What originally got you into BJDs?

A few years ago I came across BJDs in passing, but didn't pay much mind, then two years ago, I started seeing Aeryn (Hirati)'s Hayden on the DA front page and started watching her DA and soon learned about BJDs through her FAQ.

 

A picture of Matt from Death Note that I saw on Photobucket. It was an amazing Dollfie.
And now one of my friends likes dollfies too so I have people to talk to about them ^_^

 

A cartoon doll forum back in the late nineties first introduced me to them. I wanted one but would never have bee able to afford one at that point. Now I have the means and am saving up ^^

 

Do you remember what their doll(s) looked like?

 

Looking up Chobits online, which led to Angelic Layer, which led to to Dollfies, which led to Volks. I didn't really get into bjd until a year or two after when a friend in school showed me the Luts website, and I said "Oh, I've seen these dolls before!"

 

I remember hearing about them in passing but was told they were very expensive, so I never really investigated it until my friend returned from a convention and started talking about them/sharing pictures. I looked them up then and came across the LUTS website. That's when I saw the El mold and the rest was history. haha.

 

I've always liked dolls. Mostly Disney, a few special Barbies. The Disney lead me to Tonner, and Tonner lead me to Haute Doll. Which lead me to BJDs.

 

I'd seen them a few times on DA or at conventions, but then I started hanging around with a girl who had a few. I fell in love with them (mostly her DZ) after playing for a while~ Eventually love of hers turned into me wanting one of my own.

And now here we are, a year and a half later, 5 at home and saving for more.

 

Saw a gorgeous doll on e-bay had no idea what it was.
Spoke to a friend who manufactures dolls who explained a bit more to me.
Done some research and saw some more pictures, was completely smitten.
Bought my first doll from a dealer and although I knew the size, I hadn't actually worked out what that would really mean.
Bought a Luts Dark Elf Soo SD. Nearly fell off my chair when she arrived. I had in my mind a doll of about 30cm even though the height was clearly stated. She looked enormous, a few people who were there when she arrived were in hysterics at my expression.
I had collected polymer sculpts and had that sort of size in mind.
Once I got over the initial shock I fell in love and bought my second and now have to control myself from buying more.

 

A couple of the artists I watched on DA started posting photos of their dolls (Marti/ball-jointed-alice's doll photos really tipped the scales for me), I looked around a bit but didn't really think much more of it after seeing the price until I finally caved a good 6 months later.

 

this is such a good question, but i have no idea! the most i can remember is one of my old friends owning one, so i got curious and started poking around to see where to get one of them for myself. you can imagine my surprise when i saw how expensive they are for the first time, haha.

 

my friends had a few BJDs and i started to get interested in them awhile back. i started going to meets and found out that i really enjoyed face-ups... then one of my friend ended up selling a bunch of her doll stuff to me recently so now im in total dolly mode.

 

Since I was little, I never liked barbies and the like much, but I loved loved porcelain dolls. Only got my first porcelain doll when I was around 13 or something, and that was because I found it D: my parents never wanted to get me one cuz they were expensive... (That's how poor we are D: )

Then when I was around 14-16 I found some pictures of BJDs on the internet and was absolutely in love with them. From then on I set my dream in life to get a BJD.

Now at 21 and with a stable job I'm still waiting to make that dream come true. I have enough money to buy a BJD, but being Resin I can't D: I live with my parents two cats and a dog in the country side. Small house, too dusty.
So I got a Hujoo which I'm waiting to arrive =D They are soooo gorgeous, cheaper and plastic, perfect for while I can't get a resin one ^-^

 

Exactly my story, and then I looked at some other BJD DA pages and eventually found out more and more, this was just last year now I already have 2 BJD's

 

I accidentally got on the site of DOD 3 (or 4) years ago. First thing I did was just printing out the beautiful pictures to stick them into my diary.
I can't quite figure out when I learned about them being BJD's.

I do know I forgot about them for a while and then resumed my interest last summer, because my sister really wanted to get one.

It's all fuzzy, I just know I randomly found DOD and then learned about the concept BJD. And only since last August have I been doing my research.

 

What caught my eye first was a customised Pullip(by Sheryl's Designs, incase you're interested) I found when searching for Ville Valo on Flickr.
It's all that pullips fault, I looked through the other albums and photographs on that site and had a Pullip want for a bit, before I started to really look into posable, customisable dolls, in an attempt to see if I could make my own Ville.
That "research" lead me to proper BJDs and that lead me to do a marionette-style sculpture for my ceramics project, and whilst researching for that I found SOOM MD Cuprit, who I drew and became smitten with

hee hee =3
~end mini essay~

 

It was probably my obsession with manga and anime. They do have some similar features afterall and I think that's what drew me to them.
The first time I saw one was also at an anime convention and it was after that that I started looking more into it. Then I came across LUTS' website and I was sold.

 

Like a lot of people, Aeryn (hiritai) definitely played a big role in developing my affection for BJDs. From her I found other artists and other dolls on DeviantArt.

I heard of them a long time ago but never bothered researching them. It wasn't until my friend showed me a photo that I started looking into them, and I fell in love. Now one of my friends likes them, though she's not as obsessed as I am. n_n;

 

Quite a long time ago, when I was maybe 12 or 13, I first saw them. It was a while ago and I don't have great memory, but I remember that it was Custom House when their dolls were more one-of-a-kind themed, and were absolutely beautiful. I didn't even consider the possibility of purchasing them. A couple years later a friend I met online showed me a doll she was planning on getting.. I was thrilled to rediscover them, annnd it went from there ^^;

 

I found about BJDs on a forum, and later on I saw a set of pictures of an Enchanted Doll, which though it's not quite the same, it has a similar appeal. A bit after that, I met a girl who had a few, and all these put together led me to saving up for one.

 

When I first saw a BJD, I thought it was a real person! It was really beautiful... but then I saw the price. What actually got me into BJDs was a girl that was talking about her own on youtube, about how she took them out with her and got funny looks but didn't care. That sort of made me realise that people got really attached to their dolls (not everyone, I know) but that justified the price for me.

 

I first found out about them online, didn't think to much of them; then I went to a con and saw them in person and decided to get one.

 

I was looking on etsy.com and came across some doll wigs, now the wigs were ok but I really liked the dolls they were on. After a little google research I knew I had to get my own.

 

Probably the root cause is anime/manga. If I hadn't already accepted and appreciated anime/manga aesthetic, I would never have come to appreciate bjd aesthetic - and even so, on first sight I thought bjds were hideous. (For this reason I never get offended if someone thinks my doll is ugly - because I thought the same way at first. ) The craftsmanship and the delicate faceups attracted me, but it took a while for me to grow to like the style of bjds.

Fully Articulated and Aimee's site were also part of it. There was a doll magazine at an airport that had a Volks on the cover, and I remember I learned more about bjds from those articles.

When Den of Angels made its galleries members-only locked, that was what really started me thinking about whether I wanted my own doll. I had gotten so used to casually browsing/lurking in the galleries and I missed seeing the dolls. I know I made my DoA account around that time, or if I had it before I only began to be active around that time.

 

My friend Ashael was the one to pull me into the BJD world actually. xD When she first talked about them and showed me pictures the attraction didn't really -click- until almost a month later when I suddenly had to have one!

Now I have 2 whole dolls, a floating head, and plans to own about 6 at the least... >.>;

I happily blame her for my addiction to these lovelies and my crying wallet

 

A freind of mine were on our way back from a Flea Market, she handed me a magazine that had BJD's in it.
Then I started to look them up and well BOOM!!!
Bjd's are stuck w/ me ;D

 

I stumbled upon sassy strawberry's website and fell in love with her dolls. http://www.sassystrawberry.com/
I aslo have a long history of loving other types of dolls so it was very natural for me to LUV BJDs.

 

I saw photos on line when I was just doing a general image search for dolls. It was love at first sight.Their sculptural beauty is what grabbed me. I thought "one day I am going to get one of those beautiful creatures". Six months later I did. My first was an Apple Souldoll who's name is Emily. I now have 11 BJDs(and counting).

 

I was on ebay looking for doujinshi when I came across Snow Kaguya's doll outfits for sale. I fell in love with the Delf Yder she had. So I started looking for more info on where to get them and eventually... I don't remember how but I ended up here on Den of Angels.

Almost 4 years later and I still have no Yder of my own.

 

I first heard about them when I was floating around on holiday from a friend. She was all hyped up about getting her first doll at the time and I was just all '*D ok.' with no clue as to what she was going on about xD;
Once I got home and met her boy though, I knew I had to get one of my own.

Its like... a year later and I'm still working on saving up for one though |D;

 

I found dolls through art. I'm on DA and one of the artists I'm watching is Heise. When she put some doll pictures in her gallery I found them and through her dolls I discovered the world of BJD

 

Angelguardian is directly responsible for getting me into BJDs. She began bringing some of her's to our fashion doll club meetings. Until then I'd only seen a few photos of the early very anime style dolls & found them hideous but her's had a very different look from those. After playing with her dolls for nearly a year, cruising the sites she'd kindly provided links to & getting comfortable once again with dolls that expensive, I could no longer stand it & ordered an Elfdoll Lydia from Dolls & Friends. I couldn't wait for a factory one so checked all the US stores to see what was in stock that I loved.

 

I was following the path: Anime / Manga -> Asian movies -> The Doll Master -> BJDs...
:-D

 

The idea of changing out eyes and wigs appealed to me from the start...also a friend of mine (Marbledhalls) makes fabulous clothing for them!

 

a friend invited me to a doll meet up... there were so many beautiful bjds; i'm relatively new to bjds but i've loved them ever since

 

Haha~that's a good question.I have a hobby which is collecting figure. 2 years ago one of favorite character was going to detrude a new figure which was produced by AZONE and it was around 130 at that time. The special thing is that you can move the joint(which is very new to me) by yourself. My friend know that and she ask me y didn't you buy the BJD instead of this small figure!!! So, I start to search the informations about BJD and started addicted to it XD

 

i started out in this hobby after finding a picture on the internet while searching for pictures of korean singers. So it was Kpop that got me into this hobby 3 years ago, yet i first got very serious in it a year ago. ^-^

 

mine is an unconventional story, just as every other story I have..lol
I got The New York Look Book for my birthday about two years ago and it's just a book of pictures of people off the street in new york and there was this girl with a Fee-Ple boy.
then it was just me cursing the gods of monetary unfortune and pretending barbie and ken were good enough for two years. then when my mom said she'd by me one for my 18th this year I looked all over to find the perfect doll and i ended up with a mini-fee, so strange that the same brand(kinda) was the first one I saw!

 

My story is quite funny. I am a member of a totally unrelated forum to DOA and somebody there had posted pics of all the dolls she had, most people thought they were creepy but the first thing I saw was how beautiful and enchanting these little guys were!

I started looking around some websites and now I'm totally hooked!

I've totally fallen for the pukipukis and have a wishlist as long as my arm!

 

Although I'm not that much into anime, there was this one series I liked a lot and I added the LJ of someone who was good at cosplaying one of the series' characters to my friends list (I'm also not that much into cosplay, but I really liked her cosplay). That person mentioned on her LJ her ABJDs and Batchix's LJ. At first I was more interested in the clothes Batchix made, but I was quick to take an interest in the dolls too. ^_^

 

For me the first time I saw a BJD was in real life,

I was at that point collecting "Little apple dolls", but the company I always bought them from at events started switching from other dolls to BJD, i had before that heared of them but thought: "I Can't see myself spending X on those, since I could never afford it" (HAH shows me what I know )

but at the event I fist saw them IRL I kept going back to the stand again... and again..... and again.

Thats when i started looking in to the dolls, but I did not decide to actually get one untill I had the briliant Idea to make one of my RPG chars into a BJD, and than it took me about another year to find the right sculpt

 

I've been into subculture/cosplay since...eons ago. Which means I go for conventions. Which also means I see BJDs every now and then. So, I've been mildly tempted for a long time.

Then, my bestfriend got a BJD. Since I'm comfortable with handicrafts, I naturally made little things for the doll, and grew attached to it. Then, my bestfriend WANTED TO SELL THAT BJD. WITHIN a couple of weeks of buying it. *gasp* Because she wanted a new doll. So I just bought it off her. And never looked back. ^^

 

I got to know about BJDs through j-rock.
My room mate from school was searching for cosplays of Gazette and somehow found some of Izams dolls.
She told me about them and I thought they were cute and all, but when she mentioned the price I went "Omg, you can't be serious?!"

Because I was in the asian fandom, I would hear about them from time to time, and I found the danish BJD forum, and I began to lurk there. After a half year I bought my first doll.

 

I think I first saw them on dA but never gave them another thought other than 'LOL that looks like a person. Weird.' and didn't think of them for a long time afterwards. And then I saw Dieux-Faux on dA and had a good look through their gallery, and decided to find out more about them.
My mum hates you now, by the way. She doesn't like how they look or how much they cost. xD
But, now I should be able to buy a Kdelf Bory sooooonnn~! ^^

 

Back in 2006, my friend had a Souldoll and I just wasn't interested in the doll, even if it was pretty.

Fast forward to this year, friends of mine had gotten HEAVILY into the dolls at this point and I got to actually touch and play with them over the summer. It resulted in this "uh...they're kinda cool..." reaction that snowballed until I bought my first in Nov 09. Three months and three dolls later, there's probably no turning back, lol.

 

I blame Brightfires for posting pictures of hers up at RPG.net forums. It's taken me four years to get around to getting a doll, but it was her dolls that sowed the seed in me to go get me one (and possibly more later).

Phil.

 

I first learned about BJDs when I was hanging out at a fashion doll forum, but I didn't really pay them any mind since I didn't really find them interesting -- especially as their facial sculpts are those of very childlike dolls. Fast forward a few years later when I came across someone's site posting about Dollmore Model dolls and Iplehouse EIDs, and I just couldn't take my eyes or my mind off of them and their very mature looks, and I started taking BJDs seriously enough to want a few. And so out went some of those fashion dolls and in went the 70cm beauties.

 

I've always loved dolls and had this on/off doll clothing hobby.
Then over a year ago, my boyfriend showed me Sindy dolls online and
I got into customising them, I kept looking for more dolls online and bumped into Blythe,
which at first I thought looked scary, but then I saw custom Blythe dolls and really loved some of them. After searching for more Blythe links, I bumped into BJD's on Blythe collectors' sites and fell in love with these dolls. My first attraction was probably Lati Lea, and the other tiny cuties from Lati site.
Then I saw Unoa and started looking for her, and two weeks ago I finally got mine, even though she is a hybrid, but the faceplate is Unoas and I'm absolutely smitten by her. It's the most gorgeous doll I've ever had. (but don't tell my Sindys)

 

My first experience of BJDs was on LJ; a friend posted a link to a post on the wtf_inc community where the poster was snarking about someone's LJ where she posted suggestive pictures of her El. She was KisakiSama, and the doll was Kaitou. Unlike the members of wtf_inc, who started trolling her LJ until KisakiSama made the entries with Kaitou friends-only, I was struck by how beautiful Kaitou was, and wanted to learn more about him. She pointed me here to DoA, and gave me a link to the Luts site.

That was back in February 2005. I bought my first BJD - a 60cm Obitsu - a month later.

Four years on, KisakiSama found herself in the position of having to put Kaitou up for sale, and she gave me first refusal. Kai has now been with me a year and a day. So I've come full circle.

 

I saw a girl carrying a doll while I was out one day and exclaimed to myself, " IF I EVER SEE THAT KIND OF DOLL, I MUST HAVE ONE! "

So after a photoshoot 1day with my photograher, I was randomly browsing through his camera when I saw a BJD.

I was half screaming, " OHMYGOSH ! I want this doll too !!! Where are they called?!!! "

Did my reseach when I came home and TADA, not even a year into the hobby and I'm waitting for my 3rd Girl.

-looks into wallet and sniffs-

 

lol! You're welcome then I guess ;3

 

I came across a BJD in a kimono while looking up japanese kimonos on yahoo images, like many years ago. I actually didn't know that you could own them either. But it wasn't until a half a year ago that my friends and I came across a mother and their daughter with an SD boy and an MSD girl in Walmart in the fabric section. That's when I offiically and finally decided to get one and get more into BJDs

 

I played with dolls a little bit when I was a kid, but being in a household with 5 boys quickly changed that. I learned to love video games and comics and didn't really play with dolls much after that. I went to my first anime convention 5 years ago and saw a few BJDs wandering around in girls' arms. I immediately wanted one! Only a short time after that I bought one. Then another. and another..you know how the story goes. :P

 

I think it was some years ago, can't remember when exactly, but I was pretty young (like... 10~12? so maybe about five years ago) and my older sister was really into these. So she showed me pictures and explained stuff. I think at that time I only saw how pretty they were and wanted them because... well, they were pretty, but oh well. And of course, DoD is the company to blame, as those were the first dolls I ever saw (and still the ones I like the most.)

So ever since then, there's been a love of dolls hidden in my heart but I just dug it up again at the start of this summer. And I'm looking forward to buying my first one! Hopefully not long anymore...

 

I have watched shows on television in 2005 or 2006 which features Asian Ball-jointed dolls!
since then I fell in love with them, I wondered where they buy it and how much it cost, then after hearing that it
cost hundreds of dollars... I became hopeless then because I was still in highschool with no means of affording it so
for a moment I forgot about it, until last June I was searching in the web some artworks to give me ideas and inspirations for my art project in class, when a divine intervention came upon me. I just typed the words "dolls" , and so I browse. I successfully came across to the site of the featured BJD's in the TV as I have mentioned before, there I saw them again.
That fuel burning inside me paved way for my curiosity to begin researching, so I researched and browsed sites a lot!
I came up with popular blogs which led me to famous Bjd Doll shops like Dream of Doll and Luts. I was mesmerized by the dolls. It had been a couple of weeks that I have never left my chair, looking and admiring the beauty right in front of my monitor. Oh Gosh! ^__^ And now, as I have posted this, I am also waiting for my 3 dolls to be delivered this September before my birthday! Yey! A DOC Too and Bee-A and the latest one I ordered Tiny Fairy -Sleeping Emilie. I CAN"T HARDLY WAIT!

 

A BJD on the cover of "Haute Doll" magazine many years ago. Was really impressed with how well made the dolls were in comparison to what you see in the toy store. Been hooked on them ever since. =D