Bringing my Doll to a Con

Yes, I should. I need to take more up-to-date pics, too. Just never seems to be enough time to do all that though (I have a lot of dolls).

 

I currently own 43 dolls and I'm still getting used to Flickr since Photobucket went stupid and can't be used anymore. It'll take a while *laughs*.

 

I've brought my dolls to cons multple times, but I'm not sure how representative my experience is since these days I only go to cons along with my sister to help her when she's tabling at the artist's alley. I don't have much interest in walking around or going to the dealers' room or panels that aren't BJD related.

So far nothing bad's happened. I usually only bring one doll, and I keep him in a suitcase the majority of the time (and I also only bring him on the days when there are BJD panels). Since my sister has a table I keep the suitcase there, and there's always someone at the table to watch over it. I only take out the suitcase to bring it to the panels/meets, and I only take the doll out when I'm inside the dedicated space for the panel/meet. Maybe it's a bit overly cautious of me, but I don't want to deal with bumping into people or questions or whatnot in the halls.

Honestly, if I didn't have the "home base" of my sis' artist alley table, I wouldn't bring a doll. But I'm a bit lazy like that.

(But ooh, I never thought about commissioning artists to draw my dolls! That would be really cool especially since I'm in the artist's alley 80% of the time. Will keep that in mind for the next con!)

 

I have taken my dolls to cons, both BJD and gaming/anime. Mostly, everyone was very respectful. I think since most people at cons are collectors of something expensive, whether it's dolls, figures, cosplay, replica weapons, comics, games or whatever, most understand how upsetting it is for someone to touch your stuff without asking. People will be curious and likely will ask to hold the doll, but it's up to you whether to let them or not. One thing I've heard of people doing before is making a leash of sorts, with one end around your wrist and the other around your doll's waist. Makes grab-and-run much harder when they're dragging you along!

Never leave your doll unattended. That should go without saying, but sometimes it's easy to get caught up in everything going on and set her down on a vendor table while shopping, set her to the side while doing an activity or leave her on a bench when going to the bathroom. Bring a bag big enough for her so if you don't feel like carrying her all day, you can stick her in it. Also, if you're staying in the same hotel as the con, that can help tremendously, since you can just run up to your room when she starts getting too heavy to pack around. I usually look over the schedule and plan when is best to bring the doll. If it's a three day con, I'll decide what panels or activities I want to do ahead of time, and bring the doll when I'll mostly be sitting and watching, rather than doing things or carrying a lot of stuff. If you have multiple dolls, you might want to take the smallest one, though I have packed a couple of full SDs around a con all day before. That'll give you some rough arm cramps!

Lastly, dress them in something simple and sturdy. You don't want to be adjusting the costume or trying to keep up with slip on shoes, hats, accessories, etc all day, you want to be having fun! Make sure your doll doesn't have any loose parts before you head out. Trying to find something tiny like a magnetic horn in a building with hundreds of people isn't how you want to spend your con days.

 

All but 1 are BJD's and the one that isn't is an Obitsu (a mature tiny with an internal skeleton, so OT for DoA). I only collect BJD's and I only have boys (Cynara is a girl for story purposes but is genderless and doesn't actually have arms/legs). I have 26 different companies represented in my collection with quite a few from companies that no longer exist. I've also been in the hobby for 9 years so...

 

I personally would bring any doll to con because I would be too stressed out but good luck to you if you decide to take your doll.

 

All my dolls are characters from the novels I write. Since the genre I write in is m/m all my dolls are male. There are females in the novels I write. I just don't want any of them as dolls. Girl dolls just don't really work for me *shrugs*. Cynara is a head with a sort of... ghost-like thing for a body. She was an event gift doll. She could be a he, but the face-up and blushing says girl to me. I like the older DZ sculpts and have an Edward (he's Fei-Lau, God of Winter Storms).

 

Take them but do take precautions. I took my MSD boy to a con when I first got him. He didn't have much on, just a shirt and some pants and didn't even have shoes yet. But I had a carrier and kept him secured to me. (I didn't have an actual BJD one, I had this: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/t70AAOSwImRYTS0k/s-l300.jpg which I had from my childhood) No one bothered me about him and infact the only goading I got was to take pictures of him on things but I was too shy to do so at the time. (Now? Outta my way gotta plunk my pound of resin down!)

 

Welcome. Good luck to you and hopefully you'll get some cute photo ops.

 

Yes, I write m/m romance. I've been a published author for nearly 10 years and have been writing pretty much my entire life. The majority of what I write is sci-fi/fantasy and paranormal and I have 3 created worlds that I play in most often. If you'd like, please feel free to PM me (so I don't hijack this thread) for more details. If you're interested in talking characters in general, there is a thread here on DoA for just that and it's fairly active: https://denofangels.com/threads/come-chat-about-your-characters.744297/

 

Everyone has given you great advice, I will just add, bring your SMALLEST doll. I took an Iplehouse EID to Dollism one year, and carried him around all day, and my arms were trembling with fatigue before the day was half over. I am sure a tiny, or MSD even a doll on the small end of the SD scale would be fine. I am not a small or weak person. He is just really heavy to carry around all day. So either bring a smallish doll or consider doing what I saw a lot of folks there doing, and bring a doll or baby stroller.

 

Don't set the doll down. Don't let it out of your sight. Make sure you have a wig cap, too. I was at a con with my brand new boy and I looked down to find him suddenly bald! Luckily someone saw and recognized the wig for what it was and turned it into lost and found and flagged me over when they saw me running around in a panic with a bald doll. Any loose accessories should be removed or reinforced, too.