How did you first get into Dolls?

About 5 or 6 years ago I was on ebay looking for pocket sized dolls, and one of my searches was for a "pocket fairy". Pocket Fairy May from Blue Fairy showed up, and I had never seen a cuter doll in my life. I was completely shocked by the price but I did some research and ended up at the JunkySpot forums. I got really into the 27cm Obitsu dolls for a while (this was before he was selling the resin dolls) and then slowly was exposed to the resin dolls of other members on the forum. That eventually led me here. I got my first resin kid in 2007, and then sold him and bought a girl, and then sold her and bought a smaller girl. She still wasn't the right one for me, so I got discouraged and sold her and got into collecting American Girl. I got a little bored with AG, and gave a couple more tries, and I think I have finally found the "right" dolls for me.

 

The first time I saw a BJD on the net was after hearing about Chobits and Rozen Maiden dolls. Stumbled upon the VOLKS website and Reisner...and then even though they were so expensive, I was charmed into getting one. That 'made just for you' thing was so endearing~ Then I did more and more research, and after about two years, I finally have my doll, and saving for the next~

 

I blame this entirely on the older CLAMP series Angelic Layer. That's the first time I even considered a doll being cool. A few years after that I came across a manga/travel log written by Aimee Steinberger where she talked about Volks dolls. After that is was a downhill spiral into the hobby ^.^ Books, my overall, lovable downfall.

 

I saw them in youtube. This is a TV show introduct Japanese culture. I can't remember the name of it.
Before that, I collected Barbies, jenny, etc. After i saw this programme, i fall in love with them immediately, and try to found them on internet. Eventuallly, i order my first BJD on YJP.

 

Well Mine all started cause last year I went to Anime North which is a Anime Convention in Toronto Canada. I took along a friend of mine who had a doll named Mercy. She rode to the con with me in my van and then we meet up with my friend from Newfoundland Sirius53black. Well after babysitting him over the weekend both me and my friend Sirius got hook. We both ordered our first dolls from Dollzone. I ordered a Mo and she ordered a Hid. From there I now have 4 dolls and one floating head. My hubby has 1 floating head, My son has a doll named Link and my youngest is eyeing my luts fox doll. So ya are whole family in now hooked on BJD. I still think a drug problem would be cheeper. lol

 

I was in college around '02 and a girl who went there (she ended up the creator of Bizenghast, small world) was really into making her own figures and she showed a group of us a Dollfie on some marketplace site. I remember loving that doll because it reminded me of a gelfling from The Dark Crystal, but there was no way I could afford one at the time.

I forgot about the Dollfie for a while but began was reintroduced when one of my friends mentioned that she saw a gorgeous doll in person at a local convention. She couldn't remember the name and when I said "Dollfie" it was like a lightbulb went off in her head.

I poked around on the net after that and discovered message boards and did all sorts of research. I bought a few of the 27cm dolls from VolksUSA to see if I liked working on dolls at all and I loved it, but I still couldn't bring myself to buy a bigger doll. Just too expensive and I couldn't justify the purchase.

A couple more years passed and I realized that I never lost interest and that I should just take the plunge. I ordered my first doll a few months ago and am still waiting for her to arrive. I can't wait!

 

I was surfing through the art arena on Gaia when I came accross a very pretty drawing. The description said that it was inspired by Volks dolls. I was intrigued so I looked them up and fell in love and then shortly thereafter resigned myself to possibly never owning one of these beautiful dolls. A few years went past of me drooling over the Volks site sure that if I ever got a doll it would be a Volks girl.

Well I met another BJD lover and went over to her house and she showed me her collection including a floating SOOM GEM Godo head that she said she would sell to me. Contrary to all my previous planning I fell in love with him!!! I bought him and the rest is history...or at least I've had my first chip *crunch*

 

I used to regularly read a magazine called MangaZone (or was it MangaSzene) when I was into Manga and Anime. They also had articles on Japan in general and on Japanese things like movies, music, etc. And in one issue, they had an article about the 1/6 size Volks Dollfies. I saw them and kinda went "Wow, cool, do-it-yourself action figures!" and decided I'd get one. To be Celaran, the main character from my fantasy story. (Needless to say I got more than one now - three boys, all elves, all still waiting for me to make them their fantasy clothes).

So I saved for quite some time (cos I kept using the money for other things and the Dollfie wasn't really top priority) and since I didn't like the Obitsus they had up for sale in the MangaZone shop, I went to the Volks website. I looked around and went like "Whoa, I didn't know there were big ones, too!" I found the SDs and MSDs kinda cute but not really for me. Too child-like. I don't really like kids, so ... But I kept coming back and looking. And at some point, found out there were other companies making BJDs. so I went to look there, too.

When I realised that there were also some more mature-looking dolls, I started saving. And finally, in 2008, got my Luken. End of story. Well, THAT story. NOT the end of doll-story. I got two big boys now, the third on his way (head's a Minimee, body a UniReal boy body) and a tiny little girl.

 

A friend of mine asked for my opinion regarding dals vs blythes, and that got me started with an entire night of research and then continued obsessively until I had three pullips. Which then led to looking for more places to buy wigs, realizing that SD wigs fit pullips best, joining DoA to access the marketplace, finding out I liked BJDs more than pullips, and selling off said dolls in an attempt to start a new dolly fund.

Didn't work with my bills the way they are, but hey - I have a nice expensive wishlist and things to look forward to when I finally do save up for one of them. Prior to all of this I wasn't going to touch any doll with a ten foot pole.

 

My introduction was via ebay - I am into antique bjds and had long lamented that modern dolls are so stiff, unposable and to my eyes ugly. Fixed grins! Lack of detail! 'Hi-I'm-a-cheerleader" conformity! Then I found modern bjds - at last something with the variety and personality of the dolls of old that I loved - hand painted, in an age of mass production. The Victorians were romantic as heck but knew all about the dark side of childhood and of beauty and BJDS have that too! Yep, I've been bitten good!

 

I was looking for a biggish doll for trying out my fashion designs coz handling huge swatches of fabric to drape a gown on a dress form is sooooo tiring.

I found the obitsu site which mentioned BJD's.

So i then did a search on BJD and found DoA.
after browsing through the posts and looking at the photo's, I was hooked.

 

I first saw volks at an anime convention in 2005. A few of my friends are into this hobby, and they would talk about it now and again with me. I still didn't have the urge to learn more or buy one since I was one of those people that decided dolls were creepy.

A couple months ago, I realized large bjds would be beautiful accents to my decor. However, once I started looking around for dolls I decided I like them for more than just decorations. So, here I am.

 

I saw my first BJD on Deviantart while browsing jewlry (I have a tiny hobby making jewlry) I saw this gordious doll with some head/wig jewlry, I was like omg what a pretty doll So I had to figgure out what kinda doll it was.
Once I did and saw all the pretty pretty clothes, eyes, wigs and all the other customations I just had to get one

 

i saw bjd along long time ago on adam and joe go tokyo and jonathan ross japanorama , two UK tv shows and just always wanted one then i heared they where close to £1000 or more back then and found Volks site but to only find out they do not send to the UK and get really upset till 2008 when i found out there was sites that send to the UK and thats how i got in to bjd's

 

I've loved dolls ever since I was in diapers, lol!

I first saw BJD's on the cover of a issue of Haute Doll. Of course, I was immediately intrigued.

 

Japan Ai - A Tall Girl's Adventures in Japan, right? I bought that book. XD I was more interested in the other stuff, though. Not so much the dolls at the time.

 

Oh, where to begin... sheesh, let's see... partly it was due to CLAMP's Angelic Layer. In another sense, a friend of mine was saving up for a Volks model, it's been so long I don't remember, and because of life I had to put it on the back burner for me for the longest of times. It wasn't until recently, that I found some other people that had the similar interest, and in doing so, that put the drive in me to get back into it. When I realized there were many, many more companies than Volks and saw what you could do with them, I wanted to express myself in similar ways.

So, now, I've ordered and received my first BJD; Cara, she is a Fairyland LittleFee Chiwoo Elf, and I'm in hopes of ordering my next doll very soon. Which, I hope is only the beginning of my extended doll family.

 

With me it was easy: I'm a resident of a knitted toys forum, and you know, if a woman starts playing with knitted toys, no wonder soon she's gonna return back to the dolls So one of our girls (ok, several girls) brought the picture of FL puki-puki.... awwwww! that was amazing! Since that time I thought of buying my own FL doll.

 

I first saw BJDs over at a 16" fashion doll forum, but I wasn't really interested at that time so it was a number of years later when I was surfing the net and followed a link to Iplehouse and Dollmore that I really got enamoured by them. It took a few weeks of making a list of which dolls I liked best before I finally got around to getting one (from Iplehouse).

 

I first got into BJDs when I found hiritai's deviantART account. Her beautiful dolls (especially Hayden) really made me fall in love with dollfies (which probably explains why I'm so in love with the MD Ryu mold and want one more than you could possibly imagine). I got so excited the other day when I saw a post in the gallery with pics of Eiji and Hayden. ^.^ It was like a celebrity sighting for me.

In short, thanks hiritai; you're my inspiration.