Honestly, the Blythe community is like living in the suburbs where people are generally really nice to one another, usually very helpful, but it’s also like Desperate Housewives where you’re trying to hide the skeleton in your closets (I haven’t seen a single episode of Desperate Housewives, by the way, so I shouldn’t be spoiling a thing).

But honestly, you’re all too damned protective over your little niche.

I made a crocheted hat with wonky bunny ears and took a few photos and put one up on Flickr. It was on Belarus and I thought it was cute! I was still very new to the Blythe community at the time (still am), so I didn’t expect much.

Fast forward a few months later and someone (who shall remain nameless) contacted me on Flickr to inform me that my hat was “a lot like” hats made by [insert names of other people here] and that it would not be a good idea for me to sell them. At this point, I had not entertained the idea of selling my crocheted hats. Canada Post is expensive, my time is limited and I really do have better things to do than to make 100+ hats at cut-throat prices just to move the inventory. I’ll leave that to someone else. I politely sent a message back to this person to inform them that I had a) not seen the other people’s photos prior to making my own crocheted hat and b) was not planning, at the time, to sell anything. They did not respond.

I found out, after mentioning it on a Twitter, it was not the first time that it had happened to something. Over hats, over shirts, over dresses, over any little freaking detail that could be considered “original”. Hell, I even saw a post on a Blythe forum about how little teeny tiny mittens on a string were “only made” by a certain community member.

Newsflash. It’s not original. Mittens on a string are not original. I had some when I was 3 and I’m pretty sure you can probably go into any children’s store and still find them (provided it’s autumn/winter). Hats are definitely not original. Do you realize how stupid it sounds when someones asking you if you ripped off someone else’s design when, really, you never saw the other person’s hat in the first place? When one (mine!) is crocheted and the other is felted or knit?

How many clothing companies do you think make t-shirts for people? How many? 10? 100? Maybe even more? How many companies sell t-shirts with screenprints on them? Give me a blank shirt and a design and I could even iron on a print on the front for you.

How many companies sell hats? I’m betting the number’s pretty high. And if you going to multiple different stores, you can probably find a lot of hats that look very similar. They could all be black with a brim. And it’s like that’s all some people in the Blythe community see. Oh, it’s the same colour and it has the same general shape, it must be a copy! When really, one is felted/fulled, the other is crocheted, and those two over there? Those are knit. One’s got sequins, one’s got buttons, the other’s plain.

Does it really matter if someone decides to take your idea and tweak it a little? Or if they make a copy just because they wanted something ‘similar’ but can’t afford the ‘real thing’? When things end up being sold secondhand at $80 a piece, it’s no wonder that people are a) clamouring to get them and b) wanting to look for alternatives that aren’t going to make them wonder why it’s so special in the first place. Can you really say that you were the ‘first’ to come up with anything? Because I bet you can I find a human-sized item that looks pretty much the same as your doll-sized hat/dress/shirt/pants/shorts/skirt/shoes/purse/hair-accessory/furniture and that was also produced before yours was…

That’s not to say that the Blythe community isn’t awesome. I’ve met a group of wonderful women online since I started collecting (erm, playing) with Blythe when I got Sophie in late June of 2009. These people are really great, I have a bunch of them on Flickr and on Twitter and we just talk about dolls. When I had questions about customization techniques, everyone is very helpful for their little ‘tips and tricks’ to doing something and what they use. When I have questions, someone’s got an answer and is willing to help. The dolly community’s really great, it’s just that sometimes people are way too overprotective over their ‘niche’ item that they won’t let anyone else take a crack at it. And if someone does… Well, drama, kids, lots and lots of drama.

What would the world be like if you could only get one time of hat from one time of company? Or if only one store was allowed to sell t-shirts? Monopolies occur, prices skyrocket and could be set at anything. You would also stop having originality in the world. And that would really suck.