'Cabinet Babies' or Playthings?

I couldn't keep my boy in his box, either. I don't play with him every second of the day, but he's always out (I cover him with a cloth if it's very sunny). For me, the joy of BJDs is having them out and about, playing and posing and dressing, and not worrying too much about them. Within reason, of course. I wouldn't be rough with him or touch him with filthy hands, but I'm not about to leave him in his box just so that he won't have a chance of getting ruined. These are durable dolls if you treat them well. I think they're meant for play and they're strong enough for it. But everyone's enjoyment of BJD is different; displaying them might be your way of enjoying them, and if it makes you happy, then go ahead.

 

My doll will definitely be more of a play-thing. Whilst I still have every intention to be very careful with her and treat her with the same respect I would an antique or precious ornament, I wouldn't want her stored away in a box, I'd rather appreciate her and have more risk of problems.

Saying this, I do think my doll is a 'cheaper' type, and as I've done much of the customization on my own, the price was lowered for me even though. I do think if I had a more expensive doll, suppose around $700+ I'd be very anxious and not trust myself to treat it properly. Then the doll may be considered more a 'cabinet baby'

 

I'm trying desperately to get my parents to buy me a doll - my mom says no at all costs, but my dad is having the biggest problem wrapping his mind around this exact thing! One day, I should email him this thread!

 

I'm somewhere in the middle ground, but then I took exceptional care of my barbies even though I played with them a lot. Would I chuck a doll in the garbage or ruin it with wild mod experimentation? No, not likely. Would I lock a doll up in a climate controlled cabinet? No, that's not likely either. I do wash my hands a lot when I play with them and I tend to keep my dolls in their boxes or in dimly lit rooms when I'm not. What others choose to do with their dolls is none of my affair, but it does seem a shame not to use a toy if you have it.

 

Mine live in their cabinet but they are also often out and about in my room sitting around or being measured for clothes. I'm not sure I "play" as such but I do like them around. I don't treat them with kid gloves but I want to keep the dust off and keep them out of strong sunlight as much as possible

 

I play with my boy all the time, I mean obviously I'm very careful of him and I avoid taking him out in the sun for long periods of time, and I also would never let my 5 year old cousin touch him, unless I truly trusted her not to touch his face or play rough with him... But normally, yeah, I have my boy around me almost all the time and I play with him and enjoy his company~ He's kind of like a child to me, LOL, just without the screamyness and teenage angst.

A lot of people don't understand the whole connection that a lot of us have to these dolls, how we treat them sometimes like little humans. That bothers me sometimes @.@, but that's a whole other topic itself. So I'll stick with that yes, my dollie is like a little playmate, but I do take very good care of him !

 

personnaly, i would found it stupid to pay 500$ to not touch it and keep it in a glass box ¬_¬
i would just look at the pictures on the site, its almost the same but less expensive xD
i like to hug them! x3 and if i'm not feeling well, they sleep with me...

 

I personally feel my dolls are works of art, and my reverence for artwork pretty much removes it entirely from the "toy" category. However, unlike a fine painting, I don't enjoy ABJDs by keeping them as visual objects only--part of the artistic creativity is customizing them and photographing them, making tiny props (full dioramas even) for them to live with, etc.

So while I say I absolutely do not "play" with them, I still manage to handle and enjoy them. That being said, I spent close to five grand on them in the last six months--I think I'll be very happy keeping them safely in their boxes and cushions and (hopefully someday when I have a nice display cabinet) behind glass when I'm not photographing or working with them. I won't sleep with them, or "play" with them in the same sense as when I played with my Barbies when I was eight years old, faking voices and sound effects and pretending that they are real living beings living day to day dramas.

I have a hard enough time explaining to outsiders what this hobby means to me, I don't need to damage my case further by "playing" with my "overpriced Barbies" whether I wanted to or not. If I was interested in playing with dolls still, I wouldn't have tossed all my Barbies in the first place.

 

Of course everyone has a different take on doll collecting, and anyone has a right to do whatever they like with their dolls--or nothing at all, if that's their pleasure. Even in the OT fashion doll world there are many, many collectors who never take their dolls out of their original packaging at all--or buy two dolls, one for display, one for...whatever they want to do with the spare.

Me? I've always been a rabid deboxer. It's not enough to just take a doll out of the packaging, I have to customize something on every single doll I own in order to make it uniquely mine. This is probably why I love Asian dolls so much; they're meant to be customized. However, this is also why I lean towards the less expensive dolls. That, and the fact that I'm not a Rockefeller.

My own take is: If you want to make an investment, play the stock market. You'll never get rich by "investing" in any hobby. Buy your dolls for the pleasure they bring you, not the money you might get for them if they go up in value. And a doll that's never touched and just sits on a shelf is probably the saddest thing of all. You might as well just have pictures of the dolls you like framed on your wall and save your money.

Just my $0.02.

 

As a collector, I come from a school of thought that possessions have value because they can be used, not because they have never been touched. When I was little, I felt sorry for my playmates whose mothers made them keep their Barbies unopened and I played with my porcelain 'display' dolls. I became a comic collector in 90s (X-Men!!!!) when there was this mass delusion that comics made a great investment portfolio. I actually read my comics, and had to raise an eyebrow when others left theirs unread in plastic casing. Now all of those mint utlra-special, super-glossy, holo-cover masterpieces can't be given away, because of the over-production spurred by that trend. So, I would say I got my money's worth by enjoying them. I do plan to enjoy my dolls in the same way, handling them, setting up photo stories, displays etc, but they are expensive so I doubt I'll bring them everywhere.

 

When I first got into looking at the dolls, the prices and people mentioning 'fragile' everywhere, that made me perceive that I would be keeping them as cabinet babies. I was fretting as to where I could keep them, out of harmful UV rays, and all the other bad things for them. Upon getting them that's changed.. I don't bring my boy everywhere, but a good majority of the places I go.. Before I got him it was my Tiny but she sorta became a cabinet baby.

I love tinies, they're beautiful, and I see myself getting a Puki to carry absolutely everywhere since they would be easy to conceal when they're inappropriate to have out.

I'm a bit of both sides of the spectrum, I have my large one which I play comfortably with and my tiny who sits on display more often than not. I don't keep her in a locked cabinet at all but she stands/sits proudly and I still like her even though I don't play with her as I would Lesley.

Everyone has their own way of collecting depending on their tastes and personalities I suppose. There's no wrong way to collect something you love.

 

personally, i like to play with my toys. after all, a toy is simply an object that entertains and makes one happy, which is what my dolls are. i dont treat them roughly, but i like to set them up like their doing things, like reading, playing or daydreaming on the bed with me while i work on my laptop.

 

Personally, I like something in between the two options. I do handle my boys with great care (well, I manhandle my oldest from time to time ^__^''), keep them locked away in a secure, dark, cool place where sunlight can't reach them and where the curious kitty crew can't get to them either.
Since I'm not home much right now, I prefer to keep it like that and mostly enjoy my dolls by taking one or two out at night and just look at them; as boring as it sounds.

In general though, when I got the time, I love to take them out whenever I'm home and 'play' with them (mostly means dressing them, doing Face Ups, taking pictures ~the usual stuff).
I couldn't have them around me all the time, and I couldn't keep them in a glass cabinet and treat them like porcelain either.

 

My dolls aren't really considered "playthings" but they are not stuck on display. It's a little... different for me. I usually take 1 or 2 of the boys out a day, hug them, fix their wigs/clothes/whatever, maybe some photos if I'm in the mood, and place them in a chair just bought for them. Seeing as I'm stuck home almost every-day, I just let them watch what I do on the computer while they're in the chair.

I do take the boys out with me if I want to take photos, but I also fear their safety and often get second thoughts once I bring them outside.

It may even seem weird, but due to some drama and stress that's happened for more than a month, I always feel more comfortable having one of my boys in bed with me. It seems really childish, I'm sure, but it helps ease my mind about the bad things to have something I truly love to cuddle with. And I'd only do that if I was feeling down. Since, I don't want to risk ruining or breaking them, of course.

It all depends on your point of view. Did you buy the dolls to only observe them for art purposes? Or for your collection? Some people might buy them because they can be considered playthings. I just think it's good to at least play with them for a little. Even if it's just combing their wigs, putting a new outfit on them, or just changing their pose if you leave them up and displayed.

 

After paying $100+, I'll definitely bring her places. It'd be insane to spend so much on a pretty doll and never let anyone see it other than when they walk around inside your house (other than in-laws, hubby and I have never had any guests because we lack furnishings other than a couch and diningroom table set).

Once my girl's wig comes in I plan to take her with me when going out. I would much rather take her with me than leave her on a shelf to collect dust. I have no face protection mask to keep her eyelashes from getting messed up so I can't zip her up in her carrying case to take her out with me so she'd have to actually be visible.

I have no shelves or cabinets that have doors on them to keep her safe from my goofy 2 cats so being cabinet/shelf-bound is not a worry for her.

 

I think that I will play with my doll and actually enjoy my purchase, but still be cautious.

 

I tend to sit somewhere in the middle. I don't play with my doll's but I son't keep them in a cabinet either. I am happy to handle them, but for me they are something to be admired, I wouldn't know how to play with them. That's just not me.

 

I feel the same way - they're not "cabinet babies" because I handle them regularly, but only in the sense of changing where they sit/where they're displayed. There's no drama staring the dolls being acted out scene-by-scene (which is what I think of when people talke about "playing").

 

Play for me is straightening hair and clothes (maybe changing them), adjusting the doll's position, and then standing back to admire. It can take as little as 2 min and I'm done and content to put the doll away. So I guess my March technically falls under the category of cabinet baby? I finished with the other type of play long ago.

I will likely do the same when my Benny gets here becuase I'll be all " ooohhh...shiiiiiiiiny.." after I dress her; I'll be happy enough to spend a good long while grinning like an idiot everytime I pass her. At any rate, the both of them will spend most of their time in their boxes after this month because of where we'll be moving. Our cats will be in the same room as us and I'd rather not chance anything happening. My husband's rather attatched to his cats and I think he'd be mad if the girls were wearing furs.

 

Mine definitely lean more toward shelf baby (shelf, because I put them out for all to see, not behin a cabinet door or in their old boxes) than toys, but when asked, I talk of them more as toys than simple display pieces. I have tons of figurines that are only for display, so despite me not handling my dolls as much as most owners, I feel the difference.

I'd love to get into photo stories and thus, more playtime with them, It's just hard when you only have two dolls to work with that in the grand scheme of things, don't have much interaction as character's otherwise!