Did you play with dolls as a child?

I had a few dolls as a child but I really preferred to play with things like dinosaurs, ponies and other animal toys . I don't think my previously low interest in dolls has affected how I handle my dolls. We get along just fine I feel even if there's a lot to learn about them .

 

I've been into dolls ever since I was a kid. Especially barbie. I've got every new barbie released back then, but I grew out on them when I entered Highschool.

BJDs sparked my interest because they're more customize-able than barbies, and well, it's not really for kids.

I also jumped into the BJD hobby hoping to learn how to sew and make costumes. Barbies are too small to use as willing victims for clothes.

 

I did play with dolls. I liked the bratz and barbie dolls when I was a kid. I mostly liked them because I could make up stories with them and dress them up. I suppose because I've always been a doll person that made me want a BJD even more, but even if I hated dolls when I was younger I'd still love BJDs because they're so unique and beautiful.

 

I had a massive collection of barbies and legos (<-dolls?) when I was a kid, and the only reason I stopped playing with them was because I felt pressured by my school to be "grown up" and give up dollies.

 

Although I was always very much a tomboy, I did play with a lot of dolls growing up. Barbies, of course, my grandmother's fashion dolls, (I always felt proud to be allowed to play with them. Even though it's a given that I can play with them now, my younger cousins aren't allowed to, and I was a little younger than them when I was first allowed.) and of course, my American Girl Doll. Oh god that poor thing. I was ridiculously neglectful of her. I ended up selling her when I got into BJDs of course... Before I got into BJDs, I had always thought I'd end up with an Ellowyne Wilde or a Tiny Kitty, because I've always ADORED my grandmother's fashion dolls, but I ended up turning HER onto resin dolls!

(Some of my favorite doll memories are of the soap-opera dramas I'd do with my Barbies and Bionicles. "I'm sorry Ken's Head, but I need a man with more... body. That's why I'm leaving you for Headless Ken." "But, Barbie, what about the baby?" "I'm so sorry Ken's Head! I... I slept with the blue rahkshi! I'm having his robo-grub!")

 

LOL! My sister and I used to do the same sort of thing. I have to shake my head and chuckle when I look back now. We had the large GI-Joe action figures (just a smidge shorter than Barbie) and they roamed the town as this frighteningly overbearing militant mounted police force that would come barging into our homes in the middle of the night. The captain of their posse lost a leg somehow, (his name, so creatively, was Joe, and his deputy was Moe, and so forth) and we had to cinch his belt up tight to keep it in its socket, but sometimes when he was riding his horse it would fly off~

And instead of fashion shows and shopping expeditions, Barbie would have karate competitions where by the final rounds, the whole town was eventually demolished, and we even had a dedicated jailhouse with a torture chamber... o_o
We even made a medieval rack out of K'Nex to tie them to... but I swear, we've grown up relatively normally!

So, yes, I played with baby dolls as a little girl, received porcelain dolls for my birthdays, and played with Barbies a lot from ages 8-14. I never cared much for dolls during my teenage years; once I was done with Barbies, I was done. Then I learned of BJDs... the rest is history.

 

I despised dolls as a child, particularly since my whole family insisted on buying me barbie doll after barbie doll as well as all the pink things in the world. The only 'girly' things I liked were skirts and stuffed animals.
My brother and I would brutalize all the dolls together, the firecrackers and the lawn mower, etc.
I'm a little embarrassed about my sudden need for these dolls now, but they're absolutely gorgeous and I want them.

 

when i was child, i did love dollies so much. i got my first barbie and i started into this hobby with doll loving. and i guess most girls loves doll, cuz they can change clothes for them, play with them. still now i play with dolls like a really child. the thing i most into, i enjoy most.

 

I played with barbies a TON when I was younger. And for a very short time I even liked the bratz dolls, though I was going out of my doll phase at that time. I liked the bratz dolls because you could change their feet instead of shoes so in my mind that ment that you wouldnt loose the shoes. Lol.

 

I had dolls when I was a little girl, but I didn't play with them. I was more into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and model dinosaurs. The doll bug didn't bite me until I was about eleven...now my house is full of them.

 

I played with dolls in the childhood. The love to them remained. Now I buy bjd-dolls. But, I don't play with them now. I like to create them an image, to admire them. But they sit on a shelf.

 

I actually had a few barbies.. but those were presents from distant relatives. I would have never chosen those myself.
I have a big brother (4 years difference) so I basically grew up with matchbox cars and lego.
DID love polly pocket though. you know.. the original tiny ones that could only bend back and forth

I don't think that this particularly had any influence on the bjd-hobby because I see kids dolls and bjds as something completely different

 

well as a child I had one doll actually !!! she came from Netherlands, a present from my father...I still remember her clogs!!! and her cap and her braids! Later on my mom bought me another very similar to my first one( my mom used to love the peasant looking dolls) this one wasn't so lucky! since my mother and father were way travelling (because of the job of my father...he was on commercial navy) my grandmother never allowed me to play with my doll in case I break her or ruin her or whatever! All these surpressed mood brought me to the age of 12 where I first laid eyes on a Sindy Ballerina doll....So i had to have her I wanted her so bad it was the most cute and delicate doll I have ever seen!!!
Unfortunately my mother thought I was by then too old to play with dolls and stuff like that so she said NO! Anyway about a year after that my father bought me a Sindy and I was happy happy happy...I was almost 13 and still wanted to play with Dolls!

I think I never stopped liking dolls I always had stuffed animals and at one trip That took us to Singapore I bought a little dog (Mr Winslow) that slept with me until I've got married!!!

Many many years after that I started collecting Kokeshi dolls which strangely brought me to Blythes and finally to BJD dolls!
I still play with my dolls ...sometimes I feel scared to customize them .....Now I am waiting for my Unoa sist who had the same effect to me like that first Sindy of mine!!!
By the way I still have my Sindys and some Barbies that I have found by luck on a trash can near my home!!! So I have saved the poor girls from going to hell and now they live in
my doll box!!!
Aww sorry for the long reply!!

 

I loved playing with all kinds of dolls as a child. My younger sister an I played dolls a lot and frequently took our dolls with us on outings or trips. I loved Barbie, especially choosing outfits for her, and used to collect them. I'm not surprised at all that I got into this hobby as I've always maintained a love of dolls.

 

We didn't play with dolls. No way.

We played with paper dolls which I drew and coloured and my friend cut (also my cousin and my little sister were involved in our paper doll empire). My friend still says that she's a professional paper doll cutter, since she cut hundreds of dolls (females, men, children, their horses and their dogs) and their clothing. We created a very detailed historical story of a noble family and their servants (head count was around 200) and I designed mainly rococo, regency and early 20th (pre WW1) century clothing. We borrowed loads of history and fashion books from our local library for inspiration and my mum had to constantly buy paper and water colours. We could only play with them when my parents were away, since they took a lot of room and so we always arranged their 'castle' to our living room (the floor naturally). I remember vividly how fun it was to have all those dolls arranged on the floor and dress them up for a ball or hunting event.

I still have all of the paper dolls stored in big chocolate boxes at my parents' house. Haven't looked at them for years though, maybe I should...

 

I had a ton of Barbies as a child, but most of the dolls I collect now are very different in that they are more young girls then the more mature style (like Barbie). I am sure Barbie influenced my love of dolls in some way though.

 

I did own a few barbies, and still have a few collector ones to this day, but I never really played with them. I was more into playing with stuffed animals and little gadgets than anything else. BJDs just captivated me when I first laid eyes on them. They're incredibly beautiful, and when I learned customization is unlimited, I was sold. Honestly, I could care less playing with dolls for many people is seen as juvenile. I feel that being in this hobby is much, much more than owning a doll, and that's something a lot people outside of the hobby don't seem to understand. The dolls you own are something of your own creation that allow you to stretch your imagination to create something that is special and one of a kind, and they will stay to your heart.

 

I never played with dolls as a kid; my sister had a ton of them (and a lot of the accessories), but I had maybe three or so that were stuffed in a drawer because I just didn't like them and didn't want to play with them. They all looked the same, they wouldn't stand up without being held, they were just too plain and boring. Mostly I played with My Little Ponies or stuffed animals instead. (But not my Cabbage Patch Kid, she suffered a similar fate to the Barbies). I almost hate to admit it, but when I first encountered BJDs I didn't realize they were so customizeable, and thought about the same about them as I did about Barbies, or porcelain dolls, or other such things--learning that I could make something uniquely my own, that even if the sculpt was the same as someone else's the doll wouldn't be, and would be something I could build myself was one of the things that finally turned me around on dolls!

 

Barbie was the only doll I had and it went missing mysteriously...somehow...

 

Yeah, I did. I was never big on Barbie, but I loved Bratz.