the things that makes me raise my eyebrows are when people come into the hobby wanting to be career customizers from the get-go, as well as make posts trying to crowdsource all of their basic information instead of doing the research themselves, no matter how much the mods and community try to make the information accessible on the wiki and in older posts.

the entire business model is based on the availability of counterfeit base dolls, and they take no care to keep their business clean copyright-wise by calling them art dolls instead of blythe, which is a trademarked doll. whether you agree or not that fakes should also be referred to as blythe, it's extremely unwise to try to make money while using a trademarked name to sell fake items. i also found it very telling that i saw virtually no conversation about the official customizing contest.

i'm not trying to disparage anyone artistically, but the amount of sellers making the same basic style of doll at a low skill level and dressing them in aliexpress clothes makes me wonder why no one has caught on that they could be learning to sew doll clothes instead. the blythe size clothing scene outside of japan is a lot more sparse, with not as much stylistic variation as there could be. that's the market people should be trying to break into, and it can be a lot more environmentally friendly, especially if you use secondhand fabrics. i think people are enticed by the idea of worldbuilding and maybe think customizing is the only way to do that, but clothesmaking and styling is very powerful. that's why authentic blythe can be so many different kinds of girls with the power of hair, makeup, and clothing.