Have you always loved dolls? [Poll]

My sister and I had some Barbies growing up, which neither of us were terribly interested in, and both of us had one American Girl doll (she had Samantha, I had Molly). I suppose the American Girl dolls got me used to high quality clothing and accessories (and the relative expense of such quality), at the very least, but after that, I can't recall ever being interested in dolls until I went looking for a shell for my character Walt (who ended up being my first BJD, the doll in my profile picture).

 

I actually hated dolls when I was kid. I was a tomboy liking toy cars, motorcycles and action figures. One of my mom's coworkers gave me a doll for Christmas. I never looked or touched it. I wanted video games and Ninja Turtles, lol.

It wasn't until a few decades later that a friend was talking about BJD's and I was like 'What are BJD's?' So I looked them up and they were really nice, but also very expensive. I had my eye on Soom and Ringdolls but was very put off by the fact that clothes weren't always included in the price for the dolls I liked and I had to wait several months before I got them.

Fast forward a few years later and I move into my new home, I got into them again and after constant looking around for the one doll I wanted...because you know I told myself I was only going to have just ONE doll (I have 12 now and a few more coming) I purchased my first doll. When he came, my mom was confused. 'You never liked dolls before, why now?' she said. And 'Why did you get a boy, and why does he have a head of a fox?' (my first doll was a Dearmine Ares). But eventually she embraced my expensive hobby and even gave me a chunk of money to get my first SD girl just this past Christmas (still looking for her).

 

I liked Barbies up to a point. I was always disappointed with their lack of posability, even as a kid. Now that I have BJDs, I can see why - I love just moving their joints!

 

I went through phases where I prided myself on being a tomboy and hated the idea of playing with dolls. That mentality finally changed and I got into barbies and American Girl dolls. That phase didn't last particularly long and I lost interest in my old dolls. I never really connected with them, but that definitely all changed when I first saw bjds. I think the reason I like them so much is because they are art pieces and I appreciate the work that was put into them.

 

I didn’t like dolls at all when I was a kid. I still remember the worst Christmas present I got as a little kid was a Cabbage Patch Doll - I asked for a trampoline. I always preferred stuffed animals over dolls. When I got a secondhand Barbie house My Little Ponies lived in it. My Barbies were always naked and/or headless in a closet somewhere. I did like Barbie accessories and I’ve always loved miniatures.

I saw some pictures of bjds in my 20s and they were the first dolls I thought were beautiful. I even got a compact mirror with a blinking bjd image on it from Hobby Lobby before I bought my first doll.

Ironically I think the first bjd I saw all those years ago was Luts Bory and now I have one so things have come full circle. I still think other dolls are ugly/boring and a lot of bjds look creepy to me.

 

I was completely no-dolls-at-all until about ten years old. I think I had a reckoning about being okay liking things that I considered "girly" around that time and up until 13-15 years old. I am glad that I decided to expand my horizons, now I like a lot of things that are considered more feminine hobbies, in addition to all my very masculine interests, and I enjoy that a lot about myself.

Once I became interested in dolls, I started to make them out of sculpey, and had a great time. Trying to sculpt them is actually what led to me becoming very interested in collecting inspirational ones

 

I used to like my dolls and Barbies, but I was always disappointed by their poseability. If those more flexible Barbies had come out when I was a kid, I was never have gotten into BJDs. As it was, I would occasionally look up flexible dolls and one day stumbled upon BJDs. The price scared me away at first, but eventually... Well, here I am.

 

I had Barbies as a child (they went on some crazy adventures) that I would play with, then I moved onto the American Girl dolls (before Mattel bought them - I still have Addy's OG Lazy Susan table and wicker chairs - my SDs use them). That was all before middle school. By middle school I was more into the collector Barbie dolls - which I would take out of box so I could touch and feel them but I never undressed them. I would say by high school and college, I had lost interest. I wasn't playing with them or looking at them. It led to some yard sales/donating or ebay selling. I was getting more into Japanese action figures or gatcha figures. After college, I got into the Tae Yang dolls because they were in that anime aesthetic but you could change their clothes like Barbie but they posed better.

I would say it was during graduate school when I truly became interested in BJDs. I had seen some in college at conventions and thought hmmm that's too creepy but by the time I started to collect, elves and fairies and all sorts of customizable fantasy characters were waiting for me. It also helps that now I have a higher income.

I still collect other forms of dolls I suppose - like S.H.Figuarts/Figma/Nendoroid/Hot Toys/Asmus Toys - but I think my BJDs can claim the higher price tag. My mother keeps reminding me to create an inventory in the event she has to decide what happens to my collection (she can be a little morbid!).

 

I loved dolls as a kid; Barbies, Bratz, My Scene dolls, etc. After that I lost interest in dolls altogether through my teen years until I discovered BJDs as a young adult. I noticed that since I started collecting BJDs, I've become generally interested in other dolls, even ones I used to have as a kid (though I don't plan on collecting them, just more of a passive interest).

 

Yesssss I’ve loved dolls forever. I started out with porcelain dolls then got Kirsten, my American doll. Then I had tons of random ones like moon dreamers, cherry merry muffin dolls, Corolle dolls etc. I still have them all! Tons from the 80s and early 90s. I’ll always have a special place for them even though bjds are my priority now :-)

 

I have always loved dolls. I had so many barbies and babies and everything. And Both my parents collect antique toys, actually, the house I grew up in would probably scare a lot of people. We didn't have ANY empty wall space, we had shelves, every inch of wall in the living room, dining room, bedrooms had shelves jam packed with dolls and toys on display. From antique bisque, China dolls, lenci, my moms toys from the 60s to modern stuff all mixed together. I got to play with them all too ( most had special rules) my mom taught me how to take care of delicate stuff, and restring antique ball joint dolls, and fix old barbies, and taught me how to sew my own clothes for my dolls. I remember spending hours looking through her doll magazines with her, each pointing out our favorites, and that's eventually where I saw my first Asian ball joint doll. I collect a lot of different stuff and still share a lot of that with my mom. She doesn't have an ABJD, (not quite her cup of tea, her favorites are Lenci dolls) but she does like mine.

 

I didn’t think I was that into dolls as a child until I found old pictures of myself with some baby dolls that I clearly loved.

 

Let's see, I remember playing with barbies a lot as a child, as well as my brother's action figures. Then I remember I had a few years around 9-11 where I was into American Girl dolls. Then around 14/15 I got into Blythes... and now in my mid/late twenties, I'm into BJDs. So it's been a regular interest in my life, but a waxing and waning one.

 

I loved my barbies when I was little. I loved dressing them and wanted store bought clothes so bad, but my mom didn't see the expense as necessary. My Aunt lived a few doors down and was a professional seamstress, I loved seeing the gowns she made for weddings and proms. She understood my desires for my barbies and taught me to sew ( I was 6!).

Years passed, I was grown and no longer had dolls of any kind, my nieces did! I took great joy in making sure those dolls were the best dressed in town. Then my daughter's came along, more barbies, more barbies clothes, furniture, you name it, we were quite creative! American dolls followed, we built some pretty impressive canopy beds for those girls! Then grand daughter's and more barbies, monster highs, American girls, lol, yes, I spoil my girls. I lived my doll and doll fashion vicariously through all of them, but had no dolls of my own.

I am a digital graphic artist, I create scenes and objects for online games, like World of Warcraft. Work introduced me to a program named Second life, I was hired early on as a content creator and beta tester. Suddenly I had a digital barbie! and guess what, I could dress her! That was 18 years ago, and I still create clothing and furniture for Second life.

A close friend who knows my work in Second life, mentioned Nigel Chia and his haute couture dolls.....I was SMITTEN! I immediately started investigating these amazing dolls. I soon discovered Iplehouse, Racoon, DollShe, and (sighs lovingly) Minifees. The rest is history, I now have 7 dolls. I love sewing and creating for them! I have learned that my digital work crosses over and I bought a 3d printer.

I am having a ball! But.... Boy are my neices, girls and grand daughter's jealous!

 

Even before I was born, my parents started a small collection of a few different types of dolls and toys for me to own; my father is an action figure collector. The only kind I never got into were child/baby looking dolls. I never stopped collecting toys as I grew-up/older, and dolls are probably still my most collected kind of toy (as in I hoard them!). I love 1:6 action figures the most, but I still own a lot more Barbie than I'll like to admit. Although, it's not because I think of them as ugly compared to BJD, or cheap (they are sturdy as a rock, not something I would say about the latter), I mostly collect them for their head sculpts, but I rarely remove any from their boxes so their bodies are not really something I mind/care-about.

I've always been a bit of a collector more than a child that always played with dolls; I like keeping toys sealed inside their boxes. I did stopped purchasing Barbie for a few years (I think around a decade long), because I found the brand grew stale (for my taste), I always collected the ones that I found "cool." and I couldn't see that in the line anymore for a long time. Around that time I learned about Volks Dollfie line of customizable fashion dolls, so that's how I stumbled across BJD for the first time around summer 2003, so that's how I began my interest in these types of doll, but I've always been a doll lover.

 

i was into stuffed toys and playing outside as a kid i honestly had no opinion to dolls when i was young lol, when i reached preteens i HATED dolls though i didn't want to be seen as girly so i rejected anything pink and doll related but i loved drawing and art so as i got older i stumbled across pictures of bjds and was fascinated from an artistic perspective but i was a poor teen so i never bought one.
now i'm an adult that has thrown the off the shackles of toxic masculinity and full embrace my love of all kinds of dolls, though still through the perspective of artist customization.

 

I collected dolls all through childhood- mostly barbies, Monster High dolls and American Girls. I became obsessed with darker and more gothic dolls through the Toy Box Philosopher blog, who once did a comparison review of a BEgoth doll and a Monster High doll. I enjoyed that so much I explored her blog and began to lust after her Tonner collection-- especially Evangeline Ghastly. I have wanted an Evangeline for years since then but she's so expensive second-hand now. Evangeline was my first taste of BJDs and she's still probably my favorite- but oh how those single-jointed knees dissuade me.

The Toy Box Philosopher also reviewed JAMIEshow bjds, and during one of my recent nostalgic read-throughs of her old reviews, I fell in love with them. I started researching fashion BJDs after that, because JAMIEshow dolls are only sold as full-sets and I was hoping there'd be something comparable that I could buy nude for less money. I did have a fear of resin and its propensity for yellowing, so there was a short period where I searched in vain for a porcelain MSD-sized BJD that was under 500 USD. That doesn't exist, lol.

During those searches, I ran across some pictures of Natalia Loseva's dolls.... and became obsessed. So, I tried to find her website and pricing and found a DoA thread. A few months of stalking later, I signed up. And really, I only grew to love BJDs (on-topic ones that aren't fashion BJDs OR Natalia Loseva dolls) after signing up on here and seeing some owner photos. I feel like that's backwards to most people, haha.

 

Yes I've always been a doll person! The kinds I liked as a kid I'm really not interested in at all now, but I used to play with Barbies, American girl, and baby dolls a lot growing up. I also had some beautiful porcelain dolls given to me by my grandmother but they were mostly just displayed (though I can't stand to leave anything in a box! too sad). I got frustrated by dolls without a lot of articulation or changeable clothes. Changing outfits and arranging miniature props were and still are my favorite things!

When I was 12/13 I went through an angsty phase of "putting away childish things" and trying to be a cool teen, and then swung hard back around to being into toys and cartoons and all that again as a dorky highschooler. In college I didn't really collect or display any dolls because I was busy, living in small spaces, and moving around all the time so that was kind of a dormant period for me.

As an adult my interest in Monster High was sparked after helping my little cousins assemble some playsets at Christmas and I was super impressed with their level of detail and the spooky aesthetic really appealed to me. I was trying to keep my collection pretty small because it makes me happier that way, but now that the line was discontinued I wish I had grabbed a few more things when I had seen them in stores. I also have a mini-collection of lalaloopsy and some other individual fashion dolls.

I think getting into BJDs was inevitable because they're the ultimate in highly detailed, customizable, and poseable/articulate dolls which are the qualities I value the most! I thought I would go for big BJDs because my favorite and most cherished fashion doll is about 1/3 size, and I enjoy dressing and sewing for that size but I also like how singular she is on display. For my first BJD I ended up taking in a petite 20cm girl who can actually share clothes and furniture with some monster high friends, so that is cool!

 

I went from Barbie and dinosaurs to Dragon statues and anime figures, and now anime figures and bjd.