How did you know it wasn't a phase?

I was pretty sure it was a phase at first. I get obsessed with things all the time, only to get them, and move on. However with dolls, no matter how long I'm off DOA, I always come back. During con season this summer I was cosplaying my little heart out, and didn't have much time for my dolls. Now that I'm back to my normal schedule, I am back obsessing over them as much as before.

 

i figured i like them longstanding when it was a month since i saw one, and couldnt stop thinking about them, and when i looked at them again, i thought about them twice as much!

 

Wow, that's really intense. I think having to wait that long would make me crazy. I am glad that I have enjoyed dolls all my life so even if I don't want to be involved wiht BJDs specifically, it's not as though it was some random thing I interjected in my life.

 

I've been into this hobby for over 2 years and the first time I saw and touched a bjd was in Juli (I alredy had bought my own at that time, but never seen them in real life). I was just sold and I knew that this were a hobby that I wouldn't get tired of after short time

 

Hrm... lets see, my sister was the person who got me into this hobby. I may not play with my dolls as much as other people do, but I love having them around and going to doll meets to hang out with other people who also have dolls! My sister isn't around much since she joined the Coast Guard, so I'm not as inclined to take them out publicly, but I will always have them around. I guess it's like my breyer horse collection. I don't play with them anymore, but I love to look at them and I haven't reduced their 30-something strong herd at all ^.^ BJD are more expensive, so I never plan on having that many. And there are doll makes that I still really REALLY want, so I figure I'm hooked for a while. AND if you keep them around, you never know who will appreciate them next!

 

I think when it hit me that Xavier will be 2 and Shi Shi will be 3 that we were stuck with each other. Although I haven't bought a new on topic doll for a year now I've been a doll person all my life, w00t for the 28 year old Darci I still have!

Some times the resins are a bit neglected for the Littles but they all have a place in my heart. In general I'm a 1/6er but it's nice to have some variety and I would have got myself at least 1 bjd out of curiosity. If you're really unsure get your first doll and see if that's it. I had Shi Shi all alone for 6 months before I got Xavier then it was just the two of them for another 6 months. Not counting the twins I only added Xavier's wife Jibriel, a tiny sister for him Luci, and the mini I wanted in the first place, Lucifer.

 

I've been playing with dolls since 3. I played with my mom's 22"-25" plastic dolls from the 60s Uk and US. I had Barbie and Licca Chan in the 70s, Sekiguchi in the 80s and other brandless and artist dolls. I don't always play with dolls, some of my dolls sat for decades wrapped up in the closet and forgotten. I hated dolls at some point in time but my mother would not allow me to throw or sell them. I would take the dolls out and clean them sometimes. I like 1/6 scale dolls but I have big dolls as well. As an anime fan, I stayed away from collecting anime dolls and figures until recently. I just bought my first BJD and waiting for him to arrive, I may be ordering another very soon.

I know for sure that my interest in dolls is a phase but I also know that when this phase is over, I would pack the dolls up and keep them in the closet. May be when I'm old and retired, I'd take them out again and recall all the experiences I am going through now. That's how I'm always in and out of this hobby.

 

I was never into dolls much as a child, I liked to play with the barbie sets, but I wasn't "playing barbies", I was making displays and making her clothing.
I knew when after the first three months of finding BJD's I was still interested in them, and just felt like I couldn't wait to get my hands on one. (Turns out I could and did!) Things seemed to set me back, and I was able to learn a lot from Babysitting friends dolls, and watching them get way in over their head debt wise in order to get one they had to have or it was the end of the world.
Now I have shin, and although he's my first, he won't be my last by a long shot, even if my roommate is terrified of him watching her in her sleep.

 

I guess when I wanted another doll as a companion for my Mimi. Then another and another.. I have always loved dolls and always had them but when I started slowly selling off my other dolls for bjds then I knew it was serious and not just a phase. Of course no one ever knows what will happen in the future and I sometimes worry that I will find some thing that I love better and hopefully is not more expensive then this hobby but I hope I will never want to get rid of my of my dolls... but I think you are safe with one doll for now *wink*

 

Before I got my first doll I was afriad of the very same thing, it just being a phase. But after i got her, what with the sudden urge to create cothing and design new fun stuff, and just the overall joy that I felt when I got her, I knew it wasn't just a phase.

And all the people you can meet! It's just lovely to get to know so many people, and they're all so nice. It definetlay isn't just a phase.

 

Same here. I have a few dolls now, but I first saw them several years ago, I couldn't precise when, but it was certainly a very very long time now. I loved them then, and I loved them still when I got the first one, since my love for them lasted that long, I knew for certain it was not a phase.

 

Like some people have said... even a hobby that lasts 5 or 10 years is still a phase, in the grand picture of your life. I haven't read all the replies, just skimmed.... but is it so bad if it IS a phase? You'll still enjoy your dolls intensely during that phase, and if you become uninterested, you can sell them on, often for close to what you paid (or more in the case of most limiteds). There's nothing wrong with moving on from a hobby, or having "phases"- it's human nature, we change and mature and become interested in different things at different points of our lives. If you think you'll be interested in a hobby for at least a year or two... then why not enjoy it for that time?

After all, isn't it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

 

I bought my first BJD in July last year, and had bought my second and third before the end of the year I'm now waiting on my fourth and soon my fifth too

Although I no longer have my first doll, my reasons for selling him weren't because I was falling out of the hobby any more but because I quite literally grabbed the first mould I saw (a Dream of Doll DoC Si) because he was pretty. After my girl and Baha arrived, I couldn't help but feel that I just didn't really like him as much as I thought I did. His face wasn't what I wanted for the character I had created, and he was most unfortunately in posession of a terribly vacant stare. (Which is saying something, for a doll ) So, he winged his way off to a really wonderful girl in the US who loves him and treats him better than I ever could ^_^

I had started, recently, to think perhaps my dolly phase was over. I couldn't afford the doll I really wanted and I haven't had time to play with Paige or Pierre in ages so I was becoming a little disenchanted with the hobby. However, with a little help from my mum, I was able to buy my dream doll and now I remember why I love this hobby so much!! My passion has been renewed and I'm pretty sure I'll stay in this hobby for a looooooong time

Even if it is a phase, the beautiful thing about BJDs is they last. If you only ever buy one doll and then decide it's not for you then at least you have that lasting memory of the time you spent in the hobby, and if you choose to sell that doll then at least you enjoyed it for some time

My only advice (and it's probably been said a bazillion times already) is not to buy a particular doll just because you can. Shop around. Make absolutely certain that this doll is the one. If you rush into it, you might decide you don't like the doll you chose, and fall out of the hobby because of it. If I hadn't got other dolls before I sold my Si, I probably wouldn't have gotten any more in fear of not liking them as well Even if once you've shopped around you go back to the first one, cementing that relationship in your mind is just as important as doing it in person in my opinion.

But it's different for every person ^_^ And the most important thing to remember is that as long as you like the doll, nothing else really matters.

 

Hmm. I guess I can say that my interests for these dolls changes from time to time.
Yes. I got into a huge obsession over them and wanted almost everything I thought looked 'pretty'. In the end, the hype died down a lot when I finally got my first doll.
Only yesterday, did I come back to this forum and go, "Hey, I want to see how everyone else is doing." It's pretty interesting seeing how much my thoughts on this hobby has changed, but it hasn't completely died. If it did, I would have sold my boy already. But yes, I'm slowly coming back in after looking through doll clothing and shoes. Heh, heh.

 

It took me over a year to buy my first one... I kept hemming and hawing, afraid that it WAS a phase... this Month is the one year anniversary of her arrival.

I don't regret a thing!!

 

I have loved these dolls for years now. Can't exactly remember when, but I never had the money to get one. Just today I ordered my first girl.
I knew it wasn't a phase when I realised that everytime I saw a picture of a beautiful BJD, I would fall in love all over again.
And when I saw my first girl, I could see her entire character and looks before me. I dream about them, think about them all the time and I'm constantly trying to think of new things to add or do.

 

I knew it wasn't a phase when I stayed concentrated on dolls for a year. A year seems to be the threshold for my attention span.

 

Good question. Dolls mix so many of my hobbies (painting, sewing, photography, character creation) that I don't see myself tiring of them. There may come a day I decide I don't want anymore but I'll still enjoy the boys I have at home. I also feel a bit more bonded to them than some owners, they're characters and not objects to me.

 

I made myself wait 6 months after the initial joy of discovering BJDs before I made my first purchase, just to make sure it wasn't a phase. I'm a super-impulsive shopper and didn't want to spend so much for something that would just sit in a closet once I got it. I'm glad I waited, because it made the first purchase that much more special.