Now that's a mouthful.
Last year for Christmas, I purchased my first Neo Blythe doll as well as her little petite Blythe sidekick.
I sort of had a foggy recollection of these dolls from hearing about them in the past, but I really didn't notice them until I became an avid reader of one of my favorite blogs called
A Beautiful Mess.
It was then that I discovered that people (adults!) actually collect them. Some customize them into amazing works of art and they cam be a wonderful muse for photography and fashion. There are people that design and make tiny little outfits, shoes, hats and accessories to fit these big eyed gals.
Blythe Misha tebyA lyublyU
( I think this means "I love you" in Russian)
After doing some research, I realized that it was kind of difficult to buy these dolls in person and that most people buy them on
Ebay, but best to watch out as there can be fakes.
I decided to take a safer route and buy the dolls from a verified dealer/website that
sells Blythe dolls based in Japan. This is the
very first photo I saw of her and after I squealed from cuteness overload I began thinking about whether or not I should make a move. She was around $130 and Suri was about $37.
I will admit to having a tiny bit of a panic attack in the moments after I clicked on the Pay Now button. I have never spent that much money on a doll. I don't even spend that much on shoes. And the worst part about it, was that I was getting it for my 4 year old (gasp!) You see, at that time, I hadn't yet accepted the fact that I should or COULD be buying dolls for myself to collect. No worries as I am well over that now :}
I figured the only way I could get her is if I pretended it was a Christmas present for Pumpkin Pie.
Pumpkin Pie could've cared less about this doll and kind of tossed her aside much to my chagrin. (at the time I was disappointed, but not for long because after a while she said "Mommy, Misha can just live with you on your shelf". Okay!) Little Button on the other hand became obsessed. In order to preserve the newness of this doll (and keep her hair from getting ratty), I would keep her high on a shelf and every time I walked by w/ LB she would scream and point "BABY!!! BABY!!!!" over and over until I gave in and let her hold her. It was true love.
Can't say I blame her...this is a cute doll (once you get over the inital creepiness) :).
I won't spend time talking about her packaging as this is the only photo I took. The dolls arrived in very cute 70s style boxes. My initial reaction after never seeing one in person was that Misha was bigger then I had expected. The shipping and processing of my order seemed to take ages, though, since I am so used to sites like
Amazon and am spoiled by Amazon Prime.
Since I am very much a newbie when I comes to dolls and collecting, I'll let
wikipedia tell you all about Blythe history. ;)
Here's a close up of the details of her hand and little fingernails.
The boots....oh my! I need a pair in my size.
Here is her entire outfit. Her hat is just too much! Her dress has a blue bodice with green sleeves and an adorable Russian pattern throughout. The clothes are very well made with great detail. It really was this outfit that sold me on this particular doll. After I took this photo, I realized I forgot to include her little white underpants.
She has 5 points of articulation (her neck-only from side to side, shoulders and hips-only forward and back-she can't do a center split at all...not even a little) as well as knee joints that click into position. She can't stand on her own though as her head is very top heavy.
"I'm actually just leaning!"
I can't think of too many other clothes that will fit her, but here she is squeezed into La Dee Da Sloane's Garden Party dress.
"Now we are all leaning!"
Misha stands about 11 inches tall. For a size comparison, here she is next Disney's Merida and Monster High Catrine (both 12 inch dolls.)
And here is little sidekick Suri
Suri is Misha's little forest friend and stands about 4.5 inches tall. I could not resist her!
"Cute as a button, am I right?"
They each came with their own stands. Not the best stands, that's for sure, but the do the job.
Suri comes with a sweet little dress, an apron and tiny black Mary Janes.
She has 5 points of articulation and her head only moves from side to side. This makes it a little hard to photograph her unless you are at eye level (or laying on the ground like I was here.) She has very pretty aqua blue eyes with a dark squiggly pattern on the irises and although they don't change color, they do close when you lay her down.
Here she is next to some of our other dolls as a size comparison-Barbie's Lil' Sis Kelly and Mr. Calico Critter Bunny. Suri can't stand on her own either so they all had to lean. Kelly is levitating.
The obvious feature about Misha, and all other full sized Blythes, is that you can change their eye color. There is a string on the back of her head-much like a pull string that Woody from Toy Story has on his back that makes him talk. She has 4 different eye colors (green, pink blue and brown-not shown)
"I can wear Disney Elsa's shoes, when I am feeling fancy."
And now a few outdoor shots to show how cute she is.
I love how her expression seems to change with different angles and eye colors. Since you can't do very detailed posing with her, this is one of her biggest advantages.
Her hair is gorgeous. It was fairly easy to de-tangle and recover from her first 2 months at the mercy of my little ones. Here's closer look at each eye color.
Overall, I really love this doll. I like her because of her fairy-tale presence and her beautiful folksy inspired outfit. I have no interest in buying another Blythe doll at this time, though as she is the only Blythe doll that I really loved (and with my budget I have to LOVE a doll if the price tag is steep!) One is enough for me. She suits my nature-loving personality very much and I like her just how she is...I am not really interested in buying new clothes for her unless I find a similar woodsy, folksy style. I like the personality both she and Suri were given, which you can read
here and
here (very brief, but cute.) The only other Blythe I would consider getting is
Matryoshka Maiden (the one in the middle). I love her as well and her Russian ensemble, but realistically I just have too many other wonderful dolls on my wish list (and a tight budget!)
And here are some final shots of my Misha (aka sloppy seconds from Pumpkin Pie and Little Button's BABY)...;)
Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review.
I know I am not a Blythe expert by any means, but this is just an honest and simple review for anyone who is not already familiar with these dolls. Please let me know if you like Blythe dolls and which ones you have or are on your wish list :)
I hope you visit again!
So we've been packing up like crazy. So much fun as I'm sure you all know if you have ever moved an entire home, ;) It's eye-opening when you realize how much stuff you accumulate!
After dinner we took our evening stroll in the field along the "nature trails" J mowed for us.
Even though I feel a little sad, I am very excited to be moving with my family into a home that was so well loved by me and my siblings growing up. It holds such special and warm memories for me and to have so much land to run on, creeks to play in, and animals to meet, it's hard to stay sad at all.
Looking forward to getting this move over with, that's for sure! :) 
