Beatrice Vest - Orange Lipstick

But on this girl, the shade actually goes nicely with her incredibly blushy cheeks and the slightly auburn tint to her long straight hair.

As is rather typical with any NEO Blythe out of the box, BVs hair is a little oily, and her fringe (or bangs to the Americans reading this) has that annoying centre-gap thing happening. But it’s nothing that a careful wash and taming won’t solve.

Beatrice Vest - Fringe Gap

When you pay this amount of money for an item though, how many tiny faults are acceptable? For me, knowing the hair is rooted in a factory means I know that the oiliness is from the machines. But I do wish a little more quality control went into the thatching of the part, and the neatness of the fringe. When you receive this it really does barely resemble the picture-perfect sample photo supplied:

Beatrice Vest Promo Photo

Let’s move on to the outfit.

EARMUFFS

Simply beautiful. Simply made, they have just the right amount of play in them to allow you to style your Blythe’s hair in various ways, and the earmuffs will still fit.

Beatrice Vest - Earmuffs

They are made of a lovely soft, fluffy white synthetic and brown velvet bows. Very pretty.

VEST

The vest is made from the same fluffy white synthetic as the earmuffs, with little pompoms at the ends of the brown velvet ties. Lined in blue cotton with white polkadots, it’s rather cute and very well sewn.

Beatrice Vest - Vest

SOCKS

The socks are stretchy polycotton. The bottom part is brown with stencilled poly brown polkadots, and the tops are a pale ocean green. Rather lovely.

SHOES

These are the same style as were released with the Jane Marple collaboration limited edition earlier in the year, but these are of a quality that I can not recommend to anyone.

Usually, the Takara branded-shoes are well made, well sized and finished with little L and R on the soles of the shoes. These look and feel like cheap knock offs.

Ridiculously oversized in comparison to Blythe’s feet – they fit my Pure Neemo Advance’s clodhopper sized feet rather nicely!

Beatrice Vest - Shoe Sizing

Made from an unusually squishy rubber, they look rather nice. The buckles are detailed incredibly well.

Beatrice Vest - Shoe Buckles

The problem is the soles. They are painted in a sticky, tacky cream paint that literally sticks to everything, and will certainly peel off over time. The paint is uneven. The soles have a thick ridge down the middle where the mold was obviously joined at the factory, meaning that the soles are not flat.

Rather disappointing quality in Takara’s usually precise execution of designs for Blythe shoes.

SHIRT

Long sleeved, dusky pink stretchy cotton. Plain. boring. Nothing to review here.

PANTIES

Plain white, lacking the velcro closure that makes them easier to change.

DRESS

I left the dress until last, because my impressions are almost entirely positive.

Negatives: I wish the brown tweed-like under skirt was removable. I think the apron-like effect of the rest of the dress would have been enhanced, and ultimately more versatile for use over other outfits if it were left off.

Beatrice Vest - Dress Detail

The stitching is impeccable, the frilly capped shoulders, the pretty ricrac detailing, the blue then red ruffle – all exquisite and my favourite part of the entire outfit!

Beatrice Vest - Dress Detailing

OVERALL

Beatrice Vest is a surprising release. The blue eyes are so intense, it’s hard to believe they don’t use this colour for every release. The other standard colours are all very meh. Her eyeshadow is a gorgeous shade of yellow/green that compliments her blushy cheeks and lips. Her auburn touched hair is beautiful and the perfect length.

Apart from the dissapointing shoes, her outfit is really rather divine, and I can see the secondary market going a little nuts for it.

Rating: 7/10

You can tell a new release is going to be popular when every single Blythe collector on flickr has uploaded the promo sketch to their account.

With only a very limited release of 3,000 – I think Hello Kitty Blythe is going to be harder to get than Doronjo X Blythe and Momolita Blythe were put together.

Can you say inflation? Get yourself in line for the lottery, and pad your retirement fund with Hello Kitty Blythe – probably already worth five times her listed release price, and she doesn’t arrive until December 2009.

Hello Kitty Blythe - Ribonetta Wish

“Ribboneta Wish” is the name of this special doll created to celebrate Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary.
Bows in five colors beautifully accent her dress and hair.
Red is for friendship, pink is for cuteness, yellow for happiness, green is for wishes coming true and lavender for sweetness.
She is a doll with the precious message from Hello Kitty.
May your world become bright and beautiful!

“Ribonneta Wish” wears a light pink dress with bows and a lovely bolero with dots.
The dress features pink pearl beads and ribbons in Hello Kitty’s five colors at the waist and hem.
The strap of the halter dress has has a bow behind the neck, the magenta bolero has a polka dot and puff sleeves.
The “Hello Kitty” face is printed on a cute white handbag which features a pearl-bead handle.
Her shoes are magenta and made from a new mold with high heels for a mature style.
Her subtly permed hair is reddish brown with bangs and two ponytails with big bows on both sides.
Her make-up is all shades of pink. Special colored eye chips are used for all of the eyes with Hello Kitty’s symbolic bow embedded in the irises.
Her face type is Radiance, and skin type is Fair.

Please look forward to the final design announcement of CWC Exclusive Neo Blythe, “Ribonetta Wish,” the dream collaboration between Blythe and Hello Kitty!

Suggested Retail Price: 21,000yen
Scheduled release date: December 2009
Limited Edition 3,000 dolls
(C)1976, 2009 SANRIO CO.,LTD. APPROVAL NO.S502257

Keep up to date on the official Blythe Doll website.

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To find out more, and to vote go to the Annual Beauty Competition Page.