First Doll: How much planning went into it? Plan success or foiled plan?

Hmmm...I think the first doll I wanted was Souldoll Chiron and I even prepared everything - character, story, etc...BUT then after some time I started to realize that if I buy him, I will probably have no bond to him, because if he come with make up already done, I won't have a chance to get matey with him as he won't be my own original doll character. He just didn't get to my plans as I wanted, so now I'm impatiently waiting for March when I'll order Miho head from Migidoll. Aww...I just can't wait and March is so faaaar...

 

Eh, lets see, the first time I saw BJDs was on DeviantArt, got intrigue and browsed some BJD company sites, just looking at the dolls and marvel at their awesomeness, didnt really plan to get one because I couldnt really afford one then, it was more of a 'eye candy' spree for me... I then stumbled on Iplehouse and saw their Akando, my eyes seriously went O_O ... I totally fell head over heels for him..
From that day on whenever I saw BJD pictures, that certain doll would flash in my mind and my heart would die abit inside knowing I cant possibly afford him.

Years pass, finished my school years got a job and life goes on, I didnt really thought about BJD much during that hectic years of my life... until I found myself just randomly browsing BJD sites again, no prize guessing which site I went first.

After putting alot of thought about it I finally bought him, and no, he doesnt have a background story/character that I cooked up before buying him, I just wanted to bring home this doll that I fell in love with ^^ But now after owning him for quite a while, I can almost see a personality surfing up from under that resin of his.

 

my first doll...i bought it online at work...i didn't have any fix idea. Actually my dream doll is a Soom Dia boy but i bought a Dollmore kid Rafel. I knew i couldn't afford the Dia but i really wanted a BJD i don't regret cause i love Eden to death and it was the same with the second one...i had a fix idea about what i was going to buy but when i got on the website i go crazy and i buy on impulse...but my third will definitely be my dream doll...i'm saving >.<...i'll resist! I won't buy other doll till i pay for my Dia >.<

 

My first doll is all planned but the prices are a bit intimidating.

 

Well, I first saw these dolls from a distance on an Artist's Ally table at an Anime con.
At the time I couldn't get over to the table for a closer look, the table was absolutely jammed with people!
When I managed to get back, the dolls were no where to be seen, and I didn't recognise any of the people as the ones who had been there with the dolls.
So I never found out anything about them.

Several months later, while on a yaoi forum, I came across a post where someone was raving about these incredible gorgeous jointed boy dolls, and had posted links to sites where people had posted pictures and talked about these dolls.
Immediately I knew these had to be the same type of doll as those I had seen at the con!

Also immediately I knew these were the dolls I had been searching for my whole life, and I had to have one!
Not knowing where else to go, I turned to ebay.
After all, they had been such an excellent source for locating cool Anime items for my collection.

I soon found several dolls listed, and I settled on a small CH Petite Ai, because it was a small doll, and I remembered reading on a site somewhere that the Petite Ai was genderless.
I fell in love with her serious, slightly sad little face, and I figured since she was genderless I could make her into a darling little boy named Kestrel.
Besides, being small, she would be a good trial doll, to see if these were truly the dolls of my dreams, and one which I could always relist if she turned out to be a disapointment.
Lol, little did I know the power of these dolls!

When Kestrel arrived, I was promptly informed that she was definitely Kestrel, but in no way was she going to be anything but a little five year old girly girl! 0_0
The first thing she did was claim a tiny stuffed fox of mine, whom she informed me was Mr. Finnigan.

Now, I was flabbergasted, but enchanted by how strong her personality was, and how alive she seemed.
I have to say, I was disappointed by the chubbiness of her body, and her posing limitations.
However, in spite of that I knew that these were definitely the dolls for me.
So I went back on ebay, and promptly ordered four more, mini sized this time and all definitely boys!

I figured I'd sell the Petite Ai, as soon as the four boys arrived, but of course they had other plans.
No sooner had I opened the boxes of the first two boys, then they were introducing themselves, complete with last name, and pleading with me to not sell their little sister!

Needless to say, I still have Peregrine, Merlin, and Kestrel Fox, and they've since been joined by their other brother Gyrfalcon.

I also have their close friend Audie who also arrived when they did. ^_^

As for the fourth doll, well he turned out to be my most beloved demon Lue.
But that's another story. =D

 

My first doll was all planned and ready to be bought... I thought so anyway, as the time got closer I didnt know if I wanted to spend so much right away and the shipping scared me...

She ended up being flopped to the side, I felt bad but I dont think I thought her out enough now that I think about it.

Then after that flop I found Rao from AoD and fell in LOVE, I planned her out for a month and finally bought her so.. I guess I have failed and succeded.

 

I was very lucky to be introduced to BJDs by my best friend, who had been involved with BJDs for over a year before I became interested. I told her I wanted to create a doll like Naoe Nagi from Weiss Kreuz. She told me what head/body to order, what eyes to get, and then did the face up for me when he arrived. She also had his school uniform made as a surprise to me. So I was very lucky, I had great guidance and an experienced hand to help me.

 

My first doll purchase was... a clash of planning and impulse.

I got a really nice, big tax return shortly after quitting my job so I didn't really have the inclination to go get another job while I could still afford to pay the electricity (I live with my mom, admittedly). One month turned into seven with my nest egg slowly whittling down (I was really addicted to World of Warcraft) and when I was at about $600 I decided to pay the electricity with half and use the rest to splurge.

I knew about BJDs from Anime Evolution '08 because Featherfall had a table there, plus pictures on DeviantArt. After AE, I joined DoA but it totally fell off my radar. Something... I think maybe Piffie's pictures on Facebook? Maybe an email from Dollmore?... made me go 'zomg want' again back in June and I decided I -had- to have one.

So I looked at a few molds on ebay and stuff and I settled on an AoD Rao because she was affordable and had a pretty face. I held off ordering one for about a week, knowing I couldn't stand the wait if I ordered her directly from AoD. Then I found an in-stock Rao w/ faceup on ThinkPink and pounced ALL over that. With probably more hesitation than I remember now.

I don't regret my purchase... but wouldn't you know it? A week later I fall in love with MNF Shushu...

 

My first doll was unplanned. I thought there were only two companies out there being Volks and LUTS until I came to this board and discovered there were like more

 

I did a lot of planning for my first doll. I had a general idea as to what I wanted her to look like: more realistic looking, blonde hair, blue eyes, around the age of 10-12.

My final choice was Souldoll Katie.A. She was still a blonde, but she came with green eyes, and I didn't like how the blue eyes I'd bought look in her head. Also, she did not look like a 10-12 year old at all. She had a thin but curvy body--definitely postpubescent. Her age changed, and the character I had in mind changed somewhat. Later on, I got her some very lovely blue Kanis Augen eyes, haha.

Now my second doll is where plans were foiled and changed.

I wanted a Soulkid Tiffee since I discovered Souldoll, but she was a discontinued sculpt. I found one, but I really didn't want to buy a secondhand doll as my first. Later on, two slipped by. Eventually, I found one that I could have bought, but finaces were a little bit of an issue. I didn't see the doll for sale from this seller later on and since then, I've sort of fallen out of love with the girl sculpt (still love it, but just not enough to seek anymore).

And so a few months later, I bought my second doll, a Luts Bory.

 

Heh. That happened to me.

I had bought my first doll Sid with the intention of my second one being a Ryu and third being a B&G Sapphira. While saving up for my Ryu I was still looking around for a Sapphira on the off chance that there might be one floating around somewhere. I went to Fanime myself with around four hundred to spend on tons of fun anime stuffs when I made the mistake of going to the JunkySpot booth. >>

Totally to my surprise sitting there looking adorable was a NS B&G Sapphira with a default faceup going, 'Haaaaai. Pleasetakemehome. '
Soooo I did. .-.
I didn't plan on it at all but it sort of just happened and now he's sitting on my lap while I pet his cute little elf ears.

Everything happens for a reason. I think the things you weren't expecting to happen that do are the best things.

 

Um, my story of my first doll is a little bit of planning, and impulse.

I'd been staring and drooling over pictures of BJD's on the internet for ages, and had spent the previous year to getting my first BJD looking at ones for sale on Ebay (unaware there were more websites than just Volks) I had never seen one in real life till I got my first one. But I knew I was in love with them.

My first doll was my Christmas present from my dad, and I had planned to get DoD Camine and I'd planned how that doll was going to be my first.
But when my dad worked out the cost, it was too expensive so I went on a big search.
I came across a wonderful site called Dollzone. There I found my Dollzone Mo, and my first doll was brought home.
Now I'm making plans for my next doll which will be a DoD Camine. No matter what. *nods*

 

I should be getting my first dolls somewhere next week , they are both adopted, I've been reading up on bjd's for 6 years now! and finnaly I will have not one but two MSD sized sweethearts, they're by dollzone but need a bit of re-moddeling. They are kind of impulse because I did want a meigi but when I saw him up for adoption I had to jump on it same with the girly. So half impulse half research.

 

My first doll purchase came about two years after falling in love with LUTS Ethan and knowing I could never get the money together for him at the time.. never mind I thought, it wasn't to be... none of my friends were into the hobby, I didn't really know too much about it and I figured maybe I should just avoid the prices.

Two years later a close friend of mine was given a doll as a gift and damn did that rekindle my love.. I only knew a couple of companies, her doll as it happened came from SOOM, it wasn't one I knew, I knew of DOD, Luts, Volks and... Dollkot I think.. so looked into soom, saw Laon and just fell in love.

About a month and a half, maybe two months of me planning out what I could do about affording him, along he came... his personality was utterly undecided, his look as well.. I just sort of... fell in love and bought him, no regrets, he's perfect and his personality now fits him like a glove..

Of course as soon as I ordered him I saw Rian on Soom and wondered if I'd bought the wrong Doll...

Now I own Rian as well...and, as it happens, I managed to get an Ethan last year as well! Happy times!

 

I haven't really been able to afford my own doll till now, and for the past couple of years I've known about them I've been flipping back and forth between what doll I want, constantly changing my mind xD.
But through it all, I've always loved Pipos's dolls. Their cute little animals just make me smile. I just ordered a Pipos Mango a couple of weeks ago, and she definitely wasn't the doll I had originally planned to get! But a name, personality, and story for her came about so quickly that I don't regret buying her And I think it's good that my first doll is a little less expensive than some others are- it seems like a good way to jump into the hobby!

 

I did an extensive research on the forums, and I must say the 1st doll was a total success. Well, so as the second one.

 

Like a lot of people I was introduced to bjds through deviantart, probably a couple of years ago; I admired them from afar, since it seemed like a great way to represent original characters, but I was never really that interested. I mean, some of them were pretty, but it wasn't a particularly special idea to me, I suppose.

Then, sometime mid last yearish, I suppose it was, I discovered bjds properly and went glancing around on a couple of company websites to build my "dream doll." 'Course, I wasn't set on the whole idea, I just mainly did it for fun with no intention of actually acting on it. I decided that a Luts Luwen would fit my favourite OC the most and I found a wig or two that I thought would fit him, and some eyes as well. All just a little fantasy though.

Then I met an online friend over livejournal at the end of last year, and it turned out that we'd both sort of glanced at bjds in the past without really wanting to spend so much money on dolls (after all I've never really been a doll girl, I was more interested in video games and Pokemon and things like that xD). We ended up joining DoA though and after that it was kind of a speedy decent into "I need a bjd." Thanks to the USD vs AUD exchange rate at the time, my dream Luwen would be about $800 AUD, which was an insane amount of money to me. 30$ is a lot of money to me, let alone almost a thousand. I tried to save but that didn't really work - I kept on getting set back, and made a promise to myself that if I didn't have at least half the money by the end of the year I'd give up on the whole idea. Since I don't have a job (and live on a VERY tight budget), it seemed almost impossible.

A while ago though I changed my mind about the doll sculpt when I saw some amazing MD Miho's. I'd always loved Ryu, but Miho jumped out at me screaming "pick me, I fit your character :OOO" By a stroke of luck I found out about Fdoll bodies - cheap and they sounded decent, and they matched Migidoll resin fairly close. Thanks to a combination of a government payout, selling games I didn't play anymore, and my mother, I ordered a Miho head in this latest Migidoll order period, and just recently I gave a whole bunch of money to a friend so she could order me an Fdoll body from Ningyotan, an Australian based BJD dealer. Now it looks like I only need to get enough money for his clothes. His head is still in ship (since Migidoll's Miho head production is late) and his body still has to ship as well, but if all goes well, I should have all his parts together in time for christmas. I guess I'm really lucky to find so many cheap but good quality alternatives~

So I guess a lot of planning has gone into him - obsessive bjd research, lots of money hoarding, moments where I thought I should have just given up.... hopefully everything will go smoothly from here and my boy will be as amazing as I hope he'll be~

 

I'm a virgo and an obsessive planner so I've spent several years thinking my girls, and will probably not end up deviating from that at all. I've known about then for a long long time (eight years?) but have not had the funds for them (due to high school/college) until now.
Actually I just splurged and ordered my first girl last week, she's not even here yet! ^^; I saw on the Notdoll website they were discontinuing her so I ordered her right then and there! That was hard to explain to my boyfriend when he got home... But I think he gets it as long as he knows it's something I *really* want. So yay! Finally my first.

 

I've been planning sculpts of the characters in my head for ~5 years. For the last two, I've been looking at BJDs to see if the sculpts could be modded, but most of them had more stylized faces or the thin, anime boi bodies. My male characters are tall and built, so none would really work. IH's Luo with the superhero body looked close, and MadameMauMau's pictures of Horse are now making me eye them even more. Then I found Bishounen House and Donn's Logan is, with very minor re-colour and a slight eye reshaping, the character in my head, to such a degree that I was wide eyed for a few minutes. So I've already relegated my pocketbook to sending Donn a lot of money in the very near future. Now, if I could just find a 65cm sculpt that looked like Sophia Myles to go with it.. The four planned are, in order: BH Logan, IH Luo, IH Chase, and Unknown!Female.
-Pere