Bjd Meets are kind of depressing, am I the only one?

I've only been to two, and that was back when I did my own faceups. I realized I don't enjoy painting on a 3D surface now, but back then all I could do was compare my beginner faceups to company ones!xD (I still do that with my 2D art) It's easy to compare your work to others... However now I wouldn't feel that way. The faceups, clothing, and wigs will all be ones I liked and picked. If others don't like it as much that's fine. I can't see feeling they are not as good as others, maybe different, but just as good.

Though I will be making my own clothing now, so I might end up comparing that... We creators need to stop being so hard on ourselves! xD

The only thing that really depressed me about the last meet I want to... everyone only cared about playing DDR and talking, me and one girl (and we didn't talk much, think she was as shy as I was back then) where the only ones around the dolls!xD

 

It's interesting reading peoples reactions and feeling about meet ups. The first one I went to I was not sure what to expect other than I thought everyone would have better looking dolls than me which seems to be quite a common feeling. I had no need to worry though as we have a great group with a huge mix of dolls and friendly people.
It is also interesting that some people talk about elitist types who only collect or like dolls from certain companies and look down on others. I have not really found this to be true or I have just been very lucky. I have noticed that some people are very self concious and read things into a comment that may not be true. I think we are often our own harshest critics. That being said there are some losers out there in our hobby but that is often the case in other groups as well.
Some years later I now often end up organising our meet ups. We have a real mix of people from all ages and are all supportive of each other. I know I am lucky to have met such a great group of people and all groups differ.
Meet ups are a great way of meeting people who are generally interested in talking endlessly about their passion and learning more and seeing other dolls and getting ideas and inspiration for your own crew.

 

Ive never been to a meet before, but just browsing on Instagram and Facebook pages i get so jealous of the beauties lut there... i want exact copies of other peoples dolls

 

I am not the most self confidant person in the world, I have a lot of self doubt. I am very confidant about my dolls though. It would never occur to me to buy a doll I did not think was absolutely gorgeous. So I have never experienced the kind of insecurity people are talking about concerning their dolls. I really enjoy doll meets. I love showing off my beautiful dolls in the unique clothes I make for them. It makes me feel very proud and happy. It is so cool to see other people's dolls. I would never have gotten my two Pipos Cheshire Cats if I had not seen one at a doll meet, they are so much cooler in person than they are in photos. I could sit and play with their wonderful multi-jointed tails all day! So fun! They make me feel very happy... who could look at their big maniacal grins without grinning right back?!

 

Now that would depress me too. Doll meetups should be for dolls!

 

I never found meets depressing... I found them dangerous!
As in "Oh, I haven't seen that sculpt before... Darn it. It's gorgeous. Now I want one."

That made me chuckle. I did that to someone, too, once-upon-a-time.

We were having one of our regular Seattle meets when this young gal came in with her mom. She was interested in getting a doll of her own, but wanted to check them out "in person" before she actually ordered. She talked to the gang for a bit, and mentioned that she was most interested in the 1/3-scale CP dolls (This was back in 2007, so CP/Delfs were everywhere at the time-). In particular, she'd fallen absolutely in love with Breakaways.

I grinned, scooped up the doll I'd brought with me that day, and handed him to her... It was Kessari.

As soon as she realized what he was, she got this absolutely priceless look. It was exactly half pure squee and half utter terror. I felt a little guilty over the terror part, but the squee made it worth it.

 

Have confidence in your dolls! Know that the differencds are jsut unique aspects your doll has and theirs don't. Loving your work is the first step to being a better artist

 

I've only been to one meet, the recent BJD Retreat in Orlando. All the people I met were very friendly and there was lots of laughter. I'm so glad it was my first meeting with others in the hobby as it was such a positive experience. Perhaps if you choose to see other dolls as inspiration it wouldn't be so depressing?

 

I've only been to a handful of meets, and every single one has been lovely. I've done the same, not think that my doll is as pretty as the others, but my girl gets cooed over as much as I coo over others! Everyone is super supportive at the meets I go to, and it's really awesome.

 

Like rosalynmouse said, I'm pretty confident in the looks of my dolls and have never really felt any insecurity about my dolls at meets. The main thing that makes meets kind of depressing for me is the fact that most meets seem to consist of people who have already known each other for a long time. As someone who is shy and new to the group, it makes me feel like an outsider. Of course people are nice, but both meets I've been to left me feeling a little down at not having any BJD friends and having a difficult time making friends at meets like those.

 

The only thing that makes my local meets depressing is that there are only 3 of us, lol! I'd love it if there were more doll people in my area. Once upon a time there were several of us, but folks moved or dropped out of the hobby.

 

never been to a meet, hope to find one soon. i would love to see other peoples dolls, touch them, test their weight etc. i love my doll so much, and i think i would just be inspired by seeing others

 

I came back from a mini convention during my birthday in November so it was great to see others dolls, but there wasn't time to see everyone dolls up close & look into them. I only collect male dolls so I'm a little unique being a guy as well. I don't worry about others dolls as we all collect different things so that's what makes it fun!!

 

There is never any meets near my place (or in my country, for that matter) so I feel really jealous reading all these doll meets stories

But as an addition to what everyone has said, it's okay! Going to doll meets are a great advantage for you to learn new stuff and meet new friends, and it's something that people in certain parts of the world can't experience (*cough*includingme*cough*) so consider yourself lucky! If they hate on you, it's not your fault; it's theirs. Have fun!!

 

I've been to good meets and to meets where almost no one would talk to me (the group was quite cliquish). You just never know. But it really is the best way to see a large variety of dolls, and sometimes even get to handle them, so if you are looking at a particular size or sculpt, you can judge it in person.

 

i have never been in a doll meeting or convention, but i want to, since i started recently in the hobby and because of the covid, there is no events that i can go this year, sad face.... i hope 2021 brings me the chance to go to a convention or a doll meeting!!

 

I haven’t been to one in years but I never thought my doll was worse than others. It actually gave me an opportunity to see other types of dolls. I got to hold someone’s DOD Duncan and he was a big deal back then! I got see people’s Luts kid delfs and shoot, I thought they were so well made and pretty for half the price of SD. I also got to experience holding a Volks doll and comparing the scale to korean bjds.

I did meet people who started comparing their dolls and even wanted to sell them, even if they were new. I do notice a dynamic of having an msd and comparing it to a SD size that people start to feel insecure. I think the only time I feel a little insecure was when this really wealthy girl started going to the meets and she’d have new dolls every time and it wasn’t just that, she also got a Mercedes for her birthday. Im not from a wealthy family and it took me till after I finished a degree and got a good job to be able to even afford one freely.

 

At first, I felt this. It made me feel a sort of imposter syndrome. Like, I'm not REALLY a doll collector, I'm just pretending to be to fit in. Clearly all these collectors with their cool dolls with the beautiful faceups and beautiful clothes and beautiful wigs and eyes outshine me and my doll.

But over time, I realized, they had to start somewhere too. They were a beginner once upon a time, too. And eventually, my dolls became beautiful, too.

 

My first doll meet was a mixture of "Yay! This is great!" and "Oh man...people can be mean". I went with my best friend that didn't have a doll yet and my own doll (which was a gift as I couldn't afford a doll or even new clothes for it back then). It was fun meeting so many people and so many dolls from various companies. I loved learning about the different dolls and for the most part a lot of the owners were so warm, welcoming, and just plain nice to us newbies.

There was one person that looked at my doll and complained to me why I didn't change it's face-up since it was a standard (common) doll and why didn't I give it a better outfit (I think at the time Dollheart Fer dresses were all the rage and I had a basic Volks outfit). I was genuinely hurt because I loved how my doll looked even with her default face-up. And the outfit was the only one I had for her at the time and it wasn't even a year old. I came out of that first meet-up determined to be like the nicer people we met and I promised myself that no matter what meet-up or convention I went to, to welcome everyone I encountered, especially those without dolls or who I could tell were really proud of their dolls no matter what the doll looked like.

About a good decade later (and many dolls and outfits added since then), I still prefer bringing my first doll even though I have newer, more limited edition dolls. I only recently stopped bringing her due to my recent disability, but one of the great ironies now is whenever I do bring her out, I get a lot of compliments, especially from Volk staff members from Japan, that admire the fact that my girl still has her original face-up as it's so rare to find nowadays. I'm so glad that I didn't cave into peer pressure all those years ago. I'm still a shy person so I'm not exactly a social butterfly at these events pre-pandemic, but I have started to recognize familiar faces and dolls so it is fun to say hi and all that. I like to think that people are starting to recognize us as one of the nicer, non-judgmental people at these events so that makes me happy too.

I hope there will be another event this year, but I can wait. Until then, I'll admire everyone's dolls on here for now.

 

I've never been to a meet but I would probably get very sad if I do because I always compare my dolls to other's dolls on social media. It gives me a little bit of pressure to make my dolls look better but sometimes it gets the best of me. I just want my dolls to be beautiful like many others.