Freaky Frieda pulls herself together

[DollyKim]

If you hunt around you can find just a Blythe head and eye mechanism. I ended up paying about half of what I would for a full Blythe but that was because I'm familiar with the usual body they use and knew I had a decent substitute and could make her an outfit. I wasn't happy with the wigs on the Blythes in my price range so knowing I was going to replace it I stumbled upon the white one. In my doll adventures I never intended to get a Blythe, don't care for the big head look, but she's here now and I've been able to answer quite a few questions.

The one thing I do know is serious Blythe people avoid the ones from the Franklin Mint, so you might be able to find one of those reasonable if you aren't sure or just pass on them.

For knock offs there are Basaak dolls who have received decent reviews from Blythe collectors. Basalks are said to work better with a body change. As shown in another post the Moxie Teen gives them a good look.

[Sock and Awe]

I'm looking at the Basaaks currently. I know I want to play around with different bodies. and such I love modding so it should be fun. I think the only thing that's keeping me from purchasing is how shiny all the faces look. for some reason that bothers me! haha!

[DollyKim]

Shiny happens with them, you can sand matte or spray matte, there are plenty of Blythe customization sites out there. I don't let it bother me, and didn't want to chance scratching her up. All I did was give her sleep eyes and pop out one set of chips. Didn't even boggle her because I don't like that look. I'm lucky I figured out she was a Radiant Blythe mold so I could get the right head pieces but the seller remembered what she originally was.

And if a customizer on Flckr had got back to me I would have traded her head for a Carousel Kitchen for the dollhouse.

[Sock and Awe]

yeah the eye chip replacement sounds like a bit of an ordeal to me, nearly everyone seems to have gouged or scratched them up while doing that. I'm not sure what all I'll do with her. I just intend to basically go nuts and I'm not going to go with a real blythe so won't care if I have to hand the results to my girls If I don't like the end result. Still I need more research and what not. These guys are pretty cute and I like the way they can wear barbie clothing although I want to go with a different body look than what is normally used so I'll see.

[DollyKim]

I was able to use the glue stick method to get them out. You have to get the glue stick melty enough but it works.

They really do best in Barbie clothes if they have a Barbie body. The closest in comparison is Licca, the Barbie of Japan, BUT she is smaller all over, about 22cm tall. There are plenty of Licca pattern books. You can pop her on just about any body.