How did you find out about BJD and how did you get the first doll?

I had friends who had some so I got to see them in person. I also saw them at some anime conventions.

My first BJD was second hand. I posted a WTB thread here and the seller reached out to me. These days I still buy second hand but I also buy direct from companies or use dealers to buy from companies for me.

 

It was back in 2013, (I am Belgian so you may not have my references lol) but I was in the pullip world back then (did not own any, but wanted to find as much information as possible about them) and that's when searching fabout them on Skyrock back then (I have no idea if this existed in the US, but it's a blog hosting company), and I found a Minifee Chloe by Saylline, a doll collector who left the hobby now I think, that I fell in love with the hobby. It was precisely on the 13th December 2013 (I even wrote the day down to keep the memory).

In the end, my first BJD was also a Minifee Chloe much later, in 2020, but unfortunately I did not keep her, I was not a fan of the face and tried to remove some details myself and ended up ruining the makeup, and I thought that MSD were too big for me, so she's not in my collection anymore but I am still in love with other collectors' pictures (and the Chloe sculpt still has a special place in my heart)

 

I discovered resin bjds through dollfie dreams, which I initially strongly preferred. They eventually grew on me and I became obsessed.

My first doll was my Island doll Ivy, which I bought new from a dealer. It was a long time before I bought any more, and all but two others have been secondhand. I really like secondhand dolls because I'm less likely to be overly prescious about them.

 

I discovered bjds on Ebay! I'd never seen one before I came across them there listed second hand. I'd always been interested in anthromorphic animal dolls and figurines and I somehow I stumbled across bjds. I was fascinated by their posing abilities! My first ten dolls were all purchased second-hand on Ebay. I still remember how nervous I was when I used PayPal to purchase a doll directly from the maker for the first time as a pre-ordered doll and then I had to wait 4 months for it to arrive!

 

My introduction was by doll customizers on YouTube like Moonlight Jewel and Dollightful! In the same vein, I went down the rabbit hole on reviews for dolls like Rainbow High and a reviewer in passing mentioned that they were similar to Ball Jointed Dolls (how true that was I am not sure.) But them mentioning dolls I had not heard of piqued my interest so I started googling them and found this amazing hobby.
I admired from afar for about a year, saving up for my first doll intended to come from Alice's Collections (Dollzone Little Snow) but chickened out. When that year passed my partner asked me what I wanted for Christmas and my mind kept coming back to Little Snow. I checked ebay and there she was! A_Zuri here on the forums had her up for sale (Cross posted)! And thanks to her we were able to work out a sale and now I have my first ball-jointed doll
Funny how serendipitous it was to hear someone mention BJDs in passing for a review I watched at 1 am haha.

 

I discovered BJDs thanks to DeviantArt back in 2009! I followed someone on there for her little flash game dating sims and she produced a series of "lol so random" visual novel-esque games following her Figmas. At the end of one of them, she showed her Dollfie Dream Sasara, who I thought was the prettiest doll I'd ever seen and that I just had to have one of my own.

I bought my first doll in 2013, a Luts Kid Delf Cherry directly from the company.

 

Way back around the early 2000s, I accidentally found Volks on ebay. I was desperate for some unique dolls that weren't boring playline same-old-stuff (Barbie and other fashion dolls did not have the diversity then as they do now), so I was looking for repaints and reroots and such. After searching "ooak Ken" and "ooak Bratz Boyz" and got very little, I tried "ooak guy doll" and found a Volks Neo Go Guy who was stunning! So started searching more, found the Volks website and their Super Dollfies, and just fell in love. Unfortunately, I was a broke student not even able to afford a place of my own yet, so I had to wait awhile. I kind of put it out of my mind for a few years.

My first gateway doll was a 1/6 Obitsu from Junkyspot, mostly to test out how I felt paying so much for a doll (he was like $50ish, and that was a lot for me at the time!) and how I liked customizing. I got him in 2006. Finally, in 2008 I took the dive and ordered an in stock Angel of Dream Chen from Junkyspot, back when they offered a lot more companies. It was love at first sight. Next week marks 16 years since I ordered him, and I still have him!

 

I can’t say exactly when I heard about bjds but I learned about them when I was starting to get into Lolita fashion back in 2021-2022. I used to collect Monster High and Ever After High dolls when I was younger, but I never really liked the lack of possibility so it wasn’t something I kept up with when the lines ended.

I just ordered my first doll who’s from Telestesia and Dragon through Alice’s collection. He’s the 1/4 boy body with the Mu YunJun head and I’m very excited for him to arrive.

edit: I decided to buy him specifically because I think I’ll like the mature mini size, I didn’t look around for second hand dolls a ton but I didn’t happen to see any.

 

I first saw a BJD at a manga/anime convention in 2010 but I thought it was a figurine if some sort, a very beautiful and big one (it was an SD), but I didn't learn about the customization part of it. A year or so later, one of my high-school friends invited me home and introduced me to the handful of Yo-SDs she had. She explained to me the basics of the customization part and the sizes and gave me a comprehensive list of websites and forums to learn more.
When I finally purchased my first doll (after a lot of research and I even attended a meeting of the local hobbyists), two years later, it was directly from the company.

 

I discovered bjd by coming across Dream of Doll site (yes, I too belong to the ranks of Ducan lovers)! Then I continued to inform myself, discovered Iplehouse as a second brand.
Then den of angels and facebook groups finished informing me, now it's 15 years!
My first bjd was a head, Flowne from Doll In Mind! The next year I also got Laia and Larina heads, also from Doll in Mind, before the manufacturer closed.
They are still bodiless, poor things, not being able to afford to get them one, but now (that I have a job) I am slowly making up for it, so they will get the love they deserve!
The first whole bjd I had (and still have) was Lati Yellow Lea, taken only a few months after starting work.
I'm happy I can finally afford to get the dolls I've dreamed of for years

 

I discovered BJD through a friend who colleted and customized Volks Dollfie, their 12" fashion line, she gave me their website address. I saw a sold-out Shirou Tachibana sales page on there, and thought he was an overpriced 12" Obitsu. After fully researching what type of doll he was, I wanted a giant vampire male one. Long story longer, the first doll of this kind I got was a Volks Dollfie Dream I (1st vers., 2003), I got from a long defunct Volks dealer in Florida. A bit later I got a CP/Luts VDES head sculpt to hybrid on it, directly from Luts. My first non-hybrid-full-resin BJD was a SoulDoll Paris I got as a Christmas gift in 2006.

Old fart Déjà vu feelings... but seriously, when a forum is this "old" and "big," discussion topics all start sounding the same, after a while. There are a few other threads that are still actively going on, on this side of the forum, if you want to read a lot more replies. Most are not that old. (:

What doll got you into the hobby?

How did you discover bjds?

What was the first face mold you fell in love with?

Your first doll

There's probably more loads more on here, but I'm too azy to keep searching right now...DX

 

I got really into collecting vintage dolls (think Effanbee and Madam Alexander from the 70s and 80s) when I was a young teenager -- so, around 2012 or so. Facebook was still pretty popular, so I looked around to join some doll-related Facebook groups to help nourish my new budding hobby, and I found The Junky Spot's Facebook page that way!

It amazed me how beautiful and realistic BJDs were, and I was hooked! I only collect BJDs as an adult. After years of pining, I bought my first BJD secondhand off of Facebook in 2021, a Resinsoul Xun. I have seven BJDs in my collection now!

 

Yes I feel like, in the french-speaking community, there was also this kind of transition from Pullip to BJD (people still collect both, but until around 2012 it was all about Pullips and it's only afterwards that BJDs got more interest from collectors, or at least that's the feeling I had about doll community back then ahah)

 

I came across my first BJDs at Otakon in 2001 and was immediately fascinated. When I found put their cost, I thought I would never own one because I was in high school at the time and spending so much at once mind of blew my brain.

It was year later when I stumbled across the hobby again- I honestly don't remember how. But I was post college, working and saved the funds because I was just a little obsessed with an Iplehouse Carina when she was released. I think I about had an anxiety attack when I first ordered, because she was through their custom doll system and you couldn't do layaway on them!

 

I found out about BJDs back in 2006 through Dream of Doll website. I have no memory of how I came across the site, but it was love at the first side. At the time my English were terrible, so I couldn't really understand what BJD were, I thought they were, like, Barbie sized, made of plastic and had no clue of why they were so expensive.

As my english improved and I found out there was a Brazilian comunnity, I got to understand better what BJDs were and, with the help of a friend, got my first doll in 2012, a DoC U that I ended up selling a couple years later due to his size, I'm more into big SDs.

On a side note, it's funny to think that I met some of the greatest friends I ever had and even my girlfriend in this hobby. I could never imagine that would happen when I first got into that DoD site!

 

I found out about BJDs a long time ago back when I would search random Japanese forums looking for pictures of anime figures and drawings. I'm not sure exactly how that led to me finding BJDs, but I do remember specifically looking at the Luts website and wanting a doll but not being able to afford it as a middle/high schooler.
I ended up buying my first BJD, a Luts Senior Delf Blue, in 2021 once I had my own income and could finally afford one, and I've enjoyed them since!

 

I was always an "anime kid" so I found out about bjd's while searching anime merch on ebay. I ended up stumbling upon a Volks SWD Nana and I just fell in love. I think that was the pivotal moment that changed everything for me as I ended up with my first doll a month later. I purchased a Customhouse Little Junior Zephyrose off ebay and was sold. I have since sold him many years ago but I have been hooked since 2006 (with a minor hiatus) and there has been no going back for me.

 

ModtheSims2 waaaaay back in 2006? Maybe? I was a giant sims nerd and loved mods and CC and I hung out on the forums and there was a conversation about wanting a custom skin with ball joints and then people started talking about the BJDs and sharing pictures. Dream of doll was the first company site I saw and I was ENTHRALLED. But I also couldn't fathom spending that much on a doll - I didn't have a grasp of what these dolls were or why but I WANTED one.

I'd always loved dolls and played with dolls way longer than was "age appropriate" - it's part of why I had the Sims as my parents saw it as a way to get me away from kids toys but have that same kind of play so they got me the Sims 1 and it worked (too well if you'd asked them).

Seeing BJDs turned the doll light back on and I started doing research into the hobby. Got my first doll from Dollga (before it was part of Leekeworld? I never really knew the relationship there but at the time it was separate). And here I am now with a wildly different collection than when I started and even wildly different from when I took my break from the hobby a few years back.

 

I found out about bjds through etsy! I was just browsing through and saw someone selling files I could print. After that things just grew and I even went to resinrose.

For my first doll that I got I 3d printed them. But for the first doll that I bought from someone else it was from resinrose, I bought a doll from denver doll emporium.

 

I honestly think I just randomly came across them. I had known about them for a long time but never had the means of starting to collect them. After several years I finally was in a good enough spot financially and started to look around and research heavily. I found a second hand head I adored and hunted for a body. Finally settled on one from Miracle Doll. I love my hybrid boy. ❤️❤️

 

Years and years ago, likely through some images I saw by being into anime and adjacent hobbies. They captivated me since I already have loved dolls since I was very little...to have something much larger than a regular doll and with customization to boot was a dream. Though I didn't have the funds until much later, around a year or so ago.
I tend to over think things so I already had quite a few dolls chosen from way back when.
My 'first' doll was a ringdoll virgo, however I had ordered ringdoll aries before him. Virgo just happened to get to me sooner since he was in stock.

 

I stumbled across a Soom Gluino Vampire Alchemist in early 2017. I fell in love with this doll only to see his price tag, the fact he was no longer available, and way too pricey on the second hand market, the fact the second hand market concerning him was shady, and the size of this doll was enormous to me. I loved his teeth. I eventually found out about DoA and joined it later that year.

I saw someone's Dollzone Carter on here. He has the most amazing little teeth. He has a really cute face to go with it. He was a much smaller size that was still big to me, and a much more affordable price tag. I ordered my first doll Dollzone Carter from Jeeryama, Dolls Singing/Clover Singing, Christina, off of eBay in December of 2017. It actually took eight months for the doll to get to me, because Dollzone lost my doll, but they found it and he was sent. I did buy other in stock dolls while waiting for his arrival, but still consider him my first doll. He was the one I took the plunge with.

I do have a Soom Gluino now, neither the price or size is intimidating anymore. This is a warning to the new people out there.

 

I first discovered it due to Dream of Doll sculpt pics on the internet. Was early 2000's.

It took me a while to build up both the capital and the courage to purchase a purely aesthetic doll and it was a company: Raccoon doll. I loved the price and the elf sculpt.

 

It was around July of 2007, I had just freshly graduated high school and started college. I ended up visiting an Anime store that was nearby and started working there. This store would have a booth at Anime Expo and various other anime conventions, so I started going with to help. I saw people walking around with BJDs and thought they were amazing, so I inquired about them, found The Junky Spot and boom, August of 2008 I got my first doll lol a DollZone Hid who I still have

 

From Junkyspot... I was there looking at the 1/6th scale Obitsus and found they made bigger one... it was all down hill from there.

 

My friend introduced them to me, first through an what she called an off-topic doll, which meant nothing to me at the time. And then she showed me LUTs and I told her she was insane, but I had a good time looking at the dolls with her while she talked about her plans for her first doll and her grails. I thought they were pretty and interesting but nothing I'd ever get cause why would I spend so much on a DOLL?!

And then she went to a doll meet up and invited me to tag along with her.

And I was in LOVE!!!! I was also drawn to LUTs as it was the company first introduced to me and spent a few years browsing and daydreaming and had basically narrowed it down to the Ani but assumed I'd still never get one cause of the price point and it'd just be a fantasy.

But when my husband and I got engaged, his dad gave us a nice financial gift, which I assumed we'd probably use on the honeymoon or something. But apparently, my husband really wanted a nice high quality lightsaber. So he thought it would only be fair if I got something I really wanted, too. So he turned to me and said: "Hey....you still want that doll?"

Funnily enough, I meant to buy the Ani on the girl body, but I liked the boy Ani's photos way better so, thanks to ADHD, I didn't really notice the listing difference and bought that one. So what I thought would be a girl doll, wound up being a boy for my first! I wasn't too bothered, the head sculpt was the most important part! Icarus arrived at my house on December 12, 2011! Still got my boy, though he's quite yellow due to lots of love and (admittedly) a lack of knowledge on how to properly care for resin at the time (his hands are sooo yellow lol. It's not too bad so long as you don't take off his clothes....) And hubby and I are still happily married so wins all around.

Also, I now have a fairly decent collection of dolls from YoSD to SD so.... yeah, went from 'wow, who would ever get something so expensive' to owning multiple.

 

How did you find out about BJD dolls??
I saw pictures of one on DA back in early 2003 and pictures of Volks Chii on google around the same time. Though I can’t say which was first but Chii was the one that made me want a BJD.

How did you get the first doll? Was she from a company or a second hand?
I used the excuse that these dolls would make good artists tool. Which lead me going and buying obitsu 60 white soft body from parabox and the greatal(so?) head with a costum face up from eBay that actually lead me to the community because the person selling it ran a forum that now no longer exists sadly. So she was both new and second hand at the same time. Still have her and still treasure her 20 years later.

 

Bumped into a random picture of a bjd on a search engine, that was unrelated to dolls. I don't go to conventions or watch anime. I'm not into Lolita fashion or alt lifestyles, nor did I care for dolls. I was just minding my own business. I fell in love instantly. It took me quite some time to find out what they were, but around 2005 I managed to figure it out and 2006 I joined this forum. My bf at the time, thought it was bizarre. It kind of is, but that's allright with me. My husband thinks they are beautiful art, like I do.

 

Me and my sister got WAY into Rozen Maiden and we found ball-joint-dolls while looking for stuff relating to it. Honestly can’t remember much of the plot but I LOVED the dolls

 

I have always loved and been into dolls and collected many types of dolls. And while on the internet one day I came across some super pretty dolls, bjds, and it just went from there, me constantly looking and researching at bjds. Mainly on pinterest then instagram

The one doll that stole my heart at the very beginning and started it all was a noble dolls asella raspberry. I got her from the website/company that was partnered with asella to distribute her dolls.

 

My first encounter with BJDs was around 2013 or early 2014, at a boba shop that has since closed. I was getting drinks with my brother (this was actually my first time trying boba too lol) and while waiting I saw a dolly meet up! There were maybe 4 women with their dolls just chatting. I was super intrigued as I had never seen dolls like this before. Spent the next couple days looking up things like “big dolls” “pretty big dolls” and “anime dolls” until I found Volks. My city actually has a bjd-club on Facebook, I can’t help but wonder what those doll owners are up to and if they were from there.

My first BJD purchase was a DDH-06 Volks head from 2005 in ???2016?, my first doll was Margarita from doll chateau in 2018.

 

My introduction to BJDs was rather odd..... I first found out about them when I was looking for tutorials on wig making when I was trying to customize an OB11 doll, and ended up stumbling on Dollightful, a doll customizer who focuses on playline dolls (Monster High mainly). She did a reviews son a MYou doll as well as a Culur doll that I thought were interesting, but I didn't end up finding "the one" until later. My gateway drug BJD was, for all intents and purposes, Shen Xiaolong, my Dollzone YinLong, as he was my first preorder (I got Occelier, my Shoushou Niko earlier because I got him in stock at BJDivas though, and that was around the time Shen Xiaolong was shipped to me from Dolk).

 

I saw a picture of a Doll Chateau completely out of the blue while browsing artsy Japanese kitbashes on Twitter (I'm into stuff like Kris Kuksi, DC dolls fit right in) and I learned that crazy art dolls exist and you can buy them for relatively affordable prices all things considered.
After about a year I wasn't going to get the thought out of my head so I started lurking and doing research, then a few months later I went straight for a 1/3 from Maskcat's site.
I had considered getting something smaller and cheaper to test the waters but I strongly felt I would have just settled on something that I didn't want as much.
The waiting is the worst. I wasn't prepared for it.

 

I was always into dolls as a kid (Barbies, EAH, Bratz, Polly Pockets, literally them all lol) and I always told everyone that when I grew up I'd collect the "expensive ones" which at the age of 10 was just assuming Gold Label Barbies and above. Then when I was 15 I bought my first expensive doll, an Integrity Toys Poppy Parker Floating Dream Fashion Teen (what a mouthful )

Then it wasn't until I was 18 that I discovered BJDs on instagram. A famous cosplayer was holding a huge doll that was like a little mini-me and I was instantly like WHAT IS THAT AND WHERE DO I GET ONE. Turns out it was a Soom Idealian and Soom's account was tagged so I went through a rabbit role of looking on their instagram, then looking through their website. The first dolls that day that made me reallyyyy want one was their little gem grey & ace (the red haired one, idk if that's grey or ace lol), and vampire Gluino... Then I saw the price tag eeeeee... Then joining DOA and spending HOURS watching BJD youtube and scrolling through acbjd lol.

Then when I was 19 I finally bought my first doll, a Mystic Kids Francis, who was completely blank for a whole year because I was impatient and bought him without a plan lol... Anyway, 4 years later with a collection of 4 MSDs, 4 uncles (including vampire Gluino which I still CANNOT BELIEVE) and a few floating heads/bodies and still going strong!

 

I think I first saw a BJD on Deviant Art around 2006. It was a Dream of Doll Camine and I was immediately enchanted. However, I was a student with no money so didn't look into them any more until later when I became re-obsessed in 2008 (though I do remember seeing someone walking around at Acen with a doll at some point in-between). It was then I decided to commit and get one for myself. So I joined DoA as well as a local doll forum, and ordered my first doll (Dollzone Yuu)....However, shortly after that, on the local doll forum, a girl posted the cutest boy doll I'd ever seen (Abio Angel Er) for sale...and I had to have him. So even though I'd ordered a different doll first and he hadn't even arrived yet, this second hand boy came home to be my first doll ever and I have no regrets. Also the girl I bought him from ended up becoming my best friend to this day so, win win.

 

It was when I was in middle school, I believe. I was Googling something about 3D printed dolls, and that led me to an article about the (since abandoned?) Smart Doll Plus project. (Y'know, the robot ones.) That led me to learn about Smart Doll, which led me to learn about Dollfie Dream, which eventually got me introduced to resin BJDs, too. I ended up really wanting a SmD or DD, and I finally bought and customized a DDH-29 MDD in the summer of 2023. I also, for my 21st birthday last year, was gifted with my first resin girly, a Minifee Honoka a la carte from Denver Doll.

 

A happy accident, lol. I wanted a drawing mannequin but something more realistic. Stumbled upon Volks. Looking through I saw their SD. Finding them interesting I showed my friend. Did more digging and eventually I found Dream of doll and we decided to buy Too and Bee-A to make into our OC. Eventually we got our friends into it and all started buying dolls.

 

I started getting back into dolls with my obitsu 1/6 dolls. Eventually I started looking at dolfie dream dolls, which led me to finding super dolfies. A little more research into BJDs led me to a couple of videos on Luts dolls. After surfing the website I found KDF kai and was mesmerized I think I spent a good 3ish weeks off and on staring at his page on Luts. Eventually I figured I would get him if he was constantly on my mind after that long. I bought him direct from Luts and since then I have fallen down the BJD rabbit hole!

 

I got to know about this hobby more than a decade ago but I just recently received my first BJD ever, the reason why is because even though I started to like them since loong ago I couldn’t find the right one until now.
I was looking for a boy that could fit on what I wanted but back then the majority of Boy Dolls didn’t meet my expectations.

My first Doll is a Loong Soul Fang Ri Tu, the first time I saw him I knew he was my dream doll and surely had to own it so without doubting I bought him and I couldn’t be happier then ever, I also have spent a lot of money on clothing and expensive stuff but the funniest part is that even though I couldn’t find the right Doll back then, now that I own him I found two more boys that meet the same qualities just like him, these two boys are from great artists and are already in the making to be sent to me!

 

I was big into anime, cosplay, and the convention scene at the time. There was one cosplayer whom I followed, who happened to upload photos of her Custom House Ai to her cosplay.com profile. Seeing it just made me completely smitten! That was late 2005.

From there, I did a TON of research, joined DOA, etc. Soon I saw Volks Shiro Tachibana, and finally decided I had to own a BJD. But learning he was limited, I looked at more dolls until finally finding Dream of Doll and seeing DOT Camine for the first time. And that was it.

But being a teenager with zero money, though at least having just gotten my driver's license, I worked two summer jobs through the entire summer, ignored all my friends' summer plans () and scraped together just enough to order my DOT Camine.

 

I don’t fully remember how it happened, exactly – it was around 2007, I believe, and I think I somehow ended up on the Super Dollfie Wikipedia page. I must’ve been doing a wiki walk or some thing. Anyway, I was immediately enchanted by them, but the actual BJDs were way too expensive for me. So I bought one of the original Dollfie Plus dolls – does anybody remember those? – And tried to be content with her. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work. I ended up joining DOA around that time, and admire dolls long before I ever had one. My parents wouldn’t let me save up for something so expensive at the time, even though I desperately wanted a Luts dark elf Soo.

When I was 18 and in my first year of university, I finally saved up and bought a Resinsoul Mei. I was completely enchanted with her at the time, although once I graduated and had other dolls, I realize some things about the company’s engineering and resin quality weren’t quite what I wanted. So I ended up selling her on a few years later, and the rest is history. (finally got that DES last October, to boot!)

 

I discovered them because a friend of mine liked them. Even if I am currently getting back to the hobby, my first doll was DoD's Shall. It was a shock discovering that the company had closed, as they had my most favourite dolls back then.
Still would've loved to get Tender Shall tbh.

 

Back in the day, I was at a bookstore when I saw a doll magazine covering "dolls of japan!" With Volks Ami Ayase on the cover! Inside were other dolls including some vinyl azone cuties, and being a huge anime/manga fan kid I thought they were so cool!

I never ended up buying that magazine but I kept looking at it when I would go to the store, for the cpuple weeks it was there. ^^; I also would see BJDS online, and ended up spending hours looking at dolls I wish I could have like the ones by Dream of Doll (RIP)

Years later, I'm an adult and have my own BJDS who I cherish!

 

I collected dolls for many years already when I first saw a pic of a bjd and it was back at 2007 I think it took me a while to buy one cause I had to have the money and also I was a bit scared of the "resin" would it break , stain etc I wasn't familiar with polyurethane resin dolls or artifacts before but when I gor my first one it was instant love and snowballed from there. I don't have a very dramatic story because as a collector I was activelly searching to know about news in doll production so it was only natural that sometime I would find bjd's.

 

I started with Pullips-- like a gateway drug these expensive bundles of plastic led me down the path to more expensive pieces of plastic. Before getting into Pullips I was watching videos of Bratz, Liv, and Barbie dolls on YouTube, and while watching these videos I came across a stop-motion video that included a Pullip doll. I made an Instagram when I started my Pullip collection, and a mutual had a Soony- I thought she was really cool. I had already known about BJDs because I loved the anime Rozen Maiden and doll wigs are always modeled on BJDs, but I wasn't familiar with any brands or anything further than the image of a BJD. I remember my first love was Andreja's Minifee Chloe. My first doll ended up being a Feeple60 Chloe.

 

In 2001 I found out about them in the ot section on a forum for other dolls, they were still very niche back then I think so I did not look into them. 20 years later I was at a point of having my collection of other dolls complete, so I started looking for something else, and remembered bjd. I bought my first one direct from iplehouse and my second from a US dealer. Now I buy new and used from all over. I am considering reducing my other dolls by 90 percent and mostly collecting bjd.

 

I've always loved dolls and got into anime pretty young. I had a close friend as a kid who had briefly lived in Japan, and brought back some Takara Jenny dolls when her family moved back to the US. I fell in love with them, and my mom (bless her) bought me some from eBay.

Over the years I collected more Jenny and Licca dolls, and at some point when I was browsing, I found listings for BJD stuff. I don't remember super clearly, but I believe I saw wig listings, and they were modeled on some classic moody looking male BJD (maybe like DOD, Crobidoll, or something?) I was immediately interested, and eventually found the Volks USA website after looking into BJD. When I saw the prices, I was instantly put off and thought I would never own one - especially because I was only around 15 or so at the time. Still, I coveted them!

Because I was immersed in the world of Japanese dolls, I also discovered brands like Azone and Pullip. I bought a couple of Azones - Pure Neemo Tsukiko Tsutsukukushi and Picco Neemo ExCute Aika, and I just loved them! I became really into the posability and high detail aspect, which again made me interested in BJD.

When I was about 17, my family had a yard sale. I had always been a collector (of various things), so I had a pretty huge haul to sell. I managed to make around $300 off that yard sale, which was about enough to buy an MSD! After some research I decided to buy a Bluefairy Tiny Fairy Emilie through LUTS (I don't believe they sell Bluefairy anymore, but they did at the time). I bought her with a faceup and two wigs, but in classic beginner fashion, told myself I would just make clothes to save money, which I ended up regretting (I did make some, but they were not... the best). I pretty quickly decided to repaint her, and got more into the customization part of the hobby. After that, I never looked back, and I've now been in the hobby for almost 10 years. I love my dolls and this community so much!! It has really enriched my life

 

I was into monster high dolls, and I regularly shopped for past dolls on eBay. Eventually, I started getting recommendations from New Clover Singing’s eBay shop that she had at the time (under the username Jeeryama). I looked at the dolls, but I thought they were insanely expensive, compared to my MH dolls. I then ended up following some doll people on Tumblr, and one of them was blogging about Ringdoll. I had a very off again on again relationship with my ex, so in one of our off again moments, I started a layaway with Ringdoll for one of their limited editions from their infamous line. I had no idea how long fullset BJDs took to be produced, so I emailed ringdoll like every month after I finished my layaway being like “is he ready yet?” Which probably irritated the heck out of RD but I was a newbie and I didn’t know any better.

He took about 6 months to ship, and came in while the ex and I were on another off again moment, but that’s its own story.

 

I discovered them on tumblr in 2015. I instantly fell in love but i was a teenager and couldn’t afford them so i forgot about them. In 2020 i saw an advertising poster an art exhibition and the girl on that poster had a bjd in her arms. That poster re-activated my love for them and after doing some research here on DoA i bought my first doll through AC

 

I also discovered BJDs on Tumblr, but it was just this year! I started a Tumblr blog for my Sylvanian Families photos and through the various Tumblr toy blogs I found my way here. I probably wouldn't have been confident buying one without having found DoA and been able to read through company reviews. Those reviews led me to Denver Doll and getting Tamia, my Realpuki Obi.

 

In the early 2000s when Angelic Layer manga released in north America I really wanted a doll like the ones in the manga. In my searching online for real version dolls I learned of bjd.
It wasn't until 2014 when I was finally able to afford my first doll. I ordered on ebay, through a reputable proxy account, and got my limited edition Loongsoul Reno bjd (since been traded)

 

I found out about BJDs through the Monster High Arena forums. People were talking about how much they loved BJDs but they were so expensive. I remember thinking "What doll company is that?" and looking it up. 5 resin dolls (and lots of OT ABS dolls) later, I'm hooked!

 

I found out about BJDs about a year or so ago when my ex at the time showed me a Moonlight Jewel video making a BJD of one of his vtubers. Admittedly didn't care about who the vtuber was but I thought the whole process was cool and then I spent several hours watching EVERY VIDEO she made... now its been a year and I've got three girls and I'm loving every moment of the hobby!

 

I found out about BJDs almost a decade ago. I was really into monster high dolls at the time and was watching all sorts of YouTube videos about them when I came across Nicole’s Dreams repaints. The size and customisation fascinated me and I pretty much fell in love right then and there.

I didn’t get my first doll until a number of years later in 2021 when Dream Valley released their giraffe centaurs Dean and Howard. The bodies were incredible so I made an impulse purchase and bought the only male doll in my collection to this day Dean. However he wasn’t my first doll as I picked up an instock Fairyland Sylvia from DDE as a birthday present for myself.