I Did It! I Re-Bodied a Blythe!

With free time on my hands, I watched a couple of YouTube videos about opening Blythe doll heads to get an idea of what I needed to do to successfully rebody my dolls.

I found this video the most helpful and chose to rebody the doll with the fishtail braid first.

This is the head of the Afro version, yet to be rebodied.  The red arrow points to a spring that had to be removed (along with the three screws) before opening the head of the rebodied doll.

The most difficult part in rebodying Blythe was detaching one end of a spring that controls the pull-string movement of the doll's eye changing mechanism.  One end of the spring, inside the doll's head, is attached to the eye mechanism; the other end is attached to a vertical strip of plastic in the back of the doll's head, as shown above.  This was the end that had to be removed.

The video suggested clamping the spring with hemostats or grasping with tweezers to lift it away from the plastic bar.  I used tweezers.  It took several tries before I was able to lift it off.  I had already unscrewed the screws before removing the spring. 

The head has been opened with the old body still in place.

The neck groove of the new body has been placed into position.  It rests on a ledge of plastic inside the back panel of the head.

Next, I opened up a jumbo paper clip, leaving a hook on one end.  This would be used next to guide the spring back onto the plastic bar before closing the two head panels, as shown next.

The looped end of the spring has been placed onto the hook created with the paperclip before guiding the paperclip and spring through the opening in the back panel and finally reattaching the spring to the plastic bar.

The front and back head panels are snapped back into place, and the three screws replaced.

Voila!  She has her new articulated body.

 Lots of posing followed by trying on clothes took place next. 

Sitting pretty

This is her best seated with crossed legs pose.  We didn't try a crossed ankles pose, but she can do it.

Lotus position

A perfect lunge

We wondered if her new curves would fit into the same Sparkle Girlz fashion; they do.

Unfortunately her flat feet, even though the ankles are articulated, are too large for Barbie's ankle boots.  The black and white oxfords made for her do not match this particular fashion.  So... 

Blythe tried on another Sparkle Girlz fashion and changed her violet eyes to green.  (A girl has to coordinate!)

She tried on one additional dress.

Next, her fishtail braid was redone.

And Blythe struck one final pose.

Afro Blythe will receive her new body as soon as time and frame of mind permit.

 

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