What were your "gateway" dolls?

When I was around 7, my babysitter gave me an Evening Star Princess Barbie. I had never really cared about Barbies before but I loved her. For a while a few years later I thought I was too old for such things until a couple of years after that I rediscovered her in my closet. I still loved her just as much and I began collecting collector Barbies. From there I moved on to Fashion Royalty, Ellowyne Wilde and then Sybarites. I still collect all of these, but I starting playing around with different wigs and realized I wanted more customization. So then I started to collect BJDs!

 

Hi,
I never had any interest in dolls before I fell in love with bjds.
The first company that really grabbed my attention was DC.
But later on my love for Luts has definitely grown lol

 

For me, I loved Barbies and Bratz dolls as a kid, and would sew for them and make them furniture out of popsicle sticks and fabric.
Around freshman year/14 my sister threatened to tell my friends that I still played with dolls. So I felt pressured to give them away by her and our mom & stepdad didn't help. So I gave them to our younger cousins, and stopped getting new ones...until around Senior year/17-18, when I first found out about BJDs, around 2009/2010, and while I knew I wouldn't be able to afford one, so I took to my ceramics class, and tried my best at sculpting my own, during which time I managed to finagle my way into getting an articulated Barbie that was meant to be like my little model to go off of. My first attempt did not go so well, and after that I didn't have access to the ceramics class because I graduated. I tried it again in a college ceramics class, but didn't finish it.

So the whole dolls anything kinda sat on a back burner, until ~2017 when I started watching repaint videos, and in 2018 I started trying my hand at them, gathering around 200 Monster high dolls in my stock box with some other lines mixed in (including ~30 from the mom of the cousins I gave my bratz dolls to). Then I got a 3D printer the next year and printed my first bjd (which I've since given to my Mother-in-law, who also loves dolls as well). After that, I still work on MH dolls, but am also focused on 3D modeling my own doll.

 

BJDs were my gateway doll!

 

GSC dolls, as I was looking for a good replacement for obitsu bodies (the arms are just so easily fell off!), I discovered 1/12 bjds, and tbh I never looked back to obitsu after that lol

 

BJDs were my first dolls I've ever started to collecting. And Dollzone was a very first company I discovered, I believe. I fell in love with their dolls, started to dream about buy one of them. I was 15 then, and bought my first doll when I was 19 - Dollzone Vita-2 fullset. I'm not into MSD anymore, unfortunately, but I still love her.

Now I have 4 dolls, 4 floating heads and 1 body on layaway. c':

AAAAND, I'm thinking about Rainbow High doll. But still not sure. They're so lovely.

 

For me it was Monster High. Dead Tired Ghoulia.
I remember going to the toy store and circling around the doll's isle like a shark. I liked all what I was seeing so far on internet and I finally decided to buy the first that attracted me the most, unfortunately the shop hadn't a full assortment on the shelves but that didn't stop me. It was more that ten years ago.
I never found another toy doll's line so captivating as MH, and they still are the only ones I've ever collected.

 

I was into Sindy and Pippa dolls as a child and hated Barbies. They seemed really fake and ugly. I had a ballet Sindy and loved making her dance and pose. When I was about 14 I was told that I was too old for dolls so I moved on to collecting little china horses but when I had kids I stopped collecting. ( my husband at the time disapproved. )
After a miscarriage back in 2004 and another in 2006 I found reborn baby dolls online and bought one. He was lost in a house move and I did get another one just to cuddle. There wasn’t much I could do with him though and he currently lies in a pram in my 13 year old daughters room and will be going up for sale. I first saw bjd’s when I got into kpop and there was this doll modelled on Taehyung. I liked it but never considered buying it. On holiday in 2019 in Korea I saw 2 girls with dolls in a cafe and they were the big dolls and I was fascinated. They very graciously allowed me to look at them more closely but not touch them and I thought they were amazing. They’ve been in the back of my mind for a while.
Recently I saw some TikTok’s with a large male bjd and fell in love. I don’t have the funds right now to buy a big doll but I’m considering getting a small one instead to see how I feel once I actually have one in my hands.
I suppose the gateway doll is the baby reborn one as it was the first time I had held a realistic doll of any kind.

 

I wouldn't say one doll in particular but one collection : the first Barbie Fashionistas back in 2009-2010. I have had many play line dolls when I was a child, but those dolls were kind of a revolution back then. With their style and new articulations, I wanted to have all of them. And that's by searching on the internet about them, following some blogs and youtube channels that I found out about more "collectible dolls" (Pullips, IT dolls, Azone dolls and so on) and action figures, to finally learn about BJDs back in 2013, with a MiniFee Chloe back then. It was something completely new and that's how I learn everything about those dolls, until I finally decided to buy one of my own.
The only doll I kept from those fashionistas was the Sporty Ken from the second wave (for some reason I gave most of my dolls away at 18, but it is one of the only ones to have remained in my collection to this day). So I consider him to be the gateway doll I still have in my current collection.

 

I didn't really have a "gateway doll" but I've always been an action figure/toy collector. I then was introduced to the hobby through a friend much later and my first thought was "I could make action figures of my own OCs like this!". And the rest is history

 

Anime...I think, my aunt is Japanese and I grew up when anime was like becoming big, she brought me a licca doll back when I was 5 or 6. I loved dolls before then but she aligned with my interest more than the others since she was anime lookin' but-- I think besides that it was the fact that, 1. licca got me into Japanese dolls 2. I watched kuroshitsuji and got OBSESSED with Drocell (literally I think the "Drocell" image uploaded to dA by user neconetto was my first glimpse at a bjd) 3. kutoshitsuji to lolita/v-kei pipeline 4. lolita to bjd pipeline

thanks 4 coming to my ted talk

 

I had a few Barbies and GI Joes as a kid, but I wasn't actively into dolls until I discovered Pullips! I got Pullip Chelsea and Taeyang Hash some years before I got into bjds.

 

I knew about bjds before pullip, but couldn't afford bjds at the time. That's how I ended up collecting pullip, but I wasn't completely happy with pullip dolls. I stopped collecting pullip early on, and didn't really shop or collect after that.

 

Monster High was what started me on this hobby. My younger sister and her friends were collecting and customizing them and I was enamoured with them so had to get my own and ended up buying 3 at the same time.
I had a huuge collection of them before I started collecting Pullips and went nuts with them as well.

I came across BJD's while collecting Pullips but didn't get one untill a few years ago.

 

I never owned one, but I was looking *hard* at Pullips before I got my first BJD. I learned about BJD's then I learned about Pullips and I was 100% sure I'd get a Pullip before I bought a BJD. I don't remember what changed my mind but I'm glad I did. I don't think I would have been nearly as happy and would have ended up getting a BJD in the end anyway.

 

I always liked Barbies, but it was Integrity Toys' Fashion Royalty dolls that opened my eyes to the amazing possibilities offered by fully articulated dolls

 

I remember those dolls. I didn't have those, but I had Miss Revlons and Toni dolls.

 

I have always loved dolls for as long as I remember. I still have a life-size baby doll which my grandma bought and was placed in my crib when I was brought home from the hospital. Her name is Suzie (not her company name) and she had rubber head and hands, with a cloth body.
When I was 3 I got a14 inch American Character Annie Oakley for Christmas. I was going through my cowgirl phase. I wanted to BE Annie Oakley from the TV show. This was 1953.

 

I've always loved dolls--I had loads of Barbies as a kid, an American Girl doll which I treated immaculately as a child, and all kinds of baby dolls. But my adult doll obsession definitely started with Monster High dolls. I loved their unique face sculpts and started doing repaints on them several years before I ever purchased a BJD. So when I finally bucked up for a Minifee, I was well versed in faceup supplies and techniques. Definitely a great gateway doll for me!

 

There where some dolls through the years.
My first Gateway-Doll was a Goetz playdoll. I don't know a name or an artist, but i fell in love and bought her without a second thought.

Fibi by Annette Himstedt turned my eyes to artist's dolls. I coudn't afford her, when she was available and had to wait years until i found her again on Second Market. Collecting dolls started with her.

As i run out of space, i found Kimi by Gabriele Müller. As she and her Little Stars siblings are small enougt to act as playdolls to the greater ones, they added up quickly.

The first Wonder Woman by Robert Tonner opened the gates into my collection of Tonner and Ellowyne dolls, until i explored Martha Boers' amazing blog Antique Lilac.
I could resist her amazing dolls until she announced Iplehouse BID Bono. I fell in love instantly. With a little help from my family, Bono became my Christmas present to myself and here i am. :-)

 

Technically I knew about Dollfie Dream and BJD well before 2009- I just didn't have a name to put to them. But the doll I purchased first was Pullip. I actually still have all of mine. Rather than selling them to get into BJD, I earned 'fresh' money instead. Managed to acquire at least one of every facemold except for Byul; someday I'll buy her too.

You can tell I had no real income then; it's a small collection.

 

Obitsus were absolutely my “gateway” dolls, ha. I bought a lot of clothes for my Obitsus and did a lot of customization with putting modified Nendoroid heads (swapped different hair pieces/faceplates/etc so they would look like specific characters or OCs) on the Obitsu 11 bodies so they could be a little bit taller instead of Nendo-height. I still have my Obitsuroids and I still have plans to do a custom faceplate for one of them, too.

 

I think I kind of credit two dolls as my gateway - a tiny mass-produced broken porcelain doll that I fixed with glue, and a 1/6 sized action doll I bought a few years ago!

Spoiler: Here's the two dolls

(This is not how I usually display them, I think that'd be too precarious a position for the porcelain doll long term - she's already been through enough falls LOL but I thought it'd be kind of cute to pose them together)

I wasn't one for dolls growing up, I was much more of a plush animal + Littlest Pet Shop kid. My grandma gave me this little porcelain doll (I believe these dolls are from Ganz? from the 80s or 90s, they're everywhere and they tend to have very cute outfits and very blue scleras LOL) when I was very young and I largely ignored it until around middle school, when I really started appreciating how sweet the dress was. I accidentally dropped her around then and her face shattered and I was DEVASTATED, but luckily I was able to glue her back together. Surprisingly, despite using school glue, she's held up extremely well for the past decade!! I kind of credit her for getting me to appreciate dolls as a young teen all the way into my adulthood, along with getting me a little interested in doll maintenance and repair For some reason, I call her "the boss" but I don't remember why, probably some strange joke from when I was in highschool lol

The action doll is an Akira Fudo doll from the 70s Devilman manga from Medicom Toy, I think he was made in 2001 based off the markings on his shoes. I think I got him around when I just graduated highschool, the Devilman manga and OVAs meant so much to me and I was very luckily able to find him for pretty cheap (his box was pretty dented but he was pristine minus the staining from his black jacket on his arms). At the time I was playing around with playline doll customization and I liked how the face was so stylized to the manga art so I bought him kind of on a whim, and he's honestly one of my favourite things I own LOL

He's a pretty simple action doll I think, but it was my first experience with these and it was kind of an interested unintentional transition from playline to BJDs from there. He's pretty heavy and sturdy for other action figures and dolls his size, and interestingly (I think this is a remnant of the era he was made in) I think his torso joint is held together with elastic, the rest of him being hinged. I think getting him made me realize I wasn't getting quite what I was looking for in a lot of the playline fashion dolls of the time, in stylization, construction, and even size (my boy Akira here is a good solid 30-31ish cm!!).

I don't see many action dolls like him (more doll like than figure like, fabric clothes, etc.) nowadays outside of Volks and maybe Azone, which is a shame because I've realized there's a lot of characters from manga or video games that I would love to have a representation of, but I'm not super into statue figures or 1/12 action figures orz I guess I can use stuff like BJDs or other customization heavy doll lines and make my own action dolls!! Take matters into my own hands

 

reminds me of the Victorian dress i reworked to fit my TSUKUDA HOBBY Mamotte Shugogetten! Shaorin,
taken from an 12in. porcelain i had found about 20 years ago;

 

oh that is adorable!! I love the looks of late 90s, early 2000s-ish anime dolls and the aesthetics of porcelain doll dresses so when they're together it's awesome

 

Akira!!!!!!!! Every time I see him, all I can think about is that clip from the dub of the OVA with the SUPER rushed “Oh it’s my old friend Ryu! How the hell have you been keeping then” line, it makes me laugh every time. I didn’t know he had a figure, he looks so nice!!!! (And the posing of him holding your porcelain doll is very cute!)

 

God, I love that OVAs wacky dub so much LOL the way Akira starts swearing in the most stilted way while holding a rabbit in the beginning was so funny to me that it somehow got me accidentally completely and unironically in love with the franchise hjfkgjkfsJFKDSzfjkd

Thank you, the figure's super nice!! I love it so much, I think it's full name is like, "Medicom Toy Stylish Collection 70s Manga Version Akira Fudo" or something like that, I think Medicom made some other Akira's based off the anime and later manga designs too! I'd love to get the others someday, but I was comically lucky with getting my guy for pretty cheap when I did 'cause nowadays he's always listed for like 5 times what I paid for him for some reason? Anime figure secondhand markets can be a fascinating thing...

 

I'm not sure if I had a "gateway" doll per se, as I found out directly from a friend about BJDs several years ago. However, I always had dolls around as a kid and loved collecting Schleich model horses and Tokidokis, so hoarding pretty figures is in my nature We also have a collection of dolls (with porcelain faces, I think) and it used to be my job to pick one to change out for the season/holiday when I was little. My first doll was a Taeyang Timulus, and later a Hujoo Freya. Both mostly because they were (fairly) affordable! I think I had an obsession with Luts and RingDoll though, which was noooot something we could afford (and I couldn't, I was 12 ).

 

BJD ironically were my gateway dolls, but not my first collected dolls since they're a little unaffordable for a kid. Ha ha.

I hated Barbie and dolls generally when I was really little, but I started reading manga in middle school and saw ads for BJD in Shoujo Beat. I fell in love with their beauty. After that, then the release of Monster High I became a serious doll collector once I got into college and was able to buy what I wanted.

 

I realized I wanted a "proper" doll thanks to TOAHI Synthetic Human. I still love that doll. It's never going to happen, but if they made a resin one in 1/3 I'd be over the moon (I'm still surprised that robot BJDs are so rare).

 

Barbies weren’t my thing and I stopped playing with them. Fast forward to the mid-90s. Kenner produced Star Wars Princess Leia and Padme dolls which led me to Gene Marshall and Friends which lead me to Haute Doll magazine and the beautiful photos of Volks dolls - a wintry scene with Johanna sticks in my mind. But it was the article and photos of Dollshe lads that clinched it and led me to my beloved Hiro, B&G Rin.

 

I loved playing with Barbies and similar fashion dolls as a kid - I was crafting and sewing for them a lot, too, which I now find myself doing with BJDs. I also loved the Lego Belville line that had characters with surprisingly posable joints, and while I didn't own any, I yearned for the shortlived Lego Scala dolls (mixing and matching fabric, rooted hair and bricks was such a cool idea imo). I had "grown out of dolls" when I first encountered BJDs but I can see a couple of red lines connecting them all now!

My true gateway to collecting were puppets, however! I was looking up marionettes and jointing references for a project when I remembered the jointed resin dolls I had been interested in at some point - I ended up buying my first bjd shortly after

 

Honestly, my first dolls when I was a toddler! I've never been out of the doll "habit" and just pretty seamlessly transitioned from kid playing to adult collecting. I guess collector Barbies were my intro to the idea of Dolls For Grown-Ups, though?

I have a very vague memory of seeing what may have been a BJD at a long-since-closed doll shop when I was 9 or 10, though. It was about 1/3-sized and had long blonde pigtails (like floor-length), knee-high boots, a top hat, and fishnets. I was fascinated by her, but my parents thought she was too weird and expensive. I still have no idea what type of doll she actually was; this would have been around 2002 or 2003, so even Volks was still relatively new! It may also have been a Jan MacLean "Lollipop Girls" 26-inch porcelain Bunny, but I recall her outfit being more Ringmaster and less High Fashion, and pigtails instead of a high ponytail.

 

The first non-playline dolls I got into were Living Dead Dolls. I would see them in Hot Topic or Spencer's and beg for them. My parents finally broke down and got me the Romeo and Juliet set when it was on sale haha. My mom ended up subscribing to a doll magazine that focused on reborn baby dolls, but included some like Tonner, Goodreu, etc. I got one for Christmas one year, but I cant remember what it was and shes now in storage at my parents house so I cant go digging. From there I discovered ABJD's

 

I played with Barbies, Bratz and Monster High as a kid but the dolls that were the most unique to me was Moxie Teenz. I loved their height, inset eyes and eyelashes and the removable wigs. They felt more mature and customizable lol. When I discovered bjd's the first thing I thought was that it reminded me of my Moxie Teenz.

 

Pullips/Dals and American Girl dolls, though I had Barbie/Bratz/My Scene/you name it as a kid, I’ve always been a sucker for dolls. It just progressed from there really!

 

I already knew about and loved BJDs, but I couldn't afford them for the longest time. When I finally had my own money, I wasn't sure on pulling the trigger with dolls, so I tested the waters with Monster High. Specifically my first doll was G1 Spectra, though eventually I had a whole collection of probably 100+ dolls. I think my best friends thought it was kind of weird at the time, but joke's on them, they became doll collectors too. I've since sold or given away most of my MH dolls, but I kept the Spectra and a few others, because I owe them for my love of doll collecting.