The History Of Blythe Dolls

A lot of neophyte doll fanatics today thought that Blythe dolls were recently produced and manufactured. These big doe-eyed dolls have a long history of being discontinued and then resurrected. It was initially created in 1972 by the Kenner Company and was produced in Hong Kong. But the dolls were sold in the United States only for a year due to the lack of interest from the market. The design for this doll was created by Allison Katzman which she took inspiration from the famous artist Margaret Keane. Keane was known for her drawings of doe-eyed children from which a lot of artists and illustrators based some of their creations including the makers of The Powerpuff Girls.

The dolls distinctive features include eyes that change colors from green to orange to blue to pink by pulling a string at the back of her head. In 1997, Gina Garan who was a New York video and TV producer was given a gift from a friend. It was a 1972 Blythe doll from Kenner and this marked the start of the dolls resurrection. Garan used the doll for her photography by making her as the model on her photos. By 1999, Garan met Junko Wong of CWC who was an artist and Jeffrey Fulvimari who later on introduced the doll to Parco. Parco is one of Japan's leading shopping complexes in the fashion district of Shibuya.

Gina then published the book "This is Blythe" with the publishing company Chronicle Books. In 2001, Hasbro, the company who owns the license and trademark of Blythe, gave Takara the license to manufacture the New Edition of Blythe dolls. It was then used as an advertising campaign by Parco in their Christmas TV commercial. Due to the clamor that it has brought in Japan, Hasbro then provided a license to Ashton-Drake Galleries in 2004 for them to sell Blythe dolls in the United States. The dolls were popularly known to an adult niche market that had grown to love the dolls.

Many known artists and companies have used the Blythe dolls since then for their own advertising campaigns. The famous designer, Alexander McQueen, even used the dolls for his fashion line. Hair color products manufactured by Schwarzkopf-Henkel even used the dolls on their product Fresh Light's boxes. Today, the Blythe dolls come in three different sizes. The first one was the original full-sized dolls that stand 28 centimeter and this is the only version that can change eye colors. The second was called the Petit Blythe made by Takara which only stands 11.2 centimeters. Lastly, the Middie Blythe stands at 20 centimeters and is considered just the right size for most doll lovers.

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