Did you ever find dolls creepy before you got into BJDs?

It was gradual for me. As a toddler, I have pics of me with dolls. But I lost interest in favor of toy horses. I didn’t regain my love of dolls until a few years ago. I wouldn’t say I was ever afraid of dolls, but I didn’t like being stared at nonstop either. It took time.

 

Not really. I saw non-BJD dolls I didn't care for but they didn't scare me. Maybe it's because my mom had expensive artist dolls in her room that I grew up around. I didn't care for dolls much when I was a child, I would have rather played with toy animals. I got into BJDs fairly early in life and my mom was really weirded out that I didn't love dolls as a kid but I suddenly NEEDED a very expensive doll at 14.

Uncanny doll faces don't freak me out, I'm probably so desensitized at this point that I'm not sure I would find a doll creepy. I saw a vintage doll at a consignment shop about half a year ago where the owner described it as a "very creepy doll, probably haunted" and I didn't even realize the doll was off putting until I read that. It's just a sculpted face to me.

 

To be really honest, they still creep me out. Especially more realistic faces... the more realistic a doll's proportions are, the creepier they are. Like, those super realistic baby dolls really horrify me in a way few other inanimate objects can. I mostly collect very stylized dolls, because imo the more cartoony something is the less creepy it seems.

I was a big fan of doll-related horror movies before getting into BJDs (I still am) because I think their natural uncanny valley effect lends itself to horror wonderfully. Actually, the only dolls I collected before getting into BJDs were Living Dead Dolls.

So I don't think dolls being creepy is a bad thing... but I do find them creepy.

 

Yes, that plus the perception of dolls being either a creepy or childish interest kept me away from the hobby for a long time.
I find realistic baby/young faces off putting, even more so if they have extremely defined lips. I'm into 1/6 size so it's hard for me to avoid them
Porcelain dolls in victorian dresses give me the heebie jeebies but that's mostly because they're used in horror movies.

 

Outside of film, I've only found 2 specific dolls creepy one was an old composition doll my mom had inherited from her aunt that hadn't aged well, it had hairline cracks all over it's face and it's eyes were badly clouded. My brother and I used to always say it was possessed.
The other was a Christmas animatronic porcelain doll that had belonged to my grandmother but it was known to move on it's own and I wasn't the only one who got spooked by her, but my grandmother thought she was just the sweetest thing. It wasn't so bad when she lived with my grandmother but after she moved in with us... I swear that doll had collected some bad energy from somewhere.

 

Nope.

Lifelong doll collector

Teddy

 

No, and I was happy that I could come out of the closet. I always loved dolls but thought it was only for kids to have dolls. Once I seen a doll collector online with a multitude of dolls, I was all in! lol

 

I personally mostly never cared for them, just never was a kid that played with them. Even now most dolls are just whatever to me and I don't see their appeal at all. It's the customizing that got me into dolls, and BJDs were just the right mix of customization options and aesthetic.

The only ones that really make me go uuurgh are Reborns, but I also feel zero for real babies Wrinkly snotty potatoes. I can appreciate the skill, but their existence still puzzles me.
Same for all these dolls that are supposed to be children and are shown crying. What kind of person wants to have a room full of crying children? Feels cruel to me.

 

The only dolls I grew up with as a kid were the creepy old porcelain dolls my grandmother owns. They still to this day, absolutely scare the bejeezus out of me. But horror mod BJDs? Perfectly fine. Don't ask me how that brain logic works. Maybe it's BJDs are so much more customisable compared to antique dolls?

 

Nope, I don't find dolls creepy unless they were intentionally made to look creepy.

 

I find those chubby old porcelain dolls you find at granparents houses creepy af, even now! I guess it's more the style of makeup, they look lifeless but still stare at you creepily.
Bjds on the other way are far more personalized and feel more alive, they often reflect their owner preferences and they're so varied! So I always loved them.

 

The only doll that really ever creeped me out in person was a "life-sized" child-shaped cloth doll. She didn't look very realistic up close, but if you saw her from behind (she had a wig on), you thought there was a child sitting there. She used to sit in the fiction room in my library, and if you were closing by yourself at night and walked in and thought a child was there...

 

Realistic baby dolls creep me out. I did own baby dolls when I was a child but I know they're toys since they only have cheap paint on them but whenever I see infant dolls that were made to look real... I'm just Nope.

 

I always found porcelain, or dolls painted like clowns to be creepy. And when you cross the two? Oh no... my mom has a clown porcelain doll she wants to pass down to me when my kids are older I'm not quite ready for that haha

Those, and reborn dolls - I think that's what their called. They look too real to me, and for some reason I can't stand looking at them. But I feel the same way about the really good wax sculptures, so I think if it's too real, it just seems wrong to me

 

Not at all. My sister and I have always loved dolls and never fully gave them up. I was so excited to find more people who shared the hobby.

 

I forgot to say in my original response to this thread that, while I never found any dolls creepy before getting into BJD's, I have since encountered a doll that creeps me out.

Sad to say my first encounter with Blythe dolls (at a BJD meet) have cast them forever in my world as "The Scary Dolls."

I never thought I would find any doll scary.

Something about the "CLONK!" of the eye mechanism on Blythe, however, combined with the eyes closing and re-opening as DIFFERENT EYES put them firmly in the Dr Who monster category for me.

{SHUDDER!}

Teddy

 

never in my life. I've always loved dolls.

 

I can confirm that yes, I did used to think they were incredibly creepy. Some of them I still look at and my Uncanny Valley sense starts to tingle.

A few years back I was doing outreach for a local con here where I live and Resin Rose reached out to us for a booth swap. Hardly anyone wanted to go. I thought "what's the harm in re-assessing my opinion about these dolls?" That weekend really opened my mind to the hobby.

The nice thing is I don't have to like the same things someone else likes. Maybe I might think a doll is a little creepy, but my second thought now is always "but look at all the work this person put into it" and I instead focus on that, because it will never stop being amazing to me the level of detail and customization that can go into these dolls.

 

I'm a really bad judge on this because I'm a huge fan of horror art and media, and for me "Creepy" is not mutually exclusive with "Cute" or "beautiful." That said, there is a difference between "dolls I find not creepy" and "Dolls I will actually keep in my house." Plus that old talking Thomas Edison doll with a horrible tinny recorded voice shouting "Now I lay me down to sleep" absolutely increased the fear factor way more than anything I encountered as a child.

 

I’ve always liked watching haunted doll videos. There’s a lot of videos on YouTube with people claiming they have haunted dolls. Weirdly enough, despite loving watching them, I get so creeped out by them XD
I even like to take note of what position I leave my dolls in, just to make sure their heads don’t move XD So I am still scared by certain dolls and always have a small suspicion that all second hand antique dolls are haunted

 

I was never really creeped out by dolls in general as a child... Disney's animatronic figures were a little freaky to me, but never really in "OMGGetMeAwayFromTheMechanicalCorpse!"-territory. Likewise antique dolls with teeth, for some reason. I didn't like them, but they didn't trigger any really serious Uncanny Valley reactions.

No... I didn't experience *THAT* until the first time I was "introduced" to a Reborn.

Those creeped me right the f- out. And still do.

As far as BJDs go, the only ones that have ever even come close to being freaky to me are the ones with wide-open mouths. Especially if they also have tongues lolling around... They don't give me the heebies as badly as those dead rubber babies by a long shot, but they're still 110% pure NOPE as far as I'm concerned.

 

My mother started collecting Soft Sculpture Cabbage Patch Kids when I was born, so I was raised around her love of them and her dedicated "doll room". I'm definitely freaked out by old porcelain dolls, but these Soft Sculpture dolls are completely made of cloth and yarn so they feel and look very safe (if that makes sense). As an adult collector, I'm very much draw to the childlike bjds and animals more than the adult ones. The mature bjds don't creep me out per say, but I don't feel comfortable owning them since there seems to be a ton of sexualization around them that I just don't vibe with ^^"

 

It’s more about the feeling I get from an individual doll than their type. I adore BJDs but I have met ones I could not look in the eye. I’m not put off by teeth, tongues, blood or piercing stares. Gore is kinda ehhh but mostly because it seems more depressing than scary. I don’t care for porcelain dolls at all aesthetically, but I’ve held both friendly and unfriendly ones and it didn’t really have anything to do with their looks.

I am leery of any doll at a thrift shop; I can’t know its history, and from unfortunate experience I don’t trust myself not to be inadvertently drawn to the exact one that does happen to have something wrong with it. But my grandmother gave my daughter an old porcelain doll recently and I find her funny, kind of pitiful. Yeesh you’re ugly, your hair’s a wreck and you’ve got that “I have seen some serious ****” stare… ok, I promise I’ll reattach your leg one of these days, hang in there…

It was similar when I was a child. But as a funny story, I was once somewhat afraid of a very old heirloom doll that was passed to us when my granny purged family relics from her attic to move—I don’t know much about her but she had real human hair and her eyes were weighted to close when she was laid down, but got stuck and would droop on their own, and her teeth were bared in a very tense expression, and she was discoloured and faded and just filled a whole room with the smell of OLD whenever she was out. It might have been ok if not for comments by cousins. “She looks right out of a horror movie.” “Human hair? Does that mean they killed someone to make this doll?” or worse: “She probably belonged to Great-Great-Great Aunt Beulah—” whose hazy photograph still sits on the antique pedal organ, looking very stern in front of the same piece of furniture with her fancy dress and snooty bun, “—and she’s DEAD!” And that was all it took. As a child I was irrationally afraid of anything associated with death. You could tell me a lace doily was made by someone who is now deceased and I’d be sure contact was going to infect me somehow.

Mom thought we were ridiculous to be afraid of the old doll. She fashioned her a pair of glasses out of a pipe cleaner, stuck them on her in the hutch and said THERE, as if that would help. I remember holding my breath walking through the dining room at night thinking all those furry glasses did was surely just make her angry…

The doll is fine, honestly. I don’t like to touch her because she looks and smells gross, but she doesn’t creep me out anymore.

 

Yes, I used to.

Now - the creepier, the better. Uncanny valley? Sign me up. Haunted? I’ll take two, please (I figure they can keep each other company).

Still can’t get into the extremely gory dolls, though. I’m not referring to the spotted blood or skeleton look - I mean bloody internal organs/missing teeth gore. Can’t do it.

 

I had a few human shaped dolls growing up but most of my dolls were ponies. Most dolls are fine and there is a big difference between not to my taste and never bring that into my home. It tends to be the ones that are made to mimic a baby or small child that fall into the uncanny valley for me. Dolls that are not meant to be a human are almost always fine.

 

Life size dolls are creepy. They've become collectable? A fact that surprises me!
(Ugg, there are some true stories out there, that luckily I never knew as a child!)

I guess I should add that I have an extensive collection of old dolls, bisque and compo mostly. I appreciate that some have been adored and cherished, and some were forgotten and rejected. They all have 'lived' so long! And with my help, they will live much longer than I. When I bring in a new doll, I have a ritual of introduction, to the other girls. Only a few of the big girls make demands. *wink*

And yes, reborns are just gross! Lol.

 

I’ve been a doll lover for my entire life, I can only remember thinking one was creepy. It was a porcelain doll my grandma gave me for Christmas. I had wanted one for so long and she got me one with the most wide eyed stare and wasn’t smiling. I did play with her but she had to go in the closet at night!

otherwise, I loved all types of dolls and finding BJDs was a dream come true since I could have exactly the look I wanted!

 

As a child dolls were just yucky, I preferred animals. My grandmother gave me a reproduction porcelain doll one Christmas, and I was so disappointed. She wasn’t scary, just ugly. I didn’t like dolls until bjds came into my life, and they were the first dolls I would even consider collecting. I still prefer anthros and anime dolls, and have a couple realistic guys.

 

yeah. I had a panic attack at age 12 in a doll museum; there was this creepy antique doll that was nearly as tall as I was and I was convinced it was going to kill me if I walked past it. Barbies, Monster High, and American girl dolls I was fine with, though.

Weirdly enough, I love creepy BJDs. Monster dolls are great! But porcelain dolls, reborns, and antiques? nope nope nope. I really only tend to like dolls that are less than 50 years old for some reason.

I guess I only like *intentionally* creepy dolls-- not dolls that were meant to look cute and... don't.

I totally relate to your point about thrift stores-- it doesn't bother me so much anymore, but I used to leave any doll I bought used outdoors in a shed for a few weeks, until I could 'trust' it. I don't think dolls are alive or anything, and I'm not even particularly superstitious, but for some reason not letting my dolls inside for a bit made me feel better about them I don't think they're haunted, they just give me the creeps immediately after purchase because I don't know where they've been. I need time to warm up to them and get over my mild fears that their contaminated or something lol.

 

I hated any baby dolls as a kid but I liked to collect the “fancy” Barbies. I got the holiday editions for Christmas and I loved my celebrity Barbies like Spice Girls and Britney Spears. I liked glamorous dolls with a focus on fashion. I gravitated towards BJD because of the customization I could do. I could finally shell my D&D characters into a doll that looked exactly like them, right down to the little details. I love to collect clothes for me and my pretty dolls.

 

I grew up with Barbies and other fashion dolls. I had My Little Ponies too. I even did American Girl doll - who I find a little off putting now - but I never found any particular doll creepy.

I think I thought BJDs were creepy at first because all the dolls I used to have had very limited mobility. These dolls can move any which way! But eventually, I found head sculpts I like and now I can't stop haha. I do tend to buy the more stylized elf heads though. The super realistic ones aren't my jam - they're not creepy but are too real to be a doll to me.

I too dislike the Reborn line. No thank you!

 

I once saw a woman with a reborn in a baby carrier walking around Walmart but it turns out it was a real baby. That's when I knew it was too late for me.

That's so funny! I love it!

I always make sure to tell my secondhand dolls how beautiful they are for a few days after getting them. I doubt a haunted doll would cause any harm to someone who loves it. If I were a haunted doll, I would haunt anyone who leaves me in a shed, just sayin.

 

It's a warm, dry, fairly finished (and totally doll-safe; I wouldn't leave doll anywhere they'd get damaged) shed that's probably more organized than my actual designated doll space, so I'm sure if I bought any haunted dolls then they would actually be more upset about being moved from it than being left there for a bit lol. I do like that you tell your dolls they're beautiful, though. that's pretty sweet

 

No, never really felt afraid of dolls or thought they were cl creepy. I didn’t like dolls as a child and Barbie was never a thing for me but, it’s not like I thought they were creepy. I just felt nothing.
There are some sculpt I don’t like at all, but I see them more as “ugly” than “creepy” I guess.

 

I was never scared of dolls, however, I cant have them out when I'm trying to sleep since I don't want to wake up with one of them having moved or something(as in my BJDs, i'm fine with barbies/licca being out), I recently saw some edited video of someone messing with a dollfie's hair and her eye moving. It was freaky lmao.

 

When i was a little girl, my mother gave me her favorite doll from when she was a child. It was cracked all over and then her foot broke. I remember hiding her in my closet because I was afraid of her but didn't want to disappoint my mother. Now the dolls that creep me out the most are the Newborns. When I'm on Instagram, I find that I have to scroll past them really fast! Bjds aren't creepy to me unless they are meant to be creepy but sometimes that's fun!

 

No, I was a doll collector before BJDs and still continue to collect other dolls in tandem. I think I've got just about everything that ticks people's boxes in this thread! Antique bisque dolls. Composition dolls with cloudy eyes and crazing. Blythe. Reborns. Puppets and ventriloquist dummies, several of whom are also clowns. I don't know, I just love them all!

 

I will say - so called "reborns" used to freak me out until my sibling had their first baby (my nephew). I spent hours holding him, just watching him sleep and breathe, marveling at how amazing he was. Just this perfect little person in my arms.
That period when you can just hold them for hours is so brief - maybe a month if you're really lucky.
I can't have kids of my own. I miss that time with him, and thanks to the panorama, I missed almost all of it with my nieces. So now when I see a reborn, I seriously consider getting one. Just so I can relive those brief, magical times with my infant nephew.

 

Porcelain dolls kinda creeped me out.. also realistic new born babies...
I watched the movie Dolls in the 80s. That might have contributed. Love the movie now though.

 

Nah, I've loved dolls since early childhood, and since getting bjds as an adult I've gone back and gotten some childhood OT dolls back. I never really found any dolls unsettling, though i do find certain dolls unappealing (cheap porcelain dolls, reborns, etc) but who am I to judge (I'm huge into raggedy Ann and Andy, dolls a fair few people find creepy).

 

I wouldn't say creepy, but reborn babies are the most unappealing to me of dolls. When I was little I thought that ventriloquist dummies were awful, despite watching tons of horror movies with them too. Now I think they're a little less ugly, and if I come across one I'm strangely attracted to see it close.

 

I definitely don't like the super realistic babies that look very real...and any doll with "blinking eyes" (IE you lay them down and they close) creep me out so bad. Blythe dolls also freak me out a bunch (I used to have a reoccurring dream about one chasing me with a knife)...but Pullips don't bother me xD I guess it just varies on the sort of doll it is. I find the older they are, the more creepy I find them...mostly because I don't know it's history and it could be haunted.

 

I personally don’t find dolls creepy at all. I started out as a Barbie collector and then families and friends gave me a few porcelain dolls. I strayed away from porcelain dolls for a long time now. I still own Barbies but they’re nothing compared to bjds.
On the other hand though, my families thinks my bjds are creepy. They say it seemed as if they’re alive and that they could move at any moment when you stare at them long enough. I’m like I wished they’d move for me so when I take photos of them they can pose by themselves!
Yeah so most of my family avoid my dolls.

 

No, I've liked dolls since I can remember. I'd even take Chucky into my house and take care of him. I do understand how that can feel. I don't feel comfortable around fake flowers, they give me the heebie-jeebie-skin-crawling, something-is-very-wrong discomfort that must be similar or the same to what people that don't like dolls feel.

Edit: When I think hard on it.... emotionally distraught looking child dolls... why do they exist? Who likes that? Just, why?

 

I think some dolls are creepy, but not in a way they cause me discomfort or fear. There are a few dolls (including BJDs) that have been "off" in some way to make me feel a bit disgusted. I'm especially talking about the (I assume) "porny" dolls with twisted faces. Also some with manical smiles look unintentionally creepy.

The only dolls that make me truly feel discomfort are the reborns. They tend to go the uncanny valley where they look realistic enough for my brain to think they are real, but "off" somehow. I always feel like I'm looking at a baby that's died in some horrible way.

I'm attracted to some sad-looking child dolls because they give me the feeling of wanting to pick them up and comfort them! I remember even as a little child picking the saddest looking My Little Pony because I thought it looked lonely and I wanted to make it feel better.

 

The only dolls that creep me out are really old antique dolls and Chucky dolls, because I was traumatized by that movie as a kid. Even now, if I see media of chucky, or something of him out in public, I immediately click/run away.

 

The only dolls I found creepy were the ones that my grandma had. They looked like they were sculpted out of wood, kind of like a puppet.

 

This might probably sound bizarre, but what happened to me was that it went the other way around.
I've never been in contact with large sized dolls as an adult. My only doll exposure up until I got my first BJD was Barbies and Bratz when I was a kid. Needless to say, I was shocked. By the size, by the way it looked when I put the eyes in. Weirdly, it didn't make me love BJDs any less in pictures and I still had grail dolls, but the reality was that seeing my doll sitting on a shelf, staring at me, was giving me heebie jeebies. I know it sound ridiculous and I'm getting second hand embarrassment from just having to type it out.

I've decided to switch to smaller, MSD sized dolls since then. They don't "creep" me out as much, but that uneasy feeling is still there. It's so weird cause I love BJDs and even want to go back to SD size again because some sculpts hold a really special place in my heart.

 

I can't say I was every really afraid any particular dolls as a kid, or find any particularly creepy. I did have a phobia about being stared at back then, but that went for anything with a pair of eyes aimed my way—posters, magazine photos, my little ponies, dolls, etc. My sister and cousin's baby dolls squicked me a bit, but more in an irritable way than fear.

Granted—reborn can be off-putting, and I'm not too particularly fond of a lot of baby and child-like dolls—especially infants and toddler ones with what I call mumps cheeks. Something about them makes me think they look ill.

Gore doesn't really bother me for the most part (although those Dollzone dolls with the exposed spines really bother me for some reason), but dolls with distorted facial expressions (specifically ones that look like they're being assaulted in a very unpleasant fashion) extremely unnerve me. Same goes for those gaunt faced, practically skeletal Popovy/Pasha-Pasha type dolls. I have to scroll by them very quickly to avoid being completely unnerved by them.

Outside that though...most don't bother me. I wasn't a big doll fan as a kid, and hated Barbie with a passion, but beyond that—nothing notable.

 

Yes!! I found them very creepy! I remember being in first grade, sleeping over at a friends house. convinced that the porcelain dolls eyes were following us haha. I love dolls now but in the same way I used to love Barbie. They aren't the same to me.

 

It was kind of hit or miss with antique or antique-styled porcelain dolls. I think the main deciding factor was the more mature/grown-up the doll looked the less creepy I found it? And younger/baby porcelain dolls were more creepy? I dunno, it wasn't a hard-and-fast rule, some adult dolls were creepy and some little kid dolls were cute.

Clowns. Clown dolls are just no. The only type I might be able to tolerate is the more elegant French/mime style, and even that's a BIG maybe.

I don't do horror, then or now, so no gore, and limited monster tolerance.

Basically the rule of thumb is "Could this doll potentially give me a nightmare? Yes? Then GETITAWAYFROMME!!!! No? I could be persuaded."

 

There are some dolls that I don't find appealing, or that yea - slightly - creep me out. Reborn dolls and some weird smiling sculpts in particular. But generally I've never been weirded out by 98% of dolls, and some part of me suspects that the 'omg dolls are soooo creepy' thing is at least partly just circlejerking.

 

I have always loved barbies and Bratz dolls ever since I was little but the monster high ones were my favorite. the only time i was ever "scared" of a doll was when I lost my draculaura doll's arm and I thought somehow the doll was mad at me for that.

 

I actually really love "creepy dolls" haha but BJD hit a bit differently. Even with a purposefully "creepy" sculpt or aim, they are usually very artistic and beautiful to me. Despite my love of horror, vintage and old vinyl baby dolls creep me out still. They are just wildly unappealing to me but no hate to anyone who loves them though. They are their own art form and fun : )

 

I can vaguely remember being mildly creeped out by BJDs when I first saw them, but now I'm so used to them that I actually forget that a lot of people are disturbed by them. I just see them as art now, but there are a few that I think I would be at least a little unsettled by if I saw them in person / had them in my room at night. I do feel a little anxiety sometimes if I feel like something (not dolls specifically) is watching me, but I haven't felt that way about my 3D printed doll or my Monster High dolls-- I have yet to receive my first resin BJD though, so I might feel differently when she gets here.

 

Porcelain dolls scare me, as do composition dolls. Some BJDs freak me out but dolls themselves don't as a general rule.

 

Only clown dolls.

 

Overall, not really but I do admit that some of the more "toothy grin" dolls freak me out. Reborn baby dolls freak me out in the way that they're TOO realistic and there's something always unsettling to me about seeing someone unbox a doll that looks like a living, breathing baby. I understand and respect the people who collect them but for me personally, they freak me out more than they probably should

The toothy grin ones, like Angel of Dream's Mu Yanzi, make me nervous because it looks like it's plotting...and not in a cute way