How did you discover bjds?

I've been a regular at anime conventions for a long time, and there's a decent presence of BJDs at cons (even moreso back when I was getting started). The style I saw the most was the "frilly lolita," which wasn't my thing, and I initially mistook them for something along the lines of limited Barbies or porcelain dolls--a set that came fully dressed and styled out of the box and ready to go. My roommate at the time mis-identified them as the small OT Volks dolls, which exposed me to the idea of "blank customizable dolls," which was much more what I was interested in, but the style of the Volks dolls didn't really float my boat. It wasn't until my next roommate (who was smarter than the previous one and willing to dig deeper) that I really found out about strung, resin, blank and made to customize ball jointed dolls from a range of companies and in a range of styles, which finally appealed enough for me to dip my toes into the hobby.

 

Mainly through my love for other dolls and browsing the internet hours upon hours learning more about them lol.

It first started with an interest in antique bisque and porcelain dolls which then turned into an interest in various art dolls such as work by Yotsuya Simon, Etsuko Miura, Hans Bellmer, etc. One thing led to another and I stumbled upon Volks dolls and fell in love with their first sculpt. Years later I am finally able to buy it!

 

I discovered bjds through Marina Bychkova's Enchanted Doll work. I was fascinated by the idea of the joints (I had one favorite Barbie-style doll as a child and it was a Mulan doll with jointed knees and elbows - unprecedented mobility for Barbies at the time lol), and the intensely intricate work she did with the costuming and accessories impressed me and seemed like something I would enjoy doing. At first I just admired her work from afar, but eventually it occurred to me to look for other bjd-makers, and that led to DOA and that led to me exploring what feels like every single page and post ever created here!

Fast-forward a few years and I now have a wide range of knowledge on types of bjds, sizes, faceups, etc. I have been able to purchase several beautiful dolls and really get a better grasp of how they work. However, I have since sold most of them (I have a few more heads and a body to sell in the future) because I have also discovered that I am extremely picky and will probably have to sculpt my own dolls to get that feeling of meaningfulness and creativity that I think I'm looking for in them.

 

It was Rozen Maiden for me too. I wanted the Suigintou dollfie when it came out, but couldn't afford it, and the price has only gone up since then...

Anyways, I was recently able to buy my first doll after meaning to for a long time. I probably would've gotten one sooner if not for things like college, and cars breaking down and so on.

 

Earlier this year, I became interested in dollmaking, specifically ooak polymer clay dolls. As I searched for tutorials on sculpting, painting, and sewing clothes for dolls, I came across some BJD content on Pinterest and YouTube. At first, it was just a source of education and inspiration for my dollmaking attempts, and I did not have any interest in purchasing dolls like that for myself, no matter how beautiful they were.

Many months later, I finally went onto Alice's Collections and started browsing, "just for fun"... and I fell in love at first sight with DZ Licht. I mulled it over for about a month, and I was still desperately in love. I went ahead and made the purchase, thinking it was a one-time thing. That has proven not to be the case, as I have since ordered two more dolls

 

In the mid-2000's, I browsed a lot of Japanese websites run by collectors of Takara Jenny and friend dolls (which I still collect). One of the collectors also had (what I now know were) Volks MSDs and SDs in their collection and had wonderful photos on their website. I was pretty smitten by how beautiful they looked but I didn't really know what they were until a few years later when a school friend told me that they were ball jointed dolls!

 

Around 2010, I was searching for some anime figurine google and came across Ivan from Dream of Doll while randomly clicking the image. I was amazed on how beautiful he is and questioned if it's new style of nendoroid, and from which anime lol

 

It was so long ago!

I can't remember what I was searching for, probably something related to whatever manga/anime I was interested in at the time. Then I came across an image of a Volks Super Dollfie Isao Nanjou and was intrigued by the idea that there are male anime-style dolls! It was the fact that there were pretty male dolls that you could customize that really drew me in, as I'm not too interested in female dolls.

Volks SDs were way above my budget though... then I discovered Dream of Doll which was really popular back then. I eventually found the local BJD community and got a second-hand DOC Hoo as my first doll (mostly because I didn't have a credit card, and was new to online shopping in general so preordering something so pricy from overseas intimidated me, and didn't want to wait at least 5-6 months for a new doll which was the minimum waiting time).

 

I remember seeing Blythe dolls all over tumblr several years ago and being jealous and wanting one. But then I forgot about it. Recently, social distancing has made me get back into crafting and I wanted a pose-able doll to make all the historical outfits I can’t practically wear everyday, so I started looking. First into Barbies and deciding that wasn’t going to be enough. Google suggested Ball Joint Dolls as articulated and I fell into a rabbit hole of research. Now I have all these grand plans for outfits and what dolls I want to get after my first one comes. I’m up to planning for three additional dolls I think.

 

In the Netherlands we have an anime magazine which, back in Dec 2006, did an article on Asian Ball Jointed Dolls. I absolutely loved seeing the dolls (mostly Volks at that time) and started saving up for one of my own. I stuck downloaded pictures in my notebooks at school to help me find out what kind of doll I wanted. (I was absolutely in love with Dream of Doll omg) I discovered this forum, found a local dealer that had Dollzone (Volks was literally impossible to get unless you went to Japan, and for Dream of Doll I was too chicken to order internationally), and soon bought my very first YoSD, a DZ BB Jing.

From there it went pretty fast. Two MSD's joined, I discovered that SD was not my thing until somewhere in 2010, then switched mostly to SD. Discovered LDOLL because I used to help the dealer at conventions. Then in 2016 I got my first Dollfie, in 2017 I discovered Smartdoll and almost fully switched to Vinyl. I sold almost all my resin, I only have two Littlefees, an artistdoll and a dragon from Aileendoll left.

 

I went to meet a group of friends at our usual weekend haunt at a Japanese shopping centre. One of them brought her newly arrived Dream of Doll Bee-A and I fell SO HARD. I had never seen anything more beautiful and I went home that evening and obsessed over the DOD website and found and joined DOA This was in 2005 and I got my first doll, a DOC Hoo awhile later. The rest is history~ I still have my Hoo till this day!

 

I began collecting action figures and when the hobbit films came out, I tried searching for a decent figure of Thranduil. I couldn’t find one anywhere, so in 2015 I went on Etsy to see if there were any handmade ones, and found the Modoll head sculpt. I bought one without much thought, and when he arrived was surprised at how huge he was, but also really impressed with the quality. I bought him with a Modoll face up, although most of my dolls since have been blank. I then randomly went searching for a body, having never really heard about BJDs, and ended up buying a 72cm T&D body. He’s still among my tallest dolls.

Now I’m up to 28/29 dolls (including orders I’m awaiting)!. So yeah, this got out of hand fast.

 

At least fifteen years ago, Time magazine had a one or two sentence blurb on BJDs. I did an internet search, got hit HARD with the uncanny valley, and lost interest until a friend mentioned sewing clothes for them. I now have a healthy collection.

 

My dad showed me a page in a magazine (maybe the Time article? I don’t remember anymore) and said “look! isn’t this that anime stuff you like?”

It was a picture of SDC Kaede and I fell head over heels in love with her. I started researching dollfie and that was that; I was hooked.

And now, about 15 years later, I finally have the doll that started it all for me!

 

I'm not very sure, how my primary BJD interest and discovery started. It seems so long ago... But I'll try to remember...
Maniy years ago there were some different cool Japan and Asia lifestyle magazines published in Germany, where I've first read about BJD. Every now and then I've searched the internet for more informations on them. Because I've liked their appearance a lot. And I've quite often stumbled across some beautiful BJD pictures at DeviantArt.
Back then I've found a BJD dealer in Germany, where I've fallen in love with a DollZone sculpt. And this BJD started it all to get my attention even more. Some German BJD forums I did discover, too.

 

I've been collecting "children's" dolls (mostly German dolls, artist dolls) but I wanted to find out what kind of collectible dolls there were out there that looked more adult. Eventually I discovered BJDs.

 

It was long time ago. I believe it’s back to 2003-2004. I first saw BJDs in a Chinese magazine and there was an article introduced about this new hobby. Lol.

I kinda liked the old F-28, but I didn’t know how to buy one and don’t have any money at the moment. I did searched online, and found a BBS called Dollsky.

But I was unable to register and I didn’t find any other useful info. Then I gave up and never thought that I would own 20+ BJDs someday.

There were a few years that I didn’t look into any BJDs info. Around 2007, one of my classmate she mentioned that she wanted to have a BJD. And I decided to have one too.

We started doing research together and brought the first BJD together. My first BJD was one ¼ boy from DollZone. I discovered that I love 1/3 more after I got my first Lance. Lance is perfect to me and I totally felt in love with this sculpt.

Then I started building my Lance&Sevy family. Lol.

 

On Deviantart! A girl I followed got one and started posting all sorts of pictures of hers. He was a Dollzone something...Yi, maybe? MSD sized. I can't remember but he looked cool and here I am.

 

I discovered BJDs quite by accident! I was on DeviantArt and saw something called "Dollie Darlings", which led me to researching BJDs (first with a lot of skepticism), and then I found Ren, the Dream Valley Karasu doll, and a new obsession--er, hobby--was born.

 

I've been collecting fashion dolls for a while now and many years ago I used to have a blog about them. I started following other collector's blogs on the same platform and one day I stumbled upon a blog about BJD hobby. The owner had many Volks dolls and the first doll I saw was her Masha. I was curious so I started researching more about the hobby (it helped that her blog had quite detailed description of Volks and BJD in general) and I was mesmerized. The dolls were beautiful. I loved the idea of being able to customize them and completely change them with outfits and wigs. Now I own a few myself and I couldn't be happier that I discovered them!