Did you ever find dolls creepy before you got into BJDs?

I have always loved and had dolls in my life. My brother on the other hand named my doll room "the morgue"!!!

 

I found my older sister's gigantic porcelain doll to be pretty creepy. It was a nearly life-sized (like 3ft tall) doll of a young girl with super long black hair and poorly fitted black eyes (that filled up most of the sockets). No joke, it kind of looked like the girl from the Grudge. And since my sister and I shared a room as kids, I'd wake up in the middle of the night, seeing her soulless black eyes staring back at me from the foot of my bed.

But other than that, I didn't really have a problem with most other dolls. I think I like smaller dolls better because they don't give me that uncanny valley feeling like life-sized dolls do.

 

I was never really into dolls before bjds so I always thought they were fine, but when I saw my first resin doll I fell in love with all types of dolls.

 

Yes and no. I've liked different kinds of dolls (and other toys) my entire life, and I even thrifted a few porceline dolls for my room during my youthful goth phase. I thought their curly hair and little bonnets were just the loveliest things...(they're in boxes at my mom's house now, because she doesn't like them lol).

BJDs are lovely, especially when they're stylized with an emphasis on being good looking. I love beautiful things. The world can sometimes be such an ugly place, so I tend to idealize it. But, I digress.

I'm not frightened of any particular type of doll, necessarily, but rather this intangible sort of energy that some of them carry. A doll who has been well loved will exude good vibes, I think. Even dolls that are designed to inspire unease can be rationalized by me, from an artistic perspective, because of the energy that went in to them. I think that's why I feel compelled to look at used BJD before considering new ones. They have history, a story, and I want to care for them. That, and I tend to be over-empathetic...

That brings in to question the unholy malevolence I felt from a life-sized purple and white ragdoll with a flat, printed-on face. She sat on a ledge over the play area of a thriftstore I used to visit as a child...I have to ask, who hurt you, purple pippi longstocking poser??

 

I didn't particularty like dolls as a child, and there were some creepy ones in the house. One that a relative made (it is crocheted), that was just hanging from my wardrobe's doorknob. It looked like it was wearing a baseball cap, but when you pulled up the front part, you could see it's very scary eyes. There was also a doll that could open and close it's eyes, but I put some glittery nail polish on it, and it made her eyelashes fall off, and after that her eyes went crazy. The third one was a child-sized (maybe like an elementary schooler) doll, that was just standing in the wardrobe. I was afraid that it will come out.

The only dolls I came to like were Bratz dolls. At the age when girls usually start to grow out of their doll phase, I thought they were the coolest thing ever. Which is really surprising, since when I first saw them, I thought they look like prostitutes... I don't know when was that point when I became convinced that they're pretty. But I have fond memories of them, so I still have them somewhere. I still prefer them over Barbies, and I thought it's a neat idea that their feet can be changed. I think I'm starting to get old-fashioned, since I don't understand the appeal of those other fashion dolls that came after them.

The thing is, I don't watch horror films, but it seems like they always have doll-looking ones in them, so I don't seem to be creeped out by the realistic ones. They look just like small people, not something unhuman and malevolent. Despite this, I got a rather doll-looking BJD as my first one, and while waiting for it, I worried that maybe I'll be afraid to sleep with it in my room. It didn't help that I read about BJDs moving on their own because of their stringing. But since actually having it, I concluded that it doesn't do anything, so now it seems silly to be afraid. Though there is a horror sculpt I'm interested in, so we'll see if it will bother me.

 

After seeing the movie „the doll master“ (a korean horror movie about a bjd doll coming to life and taking revenge?) I thought they were a bit creepy but I never really was afraid of dolls. My grandma had a lot in her house and I loved to play with them as a child.

 

Some dolls are creepy. Especially old porcelain jointed dolls.

Some BJDs are creepy - there are some aesthetics that kind of disturb me. I know the dolls themselves as individuals are probably fine... I just don't want them AROUND, you know?

I think the funniest thing I've ever done was to take one of my BJDs to a local doll show. The show was almost exclusively populated by quite old mountain ladies with even older porcelain dolls. We could all appreciate each other's dolls, but my doll (Saskia) has an unusually intense death glare and the ladies were not prepared for her! There were several instances of them looking her in the eye and jerking back while I tried to hide from their porcelain dolls.

 

I STILL find some dolls creepy, but I try not to pass that judgement onto their owner. The other day I went to an estate sale and there was a porcelain doll sitting on their couch looking out the window... It seriously looked like a scene out of a horror film. I think that may of just been the ambiance though because normally I think porcelain dolls are fine for me!

 

Have always thought dolls were special, small scale, life-sized, and everything in-between. Love a good clown makeup look, too. Gore? Suehiro Maruo and Shintaro Kago are two of my favorite artists.

Do I aesthetically like everything that can be classified under these? No. Am I afraid of them in turn? Hardly. I'd argue the amount of genuine fear versus social conditioning/pop culture memery swings heavily towards the latter, and the idea of being genuinely afraid of a harmless, inanimate object will forever make my eyes roll.

 

I never was easily afraid of dolls. I think there is something special, almost magic about the downsize scale. I remember being fascinated by « La poupée » by Hans Bellmer. As I love the horror genre, I think I may enjoy a little thrill.
But I can’t say so much about life size dolls, I find them less appealing and sometimes a little creepy yes (except the one of Bellmer which I find a lot of beauty in).

 

nope! even when i was kid i loved dolls so much i collected porcelain dolls and thought when i grew up i wanted to make my own, i even begged for a mannequin for my birthday. thankfully i didn’t get one haha. but i’ve always seen dolls as my friends!

 

Yes and no. Depends on the doll, the house it is in, the context of why the doll is there/owned, and other things. Hahaha. I was a collector of non-doll items, some Barbie, and some porcelain dolls since I was young while my family have been collectors of various things too (porcelain dolls if dolly related, but mostly non-dolls) for a few generations. My cousins on my Dad side and extended family there don't have issues with dolls but cousins on my Mom's side do, so I feel it could be cultural/upbringing and if they tended to be big horror film watchers (which my cousins on my Mom's side were).

That being said, I've seen some creepy dolls. Hahaha. Antique stores, consignment stores, thrift stores, collectors that have massive amount of antique and vintage dolls where the doll isn't theirs originally but someone unknown way back when. To be clear, a "well loved" children's doll is fine. Heck, an utterly adored adult person's doll that isn't to my aesthetic is fine too. My husband's teacher was a prominent doll collector in the area of certain vintage and antique dolls, and I actually didn't find her dolls that I've seen creepy. But there are certain ones I've "encountered in the wild"...can't really pin point why even if they are mint and otherwise fine looking dolls, that have something a bit wrong about them. Like, I've seen some awesome gothic/monster/demon/gory dolls and I'm fine. I would even say they were beautiful in their darkness. But I've also seen some dolls that are considered valuable and limited and traditionally beautiful but I'm ready to walk the other way. Heck, there are times where I feel like I shouldn't turn around in an antique or consignment store, and I turn around and see a doll that gives me weird vibes. I guess it's like people? You can meet a beautiful person but sense something is off and you need to stay away. Then you meet someone that isn't perfect and would otherwise be considered "ugly" but you find them so endearing that you love them.

Oh, someone mentioned clown dolls. Yeah, even the cute ones are kind of creepy. I like the prettier pierrot ones just fine (had a porcelain one myself and really loved the look of the Iplehouse ones), but there's like a fine line between those pretty ones and the creepy ones.

There were two Grail dolls that I got that scared me a little. I felt some unsettling vibes from them when I initially got them in the mail separately. Both were secondhand dolls. One, I had it hang out with my other dolls for a while and it felt right after some time had passed (he was left underneath a bed for years by the previous owner). Another one, I gave it a stuffed animal and had it watch TV with me (mainly comedies) and eventually sat it with some doll friends (she might have been a display doll at the secondhand store she was at). Now, though, I don't feel the unnerving vibes anymore. I want to believe it's because our happy household has shared some good energy to them and whatever bad energy they had has dissipated. My husband and I joke sometimes that we need to treat our dolls right so if every they come to life then we wouldn't be harmed. Realistically, we know the dolls will never come alive. But just in case....

 

Interesting thread! I was never afraid of dolls as a child, although I didn't have that many of them (a few remain special to my memory, such as a beautiful porcelain doll I hope to recreate in bjd form eventually).

However, I am afraid of people and the evil they bring to their homes. This is one reason why I'm reluctant to purchase secondhand dolls unless they are blank heads (so not part of a character or used in a concrete way) or just parts like hands. People can get into dangerous territory by messing with tarot cards, etc. As the great Christopher Lee once said in regard to experimenting with the occult: "never, never, never. You will not only lose your mind: you lose your soul.”

So, yeah, if I got bad vibes from a doll that doll would be going in the burn barrel - or would be sold to someone who did not care about vibes. But in general, I think a lot of the "creepy doll" factor is due to the influence of pop culture.

 

My relationship with dolls was pretty strange. As a younger child, I didn't care about them one way or the other; slightly older, and I entered this phase where I was afraid of dolls and thought they were all possessed, or something. And then as a teenager, I started loving horror regardless, so the "creepy" factor I saw in them turned into "beautiful."

 

As a child I had zero interest in any humanoid toys and only owned stuffed animals, but I don't think it was because I was scared - I just didn't care for the themes that most fashion dolls have (and still don't).

These days I'm just mildly freaked out by semi/realistic sculpts that have REALLY large eyes. It can depend on the faceup and how the rest of the doll is styled but if I'm just looking at blank photos it's a no for me (-_-

 

Never found them creepy at all.... my prospective daughter in law though says they are haunted and walk around the house at night!

 

I've never found dolls creepy in general. I think some dolls can be creepy, but not dolls in general. Everyone I know in real life hates them though lol.

 

I was never afraid of dolls but I did find most types creepy. What drew me to bjds in the first place was that they were dolls that looked really cool instead of unsettling to me.

 

Nope! I think it's because I've always been around dolls. My mom used to collect Barbie dolls and I was given a Precious Moments angel doll for a birthday when I was really young that I thought was really beautiful so I've always thought dolls were super interesting and beautiful.

 

When I was a really young kid, I was scared of specifically motorized baby dolls (like ones that cry and stuff), but I think that was more of a fear of the sounds and how unpredictable those dolls were to 6-year-old me , but other than that I wasn't scared. Although, I was a furry as a kid (even had a fursona! she was a blue cat with fairy wings) so I was only interested in plush animals or anthropomorphic animal shaped toys and I didn't have much interest in most humanoid fashion dolls anyway.

After growing up, I started appreciating dolls much more I think. My grandma gave me a little mass produced porcelain doll which has really pretty clothes when I was a young child but I didn't realize how much I liked it until I accidentally dropped it in middle school and immediately went to fix it! I think I did an okay repair job for a 13-year-old using school glue LOL . I still have it and I think she looks so cute, I may see if I can repair her better someday. It's a little funny because a lot of my friends find her kind of scary, but I think fixing her made me view broken or repaired dolls as interesting and kinda cool rather than creepy or haunted!

I do have a soft spot for people talking about haunted dolls though, it's a little weird 'cause I don't really believe in ghosts (not for lack of trying) but I just think haunted dolls are kind of funny? Like if any of my dolls tried to haunt me I could just pick 'em up and put it in a box... timeout for the ghost

I WILL SAY I am... a little scared of mannequins. Don't know how to explain that one, maybe I watched one too many haunted mannequin TV shows as a child! With some of the bigger dolls that have come out in the past bit, I'm not sure where the line between mannequin and doll is for me. I seem to be cool with larger BJDs though, like I think as long as it's under 3 and a half-ish feet tall and poseable I'm not going to be unnerved~ The only hesitation I have about 60+ cm dolls nowadays is how I'd store them!