Blythe (Neo, full-sized, whatever you want to call them) are not the only doll in the Blythe family. There’s Petites, who have been produced by Takara from 2002 to present (last one being the 2011 anniversary Petite) and by Hasbro/Littlest Pet Shop since 2010, and the Middies, who have been produced since 2010. In comparison to the Barbie family line, Petites would be Kelly (or later Chelsea) and Middies would be Skipper. But this is a post about the Blythe family, not of the Barbie one (even if Blythe can fit Skipper fashions quite well and Kelly shoes fit the Middie dolls).

I have no Middies (which is a problem for me as I’ve seen some beautifully done customized Middies and I really want one) and I have one LPS Petite (who has been featured on the blog a few times).

How many Middies do you have? How many Petites (Takara or LPS) do you have?

There are several Blythe ‘molds’ that people can own, for the full size dolls, and they are:

• KB (Kenner Blythe) – 1972
• BL – 2001-2002
• EBL (“Excellent”) – 2002-2005
• SBL (“Superior”) – 2003-2008
• RBL (“Radiance”) – 2006-Present
• FBL (“Fairest”) – 2009-Present
• ADG (Ashton Drake Galleries) – 2005-2008

I haven’t included an image of an ADG because I didn’t have one that I had taken, also unfortunately the ADG dolls have never been very popular (both due to construction – and subsequent difficulty with customizing – and with colouring of the plastic).

What’s your favourite Blythe mold?

As little kids who are looking forward to Santa’s gifts tomorrow morning are going to sleep tonight with sugar plums dancing in their head, I will be going to sleep with little dreams of my own wishes and wants for the holiday season.

I’d love another TLC Kenner, but I really don’t think that it’s in the cards for me for a long time now (at least until I’m done with school). School takes up a lot of money and I don’t have spare funds for another Kenner, even one in need of help.

Alternatively, I’d love to get an Aztec Arrival (BL). BL is the only mold that I currently don’t have in my dolly family so it’d be great to have one, plus I love Aztec’s long, long, long bangs. Sunday Best (also a BL) would be a good alternative to Aztec as I also love her long, long bangs. No money right now, of course.

I am hoping to get some gifts from family in the form of money. “Fun money” is always great to have and I’d love a pair of vintage pink squishy Barbie boots (for the one and only Eden Mouse). As you can see, those boots are missing from her pink footwear collection.

And lastly, I’m hoping for chocolate! Short of buying my own post-holiday chocolate and candies (which happens after Valentine’s, Halloween and Christmas every year), I do like getting chocolate for the holidays! My favourites include hazelnut hedgehogs and Lindt double-milk chocolate.

It’s the season of giving! This year I had planned to get some little presents for my dolls, but with a dozen dolls – that’s a lot of little presents! I’d like to think that all the goodies that I get throughout the year would make up for the lack of presents to open on a certain day this year… I may be getting something for Mollie though. Mollie is my Simply Sparkly Spark, I got her as a Christmas present last year so her ‘birthday’ is December 25th and I think she’ll be getting a little something since it’s her ‘birthday’ too.

The first December that I spent with Blythes, I got my dolls (and I only had three in December 2009!) little hair clips that I still use today for both the dolls and myself when I need something small. It’s weird thinking of a time when I only had three dolls because since then my family has grown by another nine. And it’s also weird to think of a time before having Kenners, before having some of my favourite girls, before having people locally to play dollies with (!) because that was the biggest thing that happened for me in 2011. I gained local dolly friends and that’s amazing.

Life is better with dolls! And I think one of my goals (maybe) for 2013 will be to actually photograph and document each doll’s birthday and get them or make them a little thing. For some of them, 2013 will mark the first year that they arrived in my house, for some it’ll be their fourth year here and that’s pretty awesome too!

Are you planning on getting your Blythes presents for the holiday season?

It occasionally seems like I have more ‘things’ than my dolls do. Then I really considered it.

My dolls certainly have more pairs of shoes amongst them than I do. It’s face it, it’s a lot easier to store nearly a hundred pairs of doll shoes than it is to store a hundred pair of shoes for me! As for dresses, I’ve probably got less than a dozen for me but with a dozen Blythes, I definitely have more than a dozen dresses around for them. That’s not including assorted bottoms, tops, coats, socks, bags…

My clothes may be much larger than theirs, but they have a lot more in terms of quantity. And given how much some of the little pieces of art are (in particular, I’m looking the ‘designer’ goods that I happen to have), some things in their drawers cost more than what I wear sometimes. Yes, I’m one of those people who have dolls that wear outfits and all in all, the doll plus clothes and shoes are worth much, much more than what I wear on a daily basis. My dolls definitely have more things to wear than I do. It’s odd to think about it that way, but at least their things take up less room!

Who has more things – Blythe or you?