Blythe!

I've been fascinated with Blythe, the doll, for oh, about 17 years. I remember in the early 90s seeing a picture of one at some kind of art show and I loved it immediately. Blythe dolls are an early 70s creation. They stand about a foot tall and have these super large eyes that blink and change direction when you pull the cord attached to the back. They weren't really popular when they first emerged in 1972. Their production only lasted about a year. Some 27 years later, the doll has had a resurgence in popularity and Hasbro allowed a Japanese company to make the dolls again. And they took off like wildfire. Originally inspired by the art work of Margaret Keane, who painted kids with big eyes, Blythe now has a whole army of people who are fascinated by her.


Original Blythes from the 70s are rare, but sought after, and can be worth hundreds of dollars.
The Takara remakes are also worth a pretty penny. Ashton Drake, the US company that is replicating them, charges about $60 for their Blythe. All of them have slight variation in skin tone, shiny-ness, and eye color, but the basic shape of the doll is the same.

Here is a 1972 Kenner Blythe:
I think she struck me as interesting because most dolls are happy faced, and she seems to be kind of pensive. Also, I loved Margaret Keane and mod 60s style, so she fit into a lot of my design requirements. What has happened since the resurgence in the 90s is a total explosion of Blythe. People who are into Blythe not only buy the dolls, they remake them, which is amazing! They not only buy clothes, accesories and wigs for her:


They make them over completely, changing eyes, sanding the faces to reapply makeup. Here's goth Blythe:


To do this, of course, you have to kill Blythe. Some models easily come apart with a little prying. Others require cutting open her head! There are tons of websites devoted to helping you figure out what doll requires which kind of surgery to get apart. And then, what you can do is limitless. Some go as far as to resculpt the face, to give lips a new shape.


Eye chips allow you to play with eye color, and with an airbrush, you can change little white Blythe into any number of skin tones.

There's a number of Flickr groups devoted to Blythes of color with names like Black Blythe is Beautiful.
This is one of those beautiful cultural moments where people take something aimed at one group of people and totally transform it to fit their own needs and desires, ignoring the intentions of the creator. A whole subculture has grown out of this. People who make and sell clothing, wigs, trade techniques and post images on Flickr and Blythe websites like This is Blythe, What's Blythe. There are tutorial sites like the Pucci Collective, and YouTube has tons of videos explaining how to customize your doll. But...well, most of the big Blythe aficionados don't refer to Blythe as a doll. It's not like they think she's a real person, like they are divorced from reality (at least not most of them), but they seem to participate in the fantasy of her realness. They call her "my girl" and sometimes name her, giving her a personality. Some photograph their Blythes in tiny dollhouse like settings, like kitchens or living rooms, as though she has her own life. She has long days at work, has to get ready for tonight's party, that kind of stuff. And though Blythe is definitely big in Japan, and probably has a few fans under 18, most of these websites seem to be by middle aged women. Fascinating.

Oh yeah, I'm one of them now. I don't call her "my girl" nor do I play with Blythe, but the idea of a customized doll was right up my alley! I had a fantasy of transforming her into a mini-me, but that didn't happen. Once I found a cheap enough doll, I did what I could with what I had. I didn't want to cut it and open up the skull, so I decided to just do minor adjustments. Here's my original doll, the Aztec Arrival Blythe:

I, being me, made her all gothy. I cut her hair, painted her face (girl needed some eyebrows, for sure), and made her a tiny little dress.



I think these would be great dolls to give a kid who doesn't see herself in the dolls at the store. You could make a really beautiful gift for someone by customizing the doll to look like a kid or just look like they could be related!

If I have time and money, maybe one day I'll get more of these babies. But for now, Vampire Blythe will be my little companion. I don't have the heart to pack her up yet, so she might be the last thing to get boxed up before our move.>var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
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