What single thing can you blame for getting you into BJDs?

Clearly remember someone showing me a Volks Rozen Maiden Shinku in a chatroom way back in early '07. The doll was just so cool, but thought I'd never be able to afford one ever, plus to begin with I thought Volks was the only place you could get these dolls at all. Did I get wiser!

 

Emmmm it has to be Pili puppet theaters, you might be familiar with them through their Pili series or the Thunderbolt Fantasy series. The puppets have wooden heads and they are just gorgeous, they sell the puppets and I thought they were too expensive. They then had a collaboration with LoongSoul, and that is how I get to know bjd…(I later still bought one of the puppets though, they are not so much more expensive than an id75 boy after all)

 

I'm pretty sure I posted in this thread before (it was probably a while ago though), so I'll post an updated singular reason for getting me invested in the hobby:

Realism. There, I said it. I hated Barbie as a kid, and had vacillating interest in other doll brands over the years (a stint of mindlessly collecting Bratz dolls without any real attachment; a short-lived fascination in the Winx Club tie-in dolls; some random other fashion dolls that caught my eye for one reason or another; my stronger, yet still not as passionate, period of collecting Pullip/Taeyang/etc dolls to hybrid and customize; amongst a slew of others I can't remember). None of them, however, really held my interest in the same way that bjds have.

And that's heavily tied into the realism factor of bjds over other style dolls. Jointing that allows for more natural posing. Faces with a higher level of detail in their features—whether sculpted or painted/etc in the faceup process. Larger scale options that allow for more levels of detail (especially in certain regions). Anatomical correctness. None of this smoothing over the details or sculpting on plastic undies. BJDs allow for the more natural, human experience in comparison to 99% of fashion dolls (yes, there are exceptions to this, but I have no interest in those bjds in particular. I'm also aware that there's some exaggeration in some semi-realistic lines, but those are still much closer to realistic over the alien proportions of Barbie and the like.)

 

My curiosity to lear everything about dolls, i was looking for information about Dal dolls and found a bjd pic, so I change the subjetc of study from one type of dolls to an other

 

I saw a Nobledolls Raspberry on Pinterest while looking at other things (I can't even remember what, now). That's what sucked me into the rabbit hole. xD

 

Always loved dolls my whole life but I could never afford a lot of them growing up. I also loved anime and I remember wanting a character from an anime but couldn’t find any plushie or doll of her. So I wanted to make one. I discovered obitsu and pullips but they were a little expensive for me so I couldn’t get one right away. And than I discovered dollfie dreams while looking through custom dolls of anime characters and it made me want one even more. But over time I stumbled upon bjd and I liked the aesthetics more.

 

Small clothes.

 

During a long boring night, I've lost myself on the web and find a picture. A cosplay of Luke and Duncan from Dream of doll and then I've made some research about the characters and discovered an entire new world-
I can blame my boring time ?

 

Honestly bjds freaked me out at first. Then I spent an entire con in a room of BJD owners and they took me to a meet....
I ended up seeing them in a whole new light and falling in love with them. Got my first 2 girls about a year later.

That was almost 10 years ago....

 

In Sept 2008, my friend Maryfairy5 showed me an Elfdoll she had just gotten & I thought the price was astronomical. Then, as I drove away, I got to thinking about making historical clothing for that size doll (SD) & suddenly I was hooked. By that November I bought an "affordable" Dollinian, went to my first meetup & was happily immersed.

 

I've always liked dolls and action figures, so more than anything else that got me into bjds was the customizability. That I could have a doll with whatever eyes or hair and so on that I wanted blew my mind!

 

It’s all Cheritz fault. I played their otome game Nameless and fell in love with bjds.

I didn’t know they existed before this. Then I was googling about the game and learned that the dolls in the game were based on actual bjds (Crobidoll). This left me with a strong desire to have my fav character,Lance, as a doll. I do not regret it

 

YouTube with a suggested video while trying to broaden my scope of dolls from just monster high and Liv dolls. So happy to have heard about them and have never looked back!

 

The Sims. I've always collected dolls, but had never heard of BJDs or resin dolls of any kind. I was waaaay into playing the original Sims game and participating in a forum called Neighborhood 99. We mostly talked about our Sims game, but part of the forum was for talking about other hobbies. A bjd collector showed photos of her dolls. I googled and found out about them. I then joined a small BJD forum. I fell in love and in 2011 started collecting BJDs.
And by the way, I continued to play all future versions of The SIms until 3 years ago when I got Windows 10 and my games would no longer play.

 

I'd vaguely heard of the bjd community through my boyfriend while he was customizing old monster high dolls, but I didn't really think much of it until I came across a bjd-inspired crochet pattern I used to make dolls based on my characters. Needless to say, I went down a rabbit hole and kept coming back for several months before biting the bullet and ordering one!

 

Seeing some beautiful dolls on Pinterest. Years before I had seen Dollfies but forgot about them.
I was never really into dolls growing up, but I love the intricacy of BJDs.

 

I have been into doll customizers on YT for many, many years but hands down the reason I wanted BJDs is having friends who own a few. It was something I forgot about for awhile, until I realized 'oh my god, I'm financially stable. I could just, like, finally get one.' Which quickly became two, three, four....

 

My ex girlfriend. We met through RPs. One day (long before she became my girlfriend, when we were 12 and 15yo) she sent me a photo of BJD doll with the comment “ohh, look, what a beautiful, unusual doll”. And I did a research, fell in love with these, bought first one when I was 19, and it became my greatest hobby. I’m really thankful for that!

 

I use to do some role playing boffer fighting. When my long standing character helped save the world and retired to the realm of faire, I wanted a way to remember her. However I didn't have the income at the time so I stared at the doll for years.

Finally after 7 years, I am in a place where I have the income and place to store the doll and protect them from my children.

 

thats a really wonderful story, it seems like a lovely way to savor her memory. Have you finished outfitting that doll of your oc?

 

Very much due to my friends lol

I hadn't even heard of bjds until last year, but here we are! I just love the creativity that comes with the hobby, chances to be artistic again in an adult life can be hard to find, so this is a great outlet for that!

 

It began with the doll customizing community (Dollightful, Moonlight Jewel, Poppen Atelier, etc)
But then BJDs began to show up on my Pinterest Feed... I have been hooked on them ever since.

 

There are various things behind my choise of finally starting to collect BJDs, obviously, but I think it was just that I saw Dollzone Megi available on a Facebook group. He was always my childhood favourite and I just knew that I was ever about to buy a BJD, this was it. I did what felt right and bought the boy home.

 

A childhood love of Barbies, and learning about BJDs at anime conventions. Seeing them in person, and hanging around the community is what really sparked my interest.

 

Monster High dolls for sure

 

I always loved dolls as a kid, especially monster high. When i was about 12, i started watching monster high doll customizations on youtube and got super interested and involved with that hobby! i eventually started playing this game called sky: children of the light, and while searching art of the game's characters i found images of a custom bjd someone made of their little character in the game that just had me absolutely enthralled. i jumped from link to link trying to find out what this doll was, since it was way more detailed and (in my opinion) nicer looking than the fashion dolls i was into. i eventually found the term bjd, searched "affordable bjd doll" on google (since i'd seen they could be really expensive) and found a video on resinsoul dolls! i totally got super interested in resinsoul dolls specifically, and just this year i purchased my first doll which was a resinsoul mei! another bjd that i had seen way before i got into the hobby or knew what it was were culurtheory dolls which are still to this day my DREAM DOLL (any of them). i hope to one day save enough money to look into getting one secondhand so if i could blame one single thing out of all that; it would probably be draculaura

 

I got a new job and could finally afford one! Lol. I had been a doll collector for years, but mostly play-line and off-topic 1/6th dolls, but BJD's were actually what got me interested in dolls in the first place outside of the ones I had grown up with. So it felt like a bit of a full circle moment recently when I got my first BJD.

 

It'd be mostly my friend, she got me intrested in collecting MH dolls, which led to being enamored by doll customizers, and that led to bjds.

 

I've always thought they were cool but I fell in love with the Simply Divine Thomas sculpt at first sight bc he's perfect for my OC. I want to make him real!

 

I first saw BJDs at an anime convention when I was a child. I've always wanted one but could never justify purchasing one until I started working, when I mostly forgot about it.
Then came the Youtube boom of doll customization and all those feelings came rushing back.

 

Purchasing 3d print files of bjd dolls from design artists. And printing them. It's a slippery slope.

 

I would say my friend got me into the hobby for sure.

 

Definitely the Internet. And doll forums. They are virulent.

 

An obsession with the manga magazine Shoujo Beat, which led me to the book Japan Ai, which was written by one of the founders of this site. Played well with my lifelong love of dolls.

 

Aimee Major Steinberger. I followed her art since junior high and stumbled across her BJD page when I was about 15 years old. Fell in love instantly with her Unoa Lusis.

 

Without a doubt; my uncle.

Many years ago (in a small California town, far, far away), my uncle, on the eve of his overseas deployment, gave me his Talking G.I.Joe land adventurer; a 12" action figure (doll) that was partially a strung figure. This started me on a lifetime of collecting dolls and action figures. It was only natural to get into BJDs for me once I'd discovered them.

 

I think I read a book about bjds and then happened to see a tv program in Korea (I only visited once, but was the best and happiest moment in my life.) about bjds specifically about Volks. I wanted to buy one in Korea, but my mom wouldn't let me. she thought they were some nasty sort of dolls and didn't listen to me explain what they really were. Anyway, I couldn't get one then, but later I did. It was a gift from my sister which led me to buy more bjds because it was the most expensive gift I ever received and helped me get over the insane prices. I wouldn't say it's the best gift because my sister got me a puppy too which is even better. Once i got over the money part I bought more. Why did she buy me the bjd as a gift? I know she got me a puppy because i was lonely and she couldn't spend much time with me. I didn't think she would agree, since we already have other dogs. In the end she agreed to another dog.

I would say it wasn't the book, the TV program, or exactly the gift my sister got me, but rather my loneliness. I wanted to surround myself with people, but not get abandoned and hurt. I wanted to create my dolls to have a loving family. So in the end my loneliness drove me to really seriously join the bjd hobby and Doa.

 

What mostly got me into BJDs was actually Pullips. I saw a DDII body with a Pullip head hybrid, which quickly lead me down the rabbit hole of Dollfie Dreams and then Super Dollfies

 

As I'm sure was the first introduction for a lot of people given how popular they were, Elfgutz's dolls were what initially got me interested in dolls. Their FAQ page was super helpful for me when finding my first doll, and they were very nice to me when I reached out with questions that weren't on there. I appreciate their help getting me into the hobby. Even as a little girl I never played with any dolls, they never interested me, but when I saw a more unique and artistic take on them for the first time I was intrigued. I got a job as soon as I was legally allowed to work, saved up money to get a doll, and now years later I'm here with more dolls than I know what to do with at this point haha.

 

I think for me it was Rozen Maiden and also some really old Dream of Doll sculpt.

 

For me it started with a game called 'Nameless ~The one thing you must recall~'. At first, I did think it was a little creepy living with lifelike dolls, but the more I discovered about it, the more comforting it felt to me, to have something of your own creation always be with you, a certain constant in your life. But what really tipped me over was another game called 'Nier: Automata' and the subsequent Volks dolls that followed. I was absolutely crushed I also missed that preorder period but that also pushed me to seriously get into the BJD hobby.

 

Myself. My love of beauty things and I really want to have them

 

There were collectors posting their doll photos on Deviantart that looked so mesmerising!! That was probably ten years ago and at the time I just couldn't wrap my head around how BJDs worked XD but they looked so cool and it awakened something in me

 

I was looking around on taobo then I saw a beautiful images of dollshe David and I just fallen in love with him. Start my research for bjd.

 

instagrams for you page

 

Back in the 00’s (2005?)I saw many girls going around cons bringing their dolls with them. I’ve been always a doll lover, so I was very impressed by the size and the amount of details. I bumped into a small group and I asked them if they mind me asking them about their dolls. They were very nice and they told me about the eyes, makes, hair… I loved that they’re were dressed casual style too.
Then I did my research, joined a BJD forum of my country and started saving.

 

The pandemics… i love to take portraits. And during the lockdown it was impossible to meet people. So I substituted people with dolls xD. That was the time when i get into this…. Now i have like 10 dolls.

 

Pinterest scrolling.

 

I have to thank my adamant searching I was looking for fantasy boy references for my original characters and eventually stumbled upon soom clicked chrom bane of wood who was released at the time and was instantly pulled in. He was everything I wanted for my wolf boy character.

 

Single thing? Going through hell on earth. I had life necessities covered and extra money to spend, but I going through a really tough time in my work and it was spilling into personal life. My mental health was in shambles, and I was looking for an outlet/distraction to numb the pain. BJDs were it.

I'd already known about BJDs for a while, but it took going through that really tough season (it lasted a few years) to tip me into buying my first doll and getting into the hobby. Dolls didn't help with my RL trouble, and the hobby got frustrating after a while, but they sure were a distraction and a bit of pleasure in what was a really dark time in my life.

Thankfully I'm in a much better life situation now and my mental health is also much better. I'm also able to enjoy my dolls and the wider hobby a lot more now. I'd rather not go through hell on earth again, but if not for that, I wouldn't be in this hobby.

 

My friend! He showed me his bjd and I immediately fell in love with the little clothes and how he was able to make real, physical versions of his ocs. I knew I wanted to join the hobby, too.

Funnily enough, I ended up buying that bjd!

 

It started when I was little when I loved playing with Barbies and baby dolls. I was destined to be obsessed with BJDs many years later.

 

Actually I never really liked dolls as a child but when I was 17 I came across the DoD website and like so many fell in love with Dukan! At the time I couldn’t afford it and lived in a country that steals your packages when they don’t tax you more than the value of the merchandise itself. So that was it, gave up for almost 10 years. A lot changed than and after I settled on a country that I could actually have them I found them again and fell in love again! This time I didn’t have to hold back though!

 

tumblr pastel goth aesthetics & fashion!! from there it was this creator called elfgutz- they're also on IG. to this day I love their work. they were how I first found out about bjds- at the time there was absolutely no way I could afford to enter the hobby (I was like 16) so I settled for pics.

I don't know how I came across the popovy sisters more recently, but they reignited my interest and after about a year, I gave in and bought a doll off marketplace that I thought was super cute. part of me wants to try to save up in case the popovy sisters start doing faceups/painted dolls again, but it would still be a bigger investment than I'm comfortable with.

 

I really wanted a new outlet for my art... I already draw on paper, but my characters felt so intangible since theyre only 2D. So i looked into mass-produced dolls and decided they werent for me, since theyre a bit limited in terms of face/body... But when I found BJDs I knew I wanted at *least* one.. the size and variety of sculpts were what got me "^_^).

 

I've always loved dolls. First Barbie then other fashion dolls. But YouTube brought me into BJD's. I love the customizations.

 

The pandemic. Any more specific than this, I have no idea. Knowing me, it was probably Tumblr.

 

I saw a YouTube video on customizing a Hujoo Freya and Freyr doll.

 

I was looking at kitbashes on Japanese Twitter - stuff like Acid Bufferzone - and someone on those accounts posted a DC Gladys promo. The pictures of the Y-Body-03 were so cool. I had no idea about strung dolls before.

 

Pixel artists in the dolling/digital dollz subgenre in the early/mid-2000's. I think specifically an artist who went by "Sakura No Hime", but there were several who had bjd's back in the day, so I can't really say for sure...