Amazing Milk Tea & Lucalilly Custom Blythe

I really love her designs!! However at the same time I have to say that her costumed dolls are super expensive....

 

Oh god back when I was still collecting Blythes I was always stalking her auctions and crying over the crazy prices they went for

 

yes! I actually really like Blythes! But the price!!!! I'd rather stick with BJDs....

 

I used to own a bunch of them! But yeah they are so pricey oh god xD

 

Wow! This is the sort of work that merits the phrase "I am gobsmacked!" I was not aware of this artist! Glad I am now! (I think!?!? )

 

They are so beautiful! I'm a blythe collector and I love customs but yes, the prices can get crazy.

 

I am a blythe collector aswell and there are so many talented artist who customize them! The prize is really expensive and usually they don't offer a layaway plan...

 

I don't collect Blythes but I love looking at her work! It's amazing! They're so detailed.

 

She does amazing work and I'm always left in disbelief at how expensive her dolls end up selling for.

 

She makes my favourite Blythe customs!
The outfits, the overall aesthetic, the pictures!
Really love her works

Have to admit though I am not very thrilled about the western Blythe custom aesthetic anyway.
I can only look at a freckled, open mouthed, natural looking girl without eyebrows and lashes so often before I want to scream
And the market is swamped with them and the popular customizers rarely do something else (unless they go full abstract).
Wish there were more like Milk Tea instead.

I personally own six Blythe by the way.
Vogel lured me in back then and then left me all alone with it

 

Pony, I don´t know how to post pictures yet, but I could give you my instagram account if that is legal here?

 

The thing with Blythe customs is, that the Blythe hobby has a different approach to that whole thing. Here certain customizers works sell for thousands of dollars easily (G.Baby, Sirenita and Tiina come to my mind immediately). That was one of the things I found both fascinatind and strange in my dabble in that hobby.

That and the lack of eyebrows on most customs

 

Yeah, to them customs are a work of art and customizers rarely sell their service, they only sell a full product.
And owning something made by X is part of the collecting appeal.
Meanwhile with BJDs the customizers are often just a tool to get the right face-up onto your doll, nothing more. Sure with some there is this "yay, I have a face-up by X", but that's not the most important part for many.

While I sometimes think those prices are a little crazy (especially when it's a type of custom that exists dozens of times already, sometimes even from the same artist, and they used a bootleg as base) I wish BJD artists would earn a little more too.
They are probably the most underpaid ones when you compare them to other doll collecting hobbies, but we are also pretty unique because we often just sell the paint-job, not the whole thing.
BJDs are as a canvas too expensive to just buy them for selling a custom, and too much of our hobby is based on the fact that we buy those dolls to look like our characters.
There is for many no appeal into buying an already painted/finished doll.

@Pony: Unfortunately all of my Blythe have either stock faces (i.e. not yet customized) or already carved, but still blank ones.
I still took a few quick pictures for you to see, I really need to find some time and funds to finish them.
I did not carve them myself by the way, I did so once and decided I don't like doing it.
Quality of the pictures is meh, because no light and no time.

Really bad group picture, from left to right:

Stock Cherry Beach Sunset, stock (but matte, with angora wig) Manuheali'i Paradise Girl, custom Miss Sally Rice twins, custom but stock hair Ambrosial and custom Simply Delight.

None of mine are on the original Blythe body, but here's a comparison of my Soom Afi next to one of my girls:



And with a Blythe body:


Mine are all on Azone Pure Neemo bodies or similar, because the original Blythe body can't pose well and is ugly on top (those gummy noodle arms, brrr).
Thus they also mostly wear Azone clothes and some odd Blythe pieces here and there, since those two bodies (especially the Pure Neemo S body) are pretty similar in size.
We also have some Pullip outfits (the lolita ones), even though their bodies are longer and thinner they usually fit onto the Pure Neemo bodies.
A regular YoSD is waaaaay too thick for all those clothes, unfortunately.

Here's a post on DoA with a picture of a naked YoSD sized doll and a naked Blythe in the middle:
Xaga tiny dolls [Kiki, Nono, Lara, Anthony etc.]

 

I think I have finally been able to upload pictures, hope you like them.
I have got one more, the first one I owned, but is a fake, so I am not uploading pictures of her.

fullsizeoutput_2db0 by Marcos Garcia, en Flickr

fullsizeoutput_2d1a by Marcos Garcia, en Flickr

fullsizeoutput_2d83 by Marcos Garcia, en Flickr

fullsizeoutput_2dba by Marcos Garcia, en Flickr

 

@Pony: Thanks
As said, the bodies mine are on are all Azone Pure Neemo, usually the S size and in fair skin (or dyed/airbrushed for tan).
They have different hand sets for sale, the twins just have hands with spread fingers on and are posed in a way to make it look like they hold hands with their other arms (they aren't, but the Mini-Aibo dog covers that).
Here's the body on AmiAmi, the hand sets are called A, B and C (C is a special set with movable wrist joint and harder to get).
In the Xaga doll picture the Blythe is on the regular Blythe body, the one I used in my last comparison too.

While it gives you better movement you still need a stand to keep them stable (the heads just make them too top heavy), and you need to thicken that neck plastic piece a little for better fit.
My Paradise Girl only behaved for the picture because she was able to lean on my Afi.
It's not a perfect hybrid at all, but I dislike the original Blythe body so much I just live with it.

"Factories" are indeed close to what recasts are in the BJD community.
Doesn't matter if they are so called "factories", fakes, TBL (Taobao Blythe) or whatever; unless it's an official Kenner or Takara release it's not a legit product.
Unfortunately fakes are crazily popular in the Blythe community, especially among customizers because you can make a lot more money with them (50$ buying vs 500$ selling means more money to you than 200$ buying and 500$ selling).
It's a total shame and reason why I just left a selling group, the amount of fakes was just too high.
Factories are supposed to be rejected or stolen parts from the original factory, ones with small defects or made by workers next to the actual releases.
No matter what though, Takara paid for those with materials and wages and doesn't see a cent when they are removed from the factories and sold on ebay.
As far as I know more and more people think those factory dolls are actually regular bootlegs, they are just called factory by sellers to avoid using the correct terms (i.e. fake, bootleg etc.).

If you want to get into Blythe but only have a small budget, try Mandarake.
They sometimes have naked SBL Blythe for sale for a good price, SBL are just a little harder to open than the newer Blythe (SBL is a type of face mold).
Currently the cheapest ones they have are at 12000 Yen/~105$ though (mint, with box).
Regular Blythe releases are usually ~150$, like here on Juniemoon.
Honestly, compared to BJD they are dirty cheap, it's just that some of those customs cost crazily much

 

Both lips are nose got just carving, however the one on the second picture has got epoxy elf ears! But yes, the artists did a really good job with them!