Blythe has a giant melon head.

I've been on a miniature kick for a while now, searching Etsy and eBay and the web in general for crocheted or knitted miniatures to inspire me.  Through poorly-matching search results, I've discovered that there are a lot of people making clothes and accessories for dolls.  For Blythe dolls, in particular. 

For those of you not in the know (as I wasn't until recently), Blythe is a melon-headed fashion doll with a 1:6 scale (also called playscale or sixthscale) fashion doll body (like Barbie's).  Blythe was produced by Kenner and sold only in 1972, but cancelled when it didn't sell well, probably because it gave the target audicence of little kids nightmares. 

Oh, the big selling point (Get it?  Big?  Because of its giant head?) was that when you pulled a string on the back of its head, its eyes rotated, bringing different-colored irises to the front.  Scary, eh?

Then in 1997, a video and TV producer with a camera she wanted to test found Blythe and shot a bunch of Blythe photographs.  They were published as a book in 2000.  Other people bandwagoned and we have the Blythe phenomenon.  In 2004, new Blythes went into production and they're still around, so we can assume they're a success.  The Internet lurves Blythe.

I think Blythe's giant head is ugly.  I hate that it's not to scale.  Pick a scale, any scale.  I am glad that people are using it and its ripe melon as inspiration to make outfits and do photography and meet (virtual) friends, so it's not all bad.

I just wish their stuff would stop popping up in my searches.