How did you discover the BJD hobby?

I have known bjds were "out there" since I was in middle school because I had a friend who was very interested in the Rozen Maiden manga series. I never actually put much thought to them until a few years later when I first moved out on my own. I was actually doing a Google search for cloth doll patterns, but the D.I.M website popped up in the search results. I loved them, but viewed them as unobtainable because of their price. Earlier last year though I came across bjds again and decided I actually could afford them if I was smart about it.

 

It was an accident. I was looking for a support to create things, you know ? Make something with my own hands. I was surfing on the internet, searching information for the next Japan Expo in Paris and found a list of the stands already reserved. There was a part for BJDs, I clicked to see what it was and rememberd I saw them for the forst time in 2006, and then forgot. I got interested, then obsessed and two months later I received my forst BJD. It was in July 2011

 

i knew about them because the internet let me discover anime/manga & gothic lolita culture when i was about 12 or 13 years old. so i read a lot of manga with doll/BJD/EGL themes and saw them in photos online. i'd often spend a lot of time looking at them online but i was more interested in anime, so my money went towards buying manga and then anime figures and merchandise later on. collecting figma, busou shinki and also being fascinated with dollfie dreams made me realize i should bite the bullet and just buy one BJD to see if i liked her. apparently i did, so now i have a lot more than just one.

right now i can afford both hobbies and am a little more interested in collecting dolls than anime stuff anyway, but i don't expect it to always be this way; things change and i will adjust accordingly.

 

A couple of my cosplay friends posted some links on customhouse bjds and naturally I clicked, but although they were beautiful, they didn't really attract me, especially after looking at the price. Haha.

Some time later, they bought their own from different website, and when they posted pictures, I was astounded at how gorgeous he was, so I went to search for similar dolls. I fell in love with the Luts Yder, but he was wayyy out of my price range, so I searched some more, and finally found the lovely Angel Region dolls. One of my classmates was also saving for a bjd at that time, and that finally turned the tide.

I saved up and convinced my mom to let me use her credit card to buy my first doll, an AR Ren boy. XD

 

I found bjds when I was on YouTube, I was looking for baby reborn box openings because my older sister owns a reborn. I came across a bjd box opening and never looked back, that was around the start of last year ^w^.

 

I discovered them through other dolls. My Little Pony was my gateway drug into collecting -- I got into Monster High after that. Through Monster High, I discovered Pullip and Blythe, and through them, I discovered BJDs.

 

I discovered BJDs very random. I was quite normal shopping in the regional supermarket and bumped into the children's section on the so-called Monster High dolls. For though I am already 28 years old, I found they very appealing and then researched on the internet about these dolls. While I was rummaging through the one-of-a-kind Monster High Dolls, my eyes fell on the beautiful ball jointed dolls. And BJDs, especially ABJDs, are what I've always wanted as a child - completely flexible dolls that do not look like a crying infant (I hated normal dolls as a child and I found the limited mobility of Barbies a great pity). That's all

 

I pretty much discovered the hobby looking at photos on Deviant art. Back when I discovered the hobby I never thought that i would have the money to get into it because I never realized that there were companies other than Dollmore. I let the thought of ever getting a doll go, then one day i decided that i was going to look at doll stuff again and discovered that there was other companies and that I could afford a doll.

 

My story? Nothing really special.
My close cousin who is sort of my inspiration showed me Dollzone Anson one day. Said: Should I buy that? I have always had a soft spot for fantasy stuffs so basically I was hooked.
That's all ... keke... short and boring sorry >.<

 

I actually don't really remember! All i know is that the first BJDs I fell in love with were Aoi-chan and Yukino from Volks :3

 

I found them via Blythe too. My first and only one for now is the Pullip Sabrina.

 

I first spotted them at various Anime conventions around the midwest. Thought "Well those are pretty, but kind of frilly and girly, not really my thing." A few months later, my then-roommate showed me the Volks site, but she was confused about the sizes and thought the cheaper vinyl ones were the ones we saw at cons. Contemplated one, but my reaction even to those was basically "Eh. Not that exciting, not really worth the money."

Fast-forward to me moving to another city, and in with another roommate, about a year later, who had also taken notice at cons but was quite a bit smarter than the former roommate, and not only found her way to JunkySpot's website (around tax time, no less, meaning the money would be available), but in her searching found a doll that was nearly a dead-ringer for one of my major OCs and showed me that. Love at first site! I ordered him not long after that, registered here, started finding all the other sites and the marketplace, and now have a whole family of dollies! And all this starting only about a year after I said, "Not really worth it, not the hobby for me."

 

I kept seeing pictures of them all over Deviantart, but I didn't know what they were. I just thought they were adorable and awesome. Then in my first semester of college a new friend I had made, YingYangKira, showed me hers and explained them to me. Bought my first girl that Christmas.

 

My best friend (who I am sharing a room with atm) went online and searched for BJD pictures, just like that. We are into cosplay, so it may not be that much of a stretch - long story short, she got me hooked as well after showing me some pictures...

 

I think it was a couple of things. I think first I read the manga Rozen Maiden which is essentially about living BJDs, so I thought they werew extremely cool and started looking up more about them. In high school, a girl brought her Iplehouse doll to school every now and then and since she was friends with my friends, would talk to me about her and bring her to my house occasionally, so that's when I found out where I could buy them. It took a lot of years later and scrolling through an endless amount of BJD sites to find what I was looking for, but eventually I bought my very own.

 

It's really funny, I've always been into manga and anime, but somehow I've missed out on BJDs until very recently. I noticed them the first time when I bought a doll magazine and saw an ad for Junkyspot. I'm into Monster High dolls, so I visit the MLP Arena quite often. One day I noticed a thread on BJDs, and I was enchanted by the dolls and decided to go looking for one. I was planning on having only one, since they are so expensive but... ahmm... I already have more on the way.

 

The first time I ran across BJDs I was still in school and didn't have a job, so I didn't really do much research or look into purchasing one. I had completely forgotten about them until about a year and a half ago when I was looking at some fan art and I ran across a picture of an obitsu, from there I found my way to resin dolls and I really fell in love with them. I did a couple of months of research on my own, and then my husband surprised me with my first girl...it's all kinda been downhill from there

 

I had heard about BJDs on various doll groups/forums, then got more interested as I saw more photos and realized they were so poseable. What could be better than a doll you could actually pose, as opposed to those without joints or with limited joints! I have never been sorry that I took the plunge, there is just no comparison!

 

I saw some photos on flickr, and I went on googling about it. I got addicted on searching about BJDs for about 3 weeks taking my time to find which one I really want. Then, I ended up buying 2 (bought my 3rd about an hour ago)

 

Lots of interesting stories here. A friend on one of my crocheting groups posted a few of her pukipuki's in sweet little dresses. I looked them up, but never thought I could afford the hobby. Then, she directed me to some 2nd hand sites, where I was able to buy my very own Fairyland Ante. I got her about 8 wks ago, and love making her little dresses.