Mold: RBL
Release date: February 2009
Price: ¥16,590
Release type: CWC Limited Ed., 3000 dolls
Notes: Special eye colors: vivid pink (front w/ heart-shaped hologram), dark green (left), light blue (center), brown (right); special lashes
Stock: hat, bustier, body suit shorts, cloak, leg cover, gloves, tights, mask, glasses, boots, underwear, and stand
Behind the doll by Alain l’étranger
With her long, golden blonde hair and sparkling pink eye chips – not to mention her elaborate stock outfit – Doronjo x Blythe is certainly one of the most striking Neo Blythe releases ever. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous beyond belief. Released in early 2009 as a limited edition of 3000 dolls, her price on the secondary market quickly doubled – and even now, she’s far from cheap. She’s a beautiful doll – but what’s her story?
The Doronjo doll was modeled after one of the villains in Yatterman, the longest and most memorable anime series in Tatsunoko’s Time Bokan franchise. The plot is relatively simple – thirteen-year-old Gan-chan, the son of a famous toy designer, and his girlfriend Ai-chan are the heroes of the show, masked crime fighters who call themselves Yatterman-1 and Yatterman-2. Their nemesis is the Doronbo Gang – and its leader, Doronjo. As Doronjo follows her boss’s orders to find the Dokuro stones – mysterious stones which are said to have the power to reveal a very valuable treasure – her plans are consistently foiled by Yatterman-1 and Yatterman-2.
The original Yatterman television series debuted in Japan in January of 1977 and ran for two years. The show was enormously popular, but it wasn’t always the heroes the audience was cheering for – it was the hilariously inept Doronbo Gang.
The Yatterman animated series was remade in 2008, followed in 2009 by a live-action feature film directed by Takashi Miike, known primarily overseas for gruesome films like Audition and Ichi the Killer.
It makes sense, then, that a collaboration between Yatterman and Blythe would result in a doll bearing the likeness of arguably the most popular and memorable character of the franchise, the stunningly beautiful – yet vain – Doronjo.
BLYTHOPIA 