How did you first get into Dolls?

I'm a fiber artist and I was asked to make a doll outfit...I really enjoyed the project...now here I am! LOL

 

One thing led to another in my case. I always liked dolls as a child. As an adult, there were PVC statues and resin kits, but it was my brother the one who collected (collects) them. Three PVC statues he's planning to buy will cost him just as much as a BJD, in fact. Anyway, he asks me to place the orders for him because we use my debit card, and here I was browsing an online store and searching for available statues and preorders, when I came across one of the small 1/6 Obitsu dolls. I was intrigued because I had no idea those dolls were supposed to be customized, so I did a little research... and I don't remember exactly how, but I ended up googling "BJD" and that was it.

At that point, I was sure I'd seen BJDs before in sites, stores and maybe Deviantart, but never paid them attention because my first thought was, "anyone who's willing to pay that much for a doll is crazy". Err, yeah. I suppose I decided I wanted a BJD (and be part of that crazy bunch ) the instant I learned they were highly customizable, and there was practically dollies for any and all tastes. Ah, and I'm pretty sure one of the first results Google gave me when searching for BJDs was DoA.

Unfortunately for me (because I'm reading several people in this thread got into the hobby after seeing the real thing ), the hobby isn't that well-known in my country, though I've talked (via internet) with a couple of other owners. So who knows? Maybe we'll be able to meet one of these days to introduce our boys (and girls) to each another. I'm looking forward to it.

 

I got into dolls from my friend (she's currently saving for one). After doing some research about them, I became a little obsessed! lol

 

I first got into dolls by accident, as is how I found out about other wonderful things in life. When I first saw a BJD on Wikipedia (Volks Shinku), I couldn't help but do some research and find out more about these dolls. Next thing I knew, I found myself in this forum. C:

 

My husband actuall got me into collecting. He collects action figures and I used to go with him to Toys R Us and browse the Barbie dolls! I started with Barbie and have not looked back 10 years already!

 

I used to be really into Sims 2 (Sims 3 has killed my love for sims though D: ) and I spent quite a bit of time on a site called Sims 2 community. Browsing through one day I found a thread about BJDs and got totally sucked in. They'd included links to loads of BJD stores and I found myself falling in love with all the dolls I saw.

Ever since then I've been saving, very, very slowly.

Someday I will have my very own BJD

 

I had a friend who started collecting them, but it took me long to actually consider getting one (aka getting used to the price)

 

i've seen them occasionally on net and they liked me very much

 

Through fandom_wank, funnily enough - there was a post back in late 2005 about a member who'd been banned from DoA (older members will remember who I'm talking about, I think) and following the links posted by f_w-ers discussing 'those weird expensive dolls' I came across all sorts of photos of various BJDs... since I was living in Japan at the time and only 5 minutes' train ride from the nearest Sumika in Shinjuku it was easy for me to pop along the following day and check them out in person for myself... and the rest is history, really

 

I used to have porcelain dolls when I was young and I started making cloth/plush dolls when I was 16 and have been ever since. I saw pics of BJDs around Deviant Art and kinda fell in love, and thought it would be nice to have a doll to dress up rather than making the whole doll all the time!

 

I don't own a BJD, yet, and joined DoA to learn more about them. I was never a doll person. I had one baby doll growing up and when someone gave me a Barbie when I was 12 or 13 I gave her to my little sister.
Anyway, this past spring I met someone at a scrapbooking retreat who had brought one of her Blythe dolls along. I thought it was cute but didn't pay too much attention to it. Then in September the same woman was at another retreat and brought another doll along. This time I paid more attention to the doll and started asking questions and looking at the websites she told me about. I was intrigued by the artistic possibilities of customizing the dolls. I bought my first Blythe a couple of weeks later and now own six of them and am enjoying customizing them and bringing out their unique personalities and am planning to switch them all over to Pure Neemo or Obitsu articulated bodies to give them even more personality.
I became aware of BJDs through two different avenues about the same time- I've gone to a couple of local Blythe meets where members have brought along some of the small versions of BJDs that I thought were cute AND I am a costumer recently infatuated with steampunk so I asked on an SP forum if any of the seamtresses made doll costumes and they started posting pics of their larger BJDs in costumes they had made. Now I am trying to decide if I want a doll in a scale that can live in the Blythe house or a larger doll that I can sew Steampunk Fantasy or 16th century Italian garb for.

 

Icyblue, who is one of my close friends, started sending me bjd photos from deviantart nearly a year ago. At first I found them only cute and beautiful but when I meet mnf woosoo vampire girl, all my thoughts changed. Now I'm waiting for her. And wishing more bjds

 

I saw a few pictures and had no clue what they were. I thought they were unobtainable until I saw some people online talking about how they wanted one, but they were too expensive. That's when I started doing research. I got my Lex and was confident that I'd only want one doll, but I found my dream doll and am now saving for him. Since Lex was on the low end of the spectrum in price, I can consider him a sort of icebreaker for my parents

 

I got into BJDs when I was browsing through the web. I was trying to see if there was any sort of doll out there other than Barbies (I never liked those dolls much at all) who I could make miniature clothes for, so I could see how it looked and then make my own clothing. I was wondering if there was any articulated doll too, when I was introduced to the pictures of the first BJDs I ever saw. I was stunned by their beauty and wanted to know more! After ALOT of research I got into them and have been into them ever since... Then I learned that there was a whole forum dedicated to them... Den of Angels!

 

A fiber artist I know has a wonderful blog I read often. One day she linked to her daughters blog to some great art her daughter had made. I started looking through her daughters blog and saw her dolls. I had seen BJD's when I was young, but could never afford them. I fell in love with her dolls and decided I had to have one of my own. My husband thankfully is a total sweetheart and bought me my first doll for my birthday. I have four dolls now and don't think I'll stop collecting anytime soon.

 

My friend told me about them (well, more like gushed). I saw her boy and thought he was absolutely adorable and wanted one. I hung onto him the entire time I was at her house...and then found out how much they cost. That deterred me until she showed me other molds. And then I fell in love, and started planning and saving.

 

I got interested when I went to an anime convention and saw replicas of Bella and Edward from Twilight on display. Then I met someone online who told me about them and that's how I ended up here.

 

XDDDDD I remember that! The wank where DOD sucked everyone into its pretty, pretty vortex.

My very dear friend has been into these dolls for years and years; I had no idea they existed (well, beyond f_w) until she was ready to actually get her first. It was all downhill from there, pretty much.

 

I have a friend who randomly became obsessed with dolls about a year ago, and after spending more time around her and her dolls, i began to grow fond of them myself. and now i cant wait to get one!!

 

My story's kind of atypical.

First, I saw a doll table at a convention I went to, years ago, and was not impressed at all. I went to the table out of curiosity, since it was the only Artist's table not selling actual paper art, but the dolls looked... well, not so good, and most of the ones featured were the little animal ones, and those just creeped the heck out of me.

Second brush with BJD - hiritai's dA. I was amazed that the ones I saw at the convention belonged to the same family as the gorgeous dolls I had stumbled upon online. I was never much of a doll person (I had a lot of Barbies, but completely lost interest in those by the age of 10 or so), and I had absolutely no desire to buy one. A friend I looked at them with fell in love, but I didn't, and she has since made no move to buy one, preferring to worship them from afar.

A few years later, I ran out of video games to collect and got myself a well-paying job, so it was time to look for a new hobby. I spent a few lazy weeks sporadically searching for interesting things on the internet, when I remembered those dolls on dA. I went back, looked at them again, used what info I could on her page to do some research, found DoA eventually, and shortly after that, became extremely interested.

So here I am. :] Still doll-less, but that will change as soon as my dream doll is available for order/found secondhand somewhere.