How did you discover bjds?

Andreja youtube video. I saw one and was hooked immediately.

 

i am a saint seiya collector, among other figures from anime, love all the japanese culture. So ine day my friend's wife show me this beautiful doll named ASA from ipelhouse in the Tokyo Story limited edition. By the time she showed me this amazing doll it was long sold out, but i am alway looking for her, Then i start to search more and more, and here i am

 

if I remember correctly, it was through following a gothic lolita blogger circa 2007 who owned one. back then, it felt like if you were into any sort of anime fandom or street fashion subculture, you'd run into ball jointed dolls eventually.

 

I've been asking myself this question lately, because I couldn't remember. But then someone mentioned a doll exhibit at a convention and I started thinking--I think that was where I was first introduced to BJDs. I can't remember the exact timeline though, or what spurred me to get one. I remember looking around online and being shocked at the price so I aimed small; my first was a tiny, a PukiFee. This was about ten years ago, but I got motivated to start trying to make my own. I sketched out what I wanted to make, and even made a hollowed-out clay head. I asked around for any bjd apprenticeships but didn't find any. I changed states and over the next decade I forgot about the hobby until a series of events recently.

I bought a Barbie. I realized all of mine had been given away to relatives and I wondered what it'd be like just to have one of my own again. I bought one, brought her home, ordered her some clothes online, and then when I went to change her clothes, I realized she had very little articulation. In my childhood memories their legs could bend (popping sounds), which makes me wonder if some of mine had been older hand-me-downs from my mother. I was disappointed and started looking for articulated fashion dolls. Belatedly as I was doing this, it hit me: bjds, the hobby, and that I already had one (in storage) in another state. I kept thinking about her, and missing her (it is difficult to retrieve her at this point, but I still have hope). I bought another tiny to keep me company, and then pre-ordered my first mini. With quarantine and all and not much to do, I started planning and buying things for a 1:4 haunted living room box.

Sorry for rambling!

 

Oh! I found out when I was at an anime convention :3 me and my sister went half on a table for the artist alley and the artist next to us had brought her bjd and used him to help with her display. I remember being so fascinated by the doll and I even asked her if he was for sale! Haha! She said “omg no. I brought him for fun!” And went on to tell me he was very expensive and he was called a ball jointed doll :3

 

I think it was back in 2011 or 2013 when I watched doll customization videos, I stumbled upon Andreas videos (Nicolles dreams)
I didn't start to research the hobby before 2015 though. Once I started researching the hobby in 2015 I fell in love, and I am now 5 years after I began researching the hobby saving up for my first doll.

 

In Germany, we have an Anime magazine that called "Koneko". There was a report about Volks dolls in it. After I read the report, I went on the Volks website and saw the dolls. I thought they are cute, but the prizes are too high for me. And the dolls don't caught my eye that much.
I thought that is the only company that sell this kind of dolls. After a few Years I discovered the website "Alice's Collections. And I found out there are more companies than just Volks. Then the story begun

 

When I discovered bjds, I stumbled upon a Nicole’s Dreams video that I found really satisfying. In the video, she was customizing a Lati yellow Suji event head. I kept watching more and more of her videos, and I started to research bjds by clicking on the links in the description. And a few years later, I got my first bjd!

 

I was into Lolita fashion and manga since the early 00s. I caught glimpses of Volks dolls in the old Gothic & Lolita Bibles. I remember seeing on the old Tokyopop website someone had a Chobits Chii BJD and a room with other Super Dollfies in (I’d love to see that pic again) and I fell in love. My friend in school actually bought me Super Dollfie stickers when she went on vacation. I had Blythes but BJDs seemed like these unnatainable dreamy dolls.

That was until 4 years ago. I think the time needed to be the right time. I remember I started going to conventions more and met some people who had BJDs. I decided then that I wanted to get one. I stumbled on the Idealian website and I realized that there were lots of gorgeous dolls out there. I then saw Dollshe and made my first purchase and now I am here!

 

My entry into the hobby happened after I watched a lot of Monster High custom youtube and ended up on BJD channels... But I must have heard of BJDs in high school from being into Rozen Maiden etc. because I remember being on a dealer website once and thinking "who would pay this much for a doll?" LOL... you will, in the future!

 

As a teenager I was heavily into the cosplay scene, so I was on Cosplay.com a lot. In late 2005, a cosplayer I admired randomly posted a picture of their Custom House Ai to their Cosplay.com gallery. It fascinated me immediately, and the rest is history.

 

Honestly, I don’t remember exactly how. However, I do think it was a picture that I saw of a Frankenstein bjd (probably on tumblr, back when the site was at its greatest height) and it led me to Ringdoll’s site. It was the first time I saw one, especially one like that and I instantly liked it.

 

Sometime in early 06 I saw a banner advertisement for a convention on the page of a comic I was reading with a simplified two-color visual showing a figure with circles at the joints. It was a little odd as it had really nothing to do with the gaming based site it was on.
It led me to really being curious on what the convention was for, then using the keywords trying to find out more to find a fan group on a community I was already on. I tried picking up a vinyl base (the about 10" sized kind), which I found fascinating, but entirely not what I was after. So I kept looking.
Eventually that small fan group pointed me towards DoA which is mostly where I've been since (though you'll sometimes find me on other sites trying to help others looking for info too).

 

many many years ago i stumbled across DOD homme duncan pictures online, i'd never had any interest in dolls before but something about him drew me in and i ended up looking up bjds and learning more about them which led me to here, i didn't have any money to actually buy a doll back then and after a bout two years i kind of left the hobby.
i couple of years ago i got really into customising fashion dolls and sewing which led me back into the world of BJDs, now i'm an old and i can actually purchase dolls and am starting my collection.

 

When i was a little girl i got a knock-off barbie playset from the flea market, and on the little pink furniture dresser thing there was a picture of a bjd. Im not sure which doll, but i was obsessed. I remember comparing it to the doll from the set and thinking “This is so much prettier than my doll. Where do i find one of these?…” LOL

 

I discovered BJDs through Monster High doll customizing videos (Dollightful specifically), though I haven't been able to buy one yet.

 

I think I was like 11 or 12, and I saw someone post a photo of their BJD on a forum on a virtual avatar game with a forum. I did some research on them and became interested in the customization factor of them!

 

I was looking on ebay for barbies or something for a kid’s birthday and ended up seeing an obitsu, then googled bjds and found DoD and then joined DoA

 

I collected G1 My Little Ponies in college and found BJD through a thread in the off-topic area on the My Little Pony Trading Post. I found a sculpt database and DOA after that and ordered my first doll a few months later.

 

Wayyyyy back in the day, a french webcomic artist I followed announced that she'd bought a bjd, and I got intrigued enough to check what that was. I joined the main french doll collecting forum, and then DOA shortly after, both in 2006, and then it took me until 2009 to get my first bjd