The ^ < v Game! - Part 7

^ Building on my previous post ... I think I have "enough dolls" when I feel that buying and receiving a new doll has become rote, or a burden, or "just another day in the hobby". I'm reaching this point -- I'm starting to get weary of always waiting for preorders, always having a doll project in the works. I feel that if this status quo continues, I'll actually start resenting any new dolls I get, and maybe the whole hobby by extension. I don't want this to happen! So yes, I think I have enough dolls for now, and ought to receive all my outstanding preorders and then call the collection done for a while.

I don't think I'll ever stop buying dolls, but I want the occasion to be uncommon enough for it to be ... an occasion! I'd love to achieve a <1 new doll/year buying rate. (I've been sitting at 2-3 new dolls/year for the past 3 years.) Not a number limit or complete zero-buy, but a very slow pace. It does mean I'll have to let go of some doll sculpts that I really like and have ideas for, but that's why I'm in the No-buy Buddies thread in Brigadoon.


< It's spring in my country and I want to do doll stuff, but I'm snowed under with IRL again, and also can't decide what doll thing to do next with limited free time...


v In our doll collections we have the favourites, the grails, the problem children who need attention, the difficult ones we still love nonetheless, the first doll ever bought and the newest one ... the ones that are prominent in our minds when we think about the collection. But what about the dolls that don't "distinguish" themselves like this?
Pick one of your dolls that doesn't come to the forefront of your mind at first, and tell us all about them! They get the limelight for a while. ^^

 

^ I often feel that Vickie falls through the cracks a bit. She's an Unoa Sist Bully on a Huajing V4 body and the only doll I've bought completely new. I feel like she didn't get much attention when I had a few more dolls, but I've sold my other Unoa hybrid now so I've found more time to spoil her she's really fun to handle, and I really enjoy having her as a desk buddy sometimes.

< Trying to get one my my dolls alternative hands and praying that hybriding from another company works out

v sometimes dolls are perfect, but mostly there is at least one small thing that bugs us about them. Tell us what annoys you in your favourite doll!

 

^ Kieran needs to be sueded, and I think her strings need tightening, so she’s floppy af. She cannot sit up. I need to restring her but I just haven’t been feeling it lately, so she’s just floppy on the shelf.

<I’m so bored at work today. I genuinely wish I could get a better job than my current one, or at least one that gave me more to do.

V What is one small thing that will make you pass up buying a doll?

 

^ Neck size/the pinhead look. I admire the current trend of big, beefy, Love and Deepspace-style cosplay dolls, but the head almost always looks too small for such a thick, meaty neck. This is likely exacerbated by the very sharp, narrow jawlines of the head sculpts.

< I started a research traineeship this week, helping with grant writing for one of the local research labs specializing in neurodevelopmental conditions. Interesting stuff! I'm so excited to finally be making headway into my field of interest.

v What is your weirdest doll accessory? A pair of eyes that's literally just marbles/beads? A wig made of flexible wire? Shoes custom-sculpted from melted plastic?

 

^ I had a doll whose eyes were made of paper clay and teddy bear eyes - a very "no, we have resin eyes at home" solution

< I wish buying wigs worked out better! Or is my doll's head weird? why is it so rare for them to fit!

v how much does you collection weigh altogether?

 

^ Easy thing - 0 g for now, hah. But I'll definitely check out Pigi's weight after she arrives!

< My fiancee said to me yesterday that she bets I'll have another doll chosen before my first one arrives, and I'll probably order a second within a month after her arrival. Damn. She seems right... Or I'll make her lose by ordering another one BEFORE this one arrives. Dyami from Charm Doll is tempting me...

v Tell me about the most wholesome reaction to your BJD hobby that you got from someone outside the hobby! Can be family member getting involved in it, can be a bypasser's nice remark during a photoshoot, anything

 

^ I hid my dolls from my parents through most of high school. They knew I had a hobby that involved large boxes, but not what was in them for years. Then Covid hit, and dolls were the only thing that made me happy. Both of my parents started seeing dolls (I was around 22). Dad let me borrow his diamond dremel bit, and bought me my off-brand rotary tool for modding when I told him I needed a dremel. Mom started crocheting clothes for my dolls as Christmas and birthday presents. Both of them used dolls as a way of connecting with me, which I really appreciated. My girlfriend (who will soon be my fiancée but shhhh) also went out of her way to make sure I could fit all of my 70+ SD sized dolls in our condo when I moved in, even though I said she didn’t have to, because she knew that mattered to me.

< I love modding boobs onto bodies that didn’t have them. So satisfying that any body can be a girl body if I want it to.

V I liked this question so I’m passsing it down: Tell me about the most wholesome reaction to your BJD hobby that you got from someone outside the hobby! Can be family member getting involved in it, can be a bypasser's nice remark during a photoshoot, anything

 

^ I recently went on a holiday to Japan with my best friend, who isn't into dolls. I took one of my dolls with me for photos. My friend actually enjoyed taking photos of my doll (and taking photos of me taking photos of my doll) and helped me pick out some nice things for her at Sato. It's very nice to have friends who support your interests, even if the hobby isn't their particular cup of tea

Pic related: Clair on the Narita Express with my friend's shima enega keychain

> Modern casual clothes are deceptively difficult to sew...onto Attempt 2 of a basic short-sleeved stretch t-shirt for my SD10/13 girls. At least the mockup gave me an idea of how best to put the thing together between my overlocker and sewing machine, and where to adjust the pattern for the fit I want

v Have you ever had a doll crafting project go awry? Did you persist with it, start again from scratch or give up on the idea?

 

^ Yes!! I recently tried making a glued wig with some plastic hair, thinking it would go well since I have made a couple yarn wigs before. BIG mistake. the hair wouldn't stick to the headcap unless I used an obscene amount of glue, and the whole thing came out hard and unsightly. Luckily, my boy's head is small enough that I was left with enough strands to make a sewn wig instead, so started from scratch the new wig is unfinished on the pic, but it's the only one I have rn!


< I'm recovering from a medical thing rn and I just want to play with dolls instead>_<

v how many dolls did you have when your collection was at it's biggest, and do you want to up/downsize it?

 

^ I thought it was more but actually it was just 7, with just a different mix of dolls. If I hadn't held myself accountable with 1-in-1-out, I'd be in double digits, though, and that would be way too many for me. Sometimes I even regret buying the 3rd or 4th doll after having just 2 but hindsight is always the smartest

< That being said, while most sales were painless, I do regret some of them in some form. But I know having a bigger number doesn't work either, so it's a bit bittersweet but inevitable.

v so you have any sales or purchases you regret?

 

^ when I started in the hobby I didn't know that there were about a billion different sizes within each scale, so I bought clothes without checking their measurements against my dolls, and I still have them ... they still don't fit any of my dolls ... they're just taking up space and I'm not really talented enough to fix them (yet)

< speaking of sales and selling, I think that's the worst part of this hobby for me. I have a decent amount of items to sell, but I'm very shy and hate bothering people by repeatedly sharing or bringing up my sales posts, especially since the economy is so hard for people right now.

v what is your least favorite part of this hobby? for me, besides trying to sell stuff as mentioned above, it's the vision in my head not matching what I'm trying to create, whether that's with doing my own faceups, sewing, or a photoshoot idea I have.

 

^ I think it's all of those "in-betweens" of buying and receiving a doll (or an item). Ordering from individual artists can sometimes be... a process, with waiting for response etc. I'm still waiting for the wigmaker's response. Of course it's understandable, but still, it definitely develops patience! Then you wait for the shipping, and after shipping you wait for your package to arrive, worrying if it will get damaged during delivery. Of course there come customs, with various carriers treating them differently. So... yeah, probably this

< Speaking of worries, recent negative reviews on an artist that I ordered a doll from, have made me worried. For now the communication with him was going well in my case, and the PayPal serves for a good protection just in case... But I really hope I won't have to use it and everything will go smooth.
I also ordered a Dyami from Charm Doll today, yay!

v What is your current ongoing doll-related project?

 

^ I got this idea of trying to replicate those fun 'photography in a box' layouts I've seen done for weddings and such for my doll family this Christmas. It's proving harder than I first thought because I want to have 2 different sized boxes so my MSDs and my tinies look the same size when I Photoshop the photos together. Plus, I kinda want them to look like they are interacting, so I've sketched several ideas before even thinking of grabbing the camera. I hope it turns out cool!

< Today marks the start of the winter holidays, yay! I've been so looking forward to have a few weeks to do some artsy stuff, but I've woken up with awful cramps, so it looks like I'll have to take it easy for now xD

v If you stacked your dolls one on top of the another, how much would they be in height?

 

^ GREAT question! 288cm altogether, almost twice as tall as I am

<... this gives me an incredibly stupid idea to make a doll pyramid... maybe of I wire them all...

v passing on the q: how tall would all your dolls be if they were stacked?

 

^ Almost 6.4 metres!!!!
Divided by # of my dolls, the average height comes out to be 64cm, which happens to be my favourite doll height!

< When I read the question, the immediate visual I got of "stacking", was of my dolls lying on top of each other like a pancake stack...

v What BJD or BJD-related wishlist are you writing to Santa this Christmas?
Since Christmas is long past... New question: What doll, doll item, or activity are you most looking forward to receiving or doing this year?