How did you discover the BJD hobby?

Very long ago, maybe like 5 years, I found some photos of BJDs on google... I researched it a little, cause the dolls were really pretty! I found out how expensive they were (but the site I looked at only had these exclusive full set SDs or something so they were more than $1000 each), and thought that "lol, no, I'd never spend that much on just a doll". But here I am, 5 years later, spending a lot (by my standards) on dolls! Not $1000s of dollars, but still pretty much! xD

 

I am a huge vocaloid fan. And I had recently found an enchanting song by Miku and Meiko called Ball Jointed Dolls. So with the intent to listen to the song, I simply typed in "Ball Jointed Dolls". The first thing was a video of someone's doll collection. I watched it out of curiousity. I decided I liked these 'Ball Jointed Dolls' and so I googled them. And the first company that came up was LUTS. The dolls were beautiful, and I saw an event doll I really liked. But how was I to get 500$ in a week? I remember almost crying that night that the event ended. I researched these dolls more, than came upon Pullip. I had seen these before, when you look up Vocaloid on Amazon, the Miku Pullip and the Kagamine Dals come up. So, I purchased Taeyang Timlus. I have gotten 3 other Pullip-Type dolls since then (I have one Little Pullip-Obitsu Hybrid) and am watching the amount in my "Doll Fund" jar grow for the BJD I fell in love with the same August day I found Tim- Doll Love Kaja. I can't wait to get him, Im just afraid my parents will be skeptical about letting me spend so much on a doll.

 

I happened to be on etsy looking for random things and on the home page there was a Lati dress being sold under toys and I went to investigate it further about a year ago. And it's opened an entire new awesome world for me.

 

This was just a few months ago--a friend posted a link to an IH EID on Deviant Art that was beautifully posed and looked so realistic, I couldn't believe it was a doll. Since I can no longer sketch, I had been subconsciously searching for something that would portray the characters in my novels. Suddenly I realized that BJD's would be perfect, if I could find the correct sculpts. So far Iplehouse EID's have been perfect. (Naturally I had to pick the biggest, most expensive dolls . . . )

 

It was by complete accident. I was trying to find a campaign done years ago from models called "we are not dolls" and this gorgeous girl popped up. The picture tag said "elfdoll"...I didn't think anything of it until a few years later whilst at uni my friend and I were having a conversation about wanting to have a doll we could customise completely. It reminded me of the elfdoll and we spent ages googling trying to find this one girl when the term "Ball Jointed Doll" came up.
So we typed this in instead and ALL these absolutely beautiful dolls just sprang up, I dont even think 3/4 months went by before we both had dolls ordered xD

 

I've always been a doll collector, and I think I first read about them in Barbie Bazaar magazine (anyone remember that publication?) If not BB, it was definitely another doll magazine, probably around 2000 or 2001.

 

Oh, a lot of you guys started from Deviantart! I started from Instagram, I was painting at the moment and I was browsing trough a girl's feed, dannyvanilla. Between all her paintings she had posted a picture of one of her dolls (I think she was a Fairyland one) and she painted a tattoo on her. It was the coolest thing I have seen and I was so intrigued, so I started looking up the company. But I was shocked by the prices.. 500$ for a doll?!! Well, 2 months later I ordered my first one

 

Like many I found out about the hobby through Deviantart, but to be more specific it was thanks to a deviant who is now known as Geekisthecolour. I was browsing through the popular deviations of the day and I came across a picture of her Migidoll Ryu; I instantly fell in love with it! For me they were so stunning, especially how their expressions would change depending on how the eyes were positioned and at the angle that you took the photograph. They had such realistic poses and expressions that it was very hard to ignore. At first, since I was still in High School and didn't have a job, I wasn't able to afford to purchase any dolls but I was happy to contemplate their beauty through the different photographs that I found through Deviantart and other sites. Now I'm happy to say that I've just entered the hobby by recently acquiring my own BJD and I don't regret it.

 

2 Years ago, by my sewing forum for Historic Cosplay, I have discovered the Doll Part and BJD. I was curious about these 3 letters^^
So I have searched for information on the web and I found these creations so beautiful so realistics so creatives...

 

I've liked dolls since I was a kid and my oldest daughter got into BJDs a few years ago. I liked looking at and playing with her dolls, so she bought me a Puki for my birthday last August and now I have my puki, a floating head, and two on the way (another puki and a PKF).

 

My boyfriend his best friend has a few dolls and i would often watch pictures of hers. slowly i started to get more and more interested in them and well... evetually i ended up here and i have my very own doll with too many clothes by now xd

 

From the Himstedt collector community. A lot of crossover there.

 

I never really played with dolls other than some Barbies growing up. I had a couple of friends in college who had BJDs and had seem some clothing venders at anime conventions. They got me into the hobby and made me want my own doll. I am starting out on monster high dolls since they are much cheaper and all I can afford right now but I'm saving up for my first BJD and hope to have one by this summer!

 

I'm having a hard time remembering to be honest, but I'm pretty sure it was on the Sims 2 Community forum back in about 2006 or 2007... At the time I was like "whoa that's gorgeous, but you're insane! Who on earth would spend so much on a doll?" And then when I found out how big they were, I got freaked out all over again. I still can't really imagine bringing home anything bigger than my minifee, but I do so love to look at the larger dolls.

 

I got dayviews late 2008, and some years after that I found a user who made gorgeous jewellery/clay stuff, and she then started posting BJD stuff, and I thought that sure, that was pretty cool, but forgot about it. A few more years pass by, and I find more and more users on DV with BJDs, and I got more and more interested, but I thought they were super expensive and didn't see what I would have them for. Early 2012 I bought my first doll, and here I am 2 years later and with 7 dolls xD

 

I would see BJDs at Animazement (anime convention in Raleigh) every year and I thought they were really cool (although, certain ones sometimes creeped me out because of how realistic they are, lol). But I didn't know very much about them. One year I asked a girl carrying a BJD around with her where I could buy one and she gave me a few names of popular companies and told me to google "ball jointed dolls" (I didn't even know what they were called back then, lol) if I wanted to look at other companies. And she recommended I go to the BJD panel at the convention if I wanted more information. So I did, and it was very helpful. After the convention I researched doll companies for several months before deciding on my first doll. My first doll (an Iplehouse Tatiana) arrived that November and I opened her box on Christmas day (she was my Christmas present). I've been in love with this hobby ever since and have purchased several more dolls since then.

 

I discovered BJD's through a girl I met on an "Avatar: The Last Airbender" forum, I used to be a big fan of that :P. There was a chat function and this girl kept talking about a BJD she was saving up for. So I looked up what a BJD was and I gradually fell in love with them. At first I thought they were kind of creepy, because I actually have a fear of dolls. Now I'm just really scared of porcelain dolls and I love BJD's . I was about 15 years old at the time and there was one doll I planned on saving up for. Then I just kinda forgot about them but I rediscovered them through conventions and randomly coming across them on the internet.

 

My husband introduced me to BJDs. He had 3 Dollfie Dreams when we met and I thought that were so interesting and fun. Not too long after we met, I got my first Dollfie Dream then I started collecting many different dolls including resin and vinyl. We have a great bjd community in my area which adds to the fun of the hobby.

 

Hmm... If I remember well it was 5-6 years ago, there was a show about random subjects and they introduced a person collecting reborn dolls. This person was also collecting BJD dolls, and show her collection. I found the dolls so pretty that I googled it and got pretty obssessed to get one but once I saw the price I tried to forget about it lol. Finally this year I got the opportunity to buy one =D (and plan to get a second one !!)

 

Just by chance, for my part, I was researching stuffs on the internet and I came across a photo of an absolutely irresistible Pukifee! I immediately wanted to know more!