How did you find out about BJD and how did you get the first doll?

I was always an "anime kid" so I found out about bjd's while searching anime merch on ebay. I ended up stumbling upon a Volks SWD Nana and I just fell in love. I think that was the pivotal moment that changed everything for me as I ended up with my first doll a month later. I purchased a Customhouse Little Junior Zephyrose off ebay and was sold. I have since sold him many years ago but I have been hooked since 2006 (with a minor hiatus) and there has been no going back for me.

 

ModtheSims2 waaaaay back in 2006? Maybe? I was a giant sims nerd and loved mods and CC and I hung out on the forums and there was a conversation about wanting a custom skin with ball joints and then people started talking about the BJDs and sharing pictures. Dream of doll was the first company site I saw and I was ENTHRALLED. But I also couldn't fathom spending that much on a doll - I didn't have a grasp of what these dolls were or why but I WANTED one.

I'd always loved dolls and played with dolls way longer than was "age appropriate" - it's part of why I had the Sims as my parents saw it as a way to get me away from kids toys but have that same kind of play so they got me the Sims 1 and it worked (too well if you'd asked them).

Seeing BJDs turned the doll light back on and I started doing research into the hobby. Got my first doll from Dollga (before it was part of Leekeworld? I never really knew the relationship there but at the time it was separate). And here I am now with a wildly different collection than when I started and even wildly different from when I took my break from the hobby a few years back.

 

I found out about bjds through etsy! I was just browsing through and saw someone selling files I could print. After that things just grew and I even went to resinrose.

For my first doll that I got I 3d printed them. But for the first doll that I bought from someone else it was from resinrose, I bought a doll from denver doll emporium.

 

I honestly think I just randomly came across them. I had known about them for a long time but never had the means of starting to collect them. After several years I finally was in a good enough spot financially and started to look around and research heavily. I found a second hand head I adored and hunted for a body. Finally settled on one from Miracle Doll. I love my hybrid boy. ❤️❤️

 

Years and years ago, likely through some images I saw by being into anime and adjacent hobbies. They captivated me since I already have loved dolls since I was very little...to have something much larger than a regular doll and with customization to boot was a dream. Though I didn't have the funds until much later, around a year or so ago.
I tend to over think things so I already had quite a few dolls chosen from way back when.
My 'first' doll was a ringdoll virgo, however I had ordered ringdoll aries before him. Virgo just happened to get to me sooner since he was in stock.

 

I stumbled across a Soom Gluino Vampire Alchemist in early 2017. I fell in love with this doll only to see his price tag, the fact he was no longer available, and way too pricey on the second hand market, the fact the second hand market concerning him was shady, and the size of this doll was enormous to me. I loved his teeth. I eventually found out about DoA and joined it later that year.

I saw someone's Dollzone Carter on here. He has the most amazing little teeth. He has a really cute face to go with it. He was a much smaller size that was still big to me, and a much more affordable price tag. I ordered my first doll Dollzone Carter from Jeeryama, Dolls Singing/Clover Singing, Christina, off of eBay in December of 2017. It actually took eight months for the doll to get to me, because Dollzone lost my doll, but they found it and he was sent. I did buy other in stock dolls while waiting for his arrival, but still consider him my first doll. He was the one I took the plunge with.

I do have a Soom Gluino now, neither the price or size is intimidating anymore. This is a warning to the new people out there.

 

I first discovered it due to Dream of Doll sculpt pics on the internet. Was early 2000's.

It took me a while to build up both the capital and the courage to purchase a purely aesthetic doll and it was a company: Raccoon doll. I loved the price and the elf sculpt.

 

It was around July of 2007, I had just freshly graduated high school and started college. I ended up visiting an Anime store that was nearby and started working there. This store would have a booth at Anime Expo and various other anime conventions, so I started going with to help. I saw people walking around with BJDs and thought they were amazing, so I inquired about them, found The Junky Spot and boom, August of 2008 I got my first doll lol a DollZone Hid who I still have

 

From Junkyspot... I was there looking at the 1/6th scale Obitsus and found they made bigger one... it was all down hill from there.

 

My friend introduced them to me, first through an what she called an off-topic doll, which meant nothing to me at the time. And then she showed me LUTs and I told her she was insane, but I had a good time looking at the dolls with her while she talked about her plans for her first doll and her grails. I thought they were pretty and interesting but nothing I'd ever get cause why would I spend so much on a DOLL?!

And then she went to a doll meet up and invited me to tag along with her.

And I was in LOVE!!!! I was also drawn to LUTs as it was the company first introduced to me and spent a few years browsing and daydreaming and had basically narrowed it down to the Ani but assumed I'd still never get one cause of the price point and it'd just be a fantasy.

But when my husband and I got engaged, his dad gave us a nice financial gift, which I assumed we'd probably use on the honeymoon or something. But apparently, my husband really wanted a nice high quality lightsaber. So he thought it would only be fair if I got something I really wanted, too. So he turned to me and said: "Hey....you still want that doll?"

Funnily enough, I meant to buy the Ani on the girl body, but I liked the boy Ani's photos way better so, thanks to ADHD, I didn't really notice the listing difference and bought that one. So what I thought would be a girl doll, wound up being a boy for my first! I wasn't too bothered, the head sculpt was the most important part! Icarus arrived at my house on December 12, 2011! Still got my boy, though he's quite yellow due to lots of love and (admittedly) a lack of knowledge on how to properly care for resin at the time (his hands are sooo yellow lol. It's not too bad so long as you don't take off his clothes....) And hubby and I are still happily married so wins all around.

Also, I now have a fairly decent collection of dolls from YoSD to SD so.... yeah, went from 'wow, who would ever get something so expensive' to owning multiple.

 

How did you find out about BJD dolls??
I saw pictures of one on DA back in early 2003 and pictures of Volks Chii on google around the same time. Though I can’t say which was first but Chii was the one that made me want a BJD.

How did you get the first doll? Was she from a company or a second hand?
I used the excuse that these dolls would make good artists tool. Which lead me going and buying obitsu 60 white soft body from parabox and the greatal(so?) head with a costum face up from eBay that actually lead me to the community because the person selling it ran a forum that now no longer exists sadly. So she was both new and second hand at the same time. Still have her and still treasure her 20 years later.

 

Bumped into a random picture of a bjd on a search engine, that was unrelated to dolls. I don't go to conventions or watch anime. I'm not into Lolita fashion or alt lifestyles, nor did I care for dolls. I was just minding my own business. I fell in love instantly. It took me quite some time to find out what they were, but around 2005 I managed to figure it out and 2006 I joined this forum. My bf at the time, thought it was bizarre. It kind of is, but that's allright with me. My husband thinks they are beautiful art, like I do.

 

Me and my sister got WAY into Rozen Maiden and we found ball-joint-dolls while looking for stuff relating to it. Honestly can’t remember much of the plot but I LOVED the dolls

 

I have always loved and been into dolls and collected many types of dolls. And while on the internet one day I came across some super pretty dolls, bjds, and it just went from there, me constantly looking and researching at bjds. Mainly on pinterest then instagram

The one doll that stole my heart at the very beginning and started it all was a noble dolls asella raspberry. I got her from the website/company that was partnered with asella to distribute her dolls.

 

My first encounter with BJDs was around 2013 or early 2014, at a boba shop that has since closed. I was getting drinks with my brother (this was actually my first time trying boba too lol) and while waiting I saw a dolly meet up! There were maybe 4 women with their dolls just chatting. I was super intrigued as I had never seen dolls like this before. Spent the next couple days looking up things like “big dolls” “pretty big dolls” and “anime dolls” until I found Volks. My city actually has a bjd-club on Facebook, I can’t help but wonder what those doll owners are up to and if they were from there.

My first BJD purchase was a DDH-06 Volks head from 2005 in ???2016?, my first doll was Margarita from doll chateau in 2018.

 

My introduction to BJDs was rather odd..... I first found out about them when I was looking for tutorials on wig making when I was trying to customize an OB11 doll, and ended up stumbling on Dollightful, a doll customizer who focuses on playline dolls (Monster High mainly). She did a reviews son a MYou doll as well as a Culur doll that I thought were interesting, but I didn't end up finding "the one" until later. My gateway drug BJD was, for all intents and purposes, Shen Xiaolong, my Dollzone YinLong, as he was my first preorder (I got Occelier, my Shoushou Niko earlier because I got him in stock at BJDivas though, and that was around the time Shen Xiaolong was shipped to me from Dolk).

 

I saw a picture of a Doll Chateau completely out of the blue while browsing artsy Japanese kitbashes on Twitter (I'm into stuff like Kris Kuksi, DC dolls fit right in) and I learned that crazy art dolls exist and you can buy them for relatively affordable prices all things considered.
After about a year I wasn't going to get the thought out of my head so I started lurking and doing research, then a few months later I went straight for a 1/3 from Maskcat's site.
I had considered getting something smaller and cheaper to test the waters but I strongly felt I would have just settled on something that I didn't want as much.
The waiting is the worst. I wasn't prepared for it.

 

I was always into dolls as a kid (Barbies, EAH, Bratz, Polly Pockets, literally them all lol) and I always told everyone that when I grew up I'd collect the "expensive ones" which at the age of 10 was just assuming Gold Label Barbies and above. Then when I was 15 I bought my first expensive doll, an Integrity Toys Poppy Parker Floating Dream Fashion Teen (what a mouthful )

Then it wasn't until I was 18 that I discovered BJDs on instagram. A famous cosplayer was holding a huge doll that was like a little mini-me and I was instantly like WHAT IS THAT AND WHERE DO I GET ONE. Turns out it was a Soom Idealian and Soom's account was tagged so I went through a rabbit role of looking on their instagram, then looking through their website. The first dolls that day that made me reallyyyy want one was their little gem grey & ace (the red haired one, idk if that's grey or ace lol), and vampire Gluino... Then I saw the price tag eeeeee... Then joining DOA and spending HOURS watching BJD youtube and scrolling through acbjd lol.

Then when I was 19 I finally bought my first doll, a Mystic Kids Francis, who was completely blank for a whole year because I was impatient and bought him without a plan lol... Anyway, 4 years later with a collection of 4 MSDs, 4 uncles (including vampire Gluino which I still CANNOT BELIEVE) and a few floating heads/bodies and still going strong!