How did you know it wasn't a phase?

Well if your not tired to see beautiful dolls and you always want to see more, you don't need to ask yourself, if after your first dol your not happy and don't want to continue, don't do and sell your doll asap =P

 

How did I know it wasn't a phase?
I didn't and I still don't. My hobbies go in phases. I'm always enthusiastic about new hobbies, falling for one deeply most of the times. Every time my sisters got into the same hobby as I did, I still was the most fanatic. Comic books, trading card games, LARP, you name it, I had the most stuff and spent the most time on it. (Though one sister now outshines me when it comes to action figures. )
Leaving me with a lot of junk afterwards when the shiny left. Not that I regret those moments of collecting.

I've been collecting BJDs for over two years now and have more than 16 dolls (lost track). I'm head over heels again and I know there will come a time when a new shiny comes by and catches my interest. This does not worry me, because unlike action figures (that I keep MIB) or card games (that make me just buy, buy, buy to build better decks) BJDs nourish the creative side of me.
Painting, sewing, drawing, designing, writing, and sculpting are also hobbies of mine and I can do all those with my dolls. So even if the phase ends, I know I'll get back to it eventually.

If you want to know if it's a phase or not, figure out what draws you to the hobby and what does that mean to you.

 

for someone who went away to college (uni) and left her boy at home, I have this to say... if you can, try to bring your doll with you. I still love my boy a lot but I tend to get guilt twinges everytime I go home and see him sitting there - and I will admit, I've been a less than great doll mommy since I went away...
I'm planning on bringing him back with me next year, but it's easier to keep the love of them and the hobby going if you keep them close

 

I have always been a doll collector so no chance of this passing for me. I started liking the bjd's because I liked the volks dolls they made of anime characters. When the sd's came out I liked them a lot but they were much to expensive for me at the time. Now that I have actually been able to own some of them, I have bonded with them in a way that I did not with the vinyl fashion dolls I used to collect. I too go through a lot of those phases where I will be on something for week then back off it. But if you find that after quite a while you are still thinking about it, it's probably something that will stick around. Then things can change and evolve within the hobby itself.

 

I've been collecting dolls for a while now including many barbies. I've always had barbies. However, I guess just under the surface I had this sense of slight disatisfaction with them. I wished I could pose them like action figures and that they would have glass eyes or something, instead of painted ones. I wanted a doll like that for a long time but I didn't think they existed until I happened upon somebody's web page and there she was. I think she was a Volks SD Nana. She was beautiful and just what I was looking for. I searched and found out what kind of doll she was. I got my own Volks doll, an SD Yori and I haven't gone back to the barbies. I knew it wasn't a phase the moment I went to the Volks site, saw Yori and had already given her a name before I even got her. Since then I bought two other BJD's, an Iplehouse Cocori and a DoT Shall. I love them all dearly .

 

Honestly? I still have swing of interest in these dolls. For a while (maybe a couple months) I won't go on DoA and I will barely even think of my dolls, and then I swing back up and become intensely interested in DoA and my boys. For anything, I'm never into it for too long, so the fact that it keeps coming back means that its the real deal. It's not my only hobby, but its the one that is still here over time.

 

I actually WASN'T sure it wouldn't be a passing fancy for me. I went with my started doll from Bobobie, since I figured 1.) If this isn't the hobby for me, I haven't invested hundreds and hundreds of dollars. 2.) If this isn't what I like, I'll have two cute elf dolls to play with or pass on to my daughter (one day), and 3.)I can say I gave it a shot, or try to resell them if I want to.

But I handled my friends' dolls, and when I finally got my own, I just fell so in love with their little faces. I love to rest my cheek on top of their heads and wigs and cuddle them that way. It makes me smile. ^^

Well. A while later, I have three MSD dolls and am making plans for my first SD sized with my best friend, also into BJDs.

 

- Because it was love at first sight.

I`ve always wanted to "manifest" my characters into something more than just drawings, and BJDolls were the perfect way. The many ways to customize them, mod them, making them into your ideals... Its expensive but that makes it even more special - because I have to serious about it to afford this.

And I knew from moment one that I would not abandon this hobby. It gives me great comfort, inspires me, and it socializes me in a whole new way. And I am investing in something thats going to rise in prize over the years.

And they are absolutely beautiful.

 

As many other people before me have said, I had a twinge in the back of my mind that it might be a phase, but if it is, I will enjoy it while it lasted.

I did have Barbies when I was growing up, but I was never really big into dolls. I had baby dolls and whatnot that my mom and grandmother bought for me, but nothing that ever stuck. And to be frank, the first few times I saw BJDs they freaked me out so bad that I swore I would never get into the creepy little buggers. I was always reminded of that dummy from the Goosebumps books. XD

But then, a friend of mine on LJ was showing pix of her AoD Chi that she got and I commented about how gorgeous he was. The two of us started chatting about it and that was when I decided to go start looking, out of curiosity. I did nearly six months of research and shopping around before I decided to buy my boy. No matter how many sculpts I looked at, I always came back to his. So, figuring that was a sign, I bought him as a Christmas present for myself.

I finally understood what people meant about bonding with your doll when I opened his box and held him in my arms for the first time. I was totally in love and knew that there was no way he was going anywhere. I made his pants for him, fixed up a corner of my room to be his own, and have been shopping for things I think would suit him. He has his very own personality and I let him tell me what he wants or doesn't. We bonded so well that he spends most of his time in my lap or next to me while I'm at home, and he goes some places with me. (It'll be better when his wig and proper outfit gets here! XD)

My advice to you (or anyone) is to find a sculpt that really strikes you before you buy it. I kept coming back to his sculpt over and over and over, so I knew that he was the one for me. I don't have any plans to buy anymore dolls for the time being, but my boy is special and I love him dearly. Don't jump at the first one you see because it's cheap or seems nice or is popular on the forums you frequent...your doll is your own and it should be one that you really want.

Long comment is long. >_>

 

Whether it is a phase or not, I wouldn't worry. It is so much fun and that is the important part.

Raising children was a worrisome phase for me, but I did finally grow out of it.

But my resin children--I think they are with me for keeps. Like my kitties. Neither show any signs of wanting to move out, or needing car insurance, or demanding tuition. Great hobbies!

 

this is exactly why my parents think I proably shouldn't buy one >w> but I honestly don't think it's a phase for me. I look at them every single day, and I only want to save for that Bobobie Tony Boy I adore even more ^w^ I'm also trying to get my mom hooked >w> or maybe I could convince my grandma, she seems to love doll.

 

You never know, I wouldn't like to think so, and I'm 99.9% sure actually. It's been just such an amazing journey, from the first doll to the one's I'm expecting, and they've really gotten me back into writing which I've really missed

 

I really didn't know and it scared me, but I wanted one so badly. I researched everything about them I could think of. After that I still wanted my doll so I got him

I probably knew for sure this wasn't a phase after I just received my second doll and was already planning for the next one >.< lol. *has doll #3 on the way now*

 

Well, as a lifelong doll collector it has been a phase for me, however a really new (comparatively) and fun one! I'd always been into antique dolls... the modern dolls always seemed so cloying and cutesy-tacky and marketed mostly to little old church ladies (lol).
BJD had an 'edge' that I really needed in my doll-hobby life; Something that wasn't relentlessly Euro-centric nor based totally on 'wholesomeness'. In the beginning I was really into the gothic look; vampires and the like.
I really feel the 'phase' is winding down for me though, smoothing out and becoming part of the larger fabric of my life in doll study/collecting/artistry.
For better or worse, I find myself moving on in many ways.
I guess it never occurred to me to ask myself if I "should" get into them, I was just ready for something new and they were there! I definitely don't regret anything, it's been great!

Raven

 

Another lifelong doll collector here. I have periods of time where I don't actively collect, but I've always had and loved dolls regardless. This is basically just a new type for me, and one that engages several of my other activities (sewing, jewelry, visual arts). That aspect alone would keep me interested.

 

Like some people here, I've liked dolls since I was a kid so BJDs are just another type of doll to collect. I've never thought of it as a phase. BJDs may be a "phase" within the permanent hobby of doll collecting, kind of like how I went through Barbies, then American Girl, then porcelain, but I always felt I was missing something in those dolls. When I happened upon Barbies, etc with better joints and better paint jobs, I felt closer to what I really wanted. However, upon finding and purchasing BJDs, I've found they have ALL the qualities I've wanted in dolls. So I doubt I'll be moving away from them.

Also, the fact that about 4 years ago I tried to convince myself they were a phase so I'd forget about them and the result was that I wanted and loved them more than ever!

Yay!

 

I have no clue whether this is a phase. If so, it's lasted three years and is stronger now than it has been at any other time during the phase. It's odd, too - I was deeply into the anime cel collecting "community" and experience for some six or seven years or so and then put it aside almost completely when I first started this current love affair. But I do still collect cels and enjoy doing so, and have in no way lost interest in them. I suspect the same will happen with dolls. After all, there does come a point where space runs out and money needs to go into other ventures...

It really doesn't matter whether it's a phase or something that will last the rest of whatever time I have left. What's important is that right now, at a point at which my life is changing, they give me great joy. That's all the significance I need to give them. I love my dolls, I love looking at other people's dolls, and I'm continually amused, impressed, overwhelmed and moved by what other people do with them. That's fine for me!

 

Even though I have my first doll, and my two floating heads.. I still don't know if this might just be one of those phases that I suddenly out grow. I hope not.. I mean, I really enjoy it. I've only been interested in dolls for a few months, so even if this is just a phase I hope to get a couple of years yet. Who knows, I might be stuck with this for life! I'm going to make a wicked old man one day

 

My hobbies sort of come in 'phases' I guess. But really, really long phases that usually resurface later in life. Art was one of those... I drew ALL the time from Kindergarten to 5th grade. Then I stopped, and picked it up again last year or this year. I've improved a lot, but I draw just as much now as I did then. There was the several years of violin- instrument, lessons, ect. My 'pony phase' was a very serious 'phase' that would still be going on if the horses I was training and working with hadn't been randomly sold without my knowledge. That was over 5 and a half years- which is more than one third of my life.

Dolls are something I've always loved, though. From American Girls to baby dolls, my Twinn to barbies, bitty babies to the breyer horse girls, I've played with them all my life, but for the last 3 and a half years.

I don't think something like this can just be a phase. It encompasses everything I love. I can play with them, pose and draw them, sew for them, ect. Then there's the factor of 'falling in love'. Once I fell in love with one particular doll- there was no going back. He was perfect, and I needed him. Even through my (still happening) extremely long wait, I haven't wavered in my love for them.

Even if I do give up dolls after a while, I can guarantee that will be after many years of devotion/adoration for them. And that's worth it. Anything I do will cost money but it's worth it if I enjoy what I'm doing and look back and know it made me happy.

 

I was really hesitant about this too. I held off buying my first doll for a year and saved up for her twice before I actually bought her the third time. My mom kept saying, "What will you do with her?" And I had no answer. But I kept talking about bjds, and my boyfriend finally said "This is getting ridiculous. You want that doll. BUY IT." So I did, and... I don't know. I love my girls! I had a little trouble bonding with her the first few months, but once she had a name and a story...

Bottom line, I can say that it isn't a phase for me. I'm only 20 now, but I'm convinced that even when I'm 50 I'll at least use them as decorations in creative seasonal set-ups in my house. I may stop buying them some day, but I'll never stop admiring them and wanting them around. I'm too much of a sucker for lovely things! Haha, I know they seem like expensive decorations, but after 30 plus years of being thoroughly loved, it's okay!

Don't be afraid to try this hobby out. You really have nothing to lose, since someone will want your doll if you don't! They are great creative outlets, stress relief, and conversation pieces. Join us!