Which country are you from? is bjd popular in your country?

I live in Denmark and BJDs are not very popular here. There used to be a Danish BJD forum that was very active- but not anymore. But in general, I feel any sort of doll-collecting overall is not very popular here in my country- which is a little bit sad to be honest.

 

I live in Dominican Republic; it seems I’m the only BJD Collector in the entire island.

 

I'm from the US from what I've theres quite a number of doll collectors and conventions, but I'm still a newbie so I don't really know just how big bjd collecting is here.

 

I'm from germany and I guess Bjds are still a small niche hobby here, there are some german forums out there but they are not super activ, like the whole german community.

 

I'm from the Netherlands. We got a group of about 100-200 collectors I think, but it's kind of split in smaller groups: vinyl (Smartdoll/DD), resin and recast. So I mostly hang out with the vinyl group which is a fun little group.

We used to have our own forum, but it kind of died a few years ago and then everyone moved to Facebook. We have our Dutch facebook groups now, combined with the Dutch speaking collectors of Belgium.

 

Ukraine, it's not a lot of us here. at least those who found local community but it's quite dead. maybe there are some people just remain silent

 

I'm from the USA, but live in a very small touristy town, where we are lucky to have anything that isn't meant for tourists to enjoy. I don't think doll-collecting of any sort is popular in the USA, it's mostly still seeing as something immature adult people collect. If you look at YouTube doll-or-toy-related channels, it's not that popular and a lot of people get really mean or rude comments about them collecting toys, if they are adult hosts. There was even an issue with COPPA, and a lot of the adult doll/toy collectors there were worried their channels would die, because of COPPA's outdated rules. Just to clarify incase there is any confusion, when I say "adult collector," I mean people who are considered adults and collect toys, and not people who collect adult-toys or sex-toys -- it may or may not be taken that way, but I just want to make double sure there is no confusion. I avoid saying "mature" because being mature has little to do with age, or hobbies. (:

 

i'm originally from South Korea, but live in USA now. since USA is a big country, i think the population of bjd hobby is really depending on the areas... in where I live right now, i can barely find any bjd collectors here which is sad. :/ so I tend to spend my bjd hobby time on internet rather than taking my dolls to some meetups bc there isnt any meetup. But in South Korea, Bjd hobby is getting really popular recently. Especially those young teens get interested in this culture by watching random bjd hauling videos on youtube.

 

I'm also from the Netherlands and in the same Facebook group. I also joined the Flemish Facebook group from Belgium. I'm not sure about the amount of collectors, but the Facebook groups are rather small, I think pretty active though. We have a small convention, and we had people who were arranging regular meets before Covid19.

 

It's a shame EDF (our convention) was cancelled for next year. Hopefully we can do meetups again soon. I miss socializing with BJD people :'D

 

I don’t think it’s a huge hobby anywhere tbh. I’m in the U.K. and it seems like a pretty small community here.

 

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I live in the US and there’s quite a bit of bjd interest in my state and meetups all over, we used to have a bjd store too. There’s about 4-5 physical stores in the US that sell bjd, some of them sell dolls of all kinds though.

 

Well, I don’t care! American here, I just love BJD’s and will take quality over quantity anytime. We should start thinking of ourselves as elites. We found a great hobby, and we are passionate.

Had to laugh, Enzyme, at your disclaimer on adult toys. So true, people could misunderstand. However, these dolls are part of a centuries-old tradition of miniaturing. The antique European toys can be phenomenal museum quality pieces. We should remember that we can add to this tradition.

At least, that is what I plan to do. I am a trained couture sewist. My new Iplehouse will arrive soon, and then I can post her lovely wardrobe! Look forward to your comments, everyone! ❤️

 

That's exactly what I would have said to this question. Well, I'm from Germany, too.

Besides a friend of mine I never meet other BJD owners. Apart from that I only have contact to other doll collectors through a German BJD forum and here on DoA. In my opinion BJDs never were made for the masses. Only a few people keep themself busy with this hobby. But that is fine with me.

 

USA and my area is very active with two conventions within driving distance and local meet ups. I chose to keep to myself, but could socialize if I wanted.

 

I’m in Kentucky, US. There are more BJD owners here than I expected but it’s not a very popular hobby in my area. Within my state, I’ve met maybe around 30 owners? Though only about 5-10 make it to regular meets.

 

I live in a small town in New York, and there's not even a whisper of BJD collectors. I know of one person who lives closer to a larger city, who has a couple dolls. But that's it. It's still an uncommon thing here, the only dolls that are "normal" to collect are porcelain dolls. Even then, it's far and few between.

 

I am in Florida U.S. there are a small gathering of collectors on the east side of my state in Orlando, but it is further from me. I do see people from my state that have BJD's and even found out recently that a friend I know used to collect them. It's not popular in my state, but it is also not unheard of.

 

I have basically the same experience with where I live. I live in a tourist location that’s also a college town. I’ve found most people think I’m incredibly weird if I bring up that I collect BJDs for some reason, but I don’t really mind personally. Weird comes with the usual reaction people have when I tell them I was working toward being a puppeteer, so I’m happy I can get used to the feeling early enough before I head into the professional field after college.

 

I am from the US and have found collectors from all the states and even have seen that some conventions happen. None are as big as LDoll and theyre not always close by but its nice to see that there is a community for it.

 

I've had people mistaken adult-toy-collector for sex-toys before, so as a completely asexual person I rather not be stuck in the same dilemma ever again. Even within a forum for doll collectors, it can be easily taken out of context, so I just rather clarify before any actual confusion. I've always been into creating art and have taken art courses from an earlier age -- I've always been fascinated by art and art-dolls; I would love to see museum quality dolls in person, in my lifetime. That would be so amazing to see in person. As a cynic by nature however, I don' t believe the vast majority of people would ever understand the beauty of dolls. Even art and classical music are starting to be seeing as outdated hobbies; I hardly believe there will ever be a point where people don't give a sh*t about other people's hobbies and try to live their own lives instead, to see dolls as anything but a "creepy-old-lady" hobby. We can only hope, although I truly don't care either way. I've always been a weirdo and have been bullied for being "a dirty hippy" (because apparently that's what vegans are, or the opposite extreme mightier-than-thou). Popularity did happen to video games however, so only time can tell -- of course not all genres, but that's OT. I look forward to seeing your sewing creations; I'm a complete amateur but still enjoy creating crappy clothes for my dolls sometimes, even when I have no idea what I'm doing. (:

Yes, as long as you don't fit with the "norm" ideal of any given place, you'll be seen as a weirdo. I stopped caring a long time ago, mostly because people seem to mind things that don't affect them one way or the other, and I stopped caring to explain why it shouldn't bother them. It's as if they were financially responsible for your livelihood, and thusly had a saying in it. I don't really share my hobbies outside my close family and friends, but when you are a student, even as early as kindergarten, fellow students seem to think it's okay for them to judge you. Whether you ask for their opinion or not, so I stopped caring back then, about other people's opinions about me. I was always taught that if a person wasn't physically or mentally hurting me or other living beings, then it wasn't any of my business what they did with their lives. So, I kind of assumed that was the same for everyone. When I learned that wasn't the case, I just turned the other way and ignored whoever tried to chime into my personal business. Of course that doesn't always work well, because people really seem to want to give you their personal opinion one way or the other. As an old-weirdo to a younger person, I just hope you don't give upon your hobbies just because of troublesome, meddlesome people who should mind their own business. It's not easy, but it's better than giving up on what makes you happy. n__n

 

Enzyme & Kiki,

You two are exactly the sort of people I want to support and encourage. Here follows a short list of people who were dismissed as weird/wrong/out of it. Until they showed us the way. These people all had something to teach us.

Mozart: the magic flute had less than 10 performances when it was released.
Barbra Streisand: Whaaat? She didn’t show cleavage and she didn’t sing right.
Van Gogh: everybody’s fave crackpot
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs: they smelled bad and nobody knew what they were talking about.

There are others. Enzyme, take a look at Queen Mary’s doll house and the Thorn Rooms in Chicago - google them. This is miniature done right. The Thorn rooms are consistently the most popular exhibit in their museum. The queen’s dollhouse is considered a national treasure.

They and creators like them are my role models.

 

I totally agree. I really liked the convention. Maybe we can plan online meetups via the Facebook group. Although I think of we adhere to the distance rules we can meet again.

 

I'm from Spain and while we've had a few conventions and it seems to be a good amount of fellow hobbyists, we're very scattered and it's not easy to hold meetings with others. We had a couple forums active back in the day but now everything we do is through facebook (we are about 500-600 there I think so not bad at all).
So even if we're a good bunch of collectors, I don't think adult doll collections in general it is popular at all (but if you collect Legos or miniature cars they're like a separate thing that is totally respectable) and people will look weird at you or even laugh if they know about your dolls and most keep it as a secret I think.

 

I live in the United States, I have purchased two Dollys secondhand now both from the USA, so it seems to be popular here but in niche factions. Because no one at work had ever heard of these guys.

 

I'm from Singapore. There is only a handful of collectors and never met any of them.

 

Sadly it is the same everywhere and also cos I'm a male.

 

U.S. here as well. But still quite new so haven’t really sought out meeting other folks except online.

 

I'm from Greece. Back home we're a small handful of collectors; maybe 10-15 people but we used to be a tight knit community.
Nowadays we're dispersed all over the place though. One of my doll friends and I have moved to Scotland and I hear there is a small Scottish community but I've yet to meet with them.

 

I am in the USA as well and yes, adults collecting any kind of doll is generally seen as immature.
But in my area at least additudes seem to be shifting. When we were able to hold meets at the local library we would often get people coming into the room who where genuinely curious.
Best interaction so far has been a lyft driver bringing me home from a meet. Normally if they ask I say I was at a craft fair. But I opened up a bit this time and explained what was actually in my suitcase and he was really interested. Even encouraged me not to be so guarded around people not in the hobby.
I think there's a change in thinking that been going on for awhile and we are starting to not judge people for what they like.

 

From Norway. I don't think the hobby is very popular here. I've found a facebook group but it only has a little over 200 members and isnt very active.

 

I'm originally from the Bahamas, where I am fairly sure I was the only BJD collector in the entire country. Certainly in my island. Shipping from abroad was next to impossible and no one was really into that kind of thing. I've moved to America since then (Southern US), and while there aren't exactly doll collectors popping out of every corner, the distance is not so impossible. Unfortunately for me, the timing on my move wasn't great, due to the virus cancelling any potential meetups I would ever even get to consider attending. Oh well, there's always next year!

 

Cainhurst, where are you, if you don’t mind? I am in Texas and Tennessee. I commute.
Frillseeker

 

I'm from Canada! Unfortunately, there aren't that many bjd dealers here and shipping can get very expensive (Even shipping within Canada is also expensive lol) Although that hasn't stopped me from adding more dolls to my collection....

 

It embarrassingly never even occurred to me that people can just ... go between states. Like whenever they need to. Whoops, you can really tell I'm from an island.

I'm from Florida! I'm planning on moving more up north ... eventually, despite being originally from south of here I still absolutely loathe the summers.

 

I'm from Miami, Florida and there used to be quite a decently-sized community there a few years ago but it seems to have dwindled a lot. I've since moved to Japan and DDs seem to be a much bigger thing than resin BJDs although they are more popular than Florida for sure.
I sometimes run into other collectors doing photoshoots in the same scenic locations from time to time and also at the photo spaces at VOLKS Sumikas but I'm not sure if there's a defined community or groups that get together though.

 

Woo! Another UK person! XD I have always been surprised when I find out that people I know like dolls. I think people keep it to themselves.

I went to a small anime con many years ago, which had a decent turnout for its doll meet. Wish I could go to another one ^^;;

 

Where about safe you? There’s meet-ups in the U.K.

 

I cam from Taiwan, but I live in Canada now. I feel like the hobby is quite big in Canada, I know quite some people in the hobby and joined a couple groups. When I was back in Taiwan I didn't know anyone in the hobby or any groups but there were a couple bjd shops so that was really cool.

 

I'm in Cambridge I gotta get the guts to put myself out there. XD

 

I'm from Ecuador, I don't know anyone else in the hobbie from here , I may be the only one collecting bjd dolls in the whole country.

 

I’m from Canada... and where I live (prairies) I am pretty alone with my bjd hobby. I did have one friend that was into dolls, but she has since moved to Toronto. So it’s mostly sharing my hobby with people online (but the internet sucks out here too, so that can be a problem as well). ^^;

 

I’m from Norway, and it’s not very popular here. There used to be forum a few years back that was supposedly quite active (I hadn’t heard of BJD’s back then), but it later closed and is now just a FaceBook group of like 200 members. It’s kind of inactive, but doll meets and other events do pop up from time to time!

 

From Canada and having lived in a few cities I would say that BJDs aren't generally known but there are healthy pockets of hobbyists around, enough for occasional meet ups. I'm still mostly active in international online communities(primarily here)

 

Plus one I am in South London, or rather North Kent.

 

Aw yeah, UK doll people popping up! hooray!

 

I am from Turkey and NO bjd’s are not popular here... I think only 4-5 people have bjd’s in my country lol D

 

I’m from Brazil but have been living in Japan for 10 years. It’s very popular here and we have several shops, like Volks and DOLK.
We even have big events from time to time. That said I don’t have any friends I go out with to take doll pictures or anything. Keep it mostly to myself.

 

I'm from Canada where BJDs weren't popular, but I currently live in Japan where they are way more popular Lucky me!

haha you and me both

 

Ohhhhh!!!! Where are you living right now? Do you mind if I message you?

 

I don’t mind at all

 

Hello! Canada here! I’m pretty new to the hobby so I’m not sure how big is the community is around here. I only have one friend in the hobby (she’s the one who introduced me to bjd a few years ago and I bought her my first 2 bjd last year).

 

Ireland, it's very small I've only made it to one small doll meet about 12 years ago and both of those girls have moved countries, but there's a FB group that's a mix of DD/BJD owners too.

 

I’m from Switzerland. So far, I just know 1 person with this hobby through instagram. So lonely.

 

I am in rural Western Australia, you might as well call it a ghost town. I am returning home soon, well hopefully depending on covid stuff which is New Zealand. I hope it’s more active, be nice to have some dolly friends! ☺️

 

I'm also in the UK in North Somerset. I've been involved in dolls in one form or another for most of my adult life. Starting with making and selling dolls house miniatures at fairs then making and dressing porcelain dolls, collecting Little Darling vinyl dolls and now BJD's. l would love to go to a meet up when and if the world ever returns to normal but I love the way the internet allows BJD lovers from all over the world to connect. l