My ponies were all outfitted with clothing, shoes, and accessories. I had a doll house that my dad built me that was filled with Sylvanian Families, the 80’s precursor to today’s Calico Critters.
Toys through the ‘90s and early ‘00s lost my interest. Designs were ugly and garish. No longer were they lovely shades of 80’s pastels. And it was time for grown-up things like getting married, buying a home, and paying bills.
After my daughter came along, I had an excuse to buy toys again, without feeling the self-consciousness of spending money on them for myself.
She was obsessed with Littlest Pet Shop animals, and while I thought they were cute, I was really into the mini-Blythe replica dolls that came with them. I had wanted a real Blythe doll for a long time, but they’re highly collectible, limited-edition dolls from Takara, and I couldn’t justify the expense. We made a deal that I’d give her the animals, and collect the dolls for myself.
After years of stalking ebay, I finally treated myself to a used full-size Blythe doll. I did some light customization to her—changing out her eye chips, sanding her face, redoing her makeup, and getting her short wigs.
Blythe doll collecting and customization is an expensive hobby. Accessories are only available from Asia, often with long ship times and currency exchanges. There’s also an annual convention called BlytheCon, where vendors sell one-of-a-kind art dolls and accessories. I’d like to be able to walk into a local store on a whim to pick up something new.
I decided to collect Monster High dolls instead. The dolls are based off of characters in the YouTube webisodes and movie releases. I love the attention to detail in the character designs and clothing. I’ve bought them custom handmade clothing off of Etsy, and a dollhouse full of pastel Barbie furniture to display them in. Monster High doll customization is also a thing – doll artists love the face sculpt as a blank slate for their own creative vision. At ComicCon 2015, Mattel announced some really cool Monster High future releases that I’m so excited for. It’s a huge, diverse fandom from children to adult doll collectors. It’s very inclusive and supportive. I follow some of the other doll photographers on Instagram, and like to watch toy reviews from YouTubers.
My husband and sons are really into Lego sets, and so I joined in collecting the cool female characters of minifigures. I especially love historical era warrior women. Every time a new series is released, we go as a family to manhandle the packages and try to find our favorites.
Toys also gave me something to hone my photographic skills on. When I got a new camera four years ago, I couldn’t find enough subject matter to keep me busy. I learned about depth of field, lighting, focus, and color correction by practicing on various toys in our collections.
Toys remind me to not take life so seriously. I only buy what I love, and I often wait until I find a good clearance deal before I jump on it. You can bet if I stop at Target to grab some groceries, I’m also going to do a quick stroll in the toy aisle to see what’s new. But that’s normal, right?
Do you have any quirky and/or embarrassing collections? Is there anyone else out scoping out Toys R Us?
Written by Marisa
Marisa’s Current Obsessions: jangly dreamy guitar riffs, The Paper Kites, cats, the color combo of mint and lavender, playing at Chuck E. Cheese with my kids, racerback tank tops, Aneurin Barnard’s stare, Ghoulia Yelps. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @frommarisa or at www.modernfangirl.com
