'Cabinet Babies' or Playthings?

Well I love the people with "cabinet babies", or that keep their dolls in vaccumm sealed climate controlled, lightless rooms, without them there wouldn't be mint dolls on the secondhand market.

I like play with my dolls, but I still enjoy them even when I their boxed up

 

Lol that's an excellent point.

My dolls tend to be cabinet babies because since I moved into my new apartment, it's been hard to get people to smoke outside. I don't want them to yellow like everything else I own, so I keep them in a glass display case. I'm really OCD about having them posed properly (it drives me crazy to see dolls with upnose pose, wonky feet, etc.) so I don't really mess with them much anyway. As with all of my toys/dolls/playthings, I prefer admiring over handling. Of course, that's not to say that I never take them out and hug them!

I like seeing other people "playing" with their dolls, often because it results in much more adventurous and interesting photos and stories.

So I can respect either view on the subject.

 

seconding this. there is no 'should' in this situation, just opinion.

i play with my girls. but last week, they werent touched *at all* and sat on display. sometimes i take them out, sometimes i just sit them next to my computer

theres no black and white should or shouldnt line

yeah, im thinking so too. even if there were people with amazingly extreme opinions, im still not sure that makes much of a debate. because thats just like my opinion+1, kinda thing.

 

I can't argue with that either, the_unaccepted1~! When you find a Glass Case person, keep monitoring their eBay sales page, because their "closet-cleanout" sales are always a jackpot. I scored a mint NRFB Isao v2 fullset, two years after his release, because somebody had kept him boxed up in the closet since he came out. Like I'd ever thought THAT would happen. Especially if you chase limiteds, those 'hypercollectors' turn shopping into a thing of joy! ^^

I think everybody stores/handles their dolls according to their own comfort levels. I was always one of those kids who Couldn't Have Nice Things, all my stuff always broken or filthy or headless. If I treated these expensive exquisite beautiful dolls like I treat the rest of my belongings, they'd be tore up hell-to-breakfast inside of a month, and I can't have that. ;; So maybe this was a stupid hobby for a slob to pick, but I took it as a challenge. And I found it's not that hard to keep them in good shape after all, with a bit of effort to develop good habits with them. I thought they were worth the effort, since tidiness doesn't come naturally to me. So I still play hard with them for photos and shows and meetups, but they get the deluxe treatment when they're off-duty.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this view. My doll is with all my gashapon and action figures and toys. All together they look interesting in the case in my house. I pose them and rearange them when I see fit, but other than that, they usually stay in the case.

 

I agree 100% with nanlady.

 

My dolls are only handled when I want to change their clothes or photograph them. Other than that, they are kept posed neatly and safely on their shelves where I can admire them from afar. I don't feel the need to touch them or hold them or take them with me everywhere. My enjoyment comes more from looking at them and simply knowing that they're MY pretties and no one else's.

I've never been a hands on person when it comes to my playthings. I was the little girl who happily kept her expensive Barbies in boxes and her play Barbies pristine, it would send me into fits if my younger sister would mess up their hair and I would spend hours restoring them to that just out of the box look after I changed their clothes or she took the ponytail out or felt the need to change their eyeshadow with marker. I'd arrange my action figures into elaborate tableaux on the kitchen table and then leave them there to look at.

Actually, ok, I still do that with all of my anime gashapon and PVC figures.

Everyone enjoys things differently and there is no right or wrong way, though I do admit to cringing on the inside over the people who do drag their dolls through mud and draw on their faces. I have that reaction over any sort of toy being treated that way because I've felt that if you hold something dear, you treat it carefully and with respect and don't dirty or break it.

 

I like to take mine out. I do have a birdcage for my elves and display them in there. The others have beds so they can lie flat. I simply don't have the space for a display cabinet and would be worried about leaving them on stands or having them sitting as this could stretch the stringing. I still like playing with them.

 

It really all depends on how the owner feels about themselves and their dolls.

I'm a type of person who love my dolls. However, I have perhaps some of the worst handling skills. Even when I try to be careful, my hands are quite klutzy. When I do play with them, it's only for a short time. Most of the time, they just sit on their chairs for weeks and months before being played with again. I pretty much decided to this after I found out that Melody's (SDC Ren) faceup has been starting to rub off because I have been a tad aggressive when posing her. Making my dolls as "part-time cabinet babies" is to prevent my dolls from being somehow damaged by me.

 

Oh wow, your younger sister was ME! And YOU were somehow my big sister! Except you're like ten years younger than me. Hrm. How'd that work. -_- Time-warp.

And I bet all your crayons were symmetrically sharpened, with clean papers, and arranged in chromatic order from left to right in the box. Mine were chawed-up nubbins with streaks of black in the yellow crayon, jagged edges, and all the papers ripped crookedly down from the wrong end so you couldn't see the color-name anymore. 30 years later, here I am storing pleather doll-boots in individual bags with cardboard spacers & desiccant-packets stashed in their little boxes with them.

 

play, play, play. Dolls in my purse going to work. Dolls in my car, going for rides. Dolls in my bedroom in a big naked pile because that's where I left them after playing with them last time. I stopped when my husband caught me switching the boys and girls hands around just to see an iplehouse man with soom girl digits. I bought toys, glam toys to be sure, but I'm not a collector. I'm just a touch childish. love to all no matter how they choose to play.

 

I was >.> And you know those black streaks on the yellow crayon? I would have to carefully shave them off to have a pristine yellow crayon.

 

I, personally, would not spend so much money on something I don't even dare to touch.
If I just want to see dolls, i can come here and look at the photos
Well, maybe I think so because as a student I have a general lack of money^^

At least everyone should do whith his dolls what pleases him most^^

 

That reminds me
My mom said that when I get back from my studies this year, she's gonna buy me a pretty glass cabinet to put my dolls in. And I was actually in a bit of a horror at the thought XD It made me think "Oh no!! Now everyone will know when I take them out or something ;-; " So I told her no, I don't want a doll cabinet XD; (I know she'd buy one of those expensive ones too, cos she likes beautiful quality things XD)

For me, my dolls are things I'd like to hold and have with me, and be able to do things with them. If I were to put them in a glass casing for display alone, I'd never even consider getting them =3=

Cabinet babies are a no for me. Which is why I don't really like going to a meet where I can't touch other people's dolls, where the dolls are placed on a table nicely and not touched again until the end of the meet. That's just... well, where's the fun in that really?

I'm 23 but I feel I still have the mentality of a 15 year old child. So any pretties that I like are registered as toys in my head I guess^^

Plus, I've built a rather deep attachment to some of my dolls. I DO put them away for weeks at a time, but that's just on my bookshelf or desk or bed. If I were to put them behind an enclosure, that'd feel so different^^;

 

Eerie. Really eerie. It's her, you're absolutely my big sister... c'mon out, Karen, the jig is up, I know it's you... XD

 

I honestly think it is dumb for people to buy things and have it just...sit there behind a case. While yea it is pretty, and it cost a lot of money, it should be loved and used! This goes for everything in my opinion. I make costumes (fursuits to be exact) and they can cost up in the THOUSANDS just like dolls. These costumes aren't put on a dummy and thrown into a case. They are worn and used and repaired. If stuff happens, most of the time it can be fixed or replaced, something not easily but it can still be done, the same goes for BJDs. While they shouldn't be roughly handled, they should still be loved upon in my opinion.

 

it depedns on the con. cause, at least, here in spain, there are no many dolls conventions àctually, there are any XD] but in some cons. there are a specific place to put the dollfies... but sometimes there arent...
i prefer to put them on the cabinet cause i dont have to carry them all day... but, in the other hand, i dont like people touch them, so i try to be next to the stand... and controll them ò_ó ... XDDD

 

I personally play with my BJD. BUT at the same time I have a ton of figures and a bunch of little Pinky:ST figures that are all set up in a table case. I know a lot of my Pinky:ST friends play with their Pinkys they way I play with my BJD, but I really don't. I change them and repose them and then put them back in the table. I have some other doll types I keep on display and don't play with too. I don't care that other people don't play with theirs. I like playing with mine. When I'm not playing with her she sits posed on a shelf. Sometimes if I'm busy she'll be there for even a week or more. She is something to look at just as much as something to play with to me.

 

Mine are playthings. For the most part. They don't go out much, and they're kept on a desk in doll couches, and I try to keep them free of dust and pet hair and away from windows. But I don't do anything extreme like a cabinet. For one, that would be a BIG cabinet! I like to be careful and neat with my dolls, but I didn't buy them just to be looked at. I like sharing them with like-minded collectors, and getting them up and posing for pictures!