How Do You Feel About Your Collection Right Now?

Overall...dissatisfied - sitting with four dolls and a floating head right now. I love love love having variety, so I always feel the need to have another doll, something different. Different looks, outfits, character themes, personalities, stories, resin colors, faceup styles, companies, sculpts...It's the same case with me and writing characters. I've written over 60 different entities for a universe me and my friends share, whereas two of my friends only have one or two characters they focus solely on. I unfortunately can't do that...

I started this hobby not too long ago, and with BJDs being an expensive (with lots of waiting!) hobby it's not like I can go out and get everything I want immediately. Sooo...dissatisfied. Not with my crew themselves, I love them to bits, but with the overall lack of variety in the collection so far.

 

Good, but it also has me sort of panicked!

Pros: I just got a grail (Doll Chateau Irma) secondhand and he turned out great despite being my first experiment with color matching, my MSD crew is almost all finished and display-ready (the issue is almost entirely shoes), and I have two Dream Valley dolls paid off and coming by the end of the year. It's exciting, I feel like I adore all my dolls and I'm excited to work on my new ones.

Cons: God, I have too many dolls. I'm looking at my shelf now, and I have... 12??? Can that be right??? I just started the hobby late last year, so this is at least a doll a month. I already sold the only doll I'm not desperately in love with. I CANNOT keep accumulating dolls at this rate, if only to keep the facade of sanity.

It's not breaking the bank or anything (I've managed my finances very well) but still. 12 dolls, going on 14... yikes...

 

With technically one bjd and one vinyl doll, I’m okay. I’d like to get more but I guess time is of the essence, and saving money too. ^_^

 

Very happy with the dolls themselves, and I now have a lovley glass-fronted cabinet in the livingroom for them, so they are displayed nicely when not being played with, but I really need to stop expanding the family and concentrate on getting full wardrobes of clothes together for each of them, and on getting the SD-sized roomset together to be the Victorian nursery they inhabit.

Teddy

 

How do I feel about my collection?
*takes good, loooong look around her room*
Where the blazes did y'all come from?

 

{giggles uncontrollably}

Teddy

 

Mh, I feel like I need to sell some of my dolls ._. Not because I need the money (I'm managing my finances pretty well) but I prefer having a maximum of three dolls so I can give each one of them more attention. Right now there are two boys I rarely interact with because I'm focusing on the girls.

Besides from that I'm quite content with my collection! There are enough clothes, wigs and eyes so there is some variety in dressing my crew up.

 

My collection needs refreshing. I sold some dolls that I don't play with. For the past 5 years of my experience as a seamstress I saw so many dolls that I don't really want anything new, only to finish my projects.

 

A very good point and, just because you adore the YoSd size doesn't mean you won't also adore the MSD size (even if the two you get don't happen work for you).

My collection goes from really teenie-tiny RealPukis right up to the Dollmore Lusion size and, so far, the only size that I don't get on with are around 8 inches which, for some reason, don't get played with so get sold on after a while. Even within the sizes I do like, there have been individual dolls that I didn't bond with for whatever reason, which have moved on to homes where they're better appreciated and (sometimes) replaced with dolls that are a better fit for me.

Teddy

 

@Snyblind @aestellica @Teddy Thank you all for your advice that I shouldn't feel pressured by my incoming MSDs while I'm busy with the YOSDs. It really helps to know that it's normal to let dolls be blank for a while and wait. This new hobby has turned out so differently than I envisioned: I thought my collection will be beautiful models to be dressed and displayed, but I ended up interacting with my YOSDs all the time and just be totally silly with them. I didn't know I'd get so emotionally attached to dolls. I'm just starting to understand that it's not enough that they are beautiful but I want to bond with them.

So I feel guilty and overwhelmed by the thought that I have two MSDs coming: how can I bond with so many dolls at once? how will I find the time for them? isn't it bad to spend so much money and then just leave dolls in their boxes? It's good to hear what you all said, I'll just give it time and not feel bad about it.

 

I have 44 right now. I don't want more but I do want to upgrade some of the OC's to be closer to what I originally imagined. I have ordered new heads for two of my older OCs and I need to replace two bodies that are single jointed older bodies in the future. The bodies are still good but I would love to be able to do more poses with the OCs.
My bjds: 1 yosd, 4 tiny, 4 msd, 35 sd+

 

I am satisfied with my collection. I have a few floating heads that need bodies, a ton of dolls that need faceups, but I have most of the dolls I have ever really wanted, and the remaining dolls on my wish list are things that may never show up for sale on the second hand market again, so I can't really complain too much about not having them. I might find more dolls that work for characters, and buy them to shell the characters, or be inspired by a sculpt and buy it, but I don't have that urgent "I want to shell this character I need to find something that works!" need anymore. Anything else I get will be something I get because I want it.

Now I just need to make clothes for my collection, get them faceups, and move into a bigger place so I can actually display them. Much less daunting than the process of identifying which sculpts work for what I want, and buying them.

I have lost count of how many dolls I have but it's at least twenty and I have a suspicion it is over thirty. I keep double counting some dolls whenever I try to take a mental inventory, will count them all when they're out of their boxes again (some are two or three to a box at the moment)

 

I just had a weird moment concerning this topic. My dolls live in a huge Pax wardrobe from Ikea and I had to move it to another place in my room. So all my dolls, around 50, had to sit down on the carpeted floor of my sister's room and wait to be moved back in. They looked like an entire population...

Anyone remember MIB II, when agents K and J open a locker in the Grand Central station, and it houses an entire population of tiny aliens that K had once saved from extinction? Once the locker door opens, all the aliens go:" K is back! The keeper of the light! All hail K! All hail K! Oh K can you see by the dawn's early light..."

Only in my case, when I opened the door to my sister's room, in my head they all went like: "Ooh great, you're back after all, since you're soo busy with everything else, keeper of the credit card! Now if you could just be bothered to..." (insert ~50 individual wishes for whatever they felt they are just in need of, inspite of being well cared for). In a vaguely sarcastic tone of voice

I just looked at them and felt insanely happy to have this crazy, inspiring, fulfilling crowd that took me 14 years (that were never boring) to build.

 

I’m in flux, I think. I’ve sold almost all of my dolls, keeping one MSD who is a hybrid doll based on book cover art; one mature tiny, a little fairy lady in a fancy dress; and a LittleFee that I waffle over. Currently I’ve decided again to sell him, after a 7 or 8 month hiatus from the hobby (I moved, I was ill, life happened), as well as my very first doll (a 70 cm boy who is just so large for me I never want to do anything with him). I am now looking for a Volks Yo-SD to replace the LTF, as I love their weight. I’m on a tight budget right now though, and I’m picky about the face sculpt. I like a midpoint between the older really stylized sculpts and some of the newer more mature sculpts. Then, honestly, I think I’m done. At least for the foreseeable future.

 

Absolutely! Although I imagine that at some point you'll give in to the lure of playing with the MSD's and getting to know them
(and, as an historical costumer myself, I'm looking forward to seeing what you make for them to wear)

{laugh!} I can imagine the scene all too well, especially as I have accumulated around the same number, over a very similar timeframe.

Teddy

 

Thanks for the sympathy, @Teddy!^^ I remember you and your crowd being a very pleasant constant here during my time. New people coming in is always exciting, but sometimes it's nice to meet again some older comrades-in-arms, so to speak.

 

I feel pretty good about it! I have what I feel is the right amount for me, and there's just one guy I want to get out and reshell as he's kind of sticking out like a sore thumb and literally hurting me since he's big and kicky.

 

I'm mostly happy with them. I've been in the hobby five years now, and have managed to accumulate 20 full dolls. I also have two heads that could get bodies of their own. I've been working on getting each of them the right eyes and wig to suit each of their characters. (All but one have eyes!) Many of them still need face-ups. They do have a suitable display space with furniture to sit on, and gradually expanding wardrobes as I make them more clothes.
There are two I'm not in love with, and have decided to let go of at least one of them. And I have ten still on my wish list too.

Going to a meet-up made me realize I'm ready to let go of both the dolls I don't love.

 

Interesting topic idea! It's neat to see how collectors, both new and veteran, are feeling about their current collection situation.

I just bought a new doll so I am very excited! I'm also a little anxious, not only because having a doll in the mail is always a little nerve wracking but because I've purposefully been keeping my collection small the last several years and this doll I am now waiting to arrive will be the last I plan to get for the foreseeable future. I've tried owning dolls of his size several times in the past and none have worked out quite right. So, I'm hoping I finally found the right one to fill that spot in my collection and give it the dynamic I've been desiring.
Of course I never know who will come out new that might grab me but I plan to be focusing on building on clothes, wigs and eyes and starting to save for the next US Dolpa from this point. I'm thinking my little crew will feel complete and am looking forward to that feeling.