How did you discover bjds?

An artist/cosplayer I followed on deviantart posted a pic of them with their DoD Ducan and I asked her about him and immediately searched for him, saw the price tag and figured I'd never be able to afford one and would just admire them from afar and settle for and be happy with playline dolls. Now even though Duncan in his fullset eluded me, I still managed to collect ten not including my off topic bjds.

 

I saw them on DeviantArt! I don't remember what category exactly I was looking at, I think I was more generally trying to find plushie/playline doll sewing patterns and the like, and stumbled across bjd patterns and photography. I remember there was a definite like, scene phase going on with a lot of the dolls, but they looked neat. Even considered trying to sculpt my own (despite how disastrous that would be) until I realized the material cost wouldn't come up much below buying one...

 

I too discovered them due to Rozen Maiden haha. But I didn't know where to buy them. I slowly saw them as art refs on art sites over the years but still, no idea where to buy one. Then my friend messaged me saying she bought one and she dragged me into this hole lol.
I still love Rozen Maiden but laugh at how inaccurate they are. Like, them coming in suitcases with only ONE pillow for protection?????????? Oof

 

My friend told me about dolls. When I first saw It I said "Wow! This is not dolls, this is real people". After I tried to find some information about it, and I fell in love with it

 

I was involved in collecting vintage dolls from my childhood that I missed out on and one of the collectors posted in an OT section about bjd. I didn’t pay much attention to them because they were mature fashion dolls. This was back in the early 2000s so there was not a lot of selection then. Then another member posted a Lati Yellow in the thread and I learned that bjd weren’t just mature dolls. Even though I could not afford them at the time I remembered the name and came back to them last year.

 

I'd seen dolls being carried around occasionally at cons, but never felt comfortable/invested enough to go up and ask about them. Then a couple years ago I got into the series Mo Dao Zu Shi. I went full hardcore fan fast, and started scouring the internet for merchandise. Then I came across the Ringdoll sale pages for the two main characters. It was love at first sight, but both boys had sold out a few months before. I was heartbroken. But at the time I wasn't sure if the appeal was the characters themselves only, or if I liked dolls in general. But dolls were now on my radar. I started poking around and discovered that the BJD had a strong secondhand market, so it theoretically possible to get my hands on the boys. I dug deeper and deeper out of curiosity, and just started falling in love with BJDs as a whole. I discovered Smartdolls around the same time, due to following doll customizers Dollightful and DollFairy.
I still don't have my boys, and they are my grail dolls to this day, but the connection between the series that pointed me in this direction and the first dolls I fell in love with shaped my aesthetic. There are a few exceptions, like my scifi couple and my LittleFee, but most of my dolls look like they could be characters in the Mo Dao Zu Shi universe. Meaning my tastes run primarily towards Asian presenting dolls in historical or fantastical hanfu. Which makes buying clothes and accessories for them a challenge lol.

 

I heard it from news when I was in high school. I just thought they are so beautiful. So I looked a lot of information and fell in love with it

 

YouTube recommendations. I started by watching MyFroggyStuff’s repaints, then found Dollightful and Hextian. After a while, these pretty new dolls started to be recommended to me and I had no idea what they were. I clicked on the video, watched a few more off her channel (Nicolle’s Dreams), and was amazed.

 

I was in middle school, when my sister who was in high school at the time. Brought a friend over and she had a bjd. I was captivated instantly! From that moment on I started to do research and discovering the world of bjd! I saved up myself and got my first doll in like 7th or 8th grade. I didn't make my first friend in this hobby until a few years later! I am very glad to have found this hobby! I have been in it about 11 years now.

 

This.
My Mom collects reborn dolls and ordered doll magazines from everywhere. This specific one was casually hanging out by her bed one night and it caught my eye. I was completely hooked, utterly confused as to where I could acquire one of these dolls from, and obsessed with the idea of having one.

 

I really never knew about bjd dolls until I searched after many years of having in my head a pic of a doll I saw on a purse when I was younger many years ago. That picture got stuck in my mind and for many years I wanted at least a purse with a similar picture! I did my research for a long time and figured out they were BJD’s. I fell in love with them thru that one pic and I never thought I would own my own collection of this beautiful dolls. now my heart is happy but my wallet is crying

How cool!

This sound like me. Instead a magazine was on a purse. :-)

 

That's really interesting! On a purse?!
I can only imagine "WAIT, I NEED TO SEE YOUR PURSE! NO I WON'T STEAL IT!"
There was also an article on the original Hound sculpt in one of those magazines (I BELIEVE it was Hound) and I was in AWE at how realistic he looked after only ever seeing the anime styled dolls. It's so funny to think about now when we have such hyper-realistic sculpts everywhere and Hound is now on the more "semi-realistic" side.

 

I saw them around Otakon a few times & my mom loved them, but they creeped me out a little. Then I saw a mention of Japan Ai by Aimee Major-Steinberger in Shoujo Beat (I think?) in 2007, sought out the book because it sounded interesting, and within it she wrote quite a bit about Volks. I think she mentioned DoA in the appendix, I came here because I was intrigued, and I was promptly hooked. Saved up a bunch and bought my first doll (a Lati M) in 2008! I've come and gone in the hobby a few times since then, but I still have him

(Also am I remembering right that she was actually one of the founders of DoA? It was so long ago that I don't really remember clearly & I have no idea if she's still active here anymore).

 

I know right? But for real I even wish now I could have a purse just like that one with a pic of my grail doll on it … or all my dolls on it

 

Dude. I did a character reference search on Pinterest and discovered the most beautiful bjds. Punk rock, geeky and goth. They looked like real people but they were someone else's characters and that someone was chronicling their lives through photos.

I had to have one. BUT THE MONEY. I made myself promise that I would get one as soon as I had the money to spend on frivolous things. Which I didn't. I wrestled with this for a month, thinking about it so much that I literally dreamt about it. Then, one day, I found Mystic Kids and there on the net staring out of my computer into my soul was Kaito's face. He was made up to be adorable but I could see the set of that sultry mouth and the underlying soft boy sadness in those big greyish greenish eyes. Surely he must be at least £500 but no, he was only about £250, the cheapest legitimate doll I had seen and he was the ONE. AND HE WAS ON SALE!!!!

The rest is a descent into glorious bank account destroying madness. I bought a Doll Family A Max from Alice's Collections today because hey presto, there was Hayden and again he was AFFORDABLE.

 

Hii everyone Im pretty new to the hobby and was curious as to how everyone here got into collecting BJDs.
When did you start? How did you get into the hobby? What was your first doll?

As for me i just recently bought two dolls, Vincent from charmdoll and a second hand little sophia, Im really excited to meet them and cant wait for them to arrive. As for how ive gotten into the hobby I've alwayse loved figurines and for years ive always liked the idea of owning a bjd but never really dug deeper into it until now.

 

Welcome and congratulations on both of your dolls hope you share their photos

As for me I bought my first doll back on 2018 when I was in Tokyo and she was a smart doll infinity as I loved to collect anime figure as well. Yet didnt know anything about bjd
I later did more searching and found about bjd and and fall in love with resin doll as well. There where my obsession started

 

Second hand site in my country's forum?? (2013)?

Got cheated into buying a [Bleep]
So my first "legit" doll is a angel of dream chen then volks rengenmaru

My current team is 2X mia babylamb & ginger
Which bunch of incomings i will end up selling off
It took me 8 years to finally found a doll that i really fell in love with... I never understood how people "bonded" with their dolls till i met her ❤️

 

In 2017 I was knitting a doll for a grandchild and wanted it to have moving joints , a photo of a smiling real puki came up in an internet search for how to do that... and he became my first doll.

 

On DeviantArt back in 2005 or so, I saw this amazing picture and spent the longest time trying to figure out if it was photograph or a digital painting, because the “person” featured didn’t look quite like a human but the picture looked way too real to be a painting. Finally asked the artist what I was looking at and they told me it was a BJD from a company called Luts and his name was El. Went to the site and nearly choked when I saw the prices, put it out of my head because no way was I spending that much on a doll!

Early 2006, I see another picture of one of these BJDs and remembered how pretty they were and finally caved and got my first boy, a Luts Delf Moon. I ordered my first girl right after he arrived, a Dark Elf Soo. It’s been a downward spiral ever since.