'Cabinet Babies' or Playthings?

Firstly the whole issue with people getting stroppy because you said "should" is funny haha get a life...why would anyone let that bother them?

Well my girls sit on a shelf with a chair and rugs...i take them down to dress and photograph on a regular basis. I have one sitting next to me now as i type :-p

 

Mine are playthings, I really couldn't imagine putting them in a cabinet. When I'm not spending time with them they sit on their chair in my room so that I can see them even if I'm not playing with them .

 

it all depends on why the y bought it...if they collect for their value or whatevr then in a cabinet is prolly best..... but if you buy it to pose and have fun witht hen do what you will XD i personally will be playing with my doll...no locked cabinet for her XD

 

I think sometimes it can be a bit of both. It's a matter of preference. Mind you, I take my duo out when I want to do photostories or what have you. They don't have a totally awesome reselling value or anything, so keeping them immaculate has never been my intention.

 

I agree with many others who say that in the end it's up to the owner.

When I don't have my doll out on my lap or something like that, playing with him, I do usually put him up, though I don't really believe in cabinet life for an ABJD. And I admit that I'd find it extremely odd if someone only touched their doll with gloves and kept it on a shelf absolutely all of the time. But yeah, when I consider it, I definitely don't have my doll out all of the time. So maybe I'm for both sides to some extent.

 

Well if it was really expensive and I wanted to preserve it for a specific reason yeah i'd put it in a cabinet. But otherwise I play!!!

I had Beanie Babies I wasn't allowed to play with...and I wanted to so badly...but I was told they'd be worth something. Well...they aren't...and I would have much rather have had fun with them!!!

I see my dolls the same way. I bought them to have fun...and if I'm not...then they can sit and look pretty

 

I think this totally depends on the doll.
if I would have a 1500 dollar doll I would not run around with it like I do with my 400 dollar dolls...
if people just love to watch their dolls, I think that is fine.
but I really have my dolls to play with
even though I take care not to have them in the sun when I am not at home.

 

I play with my dolls and take them everywhere with me. o 3o;;
I know it's risky, but my dolls are sturdy and they aren't uber expensive. If I got a $800 doll, I'd only take it a little bit and I wouldn't fuss with it so much.

 

A doll is only alive when you play with it, give it feelings and ideas and thoughts. When it's put in a box or a cabinet or whatever it's pretty much dead.

I know that they want to be careful with their dolls because they love them so having them in a glass cabinet when they're not playing with them is ok.
But i think it's really sad if a doll spends its whole life that way. A doll is meant to be played with.

 

My 2 resin kids stay in their boxes but that's only because I don't have a good place to display them where they'd be safe from things such as: Dirt, Pets, Falling Over/Jumping to their doom, Direct Sunlight, etc. But this is only for Storage purpose. I take them out reguarly to dress them, take photos, take them outside, take them on trips, etc. But when I'm home they're in their box. It's cute like a bed anyways what with the pillows and all. So I'm kinda 50/50. They are really expensive and so have to be handled a bit differently than a normal doll or action figure... but for me the whole allure of the hobby is their mobility and photoshooting them etc. So for me, if they just sat inside a glass cabinet to be viewed as art, to me personally that would be a waste, yes they are beautiful, but to me personally once again, their intended purpose is clearly to be moved around, otherwise why have the articulation/customization/etc at all. I think everyone is free to do as they please, but I enjoy playing with the dolls I'm ordering an obitsu and hopefully it can stay out full time with me since it wont be as fragile or need as much safe gaurding really looking forward to the extra poseability etc too. So I guess it depends on what got you into the hobby. For some they may just like the beautiful scultps and such, for others they may enjoy playing with the dolls, and for others it may be an extension of an artistic hobby such as photography or sewing, etc.

 

Dead to whom?

 

To the world. To bad my doll was never alive in the first place, because it was artificially created by man.

 

...*titter!* Well yes, there is that teensy little technicality.

I'm just sayin', a "dead object" is utterly in the eye of the beholder. Am wondering how a glass pane, or layer of cardboard, could possibly squash any kind of spirit or mojo that the owner has assigned to that doll... Wondering what makes it any less 'alive' than the doll someone else keeps on their bedside-table. After all, furniture is furniture.

 

Personally, mine are definitely playthings. Sure, I'm not playing with them *all the time*; I'm in college and I have enough trouble getting my work done without paying masses of attention to my dolls. But I do play with them a lot, and take pictures, and I'll probably take them outside in the summer when it's nicer.

I don't keep them in pitch blackness when I'm not playing with them, either. They have a little area on one of the desks in my dorm, and it's set up like a little room: there's a futon couch/bed made out of two perpendicular boxes with a carrying case laid over it as a cushion, and it can be laid flat, and there's a little in-scale dresser with their clothes in it and a tiny ceramic pill-box as a scale jewelry box. They've got a mirror, and my computer speakers are just the right size to be those tall floor speakers.

Basically they sit on that couch all the time (slackers, like me! lol) if I'm not playing with them. It's away from the corner that gets the most light, and most of the time I keep the lights off in my room, and the blinds closed; if I open the blinds in the afternoon there's sufficient light to take pictures. I do have the lights on at night, which probably isn't great for them given the cheap flourescent lighting of this school.

But c'est la vie. I figure I spent close to 2000 dollars on them, all told; I should enjoy them. I can't be worried about them staying pristine; they simply won't, no matter what I do. If I can't enjoy them, I should have spent that money on a vacation.

But that's just my opinion XD

 

I like this sentence

Personally i won't bring them back home if i can't cuddle/ hug/ kiss/ lug them around the house. I'm very emotionally attached to my boys so i can't really bear to leave them in cabinets/ drawers.

And because they're expensive, all the more i would like to enjoy them the way i want to enjoy them.

 

I think the doll should be played with love and care.
Probably it depends on how people think and play their dolls. Some might dress up their doll and share their room with them while other people might lock them up in the cabinet, it's only just the way they love/have their doll.

For me, I really want to share my room with my boys and having them sit on my table next to me all the time but I dont want to makethem dirty and expose them to too much light. So I kept them up in their box and display them sometimes. T_T

 

It's half-half for my dollies, I guess.
They often sit on my desk when I'm working, or beside my laptop when I'm surfing the net.
I take photos of them and enjoy having them wear different outfits

But when I'm not playing with them, they stay on my bookself - with glass doors.
This is simply because my two cats are strangely interested in them.

Recently I've come to cover part of the glass with A4 paper when I realised how some of the decorations in my room have seriously faded in colour (one turned from baby blue to light grey in less than one month)!!
It's just one of those things when you live under that big hole in the ozone layer

 

I treat my dolls very carefully...but im not HAPPY unless i get to play with them. sometimes its just reposing them...and sometimes its taking them everywhere and playing, and changing cloths and photography.

I dont feel right spending all that money just to look at them. i want to play with them!

 

I don't understand the point of keeping a doll shut up in a box or a cabinet. When I think of dolls being used for display only, I picture someone's grandmother's porcelain doll collection. I think half the fun of BJDs is taking them around, posing them and touching them, I don't even care about sunlight exposure, I'll leave mine laying around wherever. I decided long ago that I'm not going to waste my time worrying about things like yellowing or scratches, if they happen then they happen, I don't have any limited or rare dolls so I'm just going to enjoy mine to the fullest.

Lol this whole topic reminds me of a friend I used to have in highschool. She would always keep her manga collection in a shelf in her closet away from the sunlight. And it was always an unspoken rule that whenever you were looking at them you could only open them just a crack, if you opened the book too far, and were in danger of possibly wrinkling the spine she would snatch them out of your hand in horror. My friends and I thought that was hillarious.

But yea, the point is, I like to get my money's worth out of stuff. I'm not going to hide them from the light or store them in boxes, I'm gonna keep on sleeping with them in my bed and throwing them in the backseat of my car with all my Mcdonalds bags and school books. ^__^

 

This is a good question!

To me they are playthings. Something you need to take care of, but a plaything all the same. Even when I'm not actively playing with Roland he's out and posed interestingly. If I'm doing something else I think it's fun to take two minutes to pose him doing a similar activity. Like reading or drinking a martini or playing his tiny DS. I couldn't own something so cool and just leave it in a cabinet.

Heck, I own an antique silver tea service that's been in my family for generations, and I use that every now and again, just because I can. Same goes for the old crystal wine classes. I will drink Diet Pepsi out of them. I will even wear the uber-expensive jewelry that's been handed down with a my usual plain black t-shirt and jeans. Why? Same reason - Bit of fun.

At the cons I have taken Roland to, I will let people who are really interested in dolls but who don't have one yet hold him. I had one person tell me I was crazy for letting some random girl hold my doll, but they are playthings to me (Doll = Toy, in my brain) and I like to share.
Besides, Roland's done his part. I know he's pushed a few people over the edge of doll ownership. More-or-less direct quote from a Gothic Lolita to her friend: "That's it, I'm getting one as soon as I get my tax refund."