Does customising de-value Blythe?

I must be feeling a bit pressured at the moment, because I've found myself sneaking off to do dolly things during the day and really enjoying every moment of it!

I read a really interesting thread on the This Is Blythe forum recently that kinda got me thinking. It was from a new collector who was asking if customising her doll would devalue it. After considering it for a while, I think that if you look at your collection as a long term investment (and with the amount of money sunk into the hobby, you might as well!), and assuming that you have a mint NRFB Blythe then yes, in the long term if you look at it from a strictly financial point of view it probably does.

I guess the thing to bear in mind is that a doll that may be cheap and considered prime customising fodder right now may end up becoming very valuable in years to come. Tastes and fashions change and an older release doll that was previously thought ugly or odd (like the original Kenners as well as Goldie and Kozy) may suddenly become highly sought after. If most of these dolls were customised back when they were easy to come by, suddenly it's really hard to get one in stock condition and the rule of supply and demand comes into play. Who is to say that Mango, one of the most frequently customised Blythes might not be the Goldie of the future. There's no real way of knowing!

Another thing to consider is the quality of the customisation itself. If it's not well done then regardless of the base doll it is going to be worth less than you paid for it. Even if you are willing to pay for a professional to do the work you still may come out behind due to the amount of money it cost you to have the work done. The services of a customiser, materials and postage add up really quickly, so even though you might be able to sell the doll for a lot more than you originally paid for her, you might well still not get back what you have invested in her.

This is the kind of money you can expect to pay all up for a commissioned mohair rerooted Blythe with a new faceup from a customiser with a good reputation. Not the most expensive, but also not the cheapest.

Original cost of doll - lets say it's a new release RBL that you bought nude.

$80 + $25 shipping from somewhere in Asia - $105

Plus the cost to send to the customiser - $20 ($125)
Plus the materials used - reasonable quality mohair - $60 ($185)
Cost of reroot $150 ($335)
Eyechips $10 per set including fitting. Let's say you changed 2 sets. ($355)
Faceup$65 - sometimes more, sometimes less - ($410)
Lashes $10 ($420)
Lip Carving - $15 - again, sometimes more, sometimes less ($435)
Return postage - $20 ($455).

That's a lot of money to have to try and make back, even when you consider that people will pay more for a well known customiser's work!

Even if you did the work yourself and assuming you already had the necessary tools and art supplies, you would still be paying about $185 and spending a lot of time (days and days of rerooting alone!). And a lot of us just don't have the artistic ability that the well known customisers do. Sometimes the doll ends up looking worse than when you started!

So bearing that in mind you would think that I am anti-custom, but nothing could be further than the truth. Most of the stock girls just don't appeal to me at all and I'm not interested in having a shelf full of NRFB dolls that I'm too scared to touch. I love my custom Blythe - even the ones I did myself. Although I am sure they are not to everyone's taste, I enjoy them so much more now that they have a bit more personality.

I think the question you need to ask yourself before you busy with the sandpaper, is how upset you would be if you customised the doll and it looked bad or if you knew that you had just devalued a hard to find and expensive Blythe. If you have any niggling doubts, perhaps you'd be better off either leaving her stock or buying a pre-customised one to begin with.

For me personally, I'm only comfortable working on bait dolls or new releases with a few flaws that I'm just not liking so much, but even then I am aware that the amount of money spent on the customisation might be a lot more than the doll is worth at the end of it - especially since I am no expert! With the exception of the Basaak, I like the way all of my rescue girls have come out, but when I think about how much I spent on them, I know that I will make a loss when I come to sell them.

Roxy started off being a very inexpensive factory girl and she cleaned up quite nicely. I didn't try anything very adventurous with her at all.



Then I bought another doll for her scalp (more $$ invested as she was more expensive than the original Saffy factory girl) and now she looks like this.


I might just be able to break even with her if I was to sell her as her scalp is very nice and I also managed to recoup a little bit of the costs by selling her blonde scalp. I consider her to be a good investment.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's Poe. She came as bait back when EBL's were really quite expensive. At the time that I bought her, she was a bargain with a lot of potential, but still cost quite a bit more than Roxy.


Her hair was beyond redemption, so I decided she should get a reroot. The mohair cost me about $25 and a lot of time to prepare it. She is still in pieces and the reroot feels like it'll never be done!


I think I will send her face plates away to an Aussie customiser, but even with the saving on postage, she'll still end up costing me a LOT more than a stock Disco Boogie would now and if I was to sell her I would probably make a loss. At one point I did consider getting another EBL scalp for her at least, but it still ends up not working in my favour.

So as you can see some things even depend on how the Blythe economy itself is currently working, and there are no guarantees that you will come out on top, even if you buy a bait girl to do up.

I'm still here!

The trouble with work, is that in addition to the time that it gobbles up in it's own right it also seems to render me completely unmotivated to dabble in my hobbies. It's only been a week, and already I feel caught up in a groundhog day like cycle of get up, work, pick up Miss B, clean up carnage, cook, eat, clean, sleep. I am such a wuss!

I've been sewing up a mockup bridesmaid dress in my "spare" time too, which hasn't left me with much time to make any new outfits for my beloved Blythes. Or put poor Vanilla back together again! She is still sitting on the buffet looking at me reproachfully as I eat my brekky. I'm reluctant to tuck her away out of site for fear she may join my group of Blythe in bits! I have 3 right now, all needing a bit of work. I must stop getting TLC girls!

I feel the itch for a new girl again and will probably treat myself to one when the contract is over. Maybe I'll finally get that green-haired girl I've been pining for. Or maybe a new blondie. I love the anticipation just as much as the deboxing!

Speaking of arrivals, I am not very happy with Australia Post at the moment. I hadn't been home 10 minutes this afternoon when I saw them pull up outside the house through the window. I got all excited because it's Holly, back from Frankie Darling and I can't wait to see her, so I walked up to the front door to get my parcel...only to see them drive off! The lazy buggers couldn't be bothered walking up the driveway and up the stairs to even knock on the door!! To add insult to injury, the "you weren't home" card says that I can't pick her up until the 10th! What the??!!

Oooh I was peeved!! What's more, did you know that apparently Australia Post have no way of contacting their contractors until they are back in the distribution centre? How ridiculous!

I do apologise for the lack of pictures in this post. The only thing I have recent photographs of is me wearing a very unflattering dress in a Von Trapp curtainesque print. And there's no way I'm putting that out there!

Let me just say that boat neck 50's style gowns will make your ta-tas look like basketballs if you are anything more than Audrey Hepburn shaped. Which sadly, I am not!

A new face

Just a little progress report on Vanilla. She's not quite finished, and definitely not perfect (an unfortunate condtion shared by most of my customs), but I do like her more so I'm considering it a victory of sorts. I may redo her lips yet as they are not terribly symetrical. How I wish I could paint!

I decided to go with a more exagerated shape this time as my previous attempts of natural and pretty looked well, unnatural and kind of ugly which kind of defeated the purpose. At least this way it's kind of meant to be kooky so the wonky-ness is a little more ok to live with. A master customiser I aint!

I still have one pair of eye chips to change out - plum to stock blue - and a few other things that I am quite frankly a little scared about. I've never attempted a boggle or gaze correction before, mainly because it involves carving bits off of things that can't really be changed back once they are done. I established quite early on in my foray into customising that carving is not something that I am good at and therefore have resisted the urge to further mutilate any more of my dolls in that manner. Hopefully this will be ok as at least it is on the inside and (fingers crossed) undetectable!

I also have to separate her scalp from the dome to do the patching, and I can see that there is a bit of glue there, unlike my factory girls which just had the scalps sitting loose on the dome. I'm a bit worried I won't be able to get her all put back together without some kind of a gap. And also about cutting the patched pieces so they blend in with her hair. Last time I attempted a haircut it was a disaster! Perhaps I should just leave it alone for the time being...

Also on the to-do list is a new body - the flexion I've had sitting dainty and headless on the shelf for about 6 months. And possibly a new outfit. This one likes jeans, sneakers and hats. I like her, she's kinda cute :)

I am glad I decided to give this a shot - it's like getting a new girl without spending any money!

Off with her head!

I tried to love Vanilla, I really did. But in the end her shiny face and stock makeup just a little too much like Frankie the fake's got to me, so it was off with her head! I was a little bit nervous opening her up as I hadn't done an FBL before, but I needn't have worried as it was exactly the same an an RBL.

Possibly not the wisest decision to customise her, but I figured that I would have to sell her as bait anyway (even though she had no scratches or damage) as her scalp is so bad, so what the hell. I might even attempt my first boggle and gaze correction on her. I'm going to try to fill in the massive gap in her rooting with some saran as well. If it doesn't work out, I have a really beautiful Audrey scalp here as a backup plan and if I still don't like her then out she goes. As bait. It's ridiculous really. And yet another compelling reason to get your dolls from Junie Moon - I could have returned her then.

So here she is, a blank canvas - for the time being. Mwah hahahaha! Usually I find the sanded faceplates quite beautiful and delicate looking, but even with no makeup, I'm not liking the FBL so much. She looks a bit dour don't you think?

You know what though, I am really a bit miffed at Takara. I should have been able to sell her without any concern at all as she was NIB when I bought her - their quality control absolutely stinks of late! Just look at how bad this scalp is. I am so not impressed. Especially when I see the lovely thick ones that other people got.


Anyway, hopefully I will like her better with a new faceup. And perhaps a hat!

The restless collector....

I didn't think that this would happen to me quite so soon. After my disappointment with Vanilla I thought that perhaps I was done with buying new Blythe, but the last few days have seen me wistfully trolling ebay and Flickr, not to mention the trade threads on the forums. I'm thinking maybe I should take the plunge, sell one or two that don't excite me and get myself a new girl. Or two.

Right now I am thinking I'd like an Enchanted Petal or a Simply Peppermint (to be customised), or a blonde girl like Silver Snow (I have my eye on one already customised - she's very pretty. Shame I have no funds at the moment until I sell another doll!). I'd also like a Simply Sparkly Spark. She has the best hair ever right out of the box!

Meanwhile, I ordered a blonde bob wig for Vanilla and am itching to sandmatt her, change her chips and see if I like her any better. I have seen some adorable customs on Flickr, but they notably all have much better hair than mine. Maybe I could just cut my losses now, sell her on and put the funds towards Sparkly Spark. Or customise her anyway and sell her if I don't warm to her.

I never did bond with my Star Dancer and I don't have the heart to have her customised as she is in such good condition stock. It seems so silly though, as she's the most valuable Blythe in my collection and I couldn't afford to replace her. What's wrong with me? She's so pretty and I barely give her any attentio - she doesn't even have a name!



Should I hang onto her and see if she grows on me? I don't like to photograph her because of her super-shiney face and I think I'd prefer a blonde with a lighter skintone. Perhaps I'll be saying goodbye to her soon - if I can bring myself to sell her!

Living vicariously!

I love the 50s. I wish it still WAS the 50s! In my little idealised version of it, everyone is nice and mannerly and there's a lot of pie and swing dancing. I've always secretly wished that crinolines would come back into fashion - there's something so feminine and dainty about all that tulle and big full skirts.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, my near 40 year old plump self might raise a few eyebrows if I were to wear a big ol' dress out to Woolworths, but I can always live vicariously through Blythe :) I've been just about sending myself blind making these petticoats but I love them! They really give a dress some umph and they are soooo fluffy and ruffly on the bottom! I originally intended on making a double layered one, just like the one I did for Miss B, but I soon realised that it would have been a petticoat of ridiculous proportions (not to mention double the amount of super-boring gathering) so I settled on the single layered one, which is more than full and fluffy enough to indulge my 50's fantasy.

They take quite a while, and are not particularly fun to make either, but I am kind on obsessed with the end result so I think I will have a few more in me before I'm done with them, I just love the extra dimension they add to a dress.

New fakes or factory teething problems?

There's a new scandal sweeping though the Blythe community - the possibility of a few recent Blythe releases being copied and sold as the real thing.

For a long time now there have been Blythe clones, but up until now they have been easy to spot a mile off and have never branded themselves as Blythe. Blybe, Basaak, Blyth and CCE all look a bit like Blythe, some of them even sound a bit like Blythe. If you were a new collector you might be forgiven for accidentally buying one thinking that they were the bargain of the century only to quickly discover once you unboxed her that they were not a Takara Neo, but for the seasoned collector it's obvious at a glance from the auction pic that this are poor quality clones.

Here's my clone. She cost $25 and looks nothing like a Blythe. Excuse the terrible photo - I knew nothing about how to take a reasonable one at the time!




This is not the case with these girls. These Blythe are being sold as official Takara releases. They come in Blythe boxes complete with the printed inner and are even dressed in exactly the same way as their better quality counterparts. The difference being, they don't look right. And rather than coming from obviously dodgy sellers with barely any feedback, these Blythe are being sold by trusted Ebay sellers with hundreds of sales and 100% feedback - many of the people who have ended up with these dolls have purchased from them several times before.

There is (or was, it may have been removed now) an interesting thread on the This Is Blythe forum that had an email from one of the sellers of a suspected fake. The seller more or less says that the dolls are not fake and have come from a new factory in China that has some quality control issues rather than the usual one in Japan. Their claim is that the dolls are defective rather than counterfeit. Either way, there are some big differences, and I can completely understand why collectors are up in arms about this.

I would love to post some pics of this, but I'm not sure in terms of blogging ettiquette if it's ok to use other people's photographs from Flickr. Click the link here to go to the Fake Takara Blythe Galore photo group. It is well worth checking out. The sellers names are disclosed as well as comparison pics of some of the dolls in question. There is also a Bad Dolly Deals post here. From what I can gather the matter is still being resolved, so in all fairness it is entirely possible that the seller did not even realise that the dolls they were selling weren't right.

So far the dolls that have been discovered to have differences between them are Last Kiss, Urban Cowgirl, Simply Mango, Simply Gauva, Bohemian Peace and I've also heard of a Kiss Me True. When the doll is placed alongside the "real" version, you can see that there are quite a few tiny differences:

- Skintone differs (often darker).
- Scalp and faceplate don't match (but not always).
- Eye shape is wrong. RBLs that look like SBLs...but not quite.
- Eyechips are not quite the same shade as the original version.
- Face is strangely shaped - square rather than round around the eye/cheekbone area.
- Feet are stubby looking and square and the digits are more defined than the Takara.
- Stock is poor quality, particularly the shoes.

So keep on the lookout, join the group and check your dolls if you have any of these releases.

I will be very interested to see what comes of this - it is horrible to think that the $100+ that you spend on a doll might be going towards a worthless fake.