Does your age reflect on the dolls you purchase?

I am definitely older than many posting on this thread - in chronological age but not in spirit! I prefer my dolls to look like children or slim adults. I missed the whole Barbie doll thing and have never been convinced that dolls should display too much - er - cleavage. I like the old-fashioned look - Victorian for sure - but I'm not THAT old! Since I sew, I am drawn to inset lace and pintucks, batiste and silk, smocking and long sashes, and combinations, pantalettes and wonderful petticoats. My favorite "look" is probably an heirloom version of Alice in Wonderland but a crazy modern look is appealing too. I admire other's dolls but for me, no tattoos and no scars. I guess I tend towards an age of innocence. This may be influenced by my age but as a young mother, I dressed my children in smocking and sashes for our daughters and shirts with Eaton collars and short pants for our sons.

 

Among other concepts, I really want a more mature doll, and I don't think I'd feel that way if I were still just a teenager myself. For me, the idea of an older guy being attractive and interesting has only seemed possible for me as I've gotten older... So yeah, that concept definitely aged along with me. But on the other hand, I still want some young teenagers, because they're character dolls and that's the age range certain characters I like tend to be in.

 

I'm 18 right now and yes, age does matter in your preference of dolls. I basically am not that picky anymore about dolls' age or face. But currently I'm in for mature dolls.

 

i don't know., i think i'm at the age where i MUST have pretty boys or very pretty and beautiful looking girls. I do love the older looking guys thougb, but i just go head over heals for the beautiful boys

 

I guess it really reflects on my case.
When i first started collecting bjds, i was around 13,14years old and very tuned on anime/cartoon-ish styles...because of this, my bjd choice had a tendency for molds with anime-inspired features.

Now (five years later) i feel i quite 'outgrown' these esthetics and i've been choosing dolls with more realistic faces, proportional features and such.
About the doll's age, it really varies from characters being younger/older than me, what really worries me is the esthetics style, really.

 

Well, I'm in highschool and I like the 1/4 and 1/3 sized guys and some girls (at least that's about the range of size I like). I don't really like the SDs or really mature, large ones. I guess I enjoy picking out BJDs that are preteens, teenagers, or young adults. Of course, there are always exceptions.

And most of the BJDs that I like aren't anime-looking (Think of the anime inspired Dollfies and stuff like that) and I'm sixteen, and I've never really liked them, even a few years back, and I absolutely adore anime/manga. I guess I just don't like them mixing in that way. I mean, I fully plan on cosplaying my BJDs, but it'll be more like the anime character becoming a BJD, not a BJD becoming an anime character....If that made any sense. xD

 

Well, my first doll was a Bory - big eyes, sort-of anime style, I guess.
My second was an Iplehouse I who, I think, is more realistic looking.
If that's the change in a year and a half, I don't know what kinda dolls I'll be liking next. XP
But really, I do think that I like the dolls I like and it just so happened that it went from cutesy to realistic.

As for ages, my characters don't really have fixed ages, but I do imagine them to be around 16 - 20-ish. (Most of them anyway. I have a few younger characters)
I think that age possibly does change as you get older because, before I got my first doll, I imagined he would be about 15 or so. (I was 14 at the time) and now that I'm sixteen, I imagine one of them to also be sixteen, but the rest are seventeen or older. >.<

 

That's a very good question.

When I started looking around for my first doll, I decided to get a 1/4, so it would be a bit easier to handle for me. While I love many of the 1/3, I thought a smaller one would fit me better. However, I ran into the problem that a LOT of the 1/4 and MSD size dolls have a very childlike appearence, and I did not want a child doll. In the end, I chose an Island Wallis, she has a much more mature body, but still the smaller size.

I'm 23, and I'm not sure how my dolls age will be yet, we'll see about that, but she will probably be around 20 I think.

 

I don't think my age has anything to do with the types of dolls (in general) that I am attracted to, but my experiences certainly do. I've only had Barbies and one Magic Attic doll, so size wise I'm more comfortable with owning yo-sized dolls right now and I'm waiting on my first msd, IH Benny. I like the way some of the sd dolls look on the computer screen, but I think I'd be overwhelmed very quickly if I ever got one. ^_^; My style has always been eclectic and random, but I favor flowing lines and classic elements in clothings and accessories and something hair to be simple or wild. I prefer face-ups that are natural looking over colorful and I like faces that are sweet and gentle; I always have. The only thing I can really see changing with time is my feelings towards sd dolls.

 

I'm not sure if my age has any relation to which dolls I buy because I've always been pretty consistent with my tastes, they have just evolved as I've grown older, they haven't actually changed. I was into smoky eye make up and dark vintage clothes before it was even called Goth, back when it was pretty much just an offshoot of the New Romantics. I think I am probably a similar vintage to Tim Burton and have a lot of the same influences so my dolls tend to look a kind of whimsical romantic gothic, if that makes sense? I know what I mean!

I think the same dolls would always have appealed to me though. I never buy full sets so it's the sculpts that I'm looking for and what I can do with them. I've bought dolls that don't have a particularly anime look as that doesn't appeal to me, never has. I think your personality and personal aesthetics play a bigger role than your age, and let's face it, when most of us were younger, we never had the money for dolls, as teens and students these days seem to have a lot more access to cash than previous generations did.

 

I was 29 when I started owning BJD in 2005. The characters of the first bunch I got went from 11 to 28. Nowadays I am 35, on the way of 36 at the end of this year, and the last BJD I got is 34. He arrived a day after my 35th birthday.

It could seem that reflects my age on the BJD I purchase, but in most of the cases, ten of twelve, they are already existing (One Piece) manga and anime series characters so their ages were given. I love the characters they are with their ages.

My only two own creation characters are curiously the youngest ones among my resin crew; the boy 14 and the girl 11, and they are both middle size. For me, some way, it is a resin wink of the memories of my childhood.

I hope to have a child someday, but I cannot imagine myself having tiny BJD. I would see him/her very little in case of getting one. That would be a short range of years to explore when writing and writing stories about them and the adventures they live is one of the things I love doing the most.

They are characters with who I identify in several things so somehow, same way they reflect different pieces of my personality, their ages reflect different ages of my life.

 

I'm 56, and I have friends that are in their twenties, and friends that are in their 70s. To me, age is just a number. My dolls' ages are "ambiguous"- in other words, they could be any age. I like it when people list their dolls ages as "300" or something similar. I have dolls in all sizes, from tinies to 70 cm. The ones that are obviously children I think of like the characters in Peanuts- Charlie Brown is a child, but with a grown-up's perspective and thought patterns.

 

Five years ago, when I was in my teens, my mind was filled with fantasy plots for my extensive doll wishlist. Now, in my twenties, even though I own two fantasy dolls, I'm doing more urban fantasy than high fantasy, if at all. It was a bit of a headache fitting them in. By and large, though, I don't think my preference for dolls have changed much. I still like big boys, and I like them skinny. I still like cross-dressing them ever so often. I still like small heads, so much so that it never occurred to me that my Chalco's head was any smaller than usual in proportion.

The only thing that's changed is my purchasing power... now that I have (had) a little more money from the various jobs I'd had at various times, I was able to actually buy new dolls and explore new character types.... like baby dragons... haha......

None of my dolls have fixed ages, except for the baby dragon, who will be growing up in real time as an experiment. At least, until I get bored and change things up again. ;D

 

I'm 19, and I'm really into Anime and whatnot. So I go more towards the "cartoonish", so to speak, dolls. I don't know why. I think the realistic dolls are really gorgeous, but... I feel like they're not for me. I like making my doll looking more "teenage-ish" and modern. Even though right now she's in a hand-made kimono and t-shirt. ^_^;;

 

I'm 28, 1 son, and my nature and interests are the same as when I was like 19: I like cuteness, shojo-style anime and dolls, and I only love the childish-looking BJDs. I think that your preference could also reflect how you feel on the inside!

 

A teenager could like a realistic/mature BJD, an adult could like a cartoon/childish BJD and viceversa. It has nothing to do with age.

 

Funnily enough, I appear to be at that stage. =P

I'm a teenager and I absolutely love fantasy dolls, but I think that if I had gotten a BJD when I was younger (say 11-13) then I probably would have wanted a more anime or cartoonish one (probably along the lines of dollfie dream or so). But then I was really head over heels into anime and manga, so that would have most likely been why.
But funnily enough I prefer the idea of dolls that are 'older' than me (say from the age of 19 to one character who would be about 34 o_O), simply due to their characters to make them more believable. (15 year old businessman? I think not!) It makes it much harder for me to characterise properly as I lack the experience and mindset of people of those ages, but I adore a challange and it makes me think more 'out of the box'.
But unfortunatly, mature MSDs can be difficult to find that are in my tastes (picky, picky ) and SDs are a little daunting as I'm still relatively new to the hobby.

But I guess my age does reflect on the dolls I purchase in a different way too - I'm not allowed an SD in the house because my mum thinks they're scary.
(That and it'd be much harder to afford one, I'm jobless. ;P)

 

Thought I'd answer this one...it was last touched in 2010 - and maybe there are some DoA members that are now older and have changed the type of doll they collect....it would be interesting to hear updates.

I personally started this hobby as an adult but I can't say that if I started as a teen or as a more mature 50+ adult that my tastes would be different than they are today. Even as a child/teen I preferred more realism in my toys (collected model airplanes, cars, horses etc...)

These days I collect SDs that "look like" they can range from probably late teens to late 20s depending on how they are styled. For me I like dolls that are a little bit fluid looking in age and SD's seem to fit the best. While I do think the more anime (love watching it/art work) or tiny styled dolls are super nice, I know for me personally I would eventually grow out of the style if it were a doll. I just tend to grow out of things that are hyper stylized no matter what it is. I'm not sure how much of this is attributable to my age or just my general taste, because I never migrated from say "cute" to more "sophisticated" per se.

 

I'm 36 and I don't have children.

I don't think my age has much to do with the dolls I own or the dolls I like. My dolls are all avatars of my original characters, who are varying ages. I do like more mature-looking dolls, but I also have three tinies and a Yo-SD sized doll. To me, it's more important that the doll reflects the character. I'm not sure my age has anything to do with it at all.

 

I'm 27 and I don't have kids, I don't see my doll (or my future dolls) as my kids but who knows when I finally save up for the two I'm drooling over I may have changed my mind (the wait will drive me more insane than I already am).

I tend to go for dolls that look late teens early twenties.