I’m quite late with this, but I went to the Green Dolly Day in Barcelona a month ago.
The night before the event I had only slept about two hours so I was pretty zombie like going around the stands.
I don’t want to make a full text review because there are others out there and because my opinion wouldn’t be the most popular one. So summing it up in positive and negative points (disclaimer: This is MY opinion, I find it great if you don’t agree or have another perspective).
Positive:
➳ The location of the event was easy to find and access. The room was big.
➳ There were quite a lot of stands so you needed to go around a few times to take it all in.
➳ People in the stands were very friendly and helpful.
➳ Staff people were also very nice.
➳ Prices were good, you could find many price ranges so there was stuff for every pocket.
Negatives:
➳ The location was easy to find, but once inside the hotel you had to ask where it was because unless you had been there before there weren’t any signs anywhere to know where to go.
➳ The room was big, but being the basement it was dark, no windows, felt a bit trapping in there.
➳ Because there was no windows it felt a bit pointless to take pictures in the doll booths they had since the artificial light was not that bright and they were in pretty dark areas.
➳ I expected it to be an event more centred in BJD but about at least half of the stands were more Blythe, Pullip and similar. Also there was not that much for 1/3 size dolls. This is not really a fault of the event organisation, though.
➳ Even though you needed a few rounds to see everything there was not much else to do, there was only like one activity (alpaca wig making, although I heard people saying it ended up being more like an explanation than a workshop activity), so you would run out of stuff to do pretty quickly and you had to wait for raffles and announcements (somewhere throughout the day, but the raffles were around half past five, so you had to wait most of the day). As I said I had only slept two hours, so this time waiting was like ten times longer for me. If you go with friends or family it’s probably a lot better. I went alone, so that added to the boredom.
➳ I think raffle boxes should be better mixed when picking the numbers. Some of the people picking the numbers did, others didn’t.
➳ Online raffle is a joke, I have to agree with one comment made in their Facebook page, sorry. Pretty unprofessionally picked. When I was in the event there was this girl from the staff that said she never participates in the online raffles, when asked why and if the picking was done weirdly she didn’t say no, she just said something like “you know, many people participating and the like” in a casual way. Whatever she meant I personally got my own conclusions now after seeing how it has gone.
Days before going I was torn between getting a doll there or not. I decided not to because I thought about getting other stuff I need, like clothes and shoes and etc. However when I got the event there wasn’t that many stuff that appealed to me, or more like, that went with my girls’ styles, so I didn’t buy much in the end. I tried to finally get the doll I wanted but it was gone already (I wanted her without faceup, only the ones with faceup were left). I regretted it so much, but then about two weeks later I could get that other doll I’m waiting for now, so I guess it was destiny (or something).
Generally, to sum it up, would I go to the event again? It depends, if I go with someone I would, if I go alone I would only go if I want a specific doll, I wouldn’t participate in raffles or anything and I wouldn’t stay all day there because it gets pretty boring. That is, unless it evolves in future editions and more activities or other stuff is added. I imagine this is likely to happen at some point, but for now that’s how I see it.
I’m forgetting some stuff to mention here, just because I think this is pretty unpopular opinion already so I’m going to leave it there.
Stuff that came in the Welcome Pack:
The bag of the event in green this time. Inside there were a lot of different business cards, event map, leaflet and name tag, those balloons for 1/6 scale (maybe they look a bit small on yosd size? I haven’t tried them yet). This paper cut-out of a Blythe in its box that I haven’t made yet. Brown eyelashes (I needed some so this was perfect for me). And then there were a couple more things in there, a ticket for the raffle that I used, and this capsule that had a paper inside and if it had something written you won some stuff. The tiny capsule was delicate and mine got all squished and I had to throw it out once I got home.
Things I got:
Starting from top left: Set for Blythe, Ravenclaw tights for MSD size (wanted these ones since a long time ago), yo-sd sized overalls (they’re big on my yo-sd sized dolls, weird :S). Bottom left: Overalls for Blythe and similar sizes, Totoro socks for Blythe size and similar, SD sized boots, headband for Blythe size. I picked some cards in Merry Doll Round’s stand, my favourite!! hahaha I know people picked everywhere but I only picked from her. It was also such a pleasure to meet her, she’s so nice and kind and I’m a big fan of her dolls.
Thanks for reading 🙂
