Blythe 9th Anniversary Dolls

July 4th, 2010
by Sue

This year’s Blythe anniversary animation is definitely the best animation so far, even featuring everyone’s favourite destroyer of Tokyo, Godzilla. But what of the dolls?

Well, Marabelle Melody is certainly cute, but the response across the English-speaking Blythe community is very muted indeed.

She just doesn’t seem all that special for an anniversary girl, particularly as a recent release, Ice Rune, has such similar hair and cute little bear ears:

Marabelle Melody’s outfit is quite lovely, mind you. The ears, while similar to IR’s, are adorable and I love a lolita-style ruffly dress. Her casual outfit is spiffy too with very nice new-style boots.

I can’t help thinking though: shouldn’t we get a bit more from an anniversary doll? Something special? More detailed clothing, a third outfit, a special never-before-seen hair colour, striking make up? Perhaps we’ve been spoilt by anniversary girls such as Princess a la Mode and Art Attack. My expectations are set for truly breathtaking dolls, dolls that I’d sell a kidney to obtain. MM is very sweet, but I wouldn’t sell any organs for her. It’s a strange way to be disappointed, but I am.

The anniversary petite, so essential to defeating (with cuteness) the monsters in Blythe-land, is also very sweet, but not overly exciting.

Her colouring is nice, but muted, and her outfit is adorable, but not terribly special.

The trumpet is a nice touch though, especially once you’ve seen it in action in the animation, calling super-Blythes to action. The packaging for the little one is delightful, featuring cartoon images of the whole anniversary team:

What is new this year is the inclusion of a set of primadollies, three lower-priced releases in very simple outfits. These girls have vivid fantasy hair colours and little ice-skating outfits (skates!). The primas all have the new ‘Fairest’ face mould though, which isn’t nearly as popular (certainly in Australia) as the Radiant mould. This time the FBL girls have make up and are shiny (see Junko Wong’s blog to find out about issues with the previous matte finish FBLs). Only the first girl, Simply Bubble Boom has promo pics out so far:

The international lottery for Simply Bubble Boom starts tomorrow. We haven’t yet seen promo photos for the other two, but they can be seen in the anniversary animation. At first glance, their hair colours look fabulous – rich vivid fantasy shades. More fun than Marabelle Melody perhaps, but without any accessories, I’m not finding these super-exciting either.

Maybe next year…. *sigh*…

*All pics are promotional photographs from CWC*