Halloween Blythe Meet

Last Sunday (the 28th) my friend, Ashley, and I went to Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco to attend the Halloween Blythe Meet. I actually found out about it on Flickr -- I swear, I'm obsessed with that site! Anyway, it was pretty overwhelming to see all these Blythe dolls grouped together. I dressed Tigerlily up as Minnie Mouse (I even made her mouse ears out of pipe cleaner), Ashley's Abigail was supposed to look like a masquerade girl, but Ashley forgot to put the mask she made in her purse. Whoops! And my friend Jean asked me to bring her doll Sylvie . . she was "Lady of the Night". HeHe . . .



I'm not sure how many people came, but there were sOoOoOoO many dolls!!! I think we counted over 80. I even got to see some Kenners (they're the original Blythes made in the 70s) up close. I met a lot of nice people, including Cat who organized the whole meet, and talking to everyone there made me feel not so weird about my new found love for Blythe dolls.

Some people brought little goody-bags for everyone and Ion, a.k.a. Blythe Boy, had special ones for the first 24 people who showed up -- they had a Littlest Pet Shop toy inside along with some candy. I got an owl and I've already gone crazy taking pictures of it in trees at school!

There was also a contest for which dolls had the best costumes:



The winners, L-R: Joey (winner), Ion (2nd place), and Poohie (3rd place).



Here's me showing some of the dolls:



The guy in the video is Henry. He was super nice and he also owns the "Bon Jovi" doll!

Here's some pictures that I took at the meet:















[All photos and videos are courtesy of NiNa]

More of my pictures can be seen on where else? My Flickr page! And to see others, go here.

Nice to Meet You, Blythe!

Alrighty, so I know I wrote this blog about Blythe dolls quite some time ago and said I'd talk about all these really neato stuff about the underground cult they've got going on. So here it is! Part II . . .

Sometimes people who have Blythe dolls gather in various places and have these things called Blythe Meets. What do people do there exactly? I don't know! What I do know is that some involve contests where you can win prizes, and of course theres the photo-ops, but I think their main purpose is to unite Blythe fans of all ages to sit down and talk about their hobby (collecting Blythes, etc.) without someone rolling their eyes at you . . .

::cough::carmeL::cough::rye-uhn-eric::cough

The one my friends and I had was quite informal -- we all went to the Dell'Osso Farms Pumpkin Patch in Lathrop, Ca and galavanted around taking pictures. Ashley and I only have one doll each (and I brought my two mini Uglydolls too) so we didn't have much on our hands, but my friend Jean has four dolls and she brought ALL OF THEM with her!

Ashley and I got many funny stares from people, so you can only imagine the looks we got once Jean took all of hers out! Oh well, we had fun and got some good shots -- despite the sunlight being a big challenge for us. Some curious onlookers asked us what we were taking pictures of and we heard one say, "Oh, its just Barbies." HaHaHa . . .

Here's some photos of the girls:


Tigerlily chillin' on a pumpkin.


Ice Bat, Tigerlily, Abigail (Ashley's doll), and Babo.


L-R: Abigail, Tigerlily, Sylvie, Rhiannon, Nixie, and Moxie.


The three BFFs . . . hehehe.


This was a difficult place to take pictures!

The rest of my pictures can be seen on my Flickr page.

Do you like Blythe? Have a Blythe(s) or know of a Blythe meet going on soon? Drop us a line and let us know!

Hey, Blythe! : Part I

The first time I saw a Blythe doll was on VH1's I Love the 70s and they completely freaked me out. With their abnormally large heads and ability to change the color of their eyes with the pull of a string (blue, green, pink and orange) I thought, "That is the scariest and ugliest thing I've ever seen!" My tune has changed since, but more on that later.

Blythe dolls were originally produced by Kenner (now owned by Hasbro) and made their debut in 1972. But with poor sales, the big-headed darlings were quickly pulled off the shelves after just one year of being in production.

In 1997, photographer Gina Garan was introduced to Blythe from a friend saying she looked like the doll. With an old camera she had been given, she began taking photos of Blythe dolls and brought them with her everywhere she went. In 2000, Chronicle Books published a compilation of her photos in This is Blythe.

Somewhere in between all that, Blythe dolls began to gain popularity in Japan. In 2001, the first of the neo-Blythes (newer, up-dated dolls) were produced by Takara. And on eBay, original Blythe dolls jumped in price from $35 to $350. But nowadays, you'd be lucky to find an original Blythe for just $350 -- now they can be found for over $1000!!! Yikes!

For a more thorough history, check out Gina's site.

Ok, now fast-forwarding to present day. Blythe dolls are still ever so popular and have even reached an underground cult status. People take their dolls out and about and snap their own pictures of them, make dollhouses out of bookshelves, and customize their dolls like crazy. Just go on Flickr and type in Blythe -- you'll see!

I discovered my friend Jean had a fascination with Blythes and has one of her own (actually, she now has 4). The two of us planned a little photo session with her Blythe, a French Trench named Sylvie, and some of my toys (vinyl figures + Uglydoll). Sylvie freaked me out at first, but by the end of our amateur photo spree, I became very intrigued and did some research.

And then I said, "I must have one!!!" Looking at all the photos on Flickr made me want to get in touch with my inner Brian McCarthy. I happened upon one Blythe model, the Lounging Lovely. With her black hair and retro pink & purple pajamas, I knew that was the one. Plus she was like a mini-me :) Jean knew I was itching for my own Blythe so she generously lent Sylvie to me -- I had her for almost a month.

[Photo by NiNa, doll owned by Jean]

Alright, well this is getting too long. Stay tuned for Part II where I'll talk more about the Blythe cult following, some steps people do in customizing their dolls, how owning a Blythe doll(s) is pretty much like having a child (I made a room for mine for Pete's sake!), and I'll also show off my own little Blythe, Tigerlily! Actually, I'll just go ahead and sign off with a photo of her:

[Photo by NiNa, doll owned by NiNa -- don't steal my photos, please!]

More to come, stay tuned!

Double Punch

In 2004, the online retail store Ningyoushi opened up shop with Double Punch in San Francisco. Before heading to the Shooting Gallery for the Shag show, my friends and I stopped by Double Punch to check out the goodies they had to offer, and boy did we find ourselves in oh-so-cute-things nirvana.

Double Punch has a vast array of Japanese and Western toys (vinly, plastic, plush -- you name it), stationary, art books, art prints, t-shirts, baby clothes, and accessories. Tokidoki, Blythe, Gama-Go, Pinky Street, Uglydolls . . . soooo many things to name and list! It's absolutely ridonculous -- in a good way :)

The first floor of the store is filled with art books, tons of little Kubrick figures and little mini toys lined along the upper walls, display cases showing off vinyl toys and tables with little blind-boxed tokens from here [America] and Asia. There were even little do-dads from Hong Kong Disneyland (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it)! I let out audible Oohs and Ahs every other second because I kept seeing things I wanted!


Bearbricks, Domokuns, and Gloomies . . . oh my!


Wall of art


Venom and Spiderman figures


A batch of Mini Uglys!

On the upper level, t-shirts and accessories can be found. It also acts as a gallery space showcasing art and exhibitions by local artists.


There was tons of Gama-Go gear up here. I also saw some Gloomy Bear and 12 Grain shirts.


This Gama-Go tote was on sale for $35.oo!


Current art on display by Christopher Lee

I managed to walk away with some pretty sweet swag . . .

I bought a Lala Blythe keychain (which I plan to convert into a necklace), Tokidoki Moofia toy, Minnie Mouse keychain, and two Fortune Pork mini plushes by Tado. Orginally, I just bought one (got the orange one which says "I LOVE YOUR FRISKY HEAT" on the back), but I liked it so much and there was only one more left, so I went ahead and got it. And ya know what? It ended up being Albert, the mystery character! How sweet is that?

Double Punch is located on 1821 Powell Street 94133. It's definitely worth a visit, but if you can't make a trip to Double Punch, there's always their online store.

For more pictures of my visit to Double Punch, check out my photo gallery.