How did you discover the BJD hobby?

My passion for dolls began two hundred years ago (＾▽＾) ... had numerous barbies (for lack of space I got my favorite, only thirty), Jason Wu Dolls FW, Pullips, Dals and this year I'm making its world debut BJD. I was enchanted by these beautiful dolls when photos posted on fansite PullipBrasil, so long ago. So I thought when I finish my wish list pullips, I embark on this new world. And I did.(・ε・)ノ　

At home-Hwang Lee (Luke # 1 DOD), Erik (Don Ringdoll)
Waiting for Erin-Head (or-Doll) Cherie (Iple house)

 

I've been into dolls since I was a kid - still have my first babydoll. My grandma collected dolls & I got hers when she died. I also love costumes & anime, & go to SF conventions a lot. I saw my first BJDs at DragonCon about 4 years ago & thought they were just beautiful, & recently I had one of those eureka moments when I realized I could make costumes for dolls that I couldn't make for myself, not little kinda-costumes (Barbie, Tonner etc) but REAL ones, like sewing for kids (which I love to do & make Halloween costumes every year!)
So, I'm hooked now!

 

In Hong Kong, we have television programme broadcast on public bus. Several years ago, when I travel by bus, an interview of ball joint doll shop owner (the shop is closed already )was broadcasting on this tv programme. And i immediately fell in love with them.
Before that i only collecting Barbie dolls. The idea of BJD is just new to me!! Their size (which is much bigger than barbie dolls), also you can have your own customized doll is just what i m looking for!!
After that i surf internet and found out those ball joint doll are made by a company call "Volks". The model i planned to purchase is SD10 Liz. However, they are all sold out. I asked the hong kong bjd shop owner if they sell Liz, but they are not....I was disappointed but still not giving up to get one.
Few months later, a friend told me a online shop can bid yahoo japan auction and ship the items to hong kong. i was so happy then contact the online shop. After a short waiting time, my first bjd came home.

 

I have always loved dolls but never knew there were bjd till I saw this tiny cute little doll on a fellow collectors site about 3 years ago. I found out it was a lati yellow coco special edition, sold out of course. I looked for it for a while but couldn't find one so I gave up. Only 2 weeks I saw this beautiful doll I immediately fell in love with also sold out of course. I searched for two days like crazy and didn't give up this time. Now she is on her way. Don't know how my story will end but I'm very excited.

 

A few years ago my roommate was getting a volks doll, as was her sister. I thought it was so cute and a perfect tool to help me improve my sewing and drawing skills. I then watched all of the anime Rozen Maiden and I knew I had to have one. Thankfully last year I got a good price on Eluned. She was a display at AWA! I still really want an Ipplehouse Doll, that was one of the first sites I stumbled upon and fell in love with immediately. All in good time though.

 

I believe that I first discovered them when I happened to stumble upon the Volks website accidentally.I didn't pay much attention to what I was seeing. I remember that I found the prices very shocking! I didn't learn about what BJDs actually were until much later. I've always loved dolls so my interest was something I almost feel like I've always had.

 

I've never liked dolls, not even when I was little. But I was browsing dA, and over the months kept seeing these really gorgeous dolls that looked like real people. I remember checking out one of the websites, I think it was Crobidoll, and being shocked by the prices.
But recently, I was reading up on a doll owner's FAQ on dA. They linked to this site for information, and I signed up to learn a bit more. Turns out, I got lucky, because open admissions were only open for that one week in August. Next thing I know, I've got a Resinsoul doll coming in the mail.
Now he's here, and I love him to bits. Sure glad I looked into the BDJ hobby!

 

A couple of years ago a friend and I were chatting online when she mentioned that she had finally been able to purchase the doll head she wanted. That cryptic remark led to a discussion on BJDs. She sent me photos of the dolls she had and links to Iplehouse and Lutz and had me look around. Nothing came of this until I met another young lady who sent me pictures and talked to me about the dolls. She said that no matter what I said, if I found a doll that called to me I'd be hooked. I did and I am.

 

I grew up in a large family where we pretty much shared whatever toys were around. I didn't have a doll growing up and never really thought about it.

My interest in nature and fairies began my search into creating a miniature fantasy world for them to inhabit. I began my search and came across bjds. They had instant mojo for me and I became hooked. I haven't found that kind of magic in any other type of doll.

 

Through a friendship I made on deviantArt. She had a gallery for the little Obitsu 1/6 size. I met her when I was looking through entries for a contest dA held to go along with the movie "Nine"...where people were suppose to create a similar character as the ones in the movie. She had made this funny little doll and that was what first took me over to look at her gallery.

At first I was seriously "meh" -- whatever...But she was the nicest person and we got to be close friends. I started watching and branching all over looking at these dolls, discovering the larger ones. I got the idea to apply for an art grant using bjd to portray women's issues over the last century. "Turn of the Century" girls...1900 -- 2000. To use the same dolls and portray them in different ways, to represent girls/women in sets from each of the decades.

I thought it would be a great way to take advantage of the fun customizing qualities of the dolls. My friend made her first larger doll, and then offered to sell it to me. It was an AoD

When that doll arrived I was an immediate addict! It is very interesting to be one of those former "raise the eyebrows" kinda people who just don't get it. Then suddenly fall head over heels in love with the whole universe of abj. It was kind of like a sunrise, creeping along through my awe of what I saw in dA galleries. Then suddenly it was a bright new day at my house. OR, the scales fell off my eyes and I can see, I can see. Haaaa

 

One of my online friends has been into them for several years now, and a few years back shared pictures and talked here and there about her dolls to me. When she linked me to a website, it was like, "What?? So expensive!" So I threw the idea out completely.

Last summer I went to this pagan picnic, there were all these booths of handmade things, and at one of the booths someone was selling dolly jewelry. Yep. They even had a handful of bjds standing out at their table. I remember being startled because at first I thought they were selling the dolls and I just...wanted one. Soooo, the very next day I started researching, found a thread on here about more affordable dolls, US-based doll shops, and...ran with it.

If my partner and I go to pagan picnic again this year, and those same people are there with the dolly jewelry--I'll definitely have to pick some up for my gang.

 

Like so many, I stumbled across pictures of the dolls on DA about four years ago. I only looked at three companies: Volks, Iplehouse, and Luts. I decided that I really really wanted a Luts Delf Lu-Wen limited and showed my mother around the doll world, asking her for the doll. She said maybe some other time, it was a bit too expensive for now and I should wait before buying something like that.

So I did. Wait for four years. And now I have my first doll on layaway. ^-^

 

I blame Flickr for making me NEED bjd's.

 

I blame my friend , writer & steampunk artist Beverly Hale. She entered the art show at AKon this year & asked me to go with her as her "native guide" ( I'm an anime fan, she wasn't so well acquainted with the genre but wanted to learn , & I had never been to AKon). I'd been vaguely aware of bjds before, but this was the first time I'd had a chance to see so many in person. I fell for them, HARD. Almost bought one there -- kinda glad I didn't go through with it, since it would have been sheer impulse & not really worked out. But yeah, I was hooked. All her fault.

 

I liked to draw and had trouble with proportions. I didn't like the standard wooden model and came across the 1/6th obitsu. I loved the articulation and blank face so I ordered one. It wasn't long before I discovered the 1/3rd size. I stumbled into a forum and was hooked from there. Until then they were just models I kept blank to avoid their faces making an impression on my drawings. It was the forums that showed me how gorgeous they could be.

 

Anime conventions. A friend of mine saw them around on the first convention she went to and sendt me some pictures of them. I was creeped out, but didn't think more about it after that. Then we went to the same convention next year together and I saw a whole display of them. This time they didn't leave my mind. I actually had nightmares about them for a while But the more I thought about them, the more fascinated I became and soon I fell in love with them! Some few years later a friend of my friend got one and I got to see one and hold one for the first time. Then my friend got one, and noooow I doubt I could even live without my babies

 

My friend actually introduced me to Pullip dolls a few years ago and I fell in love with dolls, after looking through some forums I stumbled upon bjds and immediately started researching them and with some advice from some of my online friends I picked and bought my first BJD, a MNF Eliya!

 

I've always been into dolls in general. Barbie dolls, porcelain dolls (though this was something I kept secret for a long time). I don't really remember when I actually discovered BJDs. I know I was in high school. It was probably DeviantArt, like a lot of people have said. That, or some of my friends on livejournal. I also see them at every anime convention I've been to.

I picked up my AoD about three or four years or so ago? I can't remember exactly how long it's been, but that sounds about right. I didn't really do anything with him until recently, though.

I've been stalking various dealers (LUTS and DoD specifically) since high school, though, drooling all over myself. I never thought I'd be able to afford one at all. But, here we are. XD

 

I collected MLPs when I was a kid. When they released a new generation in 2003, I picked up the hobby again. This led me to a couple of different pony forums. After a few years, I started noticing more and more MLP collectors with Pullip avatars, or Pullip photos in their forum albums.

Eventually I fell in love with some Pullips (Chill and the Rozen Maiden line) and started collecting them instead of MLPs. And then, of course, once I started looking around the Pullip forums, I started finding more and more photos of BJDs.

I wasn't really impressed by a lot of BJDs at first (I found them all very 'samey', which is pretty ironic considering Pullip's all have literally the same sculpt ). I wasn't a fan of the anime styled heads, or the prepubescent bodies most of them seemed to have.

Then I discovered fantasy dolls - first Chiron from SoulDoll (who was too angular and oddly-sculpted for my taste), and then Soom... and once I discovered Soom, it was all over. I discovered them just before Cuprit was released. I agonised for almost her entire ordering period about whether or not I wanted to commit to such an expensive hobby (because I know myself well enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to just get one doll....). It's been 3 years since then, and I don't regret my choice to buy Cuprit at all

 

I first found out about them when a friend began collecting them 5 years ago. I became obsessed, but until recently, both refused to spend the money, and let my parents talk me out of it. But no longer can my passion for bjds be denied!