What were your "gateway" dolls?

Obitsu dolls. Definitely Obitsu dolls. I have five Obitsu dolls and then I got my first resin doll. I still have my Obitsu's and my Jun Planning Ai's that I got over the last few years (A cute tiny BJD in a fullset for 25-35 bucks? gimmeeeeh)

 

I started some wig and sewing practice on some Liv dolls I had but once I knew I wanted a bjd I kind of abandoned them as they weren't what I wanted haha. But it was nice to customise them for a while.

 

I never considered dolls to really be a hobby or a collection for me before I got into BJDs. Like, I had some Barbies I would play with with a neighbor as a kid but they were just toys to me, and I didn't really have interest in dolls of any sort from ages 12-20.

But looking back, I did have a couple of American Girl dolls (the Victorian girl Samantha and the Native American girl Kaya) which I absolutely loved and treated very carefully when I was really young, and I became fascinated with decorative porcelain dolls when I got a little older--I begged my parents for a Geppeddo fairy doll when I was probably 8, not to play with but just to have on a shelf because I thought it was so beautiful. So really BJDs are kind of a natural progression from that interest in more ornate, detailed types of dolls.

 

I collected Nendoroids for a couple years (still do) and one of my hobbies is making doll house furniture (usually 1/12 scale). I literally just worked my way up because my dolls started with a 1/12 (obitsu 11, who I originally got to pose with the 1/12 furniture I made), then I got a 1/8 (hz bjd, this doll is off-topic here), then came a 1/6 (my first actual bjd!), and eventually I got a 1/4. Eventually I'll take the plunge and get a 1/3, but for now my 1/4 are big enough.

 

Monster high dolls were my gateway doll as an adult buying dolls for myself. From there, I picked up some Jun Planning, Pullip, and several Tonner dolls, namely Evangeline Ghastly and Deja Vu.

 

It's a wee bit embarrassing... well not really I suppose. I didn't have dolls and I've never been into the Disney thing, but certain characters stick out in my head and one of them was Merida from Brave. On impulse I bought one when I was buying my niece a present, just to have her sitting on my desk or something as a reminder of the character. The problem is a $9 Disney doll looks like a $9 Disney doll and I wasn't happy with the way she looked (not like the movie) or that she had zero poseability. So I googled looking to see what other options were available... and down the rabbit hole we fell.

 

I had a huuuuge Barbie collection as a kid, though I always favored dolls styled after Disney heroines— my absolute favorite was Esmeralda, who I lost on the street in my childhood neighborhood (I carried her everywhere, you see). :c I never found her again.

I also had three American Girl dolls— Felicity, Kirsten, and Josefina, if you’re curious. Still have them, too... Somewhere...

But BJDs were the first inkling I ever got that you could *customize* dolls, and I’ve always loved the idea of a thing that belonged just to me. I do like that you can customize fashion dolls like Barbie, Monster High, etc., but I just like BJDs better. [/shrug] They fit my aesthetic, and you can be so much more specific with them.

 

I never really had a gateway doll persay, but i think fashion is what got me into dolls, i love lolita fashion and bjd brands like volks makes collabs with big name brands.
All my barbie dolls are currently beheaded from childhood.



my friend who got a doll before me. He had a snow miku for a few days and i literally bought a peakswood bjd a week after just browsing the web.

 

I fiddles around with customizing obitsu to make my OCs but they're kind of a failure of customization unless you're making pale skinned super skinny anime characters with about three face types....and pretty much nothing else. All your figures are the same body type and all super skinny and all have tiny feet- you have to go to big lengths to get it to look even slightly less like a cookiecutter anime character. I needed something better, with more real faces, in more colors, and with more body variety. BJDs still don't quite have the range I'd prefer but they're getting better and better since I got into this in 2009.

 

The first dolls I began to make stories and clothings for were my daugther's Corolle Chéries.
They are cute, but they all look the same in the end and can't really pose, so my daugther swap to BJD's and I followed.

 

I discovered Volks' Shirou Tachibana by accident in late 2003, because I was shopping for their "1:6" Dollfie line.
My computer back then didn't redirect me to the English website, and somehow I thought Shirou was a crazy expensive 12" fashion doll.
I fell in love with the customized Volks' Neo Goh Guys one of my friends owned; I always loved the idea of customizing my own dolls,
I've loved dolls pretty much since I was born. I got a lot of the Volks' 1:6 Dollfie first, because those were the ones I originally wanted,
but when I learned that Shirou was not a 12" doll, I decided I wanted a large vampire male doll to customize as well. It took me a long time to
get a resin boy, and I never actually got a "vampire" one but after many years, I did manage to own a large boy I customized to be my vampire prince. (:
I don't own all the Volks' Dollfie I used to, but I still love 1:6 dolls more than other scales, so I kept about three of the Neo Goh Guys, one of the Dollfie Plus girls,
the only little C-boy I ever got and one other of the thinner, younger but taller boys - I can't recall which letter he was. I kind of regret not keeping all the Neo Goh Guys,
now that Volks has completely discontinued their 1:6 line. I wish they would renew it someday, I don't really now why they don't continue with it seeing
how popular Obitsu repainted heads by Japanese artists seem to be on Y!J and eBay.

Edit to add that I've always collected dolls, pretty much since before I was born, because my parents were
kind enough to start a collection for me before I was born. I love dolls, so I have a large collection of other
types of dolls, it didn't start with BJD or Volks' Dollfie. I collected dolls long before, but Volks' Dollfie were
the first customizable dolls I ever owned.

 

This Obitsu Volks kinda thing, I don't even remember. Bought him 2007 in Japan, in that big multy-level doll store in Tokyo. Customized him to look like Takashi Ando (Yosuke Kubozuka) in IWGP, and later dressed him as an Israeli soldier whose name is now Zitlawi.

 

I was never a doll person, I didn't even play with barbies when I was little. I think the aesthetic of some of the anthro dolls drew my attention in my mid 20s and it spiralled from there. I now have a pullip and a few monster high dolls on display on top of fantasy BJDs.

 

I had a 27cm Obitsu boy and some Pullips first. I don't have them any longer, but I do have a little 23cm Obitsu with insertable eyes now.

 

Action figures! I wasn't a doll person.

 

Kokeshi dolls! I didn’t like any type of dolls until I saw my first Kokeshi and started collecting them. Kokeshi are very stylized folk/craft wooden dolls, not like most dolls. Somehow they started the desire for me to collect dolls. I started out with resin bjds, then I got into Obitsu and Figma.

 

I've always had dolls, It's in my blood (muhaha!)
But really, it kind of is.

My first doll (that I can remember) was a porcelain doll that had asian features and a small child that matched her. My mother wouldn't let me play with her, since I was 5-ish. But the dolls were "her and me" despite the fact that I'm not asian.

I collected Little Kiddles when I was a little older, Polly pockets, Barbies, and Baby so Beautifuls. When my mom got into reborn dolls I had one too named Gregory.

Sometime around my teenage years, I stumbled upon a Hautedoll magazine that was introducing Dollshe's Hound sculpt. It had an article on the artist. Then I was hooked.

I've also had Monster High dolls, Disney's Animator collection dolls, and a Pullip that hangs out at my house.

Lots of dolls.

 

I actually think BJD's were reverse gateway dolls for me. I wasn't particularly interested in any dolls until after I discovered BJD's and their customizability.

After I got my first bjd's, and decided how much I enjoyed the customizing aspect, the floodgates opened. Now, I have everything from Tonner dolls, to 1/6 action figures (Hot Toys and similar), to small dolls like Ruruko and Atomaru Doran Doran.

They're all very different aesthetics, and I tend to ping-pong between which ones I'm working on. I always end up back with my bjd's eventually, though.

 

I had porcelain dolls when I was a child. Lots of porcelain dolls. Like 50. I didn't play with them, just liked to look at their pretty faces.
I still have two now, even though I've moved continents and don't have much room.

I also used to collect Breyer horses, and I brought a handful of those with me, too.

 

I've always loved dolls. When I was a kid I had typical baby dolls such as Betsy Wetsy and Tiny Tears. When I was about 8 I got a 10 inch Little Miss Revlon with fashionable clothing and hi-heel feet. Wow, that was awesome. Finally something besides baby dolls. Then of course came Barbie when I was about 10. I loved Barbie. I had a Bubble Cut Barbie (never had the first pony tail Barbie), a Ken with flocked crew-cut hair, Skipper and Midge. Our family had several redheads, so my dolls all had to have red hair.
I don't have my original Barbies any more, but years later found out that the Ken with flocked red hair was very rare. Dang.

Started collecting dolls as an adult, with hard plastics of the 1950s such as Sweet Sue and other dolls by Ideal. That led to collecting vintage Barbies. I was totally into Barbie for many years. Even got a job as a sample maker at Mattel Toys, working in the Barbie design department. That was awesome. Worked there for 5 years and during that time got promoted to Design Assistant. Worked with legendary Barbie designers such as Carol Spencer, who designed fashions for the first Barbie. What a thrill that was.

Sold all my Barbies about 10 years ago because I needed money. But then I discovered BJDs in 2011. The first BJDs I saw were on Deviant Art and I had no idea they were actually something I could own. But then I joined a doll forum and bought my first BJD, and the rest is history. Now I own 13 BJDs and have 2 more on layaway.

I also have a few of the Barbie Fashionistas and a bunch of Monster High and Liv Dolls. Its an addiction, but I don't plan to get cured.

 

When I was a kid I flatout hated dolls. >> I was the tomboy kind of girl. But my one friend was REALLY into lolita fashion and dolls herself, and she showed me things she would find.

At first, I kind of liked Monster High, so that's the closest I can get to an actual doll "gateway." I had one and looked up how to customize them and was going to make an OC that way. But I couldn't get the hang of it and dropped of, and they were just SO TINY. Like their hands were near impossible to make gloves for (which my OC needed), their waists were nearly nonexistent, and their joints didn't place where I wanted, sometimes being too loose or tight. So I left off.

Then said friend showed me resin and I was fascinated. As a resin "gateway," the first doll I ever fell in love with was a DoD MSD called Twing-Key, in her pink and white getup. I STILL love her white hair and pink eyes to this day, and I first saw her 4-5 years ago.

EVERYTHING can be customized. It blew me away, and then my brain started sparking, haha. The rest is history. Nothing felt so good as a few days ago when I came to the realization that with my new nice job, I can finally afford one and took the plunge.

I guess my gateway was a mix of MH and my old friend.

 

Like a few others, I was not into dolls as a kid. I did have Barbies, mostly because that's what my grandmother would get me, and I created a small town for them to live in with a functioning government and shops and such. And I had very few actual dolls, some porcelain. I can't tell you how many times I begged for R/C cars, toy cars and track... I finally did get some, and oh gosh I loved them!

Anyways, I actually stumbled upon BJDs purely by chance when I discovered Danny Choo's custom Dollfie Dream Miku. That search led me to Dollfie Dreams and Obitsu, then to resin. Then it led to me discovering custom Monster High. Since I wasn't ready to drop so much into an actual resin doll yet, I decided to wet my feet (with customization) with Monster High.

Yeah that didn't last long. I quickly got a RS Dai and fell in love with BJDs (despite my struggle with posing)! So I guess, Monster High were my gateway dolls?

 

I didnt have a gateway. I didnt like dolls as a kid, all I had were a few barbies, and I hate that they didn't pose like at all, and the clothes were really boring. Well, except my Sailor moon dolls. I loved those. but didnt really play with them...anyway. I honestly found more adult dolls creepy, because all I had seen were the old victorian ones with squished faces. then I saw BJD written in another forum and was super bored so I looked it up and slowly got bitten by the bug.

 

I liked Barbie as a kid, got bored of dolls, then got into Taeyang/Pullip then was like what I really want is a BJD.

 

I'm another one who always had dolls. It was Barbies (and action figures like GI Joe, She-ra, etc). My first collection dolls though were porcelain dolls. My first big furniture purchase when I graduated college was a glass doll case for my porcelain dolls. And then of course the BJDs.

 

I was obsessed with Polly pockets with the stretchy clothes when I was younger, never really had barbies and didn't really have a gateway doll. I found BJDs through my friend who has a few of them.

 

Ellowyne Wilde is probably what hooked me hardest.

 

Mine were 1/6 scale action figures and collectible figures. I still collect those, like Hottoys, as well as BJDs.

 

Hani of custom house and Jessica of Ring Doll

 

I have an interesting history when it comes to dolls. I had Barbies, but hated them (I think of it as they were more for my sister's sake anyways). I had some My Little Ponies, and collected Grand Champion horses for a while. I remember wanting an American Girl doll at some point, but never did get one. I was more of a stuffed animal and nature kid myself as well. It wasn't even until I got past my teens that the thought of doll-collecting even came to mind.

I honestly can't really recall what came first, but there are a few doll brands that eventually led me down the path towards BJDs. I minorly collected some Bratz dolls for a while, and I also had a hoard of Winx Club dolls. I had some odds & ends Disney dolls (I mostly recall theses fairy ones that I can't for the life of me remember the names of), and then I discovered a collectible doll that would really spark up my passion: Pullip and her family and friends.

It started with just picking up a few sets I liked, keeping them stock. When I discovered how customizable they were, I started removing faceups off of some of the ones I had and creating OCs and favorite existing characters out of them. I eventually also stumbled upon hybriding, swapping out their original bodies for Volks 1/6 or Obitsu bodies. That dragged me down the rabbit hole, and eventually got me in contact with BJDs. Which brings me to where I am today

 

Monster High dolls got me back into collecting dolls, and eventually back into researching and then finally buying my first resin doll.

 

I started collecting anime figures two years ago and desperately wanted a posable anime "figure" but I wasn't satisfied with the options this market offered. And that was the final reason for me to buy my first doll, the DD Snow Miku to model her after my favorite NGE character. I've known and been interested in bjds for years but the high price initially hindered me from buying one. But I got used to higher prices because of the figures (aaah especially the ones from Alter...) and now I'm looking forward to receiving my first resin doll

 

I have numerous dolls before owning a bjd, Barbie (including My Scene), Japanese dolls (Sailormoon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Jenny, Licca), Momoko, J-Doll (Jun Planning dolls), Pullip, Bratz, Monster High. Basically I love dolls. And some porcelain dolls.

For years my Momoko and my J-Doll had been my muses

 

I collected dolls (and figures) for as long as I can remember, honestly. Vinyl, ABS, cloth, whatever.

But awhile back I got into Monster High/Ever After High for customization purposes. After Mattel's quality started to go down, I ended up getting into Pullips, and then I found myself interested in BJDs!

 

I'm just like you, I bought my first pullip in 2010 and this year I got my first bjd
I also had blythes, like last year (trying to change up a bit but not having enough money to go for a bjd yet)
and I also collect brazilian's Susi dolls (the ones from 60's are like usa's tammy but I have more of the 90's since I'm a 95 person)
Is not like I dislike pullip and blythe now, but I don't have a big place so I just keep one of each (one pullip, one dal, one byul and so on)

 

I'm not really sure what got me first interested in bjds way back when i first discovered them, but I do know that my recent revival has probably been helped by my love of Monster High dolls! I followed a load of mh customisers, and they inspired me to try customising them too! Its definitely a kind of stepping stone XD but then also, I think cheaper OT dolls helped too, as they are affordable and kinda let you get an idea what you're getting into

 

I wouldn't say any of my childhood dolls were gateway dolls, as through most of my tween/teen years I abhorred anything girly and tried to distance myself from the fact I had barbies as a child. When I started college though I stopped hating feminine things and got more into crafts like knitting and jewellery making. I stumbled upon Youtube videos of monster high repaints and thought it was super cool. So I would say monster high dolls were my gateway, but once I found out resin BJDs were a thing I lost all interest in other kinds of dolls. XD

 

It was with the Pullip family for me ! In 2007. Even though I don't have my first ones anymore (though I sold my very first last year, so 10 years after !), I still love and colect them. I had then my first BJD in 2014 (I sold her maybe one year later, because I wasn't confortable with her). I had then a big hiatus in the hoby, and in 2017 I was clearly back: I bought 4 BJDs, 4 Pullips... Maybe I must calm down ^^' But I'm very happy with my BJDs now, and I enjoy a lot french compagnies I didn't know at the begining.

 

When I was a kid I was not into fashion dolls generally, I had baby dolls but I wasn't like that much into them. I was really into Playmobil though haha But I did have one Sindy doll that the knees could bend and it fascinated me she could do it, so I guess I was already into dolls that could move and do different poses. But as to how I came to BJDs, I was into Pinky St figures and I was in a forum dedicated to them and a member of it got a BJD and posted pictures, and that's how I found out about them. Funny enough, I had this picture of a BJD in my computer I found somewhere looking for something else on the internet but I thought it was just some painting/retouched picture or something (xD). It wasn't until I found out what BJDs were that I realised that picture was of a BJD hahaha

 

Dollfie Plus. I still really like them, I have 2 and additional little resin heads and also some 1/6 Obitsu. I really wish there was still a forum like the long-gone Lunar Ark for these types of little cuties. Barbie sized but better!

 

I've always loved dolls, ever since I was a little kid. I had the most Barbies of anyone I knew. When I got a little older, I started collecting the "special editions." However, I fell out of that habit thankfully. I'm not aware that any of my childhood Barbies are worth more than the boxes they came in! Then once I was a bit older still, I discovered Japanese playline dolls like Jenny. That was my real gateway, because doing research on them led me straight to BJDs. Of course.

 

I've collected Barbie since I was 3 years old so I guess she would be my "gateway." The 80s were a golden era for fashion dolls, though, and I have so many different ones from that era: Jem, Spectra, Lady Lovely Locks, Maxie, Sandy, and others. I still have every doll I've ever owned and many of them are displayed. I'm out of space, though, so I think I will sell some of the fancy ones that are still in their boxes. Since I never played with them, I'm not attached.

 

I always wanted to have “more” dolls when I was younger. My mother however is not the feminine type at all, so she would rarely allow me to have any. I desperately long for a porcelain doll as a child. I owned a handful of barbies, though. An for a moment wanted to make my own dolls and teddy bears when I was ten.

Flash forward to being an overwhelmed mom getting back into anime and manga. I discovered nendoroids, than miniature (half scale) dollhouse kits, and now I’m saving every penny for my first BJD.

My rabbit hole just keeps growing!!

 

Jumping on the no gateway dolls train. I was a freshman in highschool when I discovered bjds. I didn't really know what they were and that was when the internet wasn't as... internety... as it is now. And we didn't have it at home. I think I was doing research on the library computer for a project and a picture of a doll popped up. He was sooooooo pretty. So i only did picture searches after that. Then when I started going to college full time, I met my best friend and she showed me some of the ones she'd been obsessed with for years and that's when I really got into them! So... no gateway "doll" but a gateway "person". All deep rabbit hole from there.

 

I think I've always been hooked tbh. I loved my Barbies as a kid, and the ones I loved best were ones with more posability than the basic rotating joints and click knees - I had a gymnast Barbie and horse riding Sindy that I was crazy about. My granny had a couple of 1:16 doll's houses with Lundby dolls in that she furnished up, ostensibly for me to play with when I went over but she definitely loved them too. I spent hours making up little worlds and telling stories with dolls.

I guess I was about 12 when my family started giving me side-eye for still wanting to play with the doll's houses. I did stop, but I never lost interest really. When I went away to university I picked up a few My Scene dolls but they weren't really what I was after. I was blissed out when Liv came out because she had double joints - I would have killed for something like that as a kid. Then in 2012 or thereabouts I discovered Tonner and very quickly went from that to BJDs. I couldn't believe there were dolls so beautiful and so posable. Like someone's done a gorgeous illustration, but you can move it about and make different pictures with it to tell the story yourself. That's always been what I love about dolls.

I've actually broadened my collection a lot since then as well, everything from Azone to Sasha, but I still love BJDs best.

 

Didn't collect dolls much as a kid. If I was given a birthday gift or had the money I would always buy a stuffed dog or cat as couldn't have pets. It was as a mother of two that I got into dolls more. First Himstedts and Gunzels, then reborn baby dolls. It was a friend's new forum that even showed me photos of ball jointed dolls. I had never seen or heard of them. Once I saw them and did some searches I was hooked. I sold all my other dolls and bought my first 3 BJD all Elf Dolls from DDE. It was the road that has taken me to many points, made me real friends and had me buy and sell well over 500 dolls in 12 years. I am smarter with my buying, or at least I hope so. I stick with only a hand full of companies and I try and watch my budget. My goal is to keep my numbers low, and spoil my resin and vinyl kids. But also enjoy what drew me to hobby and that's photographing and telling stories with them too.

 

I always say that I got into BJDs via action figures, and while that is how I found out about them (I was sharing photos in the same Flickr groups that some BJD owners were), before buying my first doll I picked up a Teen Trends doll. They weren't on the market long, but they were a strung, ball-jointed vinyl play doll. I thought I'd see how I felt about having one of those around before taking the plunge into BJDs.

 

Not gonna lie, aside from barbie and other fashion type dolls, I was straight up terrified of dolls growing up due to a certain Stephen King tv special... So I think bjds were my gateway dolls to other dolls lol! Because of my interest in bjds I actually ended up really loving Little Apple Dolls which might be a bit ironic due to their design being intentionally spooky, but I always thought they were really cute.

Unless you count figures (which for all intents and purposes I, personally, do not. I consider them similar but different). I have always really loved collecting figures and statuettes.

 

I started with Monster High dolls. All of mine are still in brand new condition in their boxes- never opened.

And then it was over to BJDs because my fiance got one.

 

Started with fashion line dolls (Monster High, Ever After High, Novir Stars) kind of by accident. I had zero interest in dolls beyond admiring others' for the longest time. I would on-and-off debate ordering from Fairyland or finding a secondhand Volks, but always decided against it. But then, I accidentally got into MH because of the cat girls. Then I bought two Hujoo Freyas. And then came two Pullips and a Tiny BJD. And now I'm waiting for my first minifee.

I'm probably doomed, now.

 

Barbies, and various other higher end fashion dolls. Eventually went all in on a BJD and never looked back!

 

I started out collecting fashion dolls like Barbie, Jenny and Momoko. I still have them, but became intrigued with pictures I had seen of BJDs in Haute Doll and Fashion Doll Quarterly magazines. My "gate way" doll was Ellowyne Wilde by Wilde Imagination. My very first resin BJD was Xun, a 1/4 size Angel of Dream Doll. I still love him!

 

Honestly not certain how I found out about BJDs but for awhile I had been following Lorti on YouTube and I saw her angelphilia and instantly loved the sculpts so I convinced myself to get into the hobby.

 

I've always loved dolls! Had tons of Barbies as a kid who I loved to dress and make up stories about, got an American Girl Molly for Christmas when I was 9 that I was obsessed with for years. Tried to get away from dolls as a teenager as it because less of an "acceptable" hobby but got back into them with Blythes and Pullips in my early 20s (I still have a few of each), which brought me directly to BJDs.

 

Before BJDs, I collected mostly Taeyang dolls and a couple of Pullips. I've since sold many of these dolls but I still have a couple in their original boxes that I know I'll never sell.

 

I'm known as the crazy doll lady in my family! I've been into dolls since I was a little girl and had all kinds. When other girls stopped playing with Barbies I continued playing with mine. I didn't really want to give them up because I was too old, but I did eventually. I really didn't express interest again until after I graduated high school. I was online one day and saw a customized Barbie. A beautiful doll that was so different from the sparkly pink dolls I loved growing up. This prompted me to search for other customized dolls and that led me to BJDs. I fell in love right away but I wouldn't buy my first doll for about 10 years.

 

I use to play with a lot of Bratz dolls as a kid and saved whatever money I can get to buy more. I don't really consider this as my gateway to BJDs though but I never grew up hating dolls.

I use to collect Living Dead Dolls but kind of grew out of them. The true gateway to BJDs for me was anime figures because I found that a lot of my favorite characters don't have a nice scale(or any figures at all) and that I could easily make a BJD look like them to satisfy my merch needs. I think when I get much more experienced I'll do my own OCs but for now I find it really fun to look for sculpts that look similar to a specific character after a faceup.