Price Aside, what intimidated you about BJDs

Probably the stupidest answer but I used to be deathly afraid of dolls and stuffed toys. Like unhealthily scared. That passed when I grew up but that childish fear was still there... Lol I have a ton of dolls now

 

What intimidated me was so many options! Sizing, face ups, custom or company, resin or other materials, it's so constant lol and because of how hyper specific what I want can get, I'm too picky for the resale market.

 

I think faceups, at first I was worried I’d ruin the doll. But now I know that by using the proper materials, you can always clean your doll. A thing that currently intimidates me is modding. One of my heads has a pretty shallow neck hole, but I’m terrified to mod him because he was a grail.

 

It rhymes with price......the size!!! XDXDXD This was the reason why I bought an MSD as my first doll until I'm comfy enough to own SD and uncle-size dorries.
Another is the fragility of BJD's. Unlike stuff toys and Barbie dolls, ABJD's have the highest risk of breaking when they get accidentally knocked off to the ground. Countless heart attack moments for me during photoshoots and doll meets. XDXDXD

 

What intimidated me was restringing a bjd, I've been in the hobby since 2021 but I still haven't tried to restring a doll haha.

 

It’s changed quite a bit. In my first couple of years in the hobby, I was unabashed in bringing my dolls anywhere; doll meets in the city, the bus, conventions, on vacation, etc. But now I’m so incredibly protective of my resin (especially my first 3 boys), that I couldn’t even imagine taking them into public so casually. They’re all literally irreplaceable— I can’t with the stress I feel keeping them “protected” these days.

 

What really threw me off in the beginning was not realizing I’d need to buy extra stuff—like clothes, eyes, wigs, shoes—for my doll after I got her. I honestly thought I was all set because she came as a full set, so I just dove in without thinking much about it. I had no clue this was going to be a long-term investment. But as I started getting more into the hobby, I realized nothing fit her properly. She was a bit bigger than the standard SD girls, so most clothes weren’t the right size and had to be customized. That was such a headache and definitely made me realize how little I knew going into the hobby.

 

One word, and one word only: UV.

 

Initially, nothing. But then I realized owning 75-80cm dolls can be scary when trying to pose them. I am afraid of losing my fingers sometimes!!!

 

My cat really like my dolls, once he almost chewed my Mousse's hands with their little fangs . I was so freaked out I screamed as loud as possible so he would run off and not touch my doll (I did feel guilty afterwards but tbh till today I still believe that was a normal reaction).

I love both of my babies but let face the reality, having pets while also owning dolls is very troublesome. Sometimes my cat still tries to sneak into my room so he could smell the dolls, I think he's grown obsessed with the resin smell.

 

I bought my first BJD almost 5 years ago - a vinyl Dollfie Dream Dynamite.

I had such a steep learning curve. I was almost in tears as her leg fell off when I tried to pose her in the sitting position and it was just so difficult to put her leg back on. Also joints in general were the biggest issue, until I found my first stain...

 

The amount of options was the number 1 thing holding me back even more than price. There were so many kinds of BJDs and I never even held a BJD before, only seen them at conventions. It was hard for me to know what I was gonna like and what I wanted my FIRST to be. I spent my sweet time deciding on a first doll. I mean $500-$800 average for one doll just made it more important for me to pick one I was gonna like a lot and have no regrets. Of course this actually hindered me from buying it. I think it took me about 1 full year of really looking at dolls to buy after 10+ years of just wanting one

At the end I got one second hand from a really nice lady. Once I cut that rope, the flood just began and now I’ll press buy on sooooo many doll things

 

The first modern BJD I saw was an off-topic porcelain Enchanted Doll. I remember finding the artist’s website and seeing that the doll was a OOAK and sold for $10000 or something like that.

That was wayyyy out of my budget lol, never mind it wasn’t even available even if I had the means to get her.

I guess I thought they were all like that! That was before discovering resin BJDs. Once I found those, the price was still intimidating, but at least possible unlike the Enchanted Doll lol

After that, I was definitely overwhelmed a bit by all of the options and sculpts. I eventually got a Souldoll Katie.A as my first, who I still have and love. I think I gravitated towards Souldoll because the sculpts have such a distinct look.

 

The upkeep. Space was definitely a big factor, since you really have to care for and store them properly.

 

The idea is that any sunlight or light can make the doll turn yellow. I keep my two little dolls in their boxes, worrying so much that they will turn yellow one day.

 

Maybe an odd thing, but I'd always gotten blank dolls because I liked the idea of having something completely unique, but I found that once I got them, the idea of everything I needed to do or get to make them feel finished/close to my imagination felt really overwhelming and intimidating! It's caused me to really fall out and rethink how to approach the hobby. I think I really realized it when I got my purple four-armed Souldoll Junia and just the fact I'd have to get custom clothes scared me. Also, doing my own faceups sounds neat but I'm not particularly artistically talented so I've always shied away from it. I've done body blushing before though, and that was quite fun!

 

I have a lot of things that intimidate me about BJDs.

- Restringing them (mostly because I have very little skill aside from making a 3D printed BJD that used only one piece of elastic throughout the whole body)
- Damage via the sun (I like to display my dolls, but after noticing fading/discoloration on my old Monster High Gooliope Jellington doll, I became very paranoid about where to display my dolls)
- Damage to the doll in general (I know some dolls are made from pretty durable materials, but even then, I still worry about damaging dolls if I knock them over or drop them)
- Losing the doll (I highly doubt this would happen to me as I keep my dolls in one place and started keeping boxes, but it still lingers in the back of my mind that I might misplace a doll and/or lose it)