixed cracks. No ifs, ands or buts about it. I give my dolls limbs.

Eye chips, gaze lifting and new charms. That’s about all I do with Neos!

And you might think “But Michelle, that seems to be some serious restoration work” (and maybe it is), you pause and then continue on with “Surely if you’re comfortable with detaching a hardcap from a vintage doll’s head, you could be comfortable wrenching an eye mechanism out of the front of a Blythe’s face?”. The funny thing is? I’m really not. I’ve done it before (removing an eye mechanism from one of my RBLs) and it was hard! It took a lot of effort on my part (I lack the hand strength to ever do customizing efficiently) and to be perfectly honest, I’m pretty convinced that if I were to customize a doll, it would end up looking a bait doll. That is how much confidence I have in my wannabe customizer capabilities. And you know what? That’s okay! There are plenty of capable customizers out there that I do not need to throw my name into the ring because I’d rather just sit back and lovingly gaze onto the work of others (and believe me, I do). Restoring a Kenner? Let me at her! Customizing any Blythe? Ohhhh no.

Are you brave enough to customize a doll?