How did you discover the BJD hobby?

They were mentioned on a modelhorse board I am looking at quite regularly. We wanted to know whether they could be an appropriate replacement for the known plastic rider dolls. These are not able to sit really properly on a horse, and their mobility is somewhat limited.

As we need only 20 cm, mature dolls (adults), we came to the conclusion that the currently available ABJDs are far too large for the traditional model horses. Someone mentioned to try to create a doll with exchangable heads (another problem of the industrial dolls, they all look the same, customizing is difficult due to the plastic material), but somehow it never happen.

Anyways, I did a bit of Google search - a major mistake. I fully discovered what is possible with ABJDs. And that the big boys make excellent riders (I love horses), if you have the right size of mount. I soon discovered a clear preference - big, mature men. One word - Iplehouse.

Although I have no money, I love looking at them. My big love now is Arvid. And that's where my story ends. Thus I am eagerly awaiting owner pics of him.

 

My best friend is in the hobby and I just got sucked in by proxy just by helping her do things for hers and learning how to make them clothes. Now Im waiting on my first dolls, Iplehouse Asa and Sooms Trond and Kivi

 

Mine is totally a run-of-the-mill story. I was browsing dA as usual and when I opened the web page, among the tiny minimize pictures on the page, a little picture with a human figurine caught my eyes. I thought it was probably a pretty model picture so I clicked on it. I think it's was either hiritai or onnawufei's dolls that I saw, and I was really shocked by what I saw! A really PRETTY human-looking doll! It quickly wennnnnnt downhill from there XD

I was realllllly interested in these pretty dolls and I did more researched about them on dA first, and I read onnawufei's faqs. I clicked on links from her faqs and jumped to Lut's website. HOLY COW. I was shocked at the pricessssss at first! I thought I couldnt get one of these dolls cause I dont usually spend that much on anything and I was a 16year old poor student. I tried ignoring the pull, but I succumbed after a few days and begged my dad to buy me one! It took a while, but he said okay, and I got my first BJD in a few months later!

During my wait for my first doll, I stumbled upon a little doll forum and learned more about BJDs there. And then I meet DOA. The forum of wonderful BJD goooooodies. There WERE so much to learn and it was really addicting. Uh, so 3 years later, here I am! Still active and loving this hobby and BJDs more than ever!

 

i was at a thriftstore in 2004, where i found two 5 inch tall japanese bisque dolls in a plastic baggy for $4. they were so pretty, and i purchased them. after a while i started looking up "japanese dolls" on google to find more of them. i stumbled onto photos of bjds that way, and i was overcome with their beauty! so i looked them up on ebay, found a few, and was overcome with their price. >> from there i stumbled onto blythe dolls, pullips, and the like, and bought a few blythe dolls before i was able to be okay with the bjd price tag. then i bought my first bjd, before i had ever seen one in person, and the rest is history. =)

 

My girlfriend (before we ever met irl, or even got together) was trying to shell one of my RP characters, from her online RPG (which will be starting up as soon as I get my own compy again), and she sent me several links to see if any would be appropriate. I'll admit to being intrigued, but not enough to do my own research. When I finally met her & got to hang out with her, she introduced me to her two dolls (AS Kana & Obitsu Gretel). Again, I was a little intrigued, but not enough.

Then we went out on the town and took picture of them. She had her Kana, and I was given charge of her Gretel. And had so much fun... O.O I started really looking into the hobby after that, and even found some dolls I put on my wishlist to get someday. Incidentally, my first doll became her Obitsu, as she wanted a different doll for the character, but didn't want to give up her first doll.

Three years later, I'm still with my girlfriend and still in the hobby. Still don't have my first dream dolls, though.

 

I had collected other dolls, not very many of any one artist. I guess I was trying to find my perfect fit. I went to IDEX in 2008 and saw some BJDs displayed there and saw some people were carrying around with them and I became hooked. I was able to go to an event that ELF doll had and my conversion was complete. I have never looked back.

 

It was actually at an anime convention when I first saw them sitting on artists' desks. I was so sad they weren't for sale, but once I asked them about them, found out the price and what they were... well.... let's just say I could understand why they weren't for sale on the tables! It took me a good five years before I was able to get my first one, though, considering I was only 13 when I saw them at first and there was no way my parents would buy me one. XD

 

What an awesome question. So interesting to see how everyone got into the hobby!

I saw my first BJD quite a few years ago by random chance. It was on an Asian site so I couldn't read anything and google wasn't translating everything back then. I was flawed by how human the dolls looked and really wanted to know more but had no idea what they were called. I started searching for "human dolls" "realistic dolls" "dolls that look like people" and you wouldn't imagine the shirt-load of sex doll sites I found So I gave up.

Quite a few years later I discovered Marina Bychkova's enchanted dolls and fell in love with them. One day I was reading an article about her and her dolls and the phrase "Ball jointed dolls" came up. I googled it and the whole BJD world just opened up beneath my feet. Finally after all that time I'd found what I was looking for!

 

My interest in dolls was sparked about 6 years ago on Halloween, when I saw one in person for the first time. Unfortunately I can't remember the doll sculpt now, but I remember she named him Ren. Anyways when I asked questions about how to get one she directed me here(DOA) and to Luts. As much I was interested in dolls back then, I was far too broke(I was like 14) to get one so I held off on it for years.
Then in high school I met the doll of my then-friend, a B&G Sunny, and my interest was renewed. At that point I became completely ensnared in the hobby and managed to convince my parents to get me my B&G Sky for Christmas 2007. Since then I have acquired 2 more dolls and hope to get more.

 

My first encounter happended at a convention...this dude was carrying around one and i found it awesome. It was a lil person with hair, zippers shoes with buckles and everything! I took a pic of it and that was that. A few years later (last year) i came across a stand full of magazines and was flipping through many of them (bored) and i got done with a toy magazine and spotted a doll magazine right beside it (Haught Doll) and decided to flip through it.
In that magazine I found an article on a bjd from Soom, and i finally got around to researching and after about a month....bam. made an order and got my first bjd. Longwinded and pretty specific i know but thats about how i got into it. =J

 

I saw pictures of them on someone`s flickr which link I found in that person`s presentation in online game.

 

I remember, back in high school, my friends and I just ended up looking at the Dream of Doll site, my friend liked BJDs back then and showed it to us, and I fell in love with one of their sculpts. I still want that doll, after almost 7/8 years...one day, I'll get him! I would occasionally see pictures on DeviantArt too, but mainly it all stems from DoD.
It wasn't until 3 years ago when I went to Japan that I decided to find a Volks store and buy a doll for myself. I didn't have much knowledge back then about BJDs, but it was just in all good fun to get one. Woo-ho...until the numbers rang up at the til that I realized, this hobby would hurt my wallet bad. LOL

 

I'm not sure -how- I saw a picture of Shirou Tachibana but I do know it was in college. I looked him up, converted yen into US dollars, and knew I couldn't have him. I kept looking at the pictures everyday and then less and less until he was just a little thought that occasionally would pop up in my mind. Many years later I saw dolls like these in person with my husband at A-Kon and I was able to get my first girl, a lovely little Bobobie March. I was wondering if any of these dolls ever had a pleasant expression (most looked so...melancholy or down right mad) or came in brown skin like me, and there she was. Hidden in a shelf with a happy little smile and chocolate brown skin. ^_^ I did more research and found that Iplehouse not only did and does wonderful sculpts in a range of natural skin colors, but the company also does a range of facial features. I saw a pic of Ashanti and was so sad that she was sold out (I learned about limiteds when I joined here) but happily loved Benny. Now I'm waiting on my Efreet to get here and I'm planning to get Lahela.

(As a side note, I have a tooooon of Little Apple Dolls!)