Doll research *or* Buying too soon?

I just ( as in, two minutes ago) ordered my doll.

It took ages to get to this point.

I started researching the hobby a year ago, and I have spent the entire time studying, reading, and planning for the moment when I would find that one special doll that I knew was the right one.

I found him, started to save, and read about what I would need to do specially for a doll with tan skin.

I bothered the doll people at cons.

I bothered any doll people I met at stores/meet-ups.

I went to the hardware store and bought the stuff needed for daily care with a list in hand of what wasn't good for resin. (in short, more bothering.)

YOU *NEED* TO RESEARCH. You will, most likely, make a horrible mistake if you don't.

 

I think it depend on person, someone ( like me) take long road of research and preparation, someone just buys it at the moment they want it. There is no right and wrong way, I suppose.
I really cant buy anything without researching as much as i can about it (it applies to laptops, PDAs, furniture and other things).
Currently I'm researching dolls for 2 months. I know which one I want but dont know much about handling, painting and such things. Also I need to loose some weight (4 kg now), so I will get my dollie
Also I have hundreds of designs of knitted things for my doll, and several of them are already made.
But the more a read and more i know about them, more I affraid to buy it. Its negative side of my reasearch

 

I am really surprised how fast I went from 'I want to buy BJD' into the state of poking 'pay now' button. It was two or maybe three weeks. By this time I managed to choose the doll I really want, to calculate and gather all the moneys I need, and to find out more about BJD as it is. I am good at swallowing big information in small time when it's something I am interested in But, it feels, all I get is basic kit. 'Cause I knew nothing about BJD's before exept of 'They're extremely beautiful' and 'they're insanely expensive'. I never knew that you can make face up by yourself, I never knew dolls had wigs - I was sure that hair are attached just like with other dolls, I never knew so_much_people_had_bjd's.
So, before buyting my doll, I made reasearch. Not all that detiled I could have, but still I am sure my doll will survive with me while I'll be learning more and more about her

 

My boy is on his way and he's a cheaper Bobobie, but still I took a year ahead of time to study up on how to take care of this wonderful new thing! I think everyone should do at least a little research before getting a doll.

 

The BJD bug finally bit me this summer. I spent a couple of months researching here and some of the manufacturers. I had everything to learn - sizes, etc.

But when I see the right doll, it's an immediate bond. So far, I have:

1. Edward (LikeMey Quaian)
2. Ian (Dollzone Hong)
3. Edmund (Dollzone Yue)

On the way are:

1. B&G Yulion (will be on a girl body)
2. Luts Dahlia

I find that the names come to me when I open the box. How much fun!

Hugs,

Jan

 

I fell hard and fast for BJD's. I just looked at them for the first time in October, and my first just arrived home. I've been reading and researching pretty much non-stop in the meantime, though, so I felt I was somewhat prepared. (Poor guy still needs more clothes though!) I felt confident enough to take off his head and switch out his eyes the first day I got him! I still don't have MSC or faceup supplies (other than chalk pastels and a few leftover brushes from previous projects), but I'll get those eventually. My guy has an awesome default faceup, so I don't really need those things except that I want to find a practice head and learn to do faceups myself.

I did enough research to have a pretty thorough knowledge of what to do and not to do, as well as a good familiarity with the sculpts and bodies I was considering. I had a wishlist written up before I bought, and I have a good idea of what I like and don't like in a doll.

I do think some research is very helpful in this hobby, otherwise you need a lot of luck. It's hard enough for me still to figure out what might fit and which size eyes I want - I can't imagine being successful in buying anything if I just saw them somewhere and bought whatever I could find on ebay.

 

I agree. I know I did plenty of research. I got a cheaper doll, Boy and Girl Sharon, so it wasn't AS bad, but its still a lot of money. when people ask about the dolls and they already have then it irks me. I mean, like you sid, How is ok, what is just plain out stupid. I hate it when people jsut go off and buy a doll out of no where, jsut because 'thaer purty' or something. I reseachered for about a year maybe two (I can't remember) before I even found the doll I wanted. I admit I thought he was a girl because I got him off of eBay account that B&G has, and the mold is Sharon, which is a girls name here in America. But I have to admit, I love having a boy. ^-^

 

For me, if I was going to spend upwards of $600 on a doll, I wanted to make sure I knew what I'd be getting into. I looked at tons of BJD sites, came here and read a lot of posts, and took my time picking out a doll. I had it narrowed down to about three choices and then when I saw my Iplehouse girl, my mind was made up.

I just think that the costs associated with this hobby are high enough that it makes an impulse buy quite risky, in my opinion.

 

Absolutely, a DEEP doll research first @__@"
Or you wouldn't like to feel like you wasted quite a lot of money for a doll who you didn't really liked out too much.
And then the poor thing ends up for sale in the marketplace

 

I'd advocate at least a little bit of looking into the hobby and care of the dolls, in case you end up dissappointed, as has been mentioned above. Had I impulse-bought an ABJD when I first discovered them, I probably would have done a lot of stuff I wouldn't do now... like not understand the problems with oils vs. resin (moisturiser on hands, anyone?), left it in the sunlight... and been sad when it discoloured or worse.

 

Yeah, I get what you mean.
I ordered one in the summer but ended up cancelling because I didn`t feel ready for him. haha
I do know now what not to do and basic maintenence, but I still wouldn`t be comfortable taking him apart or trying a face-up.
First time nerves, I guess.

 

No, no you don't.
Research has its benefits. I'm happy for the people who enjoy doing a lot of research before buying their dolls, or before attempting things like faceups.

But I did virtually zero research before I bought my doll, and a year and a half later I have made zero horrible mistakes.

Research is good, but not doing it (and especially not doing it before you make that first purchase) is not the guarantee of failure that some people seem to think it is.

 

Hmmmm.....I see it more like: If you don't want to do research, that's fine. And, like undermost salamander said, you can still be completely happy without doing any research. But not many people are going to be sympathetic if you start running into problems that could've been found/solved by some Googling.

 

There you go!-- it all comes down to the old concepts of free will & personal responsibility. Jump blindly into anything you want. But if something goes wrong, & it could've been easily prevented, people will probably laugh at you when you tell them about it. But seriously: around here on this forum, after they've finished a little laugh, most people will still help you out.

I guess I did moderate research before buying my first dolls ['05]; I had a more-experienced friend I could go to with specific questions, so it served to teach me as I went along, as I figured the basics out on my own. But I didn't take anything close to a whole year to do research, like I hear some people do, because I was absolutely burning up to get started. And because limited editions don't wait around for long. So I did a couple dumb things as a n00b, all right, but nothing too bad, because I fumbled very carefully. (And I didn't broadcast my mistakes publicly. ^^ I had 6 dolls before I joined DOA, so I kinda jumped into the deep end.)

You also don't have to plunge right into the full customization & modification & all that, if you don't want: Your first doll can spend his early life as a shelf-baby, until you feel comfortable enough to start taking him apart and really muscling him around. For my first doll, it took me 6 months to get it up to just unglue his eyes. Some dolls have never been unstrung once in the 3 years I've owned them. Later as I gained confidence, other dolls got dismembered-painted-sanded-hotglued-etc. as soon as they arrived.

(PS. As the salamander reminds us, even if you know absolutely everything before you get started, it doesn't mean that you still can't eff it up somehow. There are certain things you might know about in theory, but in practice, when the doll's in your hands, may be very different. There's no real substitute for hands-on.)

 

Three years ago my first doll was an impulse buy. But I had been on DoA and other doll boards for a while looking at BJD's trying to figure their mystique. The doll I bought was a special edition Sooah and my best doll buddy already had a Ryung she was in love with so maybe it wasn't quite such of an impulsive of a buy. However, I was uncertain if I'd like the size as she was much larger and quite different than the dolls I had previously collected. But all I had to do was hold her in my arms and I was hooked.

Now I'm a veteran BJD owner but still my next doll must have that initial WOW factor and make my heart sing. It's an immediate reaction for me and has nothing to do with research or compromise.

 

From the moment I pressed the "OK" button to buy my first doll, I wondered if I was an impulse buyer. Afterall, I only spent, the most about a month on research. Prior to this, I have heard about BJDs before, just never paid much attention. But in that one month, the key things I researched on was maintenance and durability of the doll. I wanted to know and understand what is so special about these dolls, how it will suit me. To me, for something so expensive, that was No1 consideration.

Learning how to mod the doll, doing faceups or making it my unique own is secondary. I'm not an artist, I dont have the talent for that. I will not want to risk destroying my doll. I just want to enjoy my doll - even if she ends up looking generic, just the next doll.

 

*grins* I only joined DoA after ordering my first doll. I only did minimal research and figured the rest out when he got here. If you research too much you might just get anxious from all the advice and do/don'ts people throw at you. One look in the help forum and you might just get the idea that even touching your doll could be potentially disasterous. Handling and restringing my dolls told me much more about what they can and can't handle than any advice about it in the forums. 7 dolls later I'm pretty sure the hands on approach to learning has been more useful than just going by the standard "how to handle you doll" advice.

 

*shrugs*

When you get to the nitty gritty it's just a hunk of plastic. Sure I adore my boy but really he IS still just some strung together plastic. I don't see why doll ownership should be like buying a house or car or undergoing major surgery. I just bought him cuz I could afford too. So MY way of enjoying him might be different than yours. So what?

I have to freckle his boyfriend who's on his way... I am SO tempted to do it with a marker just to be as "in your face" as possible.

Let me enjoy my hobby my way.

 

I didn't spend very long researching before I ordered my first doll. I started looking at dolls because I remembered finding out about them years before, and was suddenly curious and wanted to make a character into a doll. I think I ordered my first doll... a week, two weeks after I got on DoA and had a look around. While waiting on him, I made sure to have a look around the forums to answer questions I had, and a lot of it is pretty easy in my opinion. Don't use anything with oil on them, don't ever use markers, use certain kinds of eye putty, use this or that as a sealant for the faceups, etc. It was all pretty basic stuff and it wasn't real hard for me to pick up and keep in mind. To me, a BJD is not all that complicated. The stringing made me slightly nervous, but even that didn't bother me too much. I figured if they were strung like that when they got to my house, there must be a way to unstring them and string them back together on my own. I was leery of removing his factory faceup, but after I did my first one that was decent, I was never scared again. I think after a month of having mine, he had a new faceup, he had been unstrung and hot glue sueded, body blushed, all that. I jumped right in because I ended up enjoying the hands on side of it so much.

I ended up selling my first BJD, and maybe with some more research before I ordered him I would have ended up with one I wouldn't have sold, but who really knows? I've found that it has been hard for me to find out what I really like in some instances until it is right in front of me and I can hold it. Knowing myself, I would have thought that one of the biggest doll sizes (he was a 70cm) would have been something I would love. As it turned out, I like 60cm better. And I found through a bit of trial and error what kind of aesthetic I like too. I don't regret buying him at all, he was a great doll and provided me with a lot of happiness and fun memories.

So I don't think it's really necessary to do years of research, but if that's how you get into the hobby, do it! Either way can work out just fine.

 

I think one of the beauties of that long wait for your doll is the time to do more indepth research