Do you have friend in reality who also collects/loves BJD?

No, not anymore. I've met a few in person in the past and one of my exes had bjds too. But I know collectors of other doll types, my mom for one, and so even if they don't love the same kind of doll they still understand the excitement when we talk about them.

 

One of my real life friend introduced me to bjd so, YES

(I knew a bit about bjd and some company name before, but she's the one who encouraged me to stepped in)

I have several friends who also collect bjd too. One of them live near me, and we have a little doll meet sometime.

 

I have many! My sister is in the hobby, so she was the first that I knew, but I am also very active in local meetups and doll group (or...at least was before the pandemic, our group hasn't been very active since...) so I met a lot of people there and would consider some of them my closest friends now. I also have my RP partner, she lives a few states away, but we met when I sold her a doll back in...2010 I think? Maybe early 2011? And we've met up in person a few times, and talk almost every night. I have another friend who isn't really active in the hobby, but I gave her my Dearmine Dante during quarantine, and am trying to talk her into going to a meet with me one day!

I was just very lucky to have a sister interested in the hobby, but all of my other friends in the hobby have been due to me just making an effort to meet people, find common interests and stay in contact. So my advice, if you want a hobby friend, is to go to meet ups, go to conventions, randomly start talking to other hobbyists you find interesting! Not every attempt is going to go anywhere, but the ones who do are so worth it!

 

I do! She owned bjd years before I bought my own. I wasn’t interested until I saw a centaur bjd.

 

I’m very familiar with having hobbies and interests no else around me have. My primary hobby is world building and the only one I have to talk to it about is my sister. Bjd’s are my newest hobby and largely motivated by my world building (how else can I have actual figures of my OCs?). Luckily my fiancé always listens, appreciates, and supports my hobbies even if he doesn’t understand them completely. No one else I know is into bjds but I like to share the customizations I do with my mom and she at least appreciates them.
The only thing I wish I had is someone to talk with when I’m trying to decide on styles or colors for my dolls. My sister is the only other artistically talented person I trust (I don’t have many friends), and I don’t always get to talk to her about that kind of thing, especially if she’s not interested.

 

I don’t! I used to have a friend in university who did follow bjd accounts on Instagram though, and that’s what reawakened my interest that had been slumbering for a long, long time.

I’m quite open about having this hobby, as with my other hobbies, and have been lucky enough to have had only positive experiences so far. My friends and colleagues have either shown interest or are neutral towards my hobby, and my boss likes to tease me when I say I’m going to stop buying doll stuff - he has a friend who is an avid collector. My aunt, who visits often, has also carried my dolls before, and expresses how pretty she thinks they are.

I guess the closest to me having a friend in this hobby is my dad. He doesn’t own any dolls of his own, but he tries to be involved and understand the hobbies that I have, which I appreciate a lot. I talk to him about sculpts and new outfits and glass eyes. He’s interested enough to surf the bjd interwebz sometimes, hehe.

Even though I don’t know anyone else irl with the same interest, but it’s nice that the people around me have only been kind about it.

 

I have quite a few friends who are into them, though none of them live near me anymore. My friends who do live near me or come to visit don't seem to mind them. My mother's only concern is keeping them safe from our cats and knowing their cost haha.

 

My partner also collects bjd, partly because after years of wanting one, i convinced them to just go for it.
It's pretty neat to be able to borrow clothes/eyes between us, and we often take dolls when we go visiting places.
On the down side, we definitely enable each other about buying stuff...

 

Apart from local hobbyists I've met at meetups, I don't know anyone IRL who's into BJDs. I'm not shy about my hobbies and I like showing my dolls and doll photos to my IRL friends - everyone's been very supportive and happy for me, but none of them have shown any interest in joining the hobby. That suits me. I've spent my whole life having niche hobbies where the community is mainly online, and most of my "hobby socializing" is all online and chat-based. I kinda like being the weirdo amongst my normie IRL friends anyway, haha.

My family aren't into dolls either, except my mother - she had (non-BJD) dolls as a kid and sewed clothes for them. She likes my dolls too and helps me out with sewing for them (I'm learning how to), but doesn't want to get any dolls... to my immense relief. It's my hobby!

 

I got into the hobby largely because of my younger sister! We have different specialties when it comes to the crafty side of the hobby, which is a bonus to getting into bjd together-- she's always been a doll girl, and a talented miniature seamstress, I'm developing my faceup skills while also painting D&D minis and busts/models, and so on and so forth. So we really get to collaborate creatively through our doll collections, as well as just helping find little things for each other, like props and furniture. We know each other's dolls and each other's style.

Youngest sister is a more general toy collector, but has one resin BJD alongside her off-topic dolls and figures. She had been into customizing action figures, resin garage kit models, etc, so getting a doll appealed, but for her it's just one type of collector's doll for the toy collection.

And, one year our mom came along to the doll convention, handled a pukifee, and wound up ordering a doll of her own as soon as we got home. She's very content with just having one tiny doll with a couple little seasonal outfits, a little roombox, and a couple props, rather than having a collection. No desire for a second whatsoever, but she gets why we love them.

 

I have one irl friend in the doll hobby! We have different tastes in characters and by extension dolls, but that just makes it more interesting to see what she has planned for her dolls because it's so different from what I do with mine.

 

I got my partner into dolls. He finally has his own bjd, and is now looking for another! He wants a vampire one.

Apart from my partner, I don't know anyone else into them irl.

I'm going to Oz Comic Con this year, and the doll emporium people will be there, so hoping to meet more doll enthusiasts

 

At this point in my life, most of my friends are “doll friends.” My best friend lives clear across the country (I’m in northeast Ohio, she’s near Seattle) but she loves BJDs as much as me. My partner is also into BJDs, and several more of my local friends were met through the hobby. Any other friends who aren’t into dolls of any type are really more acquaintances.

 

Most of my friends are in the hobby. My closest friend, who lives not (too) far from my house, is as much a BJD-lover than me.
I have older friends (that I know for more than 15 years) that are not dolls collectors but they are very supportive.

I understand it can be less exciting to have no BJD-friends in real life.

 

I used to have a few friends into BJDs; but over the years we lost contact, and I now live in a different town. It's hard to make/keep friend for me as I have Aspergers (that was undiagnosed until recently); but with BJDs, we had a common interest.

My partner is into BJDs though. I got them hooked ;D lol

 

I wish! I used to have friends here in my city. We all belonged to a doll club. But it has been many years and most moved away from the hobby or are more into vinyl dolls like Barbie.

 

I've a friend living in my area collecting bjds too but recast and I our views about bjd are not aligned...

 

I have a couple friends who are into them. Only two actually collect them, and one of them is actually now my creative partner for bjd related crafts! It took quite a while to find my people irl but I feel very lucky to have in-the-flesh doll friends.

 

One of my best friends. We were introduced via a mutual friend at the time, as the friend realized we both collected the same dolls. We've been friends over 10 years now.