How did you discover bjds?

Nicoles dreams faceup stories.

 

A friend of mine found them on accident while looking up antique bisque dolls (I think for a school paper?), and then they showed them to me. Looking back I now know that what we'd found was a doll eye website (either a custom shop or some kind of gallery), but I became mildly obsessed and had to find out what they were.

 

I'm honestly not sure, this was over 15 years ago. Somebody probably posted a picture on Livejournal or a forum, and I had to learn more. Knowing me, it's also very possible that I was researching an anime on Google and came across a BJD altered to look like a certain character.

 

Stumbling down a Flickr rabbit hole about Lego. Someone had pics of a bjd or had favourited some pics of a bjd and I was like

 

Hmm, it's a little bit hard to remember now since it was when I was in middle school ^^', I think I had found dollfie dreams via my anime phase in middle school (I pined over pictures of someone's custom miku foreeeever!)
Eventually I started seeing resin bjds more and the overall style and aesthetic grew on me, and the rest is history.

 

Dollightful, actually. I'm not really sure HOW I didn't know about BJDs before she did that unboxing video of MYOU's Verna

 

I found them when I joined Deviantart and just fell in love. This was the first sculpt I ever wanted
Dark Moon by Reizie on DeviantArt
and here's another boy I absolutely love (to look at)
Attitude by SoftPoison on DeviantArt
Aaaaand one more
I want Candy by SoftPoison on DeviantArt

I didn't start buying my own till last year though

 

I discovered BJDs when I was about 13, when I discovered Emilie Autumn. I was looking on DeviantArt at wingdthing’s(once upon a time a porcelain/mixed medium artist) art, and someone compared them to the artist and the BJDs. I got curious, and was obsessed right away
My other exposure to them was finding Chobits-related content, around the same time as the other scenario, and stumbled upon the SD Chi. She is still tippy top of my tier list of grail dolls.

 

I saw pictures of them posted to Tumblr. Not sure how they escaped containment because I mostly followed people that posted memes and such back in the day... but I didn't think much of them until I encountered them again through fashion doll YouTube! I was so intrigued by how different they were from what I was used to - how detailed, how articulated!

 

Instagram! I started seeing them on my timeline and made an account just to look at bjd, then I finally got my own doll and the rest is history.

 

Huh, I don't even remember how they first came into my sight. I think an anime-related character search brought up bjd photos too and I got interested. Then a friend of mine started to dig deeper into the topic and we started a bjd blog on LiveJournal together. And in about half a year the first doll arrived, then the second and the rest is history. :-)

 

I randomly came across soom's instagram account on my explore page. If I'm remembering correctly, I think it might've been a post about their Grey & Ace little gem that I instantly fell in love with! (the red hair, the ears ahhh so cute!!) For a while I was dead set on buying a little gem (I almost bought the Hya & Ralis) but then soon found other companies I love such as mystic kids and doll leaves that are less than half of the price.The gems are gorgeous but so expensive (

 

I saw a BJD in a comic convention once, I thought it was really pretty but I didn't want to know more.
A couple of years later, among my classmates in highschool was this girl I became friends with and, the first time I went to her house, I learnt that she had a few fairyland dolls. I recognized the same features and she was the one who taught me about different companies and the sizes and everything.

 

One of my favorite writers published a book, which most pages are photos of her dolls and dialogue and stories she wrote for them, when I was about 10 years old. How could a child resist a fancy kingdom with beautiful creatures At least I can't

 

Honestly just playing around on Instagram. I follow a lot of fashion accounts so i guess it's not far stretched that bjd fashion came up. The dolls were just so cute i kept coming back to look at more

 

Dating myself here, but I was really into 1/6 Volks Dollfies around 2002-2004. I was so inspired by a blog called Milkshake Melody. I knew that Super Dollfies existed from browsing Volks’ website, but nothing really caught my eye until I saw MM’s Unoss Aika. She was the first BJD that I thought looked mature, and I eventually found my way to DOA.

 

As a teenager, probably some pretty photos on Tumblr. As an adult, rediscovered through doll customizing videos on YouTube!

 

when i was around 8 i found videos of pullip dolls, wanted one so badly and my obsession lasted for years. they led me to discovering BJDs when i was around 10, and i have been obsessed with them ever since as well! could watch unboxing vids for hourssss XD

 

I started doll collecting with Monster High because my younger sister and her friends were collecting and customizing them and that seemed like so much fun so I joined in on the fun.

Then I came across Pullip dolls in some doll blogs and absolutely disliked them at first but found myself looking at them everyday so I started collecting Pullips. During my pullip collecting a friend of my sisters showed me bjds on a site called mint on card and I thought they were cool but way too expensive, so I just stuck with pullips.

I used to have a doll blog with my sister and her friends, and when the blog world kind of died due to people losing interest and Instagram coming along, I eventually bit the bullet and made an IG account for myself. Dxgirly liked one of my pullip pictures and I adored her pullip videos and photos.

Then life stuff happened and I stopped the hobby and sold most of my dolls.

Several years later I came back to the hobby and saw Dxgirlys bjd's and fell in love with her minifee army! I then slowly started to look more into them and here I am now, slowly but steadily expanding my collection

 

I saw them for the first time on fotolog in a profile of a girl from spain and it was a dollzone migi that I saw for the first time but I had no idea what it was, the names of those dolls or anything else.

 

Everyone has such diverse experiences. This is fun to read.
I may have answered this question in a different thread, but I will elaborate a little more and give the long version .

I've always collected dolls of some sort. In the 80s and 90s I was really into Barbies and also dollhouse miniatures. Due to circumstances I won't go into here, everything I owned was stolen in 2008. For a couple of years I was so devastated that I didn't want to even look at dolls. But in 2011 I moved to a different town to get a fresh start..
I was into playing The Sims computer game, and became active on the forums. A woman I became friends with who lived in Brazil, was very talented at creating custom skins for her sims characters in the game. Her characters had joints painted on them to look like some sort of dolls. She explained that they were based on ball jointed dolls. She couldn't afford to buy a real bjd so she created them in her game.
Others joined the discussion about BJDs. Several people posted photos of their actual dolls. I was drawn to the cute YOSD dolls from 5 Star Doll. Amy and Tong Tong in particular. I had some money to spend, and so I visited 5 Star Doll, intending to buy Amy. Well, it happened to be during their 2011 Summer Event. I saw my first SD, Tumnus, and fell in love. I ended up getting Tumnus, Rex, and an unpainted Edmund head as my gift with purchase. So instead of one small doll, I ended up with two dolls and a head. I never did get Amy or Tong Tong.

By the way, Edmund remained a floating head until just a couple of years ago. I finally got him painted and a body. 5 Star Dolls are still my favorites. I ended up owning a total of 6 over the years (sold 2).

 

God I don't really even remember the exact circumstances but when i was like 11 I was really into Pullip dolls, and had managed to convince my grandmother into buying me one. I would watch pullip youtube videos all the time and then I somehow stumbled onto videos about BJDs, I became obsessed. I didn't really understand how to get one or what they really even were but I just knew I wanted one. I would periodically return back to them over the years but I only dived in this past year. 11 year old me would have the time of his life if he could see me now lol.

 

I'm the same as @Yakutie lol my obsession started with pullips as well!

 

I attended a lecture on BJDs at a local general doll club and was instantly hooked! Prior to that, I’d always loved dolls but was constantly flitting from one kind of doll to the next, never really settling on collecting any of them for the long run. After that lecture, I came home and joined DoA immediately (the website was suggested by the speaker) and the rest was, as they say, history. BJDs turned out to be the perfect muses for all my creative art forms and collecting needs, and I’ve been happily building my collection ever since.

 

My friend was talking about it when I was back in college. I thought they were very cute but I couldn't afford it since I didn't have any job. Next years I searched about them again and thought that since I was working and earning money, I wanted to try this hobby and got my first doll

 

I was doing a search on google for some images of my fave anime at the time, Junjou Romantica. And guess what!? Appear a photo of a Iplehouse Chase dressed as Usami Akihiko/Usagi San. So i start look with some friends to know more about the doll,they invite me to a bjd group of facebook, in there i learn more what a bjd is. And they also told me about this forum. Well, i don´t have my Chase yet, but i got equally gorgeous dolls. And that is my story.

 

I came across them when I was on YouTube. It was partially due to Lolita fashion and pullip dolls but also when I only had monster high dolls. Everything about them drew me in and all I wanted was to know more about them.

 

My roommate (at the time) was the one who got me into them and I think it was from getting into lolita fashion. I think. She purchased a BJD and got me one as well (which was extremely kind of her). I haven't really done much with mine since I moved away since I've been busy with work, but I'm hoping to get back into the hobby.

 

YouTube videos was the first thing I was able to see them on while looking at pullip and monster high dolls. Once finding them I deep dived and tried to learn as much as I can. So happy I found the hobby

 

I found this hobby because of my google . I was searching for dolls and then I saw bjd . And I was like what is this ??? Here in Greece we do not have a company who makes this kind of dolls . So I got excited and started buying . My first one was a vinyl doll which I did not like at all so I sold it instantly . The second one was resin and was minifee ingrid fullset . I got in love and after I started buying everything from fairyland

 

I can say that I discovered bjds through Pullip, but can't even recall where in the world I first discovered Pullip (maybe it was during my time collecting G1/G3 MLPs in the early 2000s? Could be I saw them being discussed on MLP Arena at some point while I was still active there *shrugs*).

The way in which it exactly happened I can't say 100%, but I believe I found out about bjds when browsing the old Pullip Style forum while it was still up (and I was semi-active on it). At that point bjds were mostly just a passing thought until I managed to see my first in-person bjd through someone I met on a Pullip forum (who also was into bjds). A short time after I acquired my first (B&G Triya), which led to me creating this DOA account.

That time was short-lived, as I only was actively engaged with Triya for about a year or so before major life changes occurred and she was put into storage for several years. It was while I was still active with Pullip/Taeyang/etc and began developing my own OCs that I started gravitating towards the hobby again.

And here I've been, ever since. I believe that was around 2013/14? It's been several years at least, but I'm not planning to ditch my crew anytime soon

 

They were all over deviantART when I was a kid but the I forgot about them for a little while... rediscovered them from doll repaint vids on yt and pics on pinterest.

 

A friend in the 1/6th community told me about Obitsu (I was looking for better female bodies for my collection), and found The Junkyspot store. Ended up eventually getting an 1/3rd Obitsu and it was all down hill from there.

 

An online friend of mine liked bjds and showed me a website (I'm not sure which, possibly Luts?). I was amazed! Normally I'm not into dolls but these were super cool.

 

I first heard about them when I was in high school because I had a friend who was saving up to buy one and told me about them. I didn't have the money to get into the hobby at the time, but a few years later I stumbled on doll customization videos on Youtube while I was in college. Still couldn't afford one, but I was still super interested in them and kept up with a lot of doll customizers and started looking into different brands/etc. Now I'm at a point where I can actually start collecting and I'm very excited!!!

 

I've always collected designer dolls from Disney when they came out with them so I've always had an interest in dolls and always loved the most fantasy-esk designs that could be made from them. My best friend got into the hobby and I thought it looked interesting, but it wasn't until she got one of her more fantasy themed dolls that I really took an interest! I feel in love with the MiniFee Mio sculpt and have to say it's still by far one of my favorites. I've had a pretty good experience in the hobby and really love doing photoshoots with my dolls whenever I have the time!

 

I first discovered BJDs flipping through a magazine at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in about 2004

 

I used to watch and follow people customize monster highs. After I followed so many people, Instagram in the FYP bjd popped up. After looking more into it, I gave in. And don’t regret it.

 

I actually first heard about BJD's from YouTube. I was probably looking for some other kinds of figures or something; I was big into 1/6 scale figures like Hot Toys, Soldier Story, etc. And all of a sudden I ended duplicate finding a video from the company behind Smart Dolls. It was a fun and quirky! Ever since then I always wanted one. I ended up with a dollfie instead, but similar enough (I'm glad too because I've since heard about how toxic the SmD community can be).

Also. I know technically dolls form Volks and Smart Doll aren't technically strung, but are they still considered BJDs?

 

I saw my friend taking bjd, she made me in deep!

 

I ended up getting into them after reading the Angelic Layer manga. Finding out that there were actual dolls that looked like that was such an exciting thing. They don't move like in the manga, but they aare just as beautiful

 

I also found out from Angelic Layer! I always wished our BJD could do battle. But I was always fascinated with it ever since I was a child and it drew me towards this community.

 

I was young, maybe fourteen or fifteen, and my mom found the Enchanted Doll website and showed them to me. They were so beautiful that I wanted one then and there— of course, those ones are $3k+ and nigh impossible to get, haha. But from then on, I watched the hobby from afar, always wanting one.

 

It was around 2005 or 2006 for me I believe. I had just made a DeviantArt account because I wanted a place to share my art and I also wanted to find other art and artists to follow. One of the artists I ended up following had a collection of BJDs and they often shared photos they took of them. My mind was blown at how amazing they were, at first I didn't even realize they were dolls because they just looked like people in the photos I started researching them after that, but wasn't able to make any purchases because I was still only 15-16 at the time.

 

When I was younger I used to watch let's plays on YouTube a lot and stumbled across a youtuber playing a game called Nameless: The one thing you must recall. The plot was about a girl who collected bjds and they suddenly come to life one day and you get to choose which one she falls in love with lol I believe Crobidoll actually took part in the game and some of the characters were based off of their sculpts. After discovering the game, I took interest in the dolls and started researching them and wanted one ever since. I was too young back then so I couldn't buy one myself but now that I have a job, I was finally able to afford one!

 

Wow, someone else whose first exposure to BJDs was through Nameless! I remember really loving the game and looking up the dolls to see them! I still get happy when I see people sharing pictures of Lance~ (Though my favorite was Yeon-ho and the new Yeon-ha sculpt has been tempting me...)

While Nameless and Crobidoll were my introduction to BJDs, it wasn't until yeeeears later that I gave in and actually got a BJD...because Ringdoll released Xie Lian, and I ended up falling in love with a different doll on the main page!

 

I was searching through dolls on Google Images, and I stumbled across images of full set Soom Idealians. Looking at the price this was a not in my budget. The auction for the full set retired doll was close to $3000, I mean he was beautiful, but for just starting to look into these dolls? No way. While I really hope that Soom eventually re-releases the doll I first saw, so that I can get him at a decent price, I am not going to hold my breath.

It was quite awhile later when I decided to look into the dolls again, and I found Dollzone Carter. I mean he is seriously the cutest! Also the price closer to $200 was far better then $3000. Dollzone Carter will always be a favourite of mine. I always jump for joy when I see other people's Carter's as well.

IMG_8249 by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

 

Was first exposed to bjds on Deviantart back in 2006. There was an artist I followed who began posting her doll, who I believe was a CP Luts boy. I was interested enough that I talked to my mom about learning to sew clothes for dolls, but of course I did not know what to search to find them and even if I had I would not have had the money to buy one.

Then a few years later I discovered that my best friend collected them, lmao. Not only that but one of my other friends had gotten into them, too. At that point I had a part time job that I was able to save up money with, and I bought my first bjd.

 

When I was in middle school, I was looking for Hatsune Miku figures on the internet (I had just gotten into mangas and figures, so I was curious about how much they cost) when I found out about Pullips. A few months after that, I went to a manga convention. There was a booth that was selling Pullips and Pullips accessories. But they also had second hand BJDs for sale. I was super broke and so was my mom. She was ok to but me a figure but no dolls, especially after seeing the prices of those BJDs ( I was about 13 years old, she considered me a bit too young for that kind of expensive dolls). We still asked the person in charge of the booth what those dolls were. I had never seen dolls that big in my life before (I've always liked dolls but was more accustomed to Barbies, antique dolls, and such). They told me they were BJDs (the one I liked was SD sized). When we got home, I started searching for them on the internet, and that's how I got into the hobby But I had to wait until high school to get my first one (present from my mom, a Mirodoll, they were pretty affordable and I didn't want to spend too much into my first doll because I didn't know if I would like "playing" with them or not). I was about 16 or 17 years old at the time. I'm 25 now and still very much into them, I don't regret it !

 

It was around 2009, I was browsing the web as a kid and found a blog post about BJDs. I never knew I'd continue this hobby for more than 10 years!

 

The first time that I came into contact with BJDs was when I saw a doll-making video where someone made this eye-catching doll that looked like fine China (with the blue and gold designs). I forgot all about it until I went to a BJD panel at an anime convention. Seeing so many different dolls that the panelists brought in was breathtaking, and they were so friendly! They encouraged people to hold them, and they were really passionate about the hobby. I've always liked dolls and toys in general, so I knew then that I wanted to find out more. The customization possibilities is one of the things about this community that amazes me.

 

I am going to be honest, I did not read every posting here, but I did think that the way I found BJD's was quite interesting. I was looking at some really pretty photos from some one way back in 2004 or maybe early 2005 on Myspace, and I didn't know that I was looking at a doll. I sent them a quick hello and told them how much I loved their photo of the pretty girl in the big fluffy winter hood, lol they sent me a hello and thank you back and told me the craziest thing !! They said " I will tell my doll you liked her photo". I was confused and asked what they meant by that and they sent me a link to Elfdoll, and I was done for , there she was Soah....I had to have her, and yes I did get her and still to this day find her so lovely

 

Since this was about a decade ago, my memory of the exact circumstances is kind of fuzzy. For the longest time, I thought I had found them by chance in a YouTube video on my recommendations (since I'm a huge anime nerd it wouldn't be unheard of for BJD to get thrown into the mix). But the more I thought about it, I don't think that's correct and I think I finally remember what actually happened. It was through The Sims 2 custom content.

While browsing through the modthesims website, I came across a full sim post/download that was of Dream of Doll Elf Ducan. I believe the post had all of the custom content that was used linked individually such as the skin, eyes, hair, and clothes that were all specifically made to look like a BJD. I downloaded all of it, including the full Ducan sim, and enjoyed making my own BJD sims in create a sim. At the time, I didn't have much knowledge as to what BJDs actually were, but because I liked using the specific custom content and playing as the Ducan sim in the game, I was curious enough to eventually look up "BJD Ducan" or "Ducan BJD" and found the actual BJD the sim was based on along with the Dream of Doll website. I was immediately enamored by these beautiful dolls and sought out more information from there. This was about 2010/2011 and it took about a year to get my first BJD

 

I am into drawing so I was searching for that silly wood doll to practice posing...then on a google search, some other interesting related dolls started to appear andngrab my curiosity. First was the Phicen 1/6 scale with silicone and then, the ball jointed and then, I was looking into bids!

 

This! I was also doing the same, using some cheap wooden posing dolls as a kid, and i saw BJDs and i was like "NO WAY I NEED ONE??" but of course, who could afford one as a kid xD?! But now that im an adult, im S T U C K in deep ;u;!

 

Back in 2014, I got into pullips.. I was 12. I was scrolling through japanese blogs and stumbled upon Pullips, which led me to scroll through Pullip blogs.
And through them, over time, I discovered BJDs, and I got my first BJD in 2016.

 

I actually forgot about how i discovered them, but remembered it seeing the blog post that began all ! I was looking for fan sculptures / figurines of my favorite fictional character and found a post about somebody painting / planning faceups on a shelled bjd of him. I didn't know this kind of doll existed so i was quite curious and excited ! in the end i didn't find much other shells of him and let the thought go. But a few months later seeing a rec post on youtube i remembered that the very little research i had made on bjd was cool and interesting, and i went further into knowing more about it ^^

 

I found out about them through Dollightful when I was in 5th grade! I always loved dolls, but seeing her unbox a Myou doll made me fall in love with the idea of BJDs in particular.

 

I learned about them a few years ago when I played an otome game called Nameless ~The one thing you must recall~. I wasn't at all into dolls when I was a kid, but I found BJDs so pretty

 

Funny really. I was already collecting other dolls and just happened across them while searching.
I oopsied into this whole new world because of it back then. When I found out what companies were ones I stated at constantly I vowed I would own them. Haven't found a few of them because it was before I stumbled OR they just became hard to find. Still not going to stop my hunting.

In fact, since other dolls got me into BJD from a search, I was hugely ecstatic to see something I could finally customize. Then I watched a ton of horror movies with them and I definitely didn't want to go back.