Daydream With Me For A Minute?

 

Daydream With Me? 

 

A Shinigami Eye right out of Death Note, superimposed with a photo of two people in cosplay.

    First, I would like to start this post by revealing the second pair of eye chips for my custom Blythe doll who is currently in the works over at BlytheDreams. This set is about shared fandom, shared memories and lost love. Each of my custom Blythe dolls that I am commissioning BlytheDreams for have a theme centered on memory, nostalgia, love, family, fandom or friendship and each will contain either a photo I took myself or a photo taken of me and someone I cared about. The first doll I got done, Mallymkun, was themed to memories with family. So one of his eye chip sets contains a photo that I captured during an evening where I had a lot of fun with my family together at Disneyland. He is also a doll made of a character that really piqued my interest that evening, as well. The Dormouse from Disneyland California Adventure's Mad T Party night time rock music show. No photos from that vacation survived, unfortunately. But I did have some video recorded of one of Mad T Party's setlists from the evening that we were in DCA, so I used a still from that of the Dormouse to call up the memory of the fun we all had that night, since there was also no part of the video that showed us all together either. 

 

Mallymkun showing off his eyes containing the still from my family's October 2013 trip.

 

    It may seem a bit bittersweet but my custom Blythes are currently my preferred way of preserving some of my favorite memories. With Mallymkun specifically, I look at him and I remember how my mom, my dad and my then-boyfriend were all messing around, jumping about and laughing. Just enjoying the music and the performance together with me. Mom does not remember it so fondly but at least I do. I remember the way I felt, too. Safe, excited, happy, flustered... Safe because it felt like nothing could happen to tear us all apart. Excited because I had been looking forward to that trip for years. Happy because Mad T Party's performances were just amazing. Flustered because... Well, if you could zoom in on the eyes there, you would see Mallymkun seemingly looking right at me! I only recorded one setlist but there were several that evening and I remember that throughout all of them, he seemed to keep finding me in the crowd and trying to mess with me a little. My then-boyfriend was so jealous! Speaking of him... 

 

The Shinigami Eye again.

 

    You might have already guessed that the photo I used in this eye chip set was us and if you did, you would be correct. The Misa Amane you see here holding the L plush was me at seventeen years old and the young man beside me in that photo, cosplaying as L Lawliet, was that boyfriend. We made a lot of fun memories together during the heyday of Death Note as fans of the series together. I remember the cosplays, the conventions, the laughs, the jokes, how we would marathon the anime whenever we could, how we stayed up late roleplaying it or talking about it, the fanart we made or shared, the fanfictions we read, the hours we spent analyzing the manga, reading the spinoff novels together... We were always together and we had both good and bad times but I never would have traded it for the world if it had been up to me. I figured the best way to capture that in the eye chip art was simply to use Misa Amane's Shinigami Eyes from the Death Note anime series. She always did her best to have fun with the time she had with Light and also somehow managed to keep herself blissfully unaware of how little he actually loved her back. Our story is a little more complex than that. However, I certainly have dealt with feeling like I discovered that he never really loved me back several times, so I can relate a little. This particular set of eyes is going to be facing off to the doll's left side, as if he is looking back at something with them. I also made a point of not writing any text above us in the photo to highlight the inability to see the future, so he will be metaphorically looking at the past, at something that could not be seen coming. 

 

    Now that the second eye chip reveal is out of the way, it's time to get to the main business of this post! Surprisingly, it might be even more clues as to who I'm getting right now as a Blythe doll, because what I would like to do now is to invite you, the reader, to come along with me for a minute to daydream about some of the items I have been seeing sold online that I would love to get for him in the near future. Before we dive into the thick of it though, there are a few rules I should probably lay out. 

1. I am trying to avoid items that look too plastic, too "Barbie". Nothing against Barbie! I love her! I just don't feel her items are the right visual match for my Blythe dolls. 

2. I am also trying to avoid items that look shaped for young children to play with. Thick, blocky, rounded shapes are a no unless there are no other options.

3. I prefer the items to be made from wood, porcelain or metal, with one exception. I know I said that I am trying to avoid Barbie style stuff and despite that, the exception to this rule is the Tyco Kitchen Littles Collection from the late 1990's. This is because they were a favorite toy series of mine as a little girl and I haven't quite been able to shake that feeling toward them. The second I saw someone list the plates with some knives and grape jelly jars earlier this month, the nostalgia love hit me hard and now I have my heart set on collecting the entire collection for my Blythes. The plus about the KL series is that even though it is all plastic, the makers did a decent job of making it not look quite like plastic. 

4. I am also trying so very hard to keep the items around a certain scale so that my Blythe dolls won't look too big or too small with their things in photos. My Blythes are around 11.5" (inches) tall because BlytheDreams fixes their Blythe heads to A-Zone Pure Neemo bodies, which sets them at around the 1:6 or 1/6 scale range in doll stuff. 

5. I also have some themes which I am trying to keep in mind for the kinds of things I want to collect for my dolls. Those themes include: Disney, Tim Burton, Horror, Halloween, 90's, 80's, 2000's, 50's, 60's, antique, vintage and Victorian. With the exception for some background or storytelling items, such as, say, a carton of orange juice or a bar of soap.

 

    So, first thing's first, they need a house. Or at least some room boxes. Be prepared, these things are not cheap. They tend to range from 105.00$ to 300.00$ for a single, blank room box with no sealing, painting or flooring and for the doll houses? Forget it. A blank doll house often starts around 150.00$ and can reach 500.00$, depending. Due to recent anxiety struggles, I am not in the headspace currently to even attempt any DIY, so I am hoping to find a room box or a doll house in the 100.00$ to 500.00$ range that is painted/wallpapered, sealed and floored. A difficult challenge. Even more difficult is having a clear set of possible options or images in my head of what I would want the room boxes or the overall doll house to look like. Because very, very few artists are making and selling completed room boxes or doll houses in any of those styles (50's, 60's, 80's, 90's, early 2000's, Victorian). With that said, let's take a look at some of the current listings online.

 

A perfectly lovely Blythe doll room box, created and sold by DollboxMiniatures.

  

    Here is the "1/6 scale Dollhouse" by DollboxMiniatures over on Etsy. It measures roughly 17.7" x 27.5" x 17.7" (inches) and features a Neoclassical architectural style with a Georgian twist. The artist offers the option to request different finishes for the walls and the floor and the overall price is around 561.60$. It's a beautiful piece, certainly! However, that price is just out of my maximum range, so there's the first strike. I do like how well it would fit in thematically with my upcoming Death Note doll, as it sort of seems like it would resemble a space out of Wammy's House, but I do not really want the doll house or room box to lean too heavily toward any one fandom. Especially since I have limited space, so I can only have so many room boxes or maybe only one doll house. This is too academic and too legislative looking to suit Mad T Party's vibe, plus it does not fall within my limited budget. 

 

Architecture: 🚫

Scale: ✅

Doll protection: 🚫 

Theming: 🚫

Price:  🚫

Shop Reviews: ✅ 

 

Let's keep looking!

 

A slightly more utilitarian room box, created and sold by Begothic.

 

    While not as fancy, there are some serious upgrades in this one. This is the "1/6 Dollhouse with Acrylic Dust Cover" by Begothic. It features some windows which are more rounded at the edges, creating a more modern look, plain walls and interchangeable flooring. The dimensions are 23.62" x 15.75" x 15.75" inches, so it is sized perfectly for housing 1/6 scale dolls, just as the title states. The major upgrade on this one is that it comes with a dust cover window to help keep dust off of dolls and doll furniture! I like how simple the style is as well. However, that also gives this one a strike. It's too modern looking. There are also a pro and a con about the material it is made from. This room box is made from PLA plastic, which is sturdy and non-reactive with doll materials, which is good. But it also means that this room box cannot be easily painted or wallpapered. It could be a challenge to decorate the walls as well. I do really like that it comes with interchangeable flooring though, that's not a function that a lot of room boxes feature. That and the dust cover. What of the price though? The price is 278.61$, so it is also at least within the budget limit. I would have to be careful ordering this one, however. The seller looks to be fairly new to Etsy and has no shop reviews. A good tip for purchasing from Etsy makers and artists is usually to stick to sellers who have at least a few good reviews on their page. 

 

Architecture: 🚫

Scale: ✅

Doll protection: ✅ 

Theming: 🚫

Price:  ✅

Shop Reviews: 🚫 

 

Let's check out another doll house or room box... 

 

A sunny little room box created and sold by TinyRoomsTherapy.

 

    It honestly is so difficult to find literal doll houses for 1/6 scale dolls. Most of the market is individual little partial rooms, called room boxes. Like this one. They are all also usually baroque, like this one, Victorian or Georgian in style unless you are planning on buying a more plain one that has not been wallpapered, sealed or floored as a DIY. Of course, they are very well-designed, attractive rooms and they look stunning in doll photography. But they lean a bit too far in the direction of "antique" to fit the themes of any of my 1/6 scale dolls so far. I do love the parquet flooring though. If the reader is interested in this one for their own dolls, the price is 273.55$ and the dimensions are 23" x 2" x 17" (inches). Something of note about this room's listing is that the artist offers two different options for the placement of the door and it should also be pointed out that the artist is transparent about where the resources to make this room box come from- certified, sustainable poplar plantations in Italy! I think that's pretty cool, even if this is not the type of room that I am looking for.

 

Architecture: 🚫

Scale: ✅

Doll protection: 🚫 

Theming: 🚫

Price:  ✅

Shop Reviews: ✅

 

 

What say you, reader, to checking out just one more room or house listing with me? Yes? Then scroll onward!

 

A very cute dollhouse made by MankoWorks.

 

    I already think this one may be my favorite one that I have found so far. While it does not perfectly fit my preferred themes at a glance, it does offer at least some doll/furniture protection with closable walls, it is a literal doll house with sectioned rooms, it is properly scaled for use with Blythe since the dimensions are 47.2" h x 31.5" w x 13.8" depth (inches) and its price is 276.00$. The artist also offers multiple customization options for it, allowing customers to choose to order both the dollhouse and the furniture together, just the doll house without the furniture and it is possible that if I ask her via a message, she might be willing to change out the wallpapering and flooring for me but we would have to see. Even then, like I said, it would not be perfect. But it would serve the purpose well until I can maybe eventually find one that does sit somewhere within one of my preferred themes. I really like how the rooms are sectioned, how the rooms are sized and the little swing set on the top is really adorable. I would absolutely sit my dolls who are couples on it for date themed photos! I also really like that the artist cuts windows into the sides, though there's also a con to that. The con, and this actually extends to all of the windows, is that if they are not closed in with plexiglass or a clear plastic, they can be an entryway for sunlight, dust and dirt. Even if I don't keep dolls inside the thing long term, I may leave furniture or accessories in there that are artist made and those would not deserve sunlight, dust or dirt damage either. If the windows are just cut wood and nothing else, I will probably eventually DIY some cut-to-shape clear plastic and glue that in. That aside, of the four doll homes we have just looked at together, I would venture to say that this one is the most likely to become my first one. 

 

Architecture: 🚫

Scale: ✅

Doll protection: ? 

Theming: As-is in the photos is a no but if changes can be made, this will get a check.

Price:  ✅

Shop Reviews: ✅

 

 

    Thank you so much for sticking with me through this post if you got this far! In the next few days, I plan on doing another daydreaming post but that will likely be regarding doll furniture. I've found that making this one was a huge help in my decision over what housing to get for my smaller dolls for now and I've been struggling some with the furniture, so I thought doing this for that might help there as well. Also, stay tuned for another eye chip reveal for my current custom doll! His artist, BlytheDreams, said she should be shipping him home to me either this week or next week, so he's coming up!