Blythe Love, The Film
Let's help spread the word and fund a film about Blythe dolls!
A couple of months ago, I was followed on my Blythestagram by an account called Blythelovefilm. Intrigued, I followed them back. Just by their account name, I was excited! A film about Blythe, OMG! It’s what a lot of us in the Blythe community have been waiting for! I wanted to do my part as a Blythe doll lover and help spread the word about this fundraiser.
What’s really cool is that this film is made by Abby Katzman, the daughter of Allison Katzman, the lady who designed the first Blythe dolls! I know I haven’t written a post on the History of Blythe dolls (it’s coming, I swear!), but for those who don’t know. I’ll give a brief history.
Blythe dolls were designed by Allison Katzman in 1972 while she was working at Kenner. She was tasked with creating a “unique doll” to compete with the other retailers at the time, like Barbie. The first Blythe dolls were called Kenner dolls (named after the Kenner company which was were purchased by Hasbro) at the time, however, weren’t popular with the kids because they found the pull-string eye mechinsm scary and the Kenner Blythe dolls were only on the market for about a year in the US before they were discontinued.
Later in the late 90s, Junko Wong (she is a creative producer of Blythe to this day!) saw the potential in Blythe dolls and brought them back to Cross World Corrections, where she worked. In 2000, Hasbro (the current trademark and license owner of Blythe dolls) gave CWC and Takara a license to produce new editions of Blythe dolls under the name, Neo Blythe, which are the dolls that we know and love today!
The Blythe Love film is the unlikely story of a doll who inspired a global movement of artistic expression. Originally designed by Allison Katzman in 1972, and brought back to life by Junko Wong in 2001.
The idea for the film came to Abby Katzman back in 2014, during the Settle Blythecon. Abby self-funded a majority of the film, but now she needs help from the Blythe community!
Listed above are the incentives if you help contribute to the Blythe fundraiser. There are six levels that start at $25 and go up $5,000. More gifts will be added to the fundraiser later!
Level 1 - $25 ~ Two Blythe Love film buttons, stickers, and postcards
Level 2 - $35 ~ A ‘Blythe Love’ T-shirt
Level 3 - $50 ~ An exclusive e-book with behind-the-scenes stories, never-before-seen photos, and videos
Level 4 - $125 ~ Your name is listed in the film credits
Level 5 - $1,000 ~ A producer credit on the film
Level 6 - $5.000 ~ An executive producer credit
*International shipping is not included for physical items.
My friends over at the La Dolly Dispatch recently interviewed Abby Katzman to learn more about Blythe Love, The Film and discuss the legacy that was Allison Katzman. Give the episode a listen!
Their goal is to raise $142,000, and as of writing this post, they’ve currently reached 30% of that goal. Make sure to spread the word about this film, especially in the doll community. I know the Blythe doll world is very niche, but there are a lot of us out there, especially globally! We owe it all to Allison Katzman for inventing this unique doll.
Even if you’re only into fakes/customs, Blythe dolls originate from the original version that Katzman created, and without her creativity and courage to think outside the box, we wouldn’t have this one-of-a-kind doll that makes so many people, including me, really happy!
I hope that this film reaches its goal, as I would love to see a film about these beautiful dolls created by the daughter of the creator of Blythe dolls. How beautiful would that be!
The fundraiser will only be run for 5 weeks, so make sure to donate (if you can) and make sure to spread the word about Blythe Love, The Film!