What originally got you into BJDs?

I got in bjds by getting into Barbies and Monster High dolls. I watched I few faceup videos for Monster High dolls, which featured some bjds.

 

My daughter. I totally blame her She showed me videos of people doing face ups on other dolls, which led to research, which led to talking about Blythe dolls (I had one of the originals when I was a kid, but guessing she is long gone somewhere ) which led to more research, and then BAM! Now I'm done for

 

Aesthetics. Pictures of them were around since I was little but I didn't really know what they were until some time in high school (I think it was a forum post on some website that mentioned 'BJD' and I was like what's that). After googling them I was hooked and started saving up

 

I saw a post on Instagram by elfgutz and I saw how cool bjds really are and how creative you can be with them!

 

I started with other dolls like pullips and azones until I discovered Bjd's and fell in love with them. Also, Sighthoundlady drove me to Lillycats

 

You know, I'm not quite sure.

I seem to remember seeing some years before I started looking in earnest. But, I really don't recall how I got into the hobby five years ago. I guess I was driving myself to distraction from the terrible news we had just received regarding my mum's health; I headed online and, I think, I was driven by those first few I saw some years previous to search them out again. But, I hadn't made a mental note of what those dolls were; they might have been BJDs, I didn't study them, just admired them. I didn't even recall the company. Then, five years ago, I somehow stumbled on bjds again, at a time of great hardship, and picked out Alex. Apart from a minor hiccup, regarding almost packing him off to a new home, I've not looked back.

 

My grandmother had two asian geisha dolls that were jointed, but not made of resin. I'm not sure what they were made of, but they were soft. They had beautifully painted faces with delicate eyelashes and very intricate clothing. They were the prettiest things I had ever seen and I adored them. My grandmother used to let me hold them and pose them. I have no idea what happened to them after she passed away, but those two dolls played a big part in my young life. Thinking of them eventually led me to pictures of dolls, BJDs in particular. I loved how detailed and customisable they were and I was immediately drawn to them. The rest is history.

 

I remember seeing some amazing Soom boys years ago, and then found out about two years ago that my amazing coworker actually had a few lovely guys. She ended up talking them up quite a bit and I thought they were lovely, so now I'm searching to get one for myself. I'm already a figure collector, so why not add a BJD or two (...or more) to the group!

 

I got interested in BJDs years ago, when I was 13-14ish?
I would be on DeviantArt, and I loved seeing people post images of their dolls and all of the face-ups and modifications they would do to make the dolls there's.
Then I got busy with other hobbies, like collecting nendoroids, and I forgot about BJDs for a while.
I finally took the step to join the BJD hobby last year, when a some-what friend/person I followed on DA started talking about ordering her first doll and getting into the hobby.
I asked her about it, and we talked about various sculpts and companies, and before I knew it, Opal was ordered

 

I went to a convention and there they were: a ton of beautiful dolls. If I had known their prices, I would have walked away immediately.

 

I wanted to flesh out my characters to physical forms. After trying to make clay sculptures of them and failing I almost gave up. So a search on google for highly customizable dolls brought up pictures of bjds!

 

back in high school i saw a picture of a pretty bjd on the internet. i think it was a Dream of Doll bjd and she was really pretty. Ever since I always wanted to own one but I sort of forgotten about it until years later when I went to a local cosplay/anime event and there was a BJD display. I told myself then that I would buy my own bjd when I got off college and I did!

 

First First time when I learned about BJDs was some random encounter on DA but back then I only thought that they were pretty dolls, nothing to write home about.

First time I actually saw a doll and learned a bit more about them was through my Cosplay hobby (that was "surprisingly" sparked by my massive love for anime and manga) in uhmm... -05? -06?- I'm not sure anymore if I first learned about them through Anime magazine (article about them) or at my first convention (there was a girl in full lolita getup and she had this antique stroller where they had two(?) dolls) but it was definitely the moment when I actually became interested in them. Of course when I googled them up and found out about prices I was turned away as cosplay was way more interesting for me and I didn't want second insanely expensive hobby :'D

...Aaaand then in 2010 I ordered my first doll straight from the company and maybe a month later I bought my second doll so "she wouldn't be lonely" that ended up arriving sooner (she was second hand) than the one I ordered first :'D

 

It was a long while ago that I saw a BJD called Moon by I think Luts. He had these really pretty robes and silver/white hair iirc.
I don't remember the manufacturer or how I came across him but I remember he was simply beautiful. It was my first time seeing a BJD at that. I didn't think dolls could be so detailed and cool and above all, not creepy af.
However, back then I was very young and there was no way I could have afforded it. Since then, I've just sort of lurked and every once in a while would sneak a peak at what Luts had on their website. I didn't really look further beyond that because I couldn't afford them. It wasn't until recently when I did my usual random sneak peak at Luts and BJD's in general that I learned that there are soooo many more options. So now, armed with this knew knowledge, I am searching for my first bjd.

 

For me it was the Rozen Maiden anime xD That's how I first heard about the dolls though it was many years ago and then I kind of forgot about them? But I was so surprised and so happy when I found out that those dolls actually exist...

 

I had seen a few pictures of them passed around a bunch of ~aesthetic~ tumblrs I followed a few years ago and was totally fascinated. I spent an entire summer researching and thinking about which one I should get, and then forgot about them completely for the rest of highschool- mostly because I did not have the money for what I really wanted. I only got back into them within the last few months because I finally had enough of my own money to afford them ^__^

 

A friend of mine is heavily involved with the hobby since many years back and had showed me her dolls and whatnot, but it wasn't before I did my own research and stumbled upon the gorgeous Iplehouse YID Gentle Freezia that I got really hooked.

 

What got you to like BJDs?

 

My mother until a few years ago had been gifting me porcelain dolls for Christmas every year. She slowly changed to other types of dolls until the last few years she has given me Pullip dolls. When I was around 13 I first saw BJDs and loved them but never was able to afford them until this year. At first I wanted to mostly do Pullips, but then I started watching Andreja's channel on YouTube, and she reminded me of how awesome BJDs are, so I decided to research it now that I'm 24 and was able to finally buy my first one! ^_^ I mostly want to get into it for the crafting and customizing aspect. At first just clothes, but then got into faceups and such as well!

 

Rozen Maiden back when I was in middle school, haha. I was obsessed with the manga and after the anime got popular a lot of companies began making dolls for the characters and I was in love with all of them.
When I learned you could customize them that just spurred on my urge to have one! The idea of being able to have a physical version of one of my characters really appealed to me because its the closest thing you can have to a human version of them. To this day, I still really want one of the suitcases the dolls in Rozen Maiden come in.

 

I saw a picture of them on the Internet and it was like a door opened in my heart. I found a sculpt I liked and Archer has been in my life ever since. I plan to get another to further his story.

 

Mine's a little odd. I've always collected toys and figures from films. I loved LotR and the hobbit, and I wanted a toy of Lee Pace as Thranduil... But all the ones available were terrible. They just looked nothing like him, and I was disappointed. I set about trying to find a better one, and then thought of commissioning a 1/6 head sculpt on etsy. While on etsy, I stumbled upon the Modoll Thranduil sculpt and thought it was amazing, so I looked up 'BJD' and thought they were like action figures, but much, much better. Customisable and beautiful. I bough him, with no idea about anything BJD related, and ordered a body from Telesthesia. I still have him, and I still think he's brilliant!

 

A few years ago, I was researching Smart Dolls because a lot of people around me were praising them. The facial style of the doll line was not my thing, so I looked up BJD companies instead and found Iplehouse. I did not buy anything, but I really liked the concept of customizing my own doll. I suddenly remembered about Iplehouse for some random reason last month. I looked up the website and decided I should search for other BJD companies that would appeal to me the most. I discovered SWITCH and Crobi Doll and now I'm here.

 

Back when I went to a boarding school, my roommate (and later best friend) and I were searching for J-rock cosplays. We were heavily into Japanese pop culture. We stumbled upon Izam's Gazette cosplays, and after researching them we decided it was way too expensive. But less than a year later we both bought our first dolls.

 

I saw Tonner dolls and fell in love with Ellowyne. Customizing was good but then I found my first elf girl by Kaye Wiggs and I was beside myself. I love all things Fae and her sculpts are so amazing I kept adding more. I really got into sewing and making wings. But I love the SD size so much so I started getting more of that size and I have never been happier.

 

I've always been obsessed with all kinds of dolls and while looking up Fire Emblem figures I came across two dolls styled as Ike and Soren. When I did a little research and found how customizable these dolls were I was instantly hooked on the idea! That was almost five years ago and I just got to a place in life where I was able to order my first doll.

 

I've always loved dolls and toys, I've always collected dolls but I was also envious of people who did repaints on Barbie, as I never got the courage to wipe their faces.
One of my best friends showed me her customized Volks Dollfie and Obitsu dolls; I was in bliss when I learned there were customizable toys that were actually meant to be customized.
It was then that I stumbled across Volks' Shirou Tachibana and decided to give large resin dolls a chance. I did get some Volks Dollfie, but thought it would be a million times easier to paint
larger heads than "1:6" tiny faces. I got a Volks DD, and was immediately in love with the endless possibilities. When I got my first blank resin doll a few years later I was even more in love with
the customizability of resin. I still enjoy my larger dolls, but feel a lot more attracted to the 1:6 world. Maybe it's because of the wide availability of props in that scale, or because you can actually
find things in that scale that look properly sized next to the toys, but I am not a huge fan of out of scale buttons, buckles, etc.. It's a pain to find closures for larger dolls, even if sewing for larger dolls is easier for me,
I still prefer making things for my smaller dolls because it's easier to find sewing notions that look better scaled on smaller dolls (with the exception of metal separating zippers). Regardless, it was the
customizability of these dolls that got me into the hobby; if I had been a bit more brave about wiping Barbie's faces back then, I would probably not have gotten into "BJD" but I don't regret having gotten the dolls I own now.

 

The never-ending search for unique male dolls!

I had a pretty good variety of female dolls growing up, but finding male dolls was different entirely. I got pretty bored of Ken and his fake tan and plastic hair pretty quickly. As a preteen, I often dreamed of doll companies that would let you customize your own boy dolls, like American Girl had Girl of Today (Now called Truly Me), something where I could choose his hair, eyes, skin color and more. Finding BJDs was like the dream I never thought could come true! I found them by accident when searching eBay for OOAK male dolls wayyyy back around 2002 or so.

Once I found BJDs, I said I only wanted boys because I had enough female dolls in other types, but somehow my collection ended up being half male, half female. :P

 

I thought they were pretty, and I fell in love with the idea of tailoring for them. They are the reason my sewing stash is so big. :P

 

Woah! I just got back home and saw a whole bunch of answers! XD

I will now read em. :3

 

I was actually on YouTube when I saw a random Bjd box opening, curious I clicked it and I as in love. I have always been into dolls and figurines but this was a whole new level. I did my homework and bought my first Bjd soon after. I'm very thankful for that LS box opening that introduced me to this amazing hobby

 

I was still a schoolgirl. I remember that I began to look for any information about models for the essay. Among the search results was Haneol Moon`s photography. This bjd was the first one I saw.

 

Ah, so I always had dolls as a kid, especially Barbies and assorted porcelain dolls. I never found the glass eyes unsettling but I really wanted dolls who looked like and could embody all the characters I imagined. When I saw my first BJDs at a convention, I knew these were the dolls I'd always wanted. I had to do a lot more searching before one sculpt in particular (KDF Bory) really stole my heart and I had to do a lot of saving and being patient before I could actually get my boy but now I have him I know this is the collecting hobby I should have gravitated to.

 

Growing up, I was never into dolls. That changed a few years ago when I fell hard into Monster High. I've been steadily looking at larger and weirder dolls ever since, but only finally decided I wanted a bjd when I found a sculpt I wanted. Making that leap was hard, because of the large gap in price, but buying one large doll vs several small dolls is going to be better for my space overall.

 

haha! What got me into dolls was a friend that already into dolls

 

When a certain off-topic fashion doll was released in resin a few years ago, I was skeptical -- what was this material? How did it feel? What did it look like compared to plastic? Why was it so much more expensive? Did I need to have this? So I started to look online for the feedback from other doll collectors who had already examined the new doll, and very quickly found comparisons to ball-jointed dolls. I'd never heard of them before, and was fascinated by the owner pics I saw. There was so much variation in the sculpts, and so much customization by the owners!

From there, I found my way to Alice's Collections, Peakswoods, Angell Studio, etc. There weren't very many BJD at the Austin Doll Show that year, but I looked at them closely. I did a lot of browsing of all the doll websites I could find -- and then I stumbled onto Iplehouse, just as they released The Addiction line, and I was totally smitten.

 

I was more a stuffed animal person than a doll person growing up, though I loved my American Girl Molly.

I can't remember when I first heard about BJDs, but I didn't go looking for one of my own until I heard a tree in my parents' yard was going to be cut down. That tree had always been an imaginary friend of a sort since I was a kid, so I went looking for a physical representation of the tree's spirit and ended up finding a secondhand BJD (a Resinsoul Ming) that looked pretty close to how I imagined him. I'm loving how customizable and posable these dolls are - it's very inspiring and comforting having physical representations of characters that have long lived in my mind. ^_^

 

Two words: Angelic Layer.
It's an anime by CLAMP where there's this tournament and you make dolls fight with each other using your mind. At that point I discovered Volks and soon after that discovered even more BJD companies.

 

Danny Choo talking about Dollfie Dreams on his blog back in the day got me into DDs. From there I eventually got a Super Dollfie and... yeah. Too many dolls!

 

Pinterest and online shopping. Found these incredible beautiful pictures of human like dolls and found the cutest doll socks. Decided that I have to have the socks and a realistic doll for them.

 

Rozen Maiden! I started liking bjd after i watched this anime.

 

Always been a huge fan of dolls and I never outgrew my love for them. Happened to be browsing DeviantArt one day and saw this awesome picture of a Delf El. Never even heard of BJD before and it took me forever to figure out what I was looking at. Immediately piqued my interest when I learned it was a doll, so I went hunting for more info, and the rest is history.

 

I had stumbled across bjd hobbyist on DeviantArt who had been posting beautiful photographs of her dolls, and at the time I had never even heard of a ball jointed doll. Her photographs were so beautiful and the characters she created out of her dolls put the spark in me. I was super young at the time and definitely couldn't afford one but the idea of purchasing one some day never really left me.

 

I alway collected antique dolls, and i came across the obitsu kind of dolls some years ago...
I did not like them to much, but later one i found the fairylands, and luts dolls, and other then the antique dolls
These dolls can move and pose ... One one hand i feel like a kid, making them clothes and style their hair..
Maybe thats why i love theme so much....

 

Actually I got into it because my sister began to sculpt her own bjd by hand out of clay over the course of two years. She was always showing me the progress of it and telling me little tidbit facts. One day I decided to surf about on my own and check out other bjd out there. The customizableness of them really caught my eyes.

 

I was on taobao looking for nendoroid clothes and the store I was looking at sold BJDs as well so as I was filtering their shop by clothes, I stumbled upon all the beautiful BJD listings and fell in love and never looked back...