What originally got you into BJDs?

Someone on my tumblr feed reblogged a BJD confession about D.I.M (that their dolls looked sick/unwell). I checked the company out, thought the dolls were beautiful and started researching it up.

Vaguely knew about the existence of BJDs before that but that's how I got into them

 

I saw lots of pictures of bjd. And I thought I wanted to own some just as beautiful.

 

Like many others I saw them on DA first. For awhile I thought they were actually made by the users who posted them, it wasn't until someone posted the company in the description that I learned others could buy them! The price put me off for awhile, but a few years later I have just given in and plan on ordering my first very soon.

 

Actually some swedish manga magazine (that is since out of print, I think) made two pages about BJDs and the hobby. This led me to look them up online, and the rest is history. Me and a friend used to send a lot of links related to BJDs to eachother and feeding each others obsession.

 

I... don't even remember actually? I had seen them around on DA for the longest time way back (years and years ago) but they never really interested me then. They actually kind of freaked me out at that point lol. A few months ago they popped up again on my Tumblr and I was interested so I looked around for a bit. For the longest time I couldn't find a doll that really met my standards but then I ended up getting a job and finding one I liked around the same time so it all just came together.

I think its main drawing point for me is just the amazing customization available and all of the skills and hobbies of mine that can be applied.

 

I think the first time I saw a BJD was in the Korean Horror movie Doll Master. I remember thinking the dolls coming out of the ceiling and in the bathroom were really creepy, but the doll that Young-ha carried was super cute. But what really got me into BJDs was Andreja's faceups. Thats when I started watching BJD related videos on youtube. Like a lot of other people here, the customization aspect is what really drew me into the hobby

 

About 5 years ago I saw a BJD for the first time at a booth at the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. I remember thinking I'd never seen such a lovely doll! But the owner of the booth simply told me it was a "resin doll", which didn't give me much to go on. Then about a year later I saw some pictures of BJDs on DeviantArt and was like, "It's those resin dolls!" I began researching, my mom bought me a copy of Ball-Jointed Dolls for Beginners by @alington and I knew I had to get in on this hobby.

 

About 6 years ago my sister showed me them on the computer.. i had mostly forgotten about them but i did remember 2 times what they were called and googled them (a few years apart)... that was before i knew any details about them.
My sister actually bought some bjds earlier this year and bought me one! Then she gave me one that she just didnt bond with..
Im greatful for them! And i love them both♥️

 

What got me into it was just curiosity. When I first saw BJD dolls online, I thought they were creepy. But then I kept seeing them everywhere and I grew attached. I'm still a beginner. I have 2 Monster High dolls and my first BJD coming in the mail.

 

I first saw bjds online around the beginning of high school. I had seen a sculpt that had similar nose/lips to a singer I love. I fell in love with that face sculpt. It was just a Fantasy Doll, but it was still expensive for someone who's parents didn't believe in jobs in high school when I should be concentrating on studying. I had that page bookmarked and lost it when my computer died. I forgot about it for years until earlier this year when I started getting into photography. I was still in my last year of graduate school, but since I worked full time with a lot of overtime and lived on my own, I decided to look into my first bjd. My taste had changed and I didn't want that Fantasy Doll anymore. I do occasionally look back at that doll once a week though. I may subconsciously still want it, hee hee hee.

 

Growing up and visiting my grandmother who had so many different dolls(some from her childhood), I have always been around the old victorian ones (the room when I stayed there was filled with) which made me want to learn about other 'newer' ones. I then started catching photos online of beautiful ball jointed dolls and instantly fell in love. I even used them in a school project, just because I could. Now, years later I actually just ordered my first doll.

 

I bought a make your own Pulip doll kit but I started browsing BJD stores for a wig because the BJD stores had a much larger selection. I still like Pulips but, I also like that BJDs are customizable dolls that come in larger sizes and that have more realistic faces.

 

Probably Rozen Maiden. Went looking for merch for that show, got all of the RM Pullips (well, the re-releases anyway).

Found the Volks SD versions (which are waaay out of my price range), and found other BJDs from there.

 

About a year ago I reconnected with my friend Liz. She posted about then and I got curious. Now I have 2 dolls I'm keeping. 3 I'm selling and a list of dolls I plan to buy. XD.

 

My sister got me in BJD, she somehow crossed them online and fell in love and of course being her sister all she did was talk bout them to me and show me which she wanted and everything about it, i tried really hard to act like i didnt care, didnt want to copy her haha but it was harder then me and i end up falling in love with them just as much

 

I had accidentally stumbled across the YouTuber Nicolle's Dreams, and after watching some of her Faceup Stories I was hooked! So progressively, I began looking into more and more BJDs and found myself here, where it feels an entirely new world has been opened up for me.

 

Good question. For me, I heard about BJD from a few friends and I was really into Angelic Layer. Due to monetary issues I had to step away from wanting one. Last year I met a new friend who had one and I fell in love again. She convinced me to buy one and now I want more. Teehee

 

I mainly collected Ever After High dolls and, through Pinterest, I found photos regarding custom dolls made by artists. Through tutorials and Pinterest suggestions I learned about BJDs. It is strange but it never occurred to me to purchase one until my boyfriend saw me unpack a EAH doll and told me something like "I think things like this make you really happy, you should give it a shot".

It is a weird time for me, I really love drawing but I don't feel like it's my medium anymore so I'm a bit lost in terms of life goals. The idea of customizing dolls and getting a BJD really cheered me up and gave me a sort of comforting hope.

 

I remember that I was watching random YouTube videos, I don't even know what, and there was a video I was watching where someone actually showed one on camera and I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. After that, I started to look into them and soon after was very invested with them with plans to buy one.

 

I've always been into dolls even when I was younger but you know what happens when you grow older, you move on to other interests. Recently, while browsing on YT, I saw a doll customization video of a Monster High doll and things happen when you browse videos on YT, sometimes it spirals and you end up in videos you never even knew existed, this time though, it led me to BJDs and that was it, I was hooked. lol

 

The very first bjd I saw was a dollfactory ari bobo mouse. It was a photo on flickr someone took of it really styled nicely in a dollhouse craft room. I was in love. I had just had a baby, so an over 100 dollar doll was not going to happen. A few years later a great artist friend, cedarheart was posting all her lovely bjds on flickr and I finally got the bjd bug. I started seriously researching them and now I've been in the hobby since 2013. Anthros are what started it all though really...

 

I love dolls since i was a child. My big hobby is dollhouses. I need inhabitants for them and i am making dolls . But i am not happy with them as they are not able to have a different position. So i was looking for help and someone in a miniature- forum told me about enchanted doll. That was it. I was looking for instructions, as i need dolls in 1:12. That´s the way i did fall in love with BJD.

 

I began collecting 1:6 fashion dolls back in 2008, and was an active member of a doll forum that supports any and all doll collecting. There were a few BJD people there posting photos of their dolls, so that sparked my interest, and I bought my first BJD, little Soom 1:6 minigem Aren, early in 2010. Later that year bought a couple of the slightly larger Sleetwealth Briar.

I could wish I'd gone over to BJDs at that point, but I was totally hooked on buying fashion dolls that came with every last little detail done for you. It took a few more years before I realised what a bind I was in with those dolls, because while I wanted to make clothing for them - I had/still have a fabulous stash of fabrics - I was never going to actually make anything in 1:6 fashion doll size because it's too much of a challenge for me. I need to line clothing and finish seams nicely, and those dolls are just too small for that sort of detail.

So I began to look at BJDs with a view to getting some 1:4 and 1:3 scale girls. I was a bit hesitant about going bigger - they do take up a lot of room! - but once I had the magic of my first Minifee in my hands, there was no going back. No doubt in my mind that these are the dolls I want to work with.

 

My girlfriend got me into it. When we got together, she already had several dolls, and I just kind of slid into the hobby bit by bit, loving it more and more. After a while, it was decided that I was going to adopt the one doll she had, that she had no interest in, because he didn't fit with the character she wanted. That was my beloved Ceth, my first doll, but not my last

 

A college friend of mine (she eventually invited me to this site). I was actually not too into it until I started doing research and fell in total and utter LOVE with an Iplehouse Gentle Freesia.

 

For me and my daughter, It all started with Barbie, then monster high and ever after high, then redoing face ups and rerooting hair, then pinterest searches for inspiration led us to these gorgeous dolls! Which my initial reaction was "Holy cow that is expensive! No way!" Then all of our dolls just paled in comparison and after watching unboxing videos of BJDs and being so curious about how they feel and move and loving the professional face ups...it just seemed like it was all worth it. We needed to start somewhere so we both chose affordable dolls that were available from dealers in the U.S. and we chose MSD size dolls to begin with because they were larger than our other dolls but not HUGE in comparison. But our future dolls will probably lead us to the SD size dolls. I know that my daughter is now dying to have a minifee Celine and I would love a grown up looking SD. But I'm very glad I finally gave in to exploring this hobby. They are so artistic and precious and I am a sucker for feeding my daughters imagination, especially since she is 14 and on the cusp of adulthood.

 

I guess there was some doll interest for me before BJDs. A friend of mine and I did repaints and OOAK costumes for Barbies for a couple of years, mostly just to amuse ourselves. Back in high school we also did a really interesting art project once - we sculpted and fired heads/hands/feet for dolls out of clay and then made bodies for them out of any materials we chose. I remember distinctly when I was doing that project that what I really wanted for its body (but couldn't afford) was a posable wooden artist's mannequin. It's very understandable that when I discovered BJDs, I freaked right out about the artist's-mannequin-like posable bodies. Only these were much more beautiful than any mannequin. This was the type of doll I had always dreamed of!

 

A friend of mine showed me pictures of her dolls at a Lolita meet. i don't know how we got onto the topic of dolls but i was unsure about buying one mainly because i LOVE bjd's they are so beautiful but i worried about being judged (I'm an idiot i know xD) but she basically just told me to do it. just do it. so i did xD

 

My friend from California was talking about them one day on IMVU, then she showed me a picture of one and I was immediately hooked!

 

I actually can't remember when I discovered BJDs! I know that several years back, I saw some at a convention and found out what they were, but never really researched them until fairly recently. I was into Monster High dolls for a bit, so customizing dolls wasn't entirely new to me.

 

I was looking around on youtube and found myself in the lolita section,there was this girl with a Luts doll and she'd dressup and it amazed me and after that I've been hooked

 

I collected action figures and some Taeyang dolls. While I was browsing online I saw some bjd pictures and could not stop going back to look at them. It was not long before I ordered my first and from there on I was hooked.

 

I've always loved dolls! I ended up seeing bjds on instagram, googled them further, followed accounts, saw yt videos of unboxings etc. I didn't really feel the urge to REALLY get one until a year or two had gone, when I also saw them at a convention. By then I'd done a lot of research too, so thats good, I guess.

 

Eversince then, I been collecting a lot of vinyl fashion dolls. So I subscribe to some Fashion doll magazines. The first ad I think when I saw these Gothic Lolita looking dolls called Volks Super Dollfie. That's the first BJD that I encoundered and my obsession begin with resin ball jointed dolls! Like "gotta have it!"

 

I think I have known about them through the anime/manga community and going to various cons, and a friend of mine actually owns 3 of them but they haven't been in her apartment for quite a while cause of space.

But I hadn't given it much thought until the end of 2016 when I got more interested in them when I was searching around for ideas to a "prop" for a future cosplay (which I am now planning on turning toward Hujoo instead, cause of price issues) but I am really looking forward to the day I can buy one and shell one of my OCs into them!

 

There was an article in a doll collector's magazine about BJDs, specifically Volks dolls. They displayed them so beautifully in the pictures and they almost looked real. I thought they were unattainable due to the price, but my mom was supportive of me starting the hobby young, so I bought my first doll a year or so after that, I think? I got a Den of Angels account via an invite from someone who worked at Kerby Lane Doll Shop, a local shop that's since closed down (they were Volks dealers too, I believe). I miss that store so much...

 

I've collected fashion dolls for more than a decade, so I've been sortof adjacent to BJDs for a long time. That is to say, I've known what they are, admired pictures, etc. But between the price and the size (I really like my playscale dolls, and was always afraid that something SD sized would be way too big for me. And of course, all the sculpts I liked were SD sized), I've never really wanted to actually get into the hobby. I've just stayed on the sidelines and admired them from afar.

But then Soom released Aslan, and I fell head over heels in love with him in a way I've never fallen for a doll before.

I didn't buy him at the time, but it's been more than a year and I'm still in love. So when I got a line on one in the secondhand market, I took the plunge. I'm currently making payments on him, and he'll be my first BJD. Here's hoping everything goes well!

 

I saw my first my BJDs on a german Manga and Anime forum, if I remember correctly it was around 2005/2006. They were so cute and I loved the possibility to customize them with different wigs and eyes. I discoverd the Volks website (the only company-name I knew at that time), looked up the prices and rejected the idea to buy one. In addition to the high price their standard dolls weren't that appealing on the photos. Later I got to know other doll companies like Luts and Dollzone. With Dollzone releasing their MSD-fullsets in late 2007, I had the option to obtain a fully equipped doll from a german dealer and I finally got my first doll in spring 2008.

 

For me, it was watching Monster-High face-up tutorials on Nicole's Dream. I think her face-ups are so cool and want to do some myself. She also does face-ups on BJD's so when I saw them on her channel, I was hooked. Prior to this, the only time I had even seen a picture of a BJD was while looking through google images of Anne Rice Characters. Her characters are apparently pretty common BJD subjects.

 

I blame instagram for getting me into bjds... and a lot of other things *shakes fist at instagram*
I saw someone using a doll to make practice garments and a lightbulb went off in my head. I hoard all these gorgeous vintage sewing patterns, but I will never ever have the occasion to wear some of them. But I could still get the thrill of making them if I re-size them for a doll! And that is how I ended up with my first Raccoondoll... her proportions are pretty much perfect. Then I fell down the rabbithole for real and ordered a Souldoll Kid girl and a Dollzone, and now I'm trying to rein myself in!

 

At roughly the same time, I came across BJDs in passing, and read a book for class (Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age) that made me want a doll of the main character. I've flirted with the hobby on and off for five years now, but I'm finally saving for my first dolls! They won't be that character, but she's still on my list.

 

This is a really wonderful memory for me. What got me into BJDs my best friend in college. We used to hang around with a group of friends that had created an anime club on campus. I've always been into anime and video games like that as a kid (and too this day) and wanted to find people that were into the same things as well. It just so happened that AFTER we graduated from college we met up again at a local coffee shop. They were having a BJD doll meet. At the time I had no idea what they even were. My mother and I went and I was enchanted. I wanted one so bad. However, over the years I forgot about them and started other hobbies.

In 2015 I thought about them again and got a great new job that allowed me to pretty much just throw money at an insane amount of things. So I decided, what the heck, I'll get a doll. Now I have three in hand and two on the way. My friend and I have fallen out of contact, not because we weren't great friends but when you move and do other things you just kind of fall off. However, I will be forever grateful for her and my other friends for introducing me to the dolls.

 

For me, my partner was into them before I met her. At first I was a little unsure, more familiar with the quite common "dolls are creepy" prejudice. This quickly changed once I was able to get hands-on with her SD dolls. I was able to see how finely they are made, and my opinion moved to viewing them more like art than toys. They make a perfect focus for her talents of painting, sewing and photography, all combined, and has a large and respectful community to boot.

I'm sold, and having just ordered my first doll, excited to join in!

 

I came across a doll named Rei on dA, but didn't think of getting one, until I saw Amare Dolls' stand at MCM Comic Con Belgium, and totally fell in love with the hobby!

 

hi all i just wanted to know what first got you into this hobby, was it an art perspective, curiosity or a collectors view?

 

For me, I've been interested in bjds for a little while after reading Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto, as it mentions Volks. Curious, I looked it up and found them to be really pretty, but being in high school and having seen the price of them, I put them out of my mind and decided to stick to just admiring photos of them.

Fast forward some years later, I started getting into Ever After High dolls, which led me to Pullip dolls, which exposed me to bjds again. I learned that there were more companies out there outside of Volks, and a friend of mine had some bjds of her own, and I became more enchanted by them.

Eventually I found a picture of Luts' KDF Corni and I fell completely in love! She was the first bjd that made me really want to own one, so I saved up so I could get her. ^_^ I ended up getting her in April of last year, and I have been growing my collection slowly since then. xD

 

I don't remember how I came across the term "bjd", but I remember that the first site I browsed was Dream of doll. I remember thinking "600 usd for a doll? No way". Also, at that time I didn't know anything about shipping and customs fees (I was more or less 15 yrs old), so thank God I "learnt the tricks of the hobby" recently, when I started my figure collection. I made up my mind one year ago and joined DoA and looked through all the new dolls until I found THE doll.

 

I was just a really nerdy anime loving 6th grader at the time and i stumbled across fairylands page and the first doll that caught my eye was a minifee chloe that made my heart drop. i was hooked. i got her in my freshman year of high school and will continue to love her forever. now that i am in college it's nice to have something to cope with the stress

 

A loooooong time ago (like, 2006) (I was 11) I was super interested in lolita fashion. Not that I had the ability to get in to it in any way, but, you know, young weebs gonna weeb. Well, I stumbled across a picture of a girl in an old school coord with a matching BJD. That, along with finding the Encyclopedia Dramatica (geeze, there's a name I haven't thought about in decades) article about Den of Angels, I found myself reading about BJDs. Somehow, I ended up on the Luts website, enamored by these pretty dolls but so off put by the price tag because I knew my mom would never buy me one. And you had to paint their faces YOURSELF? Or pay EXTRA? What do you mean they don't come with eyes!? I pushed the thought away...

...Then it resurfaced last year. I had just gotten in to collecting anime figures, and it just sort of happened. I fell in love with the Unoa Zero, I think, and began my descent deeper in to the hobby. Then I found Dollfie Dream, and knew this was the right hobby for me. I'm very happy my brain held on to this thing from a decade ago.

 

At first, I was into anime and fantasy, then I started to collect small dolls (like Monster High, Pullip, Momoko and others). At one of the doll meetings in our town I've met a girl who had many BJD. She invited me to her house and it was first time in my life when I saw BJD live. I thought that they're so huge and uncomfortable compared with small dolls) But with time I understood that BJD are very beautiful, they offer lots of possibilities for craft and art, you can make any character you want. So, I've bought my first BJD head and then bought a body for it. Now I have five BJD and I love them all very much)

 

With me it was a love of dolls in general!
I've loved dolls since I was a young lad & several years ago I got one as a gift/trade & though I sold him I've been gaining ground on my collection since late 2015 with five more boys coming...

 

When I was smol, 10-11ish, I was very much into Tokio Hotel, and googled for everything I could to satisfy my fangirl greed. I stumbled over a blog called 'Puppenjungs' whose owner had custom bjds of Bill and Tom, even showed the dolls to them and such. I was very amazed, started looking around and soon collected a lot of knowledge about these dolls. What at first started off as a wish to have my custom Kaulitz twins, ended up in swooning for dolls and making them my own characters. That was the point in my life where I stopped admiring idols and fell in love with dolls, haha..
I believe the first one I saw, or remember seeing was Elfdoll Wu. Then I fell in love with Dollmore Kyle Reese and after years and years of loving I gave up on them, only to briefly spot two girls carrying bjds around on a con. That was an immediate strike and since then, I couldn't get my eyes off bjds. Years later my wallet cries but I'm happy, so thanks, Tokio Hotel. Too bad the blog seems to be down .-.

 

Hmm, for me it was simply seeing pics of bjd's on google while searching for something else and thinking, wow, these are pretty! Then years later I saw this otome game about dolls coming to life, did some research and found out they were something I could actually buy Still took me another few years before I actually bought one though!

 

In the beginning it was the purchase of a big beautiful doll. And then I remembered that I like to photograph, knit and just to communicate with people.

 

I saw a Volks dollfie (the Barbie sized ones) at an anime convention when I was 14ish. I really wanted one and asked a whole bunch of questions. Owner was distracted and I got the distinct impression she though I was trying to steal the doll because she quickly picked it up and put it away. When I got home I googled "Folks dollie" (it was loud in the convention and I couldn't understand her well) and couldn't find the cute doll so I gave up.

Then when I 19 I stumbled across a lolita blog and the owner had Volks' super dollfies. I freaked out when I realized they came in jumbo size and had to have one. At the time I couldn't afford any of he Volks dolls, so I started with a Ringdoll who I liked just as much and slowly moved up the budget from year to year.

 

I got into the hobby about 2007-08 ish time I think but didnt get my first doll til 2015. I was first introduced to them on deviantart and was so curious about them I googled everything I could about them as well as stalked the galleries on deviant art hehe

 

I first got into the hobby because I stumbled into it from dolls/ dollhouses/ miniatures.
I love the sizes of the larger dolls.
The mobility of the dolls is wonderful.
I like that there is a big craft aspect to this hobby.
Oh and the accessories...I drool over accessories.

 

When i went to a lolita meet one of my friends told me that she collects bjd's, She told me to JUST DO IT! and i was like okaay...and now i have 5 dolls hahaha xD Ive always envied bjd's and really wanted one but i never asked myself why dont you just get one? I think my friend telling me to get one made me realize i should :P

 

I found these dolls in the strangest way ever. Looking for Got7 dolls on taobao. At one point they stopped making the Got7 plush dolls and I was new to the fandom. I got desperate and stumbled across Taobao. Not sure how I did it, but I managed to buy my Jackson plush with NO agent and a crappy translator! To make a long story short, I found IOS dolls on taobao and just couldn't believe they were so expensive and not even Tonner. I did my research, found Luts and Crobi websites which were WAY easier to use than Taobao(thank god because I didn't know anything about recast). Thats how I ended up getting my first Luts. I sold him though.

 

One of my friends was talking about how she wanted one and I was intrigued, so she showed me some pictures. I was hooked after that, but didn't buy one until 2016. So there was a good seven or eight years in between that.