ABJD's vs. Other dolls

I don't think you need a defense - you like what you like, and if you can afford it and have space for it then why should you need to answer to anyone else? And aside from that, people do collect both (and other types of dolls as well), so it doesn't need to be a one-versus-the-other situation at all!

 

Easy! Because I hate Barbies. I don't like fashion dolls or other types of factory-produced dolls, either. Why on earth would I spend money and time and shelf-space collecting something I dislike?

I only like BJDs, so that's the kind of dolls that get my money. Keeps things relatively simple.

I do, however, also live with 115 snowglobes. I bet that'd make your hobby-dictating friend shit Twinkies. You like what you like!

I do. I just don't like other types of dolls besides ABJD. I was never a doll-person at all before I discovered these things; my opinions of other types of dolls haven't changed since then.

Anyway, this whole angle of "defense" amuses me in a sneery kind of way. It's like having to defend your taste for vanilla ice cream just because somebody else thinks you should like chocolate instead. Where the hell do they get off demanding that you justify ANY of your tastes, y'know?

 

For me, that is part and parcel of sharing my life, space, energy, and $$$$$$$$$$$$ with another human being. Not that I necessarily have to "defend" my "taste" but that I have to "defend" wanting to spend bucket loads of cash on it.

Barbies are nothing like ABJD. ABJD is "art you can play with" and "tiny men whose trousers you can put on". (Something that Jan and I do, actually agree on! )

 

Responding to my own tongue-in-cheek reason....you can put pants on Ken, too. For me, it's the eyes! And the articulation!

 

and about having dolls without molded-on undies...

 

Haha, thanks! Believe it or not, that's actually the easy part...

That wasn't really what I meant.

I meant that the way the question was worded, it was implied that one had to make the choice between the two.

You happen to like only one kind of doll; you aren't choosing to like only one kind of doll out of some kind of one-type-only principle.

I don't like all the dolls in the world either. Personal preference. What I'm saying is not that you have to like a wider variety, but that it shouldn't be assumed that someone can't like a wider variety - as the question assumed.

 

Wow...I am amazed at the emotion this thread is evoking. I have the feeling that just about everyone has come across someone who used an argument like this to try to deter them from buying or make them feel bad about it.

Personally. I have the odd Barbie....but I don't "play" with them. They sit around. Mainly I have them because they are vintage.

As to BJD, I think the main reason for me....is expression. There is nothing I hate more than to look at Barbie's dang smiley face day in and day out. My BJD's expressions seem to vary slightly depending on how I look at them, how they are dressed...etc. But Barbie....gad....sometimes I want to rip her head off...LOL

And I have to agree with most of the others here. Barbie cannot hold difficult poses, she cannot be added to and subtracted from without pretty much ruining the doll.

Sounds mean....but part of me wants to tell you to look at her and say....

Barbie's are for children...BJD's are for adults (no offense to anyone really young here...you are just more into things than others...)

They cannot compare. It is kinda like saying, "Why would you want a baby when you can get an interactive baby doll that does all the same things...." Okay maybe pushing it a bit...but well....hmmm

LOL!

 

When I go to stores I notice in the doll section that barbies, monster high, and other dolls that are non bjd are having more movable joints than the dolls I use to see growing up. So I'm not sure if the manufacture doll companies have seen bjd and started to copy the same constructs for their dolls like bjds. I like the monster high dolls now and I only have one and she is still in the box and I have some collector barbies as well, but they too stay in the box. Before I got into the world of bjds, One of my old hobbies was to find old cheap barbies from second hand stores and fix them up and make theme into theme dolls for example, I made a 40's like dress for a old barbie then fixed her hair in the 40's hairstyle. What got me into bjds is that bjds are like a canvas and you the owner are the artist. The fact that you can customize whatever you want in a bjd is ones art and imagination coming to life.

 

I'm not sure if it's from BJDs either, but there's definitely some change in the manufactured dolls - my daughter's new favorites are LIVs, where you can change their wigs as easily as you can change BJD wigs. (But of course, the first Barbies had changable wigs too!)

The other thing I like about BJDs is the huge variety of boy dolls available. Don't get me wrong, when I was a kid all I wanted was girl dolls and a token boy or two, but the boys were even more same-y than the girls. (And I'm a grown up now, heh.)

 

Alright, I have to go to your house now. I LOVE snowglobes.

I never liked dolls (fashion dolls) as a child. My sister and I had dinosaurs, Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, things like that. I think my dislike of them stemmed from the fact that when you bought them, Barbies looked the way they did in the package - you couldn't change anything about them. Barbie didn't even remotely resemble anything I could change to suit my fancy. Now that I'm into BJDs, if there's something I don't like, I can change it! There's real value to me in something like that.

 

I completely agree about defending your tastes. You like what you like. If somebody truly cares about you they'll at least understand. I can even understand compromising or tailoring your hobby to your significant other. If your SO has a YoSD phobia and you're not planning on getting any Yos, it's probably OK to tell him/her there won't be any Yos in the house.

I'm still confused about defending your money though. As others have pointed out, assuming your hobby hasn't gotten out of control why should you feel the need to defend yourself?

FWIW nobody has tried to exert that kind of control over me. Because in my mind it really is about control, not the dolls. And I wouldn't be with somebody like that.

 

Although you technically could probably sculpt a nice Pieta using playdough, Michael Angelo sculpted it from the most expensive marble. Now would it really, truely be the same if he had done it with playdough?

If you see dolls as a medium for your art, a Barbie will always, always give another end result, no matter how skilled the customiser.


O...and I do own Barbies, mainly vintage '50 's. No hate for Barbie here.

 

Barbies and other fashion dolls are as customizable as you are willing to make them be. I don't understand the fashion doll hate a lot of BJD owners seem to have, nor do I think BJDs are inherently better than fashion dolls. They really don't compare as they have different intended uses and generally different fanbases. Said Barbie fanbase is just as passionate about their Barbies as BJD owners are about their BJDs.

That being said, if you don't want a Barbie, there's no reason to buy a Barbie. Buying the Barbie, no matter how much less it cost, would be a waste of money because it's not what you want.

I tend to just stare at people like they're idiots when they try to harp on me about my taste. I don't feel like I should have to defend myself for liking what I like.

 

How do you feel about paying the money you do on dolls when you could do those same exact things with barbie dolls and other less expensive dolls on the market?
I think its totally worth it because its VERY different! I DO own other dolls, I have 5 Monster High dolls, Harley-Davidson Barbie and Ken, a graduation Barbie, a Bratz boy, a 1/4 scale vinyl Marilyn Monroe and a BUNCH of action figures, mostly Final Fantasy play arts. I do enjoy them, but none compare to resin. None pose as well, none have the details, none are as customizable and because of this, not as personal to me. I look at Loki and Amir (my first two resins) and they are like kids to me (in a sense, not a replacement) as in I MADE them, I CREATED them from a blank mold and made them into something truly unique. They were not mass produced. I chose their wigs and eyes, I painted their faces, Loki is a hybrid that involved me picking out individual parts for him to get him perfect, I made or bought their clothes....they are part of me. You CAN customize a Barbie, but not nearly as much or as easily. I used to reroot Bratz and Barbies, repaint, pierce, tattoo....but in the end, they still all had the same basic face shapes and bodies, very little variety. If I did a shadow silhouette of all of the custom Bratz I worked on, I wouldn't be able to pick out which was which. I could on my BJDs.


Do you have any good defenses about why you would spend the money on BJD's Than regular factory produced dolls?
Because I prefer them? Why would some people buy a Coach purse instead of WalMart brand? Why would some buy a Corvette instead of a junk truck? Why do some buy Armani suits instead of going to Goodwill? Why go on vacation to travel Europe instead of going to the Super 8 in the next town over? Why buy a house when you can live in a tiny apartment? Don't get me wrong, I do like some mass produced fashion dolls, and I DID try my hand at customizing them instead of getting bjds, but it just isn't the same. There's nothing wrong with buying them (or any of the lower cost options in my list) if it's what you like, but they really don't compare. You get what you pay for, and I'd prefer to pay more for the resin over plastic, better posing, better jointing systems, more head and body sculpt options, more realism, larger size, more hair and eye options, more realistic and detailed clothes, dolls that hold their value...the list goes on.

My husband might not be excited over me spending this kind of money, but he has his own expensive interests as well (for example, his Harley, which he chose over a dirt bike and he's a bit of a beer connoisseur instead of drinking PBR regularly...) so as long as I'm spending MY extra money on them and not using money we need for bills or savings, it's really not his place to tell me what to buy.

 

It's partly because of aesthetics (I'm seriously bothered by how cheap and badly designed these dolls tend to look), and partly because mainstream society is pushing some very nasty gender stereotypes about women with mass-market dolls. "Blank", customizable dolls like dollfie pluses and obitsus don't have that massive amount of connotations and cultural weight that Barbies or Bratz have.

TBH, I'd like Monster High dolls a lot better if they didn't all have those ridiculous wedge shoes, and feet molded to match. All of the characters, all the time.

 

Interesting. Sounds as though we have completely different "types" of partnership. We share everything here and we do discuss our equally expensive hobbies - you would not believe how many Bermanns a set of his 4x4 tires cost....There is nothing about control but about defending the whys of how much money is frittered away on non-essentials. It doesn't seem like a complicated concept to me.

 

And that's totally fine! I'm not trying to rag on how somebody else's relationship runs. If it works for you two, then more power too you. I'm mostly trying to explain why some people might be getting their feathers ruffled over the OP's questions. They come across as somewhat controlling.

Perhaps "defends" is the wrong word. Maybe "discuss" would be more appropriate. "Defends" makes me think your SO is attacking you about your hobby. There's no discussion or compromise, unless you're engaged in a friendly debate.

 

Defends is the appropriate word in my mind.

You and I seem to be from different generations and have wildly different life experiences, probably best to not make it too personal a definition.

 

I actually kind of like this....when I was in high school I usually wore wedges or heels, almost daily! And my only current adult female BJD has high heel feet, my next girl will too.

But I do see your point about it being EVERY character, even the "nerdy" or "athletic" girls, which does seem a little off, but I guess they go with the style that MOST of the characters would wear and keep them all the same to share clothes so as not to frustrate little girls when Clawdeen can't wear Ghoulia's shoes and such. (which supports the "fashion dolls for kids, bjds for adults" idea) That's another thing I prefer about BJDs--yes, it might be harder to fit some that others, but it IS nice that there are SO many different sizes and styles and every BJD isn't forced to wear the same styles as others. I can have a curvy girly girl and a straight up and down tom girl and exaggerated pear shaped "chunky" girl that can't share clothes or shoes, but is much more fitting for their characters. Variety!!

 

Dislike of a certain doll's look I still don't think justifies the hatred and vilification of fashion dolls you see typed here. Especially since if it was about a BJD brand it would not be tolerated. It's fine to not be interested in a certain type of doll. I for one am horribly creeped out by Reborn dolls, but I don't post all over doll boards about how they're horrid etc etc. There are plenty of BJD owners who do like fashion dolls. I find it highly unnecessary to knock fashion dolls down in order to raise BJDs up.