How did you discover bjds?

I found the hobby by randomly searching for a figure set related by my favorite band at the time. I still remember the first gorgeous bjd I saw. After that I was intrigued and started doing research and the rest is history.
Now stuck in a loop looking for my grail lol
I've left other hobbys but always come back to bed.

 

Someone on a forum I frequented posted a link to Soom. I loved the pictures but I couldn’t fathom spending that much money on something I didn’t understand very well. To be honest, I thought it would just end up in a closet because of uncanny valley.

Years and years later, I saw a doll I couldn’t resist and finally bought one. My uncanny valley fears went out the window.

 

I saw a BJD for the first time at a street festival, in a booth with various types of Japanese dolls. At the time I had no idea what I was looking at but I was fascinated by it. The owner of the booth only told me it was a "resin doll". Some time later I saw photos of someone's BJD on DeviantArt and was like "it's one of those resin dolls!!"
So, my initial knowledge on BJDs came from stalking somebody's DA gallery
I bought the book Ball-Jointed Dolls for Beginners (I highly recommend) and researched the hobby more, and got my first doll in 2015!

 

I came across a photo on Pinterest by @MB Lilac which led me to her website. Her wonderful dolls, costumes and stories totally captivated me and the rest as the saying goes "is history". Now 20 dolls later with three more on order, I am forever grateful for the happy chance of running across that first photo .

 

I was really into fashion dolls and OOAK male dolls. Random searches on eBay led me to a Volks Neo Go Guy, which lead me to the Volks website and I fell in love! But there wasn’t much info online at the time (around 2001, probably?) and I was a broke college student. I waited a few years, got an Obitsu 1/6 guy and finally took the dive into resin in 2008. I still have my first doll!

 

Dollfies, years ago. I admired them but they were waaay past anything I could afford, so I kind of forgot about them for ages. Then I saw pictures online of Nobledolls Raspberry like 2 years ago, and was reminded that these kinds of dolls existed. I started looking more into them, and the rest is history. xD

I really got into BJDs at a perfect time, too, since it seems the style of dolls I really love are more popular and available now than they ever were before.

 

The BBC series 'Japanorama' that aired on BBC Three, around 2006 there was an episode that featured a segment on Super Dollfie, Dolpa and the Volks Headquarters. I thought it all looked a bit weird at the time. But that stuck in my mind.

 

I was really into anime as a teen and one day I came across those Black Butler BJDs that IOS did and thought they were stunning. Obviously the price put me off though.
I ended up watching face up and unboxing videos on YouTube though and eventually started saving up.

 

Sometime mid-2005, trawling ebay for Japanese gofun dolls, I ran into both vinyl and resin Volks dolls for sale. At first I wasn't that interested, especially at those prices, but I did end up with a handful of 1/6 Obitsus over the next year. Little did I know what that would lead to.

 

I always have loved dolls. As a kid, my sister and I both loved all kinds but our favorite were Bratz dolls. After Bratz stopped being sold, we had to go back to regular old barbie. At the time we had also just been discovering the internet and one of the things we discovered was anime. I remember loving it. I don't remember how, but one day I saw a video of this beautiful doll. I remember telling my sister "they're beautiful they look just like anime girls, they have robot eyes!" The doll was a Pullip doll. From there I started looking at them. My first pullip was Souseiseki from Rozen Maiden. They made the whole main cast and me and my sister became smitten with them. We loved the anime. After a while our dolls had gotten old, and we had seen online that some people were starting to customize their pullip dolls with new faces, new wigs, and most importantly, new bodies, which finally led us to discovering Obitsu. Just kept evolving from there. From then on it was a literal dream to own a real, resin bjd, but I couldn't get one because I was just a child.

 

I have been collecting and sewing for dolls since I was a kid. As an adult my collection has grown and also changed with time, finances and what has become available with the Internet. I do not and never have liked baby or toddler dolls or enjoyed sewing for adult female bodies, those pesky darts... Adding resin BJD’s was a normal progression in my collecting life.

 

I saw one as Daily Deviation on Deviantart back then!
It was a Migidoll Ryu, namely hiritai's Hayden.
He was crazily popular back then, and I immediately fell in love too.

Found out a friend of mine actually just had started collecting these dolls too and after some humming and hawwing I made the jump.
That was in 2008

 

I started watching monster high doll repaints and got into that. Then the suggested videos were bjd faceups. I got really into the idea of BJDs and was sold when I saw full body dolls and box openings and pose reviews. I couldn't resist and loved the idea of being able to shell some of my characters and I also enjoyed the creative side of it.

 

I saw some on DeviantArt at some point, probably on the front page, and thought "Oh, that's cool." and then promptly ignored them XD A few years later, I thought "Hey, what were those doll things again?" and promptly fell deep down the rabbit hole!

 

I always love hearing how many others got into the hobby from Rozen Maiden lol. I was really into it a kid and I was either just looking up pics of fanart and general stuff on google images, or specifically looking to see if there were any actual dolls made based on the series and, well, the rest is history, I got super super into it and would spend hours looking at stuff on deviantart and blogs and such about them... I didn't join DoA until a couple years later after I'd gotten my first BJD of my own because I was scared of joining the community without owning a doll first haha.

 

Back in my teen years I was browsing japanese fansites, one of them led to a page with galleries of these beatiful dolls. I later found out they were Volks dolls. It wouldn't be for a few more years before I actually got into the hobby. XD

 

When I was at an anime convention in Ohio I was really into Lolita Fashion. I couldn't wear it (not my style) but I always admired those who did wear the fashion. I ran into a con-goer (her username on DoA is BlackRose) who was holding a doll with the same outfit as her. I thought it was a mini fashion doll, she explained it was a BJD then just hit me with so much information that I ended up getting more confused than clarification. Then she pointed me to this forum, that evening I joined this site and the rest is history.

 

I saw my boyfriend skyping with his friend and he had a bjd on his desk. At first I thought it was odd but two years later and I’m in deep.

 

I've been a regular at anime conventions for a long time, and there's a decent presence of BJDs at cons (even moreso back when I was getting started). The style I saw the most was the "frilly lolita," which wasn't my thing, and I initially mistook them for something along the lines of limited Barbies or porcelain dolls--a set that came fully dressed and styled out of the box and ready to go. My roommate at the time mis-identified them as the small OT Volks dolls, which exposed me to the idea of "blank customizable dolls," which was much more what I was interested in, but the style of the Volks dolls didn't really float my boat. It wasn't until my next roommate (who was smarter than the previous one and willing to dig deeper) that I really found out about strung, resin, blank and made to customize ball jointed dolls from a range of companies and in a range of styles, which finally appealed enough for me to dip my toes into the hobby.

 

Mainly through my love for other dolls and browsing the internet hours upon hours learning more about them lol.

It first started with an interest in antique bisque and porcelain dolls which then turned into an interest in various art dolls such as work by Yotsuya Simon, Etsuko Miura, Hans Bellmer, etc. One thing led to another and I stumbled upon Volks dolls and fell in love with their first sculpt. Years later I am finally able to buy it!

 

I discovered bjds through Marina Bychkova's Enchanted Doll work. I was fascinated by the idea of the joints (I had one favorite Barbie-style doll as a child and it was a Mulan doll with jointed knees and elbows - unprecedented mobility for Barbies at the time lol), and the intensely intricate work she did with the costuming and accessories impressed me and seemed like something I would enjoy doing. At first I just admired her work from afar, but eventually it occurred to me to look for other bjd-makers, and that led to DOA and that led to me exploring what feels like every single page and post ever created here!

Fast-forward a few years and I now have a wide range of knowledge on types of bjds, sizes, faceups, etc. I have been able to purchase several beautiful dolls and really get a better grasp of how they work. However, I have since sold most of them (I have a few more heads and a body to sell in the future) because I have also discovered that I am extremely picky and will probably have to sculpt my own dolls to get that feeling of meaningfulness and creativity that I think I'm looking for in them.

 

It was Rozen Maiden for me too. I wanted the Suigintou dollfie when it came out, but couldn't afford it, and the price has only gone up since then...

Anyways, I was recently able to buy my first doll after meaning to for a long time. I probably would've gotten one sooner if not for things like college, and cars breaking down and so on.

 

Earlier this year, I became interested in dollmaking, specifically ooak polymer clay dolls. As I searched for tutorials on sculpting, painting, and sewing clothes for dolls, I came across some BJD content on Pinterest and YouTube. At first, it was just a source of education and inspiration for my dollmaking attempts, and I did not have any interest in purchasing dolls like that for myself, no matter how beautiful they were.

Many months later, I finally went onto Alice's Collections and started browsing, "just for fun"... and I fell in love at first sight with DZ Licht. I mulled it over for about a month, and I was still desperately in love. I went ahead and made the purchase, thinking it was a one-time thing. That has proven not to be the case, as I have since ordered two more dolls

 

In the mid-2000's, I browsed a lot of Japanese websites run by collectors of Takara Jenny and friend dolls (which I still collect). One of the collectors also had (what I now know were) Volks MSDs and SDs in their collection and had wonderful photos on their website. I was pretty smitten by how beautiful they looked but I didn't really know what they were until a few years later when a school friend told me that they were ball jointed dolls!

 

Around 2010, I was searching for some anime figurine google and came across Ivan from Dream of Doll while randomly clicking the image. I was amazed on how beautiful he is and questioned if it's new style of nendoroid, and from which anime lol

 

It was so long ago!

I can't remember what I was searching for, probably something related to whatever manga/anime I was interested in at the time. Then I came across an image of a Volks Super Dollfie Isao Nanjou and was intrigued by the idea that there are male anime-style dolls! It was the fact that there were pretty male dolls that you could customize that really drew me in, as I'm not too interested in female dolls.

Volks SDs were way above my budget though... then I discovered Dream of Doll which was really popular back then. I eventually found the local BJD community and got a second-hand DOC Hoo as my first doll (mostly because I didn't have a credit card, and was new to online shopping in general so preordering something so pricy from overseas intimidated me, and didn't want to wait at least 5-6 months for a new doll which was the minimum waiting time).

 

I remember seeing Blythe dolls all over tumblr several years ago and being jealous and wanting one. But then I forgot about it. Recently, social distancing has made me get back into crafting and I wanted a pose-able doll to make all the historical outfits I can’t practically wear everyday, so I started looking. First into Barbies and deciding that wasn’t going to be enough. Google suggested Ball Joint Dolls as articulated and I fell into a rabbit hole of research. Now I have all these grand plans for outfits and what dolls I want to get after my first one comes. I’m up to planning for three additional dolls I think.

 

In the Netherlands we have an anime magazine which, back in Dec 2006, did an article on Asian Ball Jointed Dolls. I absolutely loved seeing the dolls (mostly Volks at that time) and started saving up for one of my own. I stuck downloaded pictures in my notebooks at school to help me find out what kind of doll I wanted. (I was absolutely in love with Dream of Doll omg) I discovered this forum, found a local dealer that had Dollzone (Volks was literally impossible to get unless you went to Japan, and for Dream of Doll I was too chicken to order internationally), and soon bought my very first YoSD, a DZ BB Jing.

From there it went pretty fast. Two MSD's joined, I discovered that SD was not my thing until somewhere in 2010, then switched mostly to SD. Discovered LDOLL because I used to help the dealer at conventions. Then in 2016 I got my first Dollfie, in 2017 I discovered Smartdoll and almost fully switched to Vinyl. I sold almost all my resin, I only have two Littlefees, an artistdoll and a dragon from Aileendoll left.

 

I went to meet a group of friends at our usual weekend haunt at a Japanese shopping centre. One of them brought her newly arrived Dream of Doll Bee-A and I fell SO HARD. I had never seen anything more beautiful and I went home that evening and obsessed over the DOD website and found and joined DOA This was in 2005 and I got my first doll, a DOC Hoo awhile later. The rest is history~ I still have my Hoo till this day!

 

I began collecting action figures and when the hobbit films came out, I tried searching for a decent figure of Thranduil. I couldn’t find one anywhere, so in 2015 I went on Etsy to see if there were any handmade ones, and found the Modoll head sculpt. I bought one without much thought, and when he arrived was surprised at how huge he was, but also really impressed with the quality. I bought him with a Modoll face up, although most of my dolls since have been blank. I then randomly went searching for a body, having never really heard about BJDs, and ended up buying a 72cm T&D body. He’s still among my tallest dolls.

Now I’m up to 28/29 dolls (including orders I’m awaiting)!. So yeah, this got out of hand fast.

 

At least fifteen years ago, Time magazine had a one or two sentence blurb on BJDs. I did an internet search, got hit HARD with the uncanny valley, and lost interest until a friend mentioned sewing clothes for them. I now have a healthy collection.

 

My dad showed me a page in a magazine (maybe the Time article? I don’t remember anymore) and said “look! isn’t this that anime stuff you like?”

It was a picture of SDC Kaede and I fell head over heels in love with her. I started researching dollfie and that was that; I was hooked.

And now, about 15 years later, I finally have the doll that started it all for me!

 

I'm not very sure, how my primary BJD interest and discovery started. It seems so long ago... But I'll try to remember...
Maniy years ago there were some different cool Japan and Asia lifestyle magazines published in Germany, where I've first read about BJD. Every now and then I've searched the internet for more informations on them. Because I've liked their appearance a lot. And I've quite often stumbled across some beautiful BJD pictures at DeviantArt.
Back then I've found a BJD dealer in Germany, where I've fallen in love with a DollZone sculpt. And this BJD started it all to get my attention even more. Some German BJD forums I did discover, too.

 

I've been collecting "children's" dolls (mostly German dolls, artist dolls) but I wanted to find out what kind of collectible dolls there were out there that looked more adult. Eventually I discovered BJDs.

 

It was long time ago. I believe it’s back to 2003-2004. I first saw BJDs in a Chinese magazine and there was an article introduced about this new hobby. Lol.

I kinda liked the old F-28, but I didn’t know how to buy one and don’t have any money at the moment. I did searched online, and found a BBS called Dollsky.

But I was unable to register and I didn’t find any other useful info. Then I gave up and never thought that I would own 20+ BJDs someday.

There were a few years that I didn’t look into any BJDs info. Around 2007, one of my classmate she mentioned that she wanted to have a BJD. And I decided to have one too.

We started doing research together and brought the first BJD together. My first BJD was one ¼ boy from DollZone. I discovered that I love 1/3 more after I got my first Lance. Lance is perfect to me and I totally felt in love with this sculpt.

Then I started building my Lance&Sevy family. Lol.

 

On Deviantart! A girl I followed got one and started posting all sorts of pictures of hers. He was a Dollzone something...Yi, maybe? MSD sized. I can't remember but he looked cool and here I am.

 

I discovered BJDs quite by accident! I was on DeviantArt and saw something called "Dollie Darlings", which led me to researching BJDs (first with a lot of skepticism), and then I found Ren, the Dream Valley Karasu doll, and a new obsession--er, hobby--was born.

 

I've been collecting fashion dolls for a while now and many years ago I used to have a blog about them. I started following other collector's blogs on the same platform and one day I stumbled upon a blog about BJD hobby. The owner had many Volks dolls and the first doll I saw was her Masha. I was curious so I started researching more about the hobby (it helped that her blog had quite detailed description of Volks and BJD in general) and I was mesmerized. The dolls were beautiful. I loved the idea of being able to customize them and completely change them with outfits and wigs. Now I own a few myself and I couldn't be happier that I discovered them!

 

This is exactly my own story! It feels like so long ago, doesn’t it? I’m so glad that the Daily Deviation showed me BJDs back in the day.

 

I think it was arround 2004 or so when I was in love with Volks Dukan. I really liked the one with white clothes... was love at first sight. I don’t remember very well, but I think I found him while browsing at sculptures and handmade stuff on the internet. My first bjd however was a Volks Ryu I bought years later, when I just moved to Japan 10 or so years ago. Still have him, but I’ll soon give him to a friend who dreams os having a bjd back in my country.

 

Rozen Maidens! I watch the anime and fell in love with dolls, i search and found bjd but its was really expensive then i didnt buy any till years later.

 

I discovered the existence of BJD through a movie called Doll Master. Had the urge to own one but didn't have money for it until nine years later.

 

Seeing dale zentners dollstown girls had me intrigued. I’ve finally managed to save enough for my own dollstown girl.

 

I discovered BJDs when I saw a group of people with them at a local cherry blossom festival, around ten years ago. I was immediately interested in the hobby, and was able to purchase a preowned doll shortly after, but have only gotten back into it this year, thanks to some of my friends being interested in doll customizing.

 

I discovered BJDs through a YouTube video about Blythe dolls when I was 12! I then discovered Fairyland, then LaTi Doll, Luts, Soom, and more. I'm 23 now and own over eight BJDs

 

Exact same story here. Suiseiseki and her saying "desu!" was an early meme on a certain peach colored website. I thought the character was very cutely designed so I watched the anime. This was like 10 years ago! I never thought I'd buy an actual BJD, but I'm saving up now.

 

I've always like posing things and photographing them. Toys were easiest because I didn't need to ask anyone to be still lmao
Some how I ended up on the Fairyland website as a young teen and when I got to college I finally purchased my first doll!

 

My mom showed me plastic BJDs and introduced me to the idea of sculpting dolls. From there I started looking more at dolls. I'd always been interested but this really sparked my interest as an artist and as someone who just has always loved dolls.

 

I was 19 at the time. I had already seen some pictures of BJDs online, but I didn't know the name of these dolls (BJD), and I saw them so pretty I thought they would be something exclusive to Japan or something and totally out of my budget xD

Then, I went once to a anime event and I saw a girl carrying one, so I got all pumped up and asked her and she was on a local group who would meet for making doll stuff and pictures and having fun with dolls in general, and coincidentally the founder of the group was there so she gave me her number to join if I wanted. I went to one of their meetings and saw a Minifee Niella fullset among other dolls and was mesmerized. I started customizing kid's dolls until I got my first BJD, and the more time I spend on this hobbie the more I love BJD and art dolls

I was so lucky to meet these girls on that event!

 

It was in 2004, I was searching anime-related-things in Google and for some reason Dream Of Doll Leya showed up... I fell in love, hahaha. Found the website but when I saw the pricesI knew I couldn't afford them (I was just a teenager), so I forgot about that.
A few years later, a friend discovered them in DeviantArt and showed them to me (more Dream Of Doll BJDs) and I decided to made some research. I learned as much as I could regarding BJDs, joined forums, etc. It was until 2010 that my first BJD arrived.

 

Bit different way perhaps, i had collected a few 1/6 figures (hot toys, bit like high-end action figures) and at some point i tried to make my own. I got pretty far in that project but i kept having problems with the joints (i used friction based joints like most toys have). After lots of trying i decided to pull a string through the center of some of these joints to pull the parts together to make them tighter. When i posted about this someone mentioned BJD's. Wow that was quite the eyeopener!

 

Found BJDs through Geekisthecolour's DeviantArt (back then she was known as Dieux-Faux). Honestly, not sure how her page got referred to me but I saw her photos and I liked them!
Always admired how beautiful the dolls were and how lifelike people could make them look in photos.
Later joined Instagram and became very interested in peoples BJD photos and stories: in particular I like n47s, lpslck, propertyoftheuchiha, and nixdepano.
The part that really stuck for me was the character building people did with their dolls

 

So back in high school, I had this whole fantasy world built in my head. One those escapism places you go when you're stressed out. Eventually I wanted a doll of the MC, so I looked up customizable anime dolls hoping to build her. Volks was the first thing that came up.

I loved it, but of course they were expensive for a highschooler with no job. It wasn't until recently that I could put in for my first doll. Gaia from Gem of Doll. Still waiting for her.

 

I saw some random bjd photos in google in 2010. Can't remember how I found them at all, but they were gorgeous. And so the wonderful journey began :-)

 

I can not really remember exactly but I think it was probably on Etsy as I did a daily browse. Probably sonething to do with dollhouses. I loved the doll I saw and even messaged the maker but it was just too expensive for me at the time. And then I didn't think much about them until I was on another forum (non doll related) and someone posted a picture of their new purchase.
I again really liked it so I did some research.
Now years later I realise that it is a hobby I would like to do. I just need to budget well but I am used to that so it's ok.

 

I've always been a doll collector, but I have to blame my subscription to Haute Doll Magazine for my discovery of BJDs.

Back in 2005, they ran a number of articles on BJD companies; Custom House, Volks, Soul Doll, and Dollshe. I was stunned by how beautiful these dolls were. I'd never seen anything like them!

But, it was this Doll Heart ad in the magazine that really cinched it for me! Who was this gorgeous boy? And, who was making custom, uber-cool clothing for him? I was totally hooked! From that moment on, I was on a mission to find out about these dolls and acquire one. And, believe me, the internet was not as user-friendly 15 years ago as it is today. But, I finally got my first boy, a Doll in Mind (DIM) Persia.

(I still have my Persia! He turned 14 years old in March! *throws confetti*)

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Here's the old ad that captured my imagination:

CP/Luts Chiwoo in 2005 Doll Heart Ad in Haute Doll Magazine


(P.S. I finally got a CP/Luts Chiwoo in 2009. )