How Prepared were You When You Got Your First Doll?

I had done some browsing before taking the leap...but I did impulse buy the first doll I thought was pretty. Man, it sucked when I saw her in person and realized the photos looked a little too different for me...especially because I had bought the full set and everything. She was a lovely doll, but seeing her in person made me realize I liked more "realistic" sculpts versus the large eye/tiny nose&mouth combo.

 

I always do a lot of research before spending large amounts of money on something! I'd say I was as prepared as you can be as a new doll owner. But you don't really know what you're doing til you get the doll and spend the time on it!

 

I think I was better prepared than I thought. The first time I saw a picture I was 13 years old and it was love at first sight hahaha. Through the years I researched a lot about bjd but I forgot the idea of buying one.

When I turned 22 I decided to buy my first. I knew about stringing, face ups and general care instructions. But I don't think that made too much of a diference. When it's actually there in your hands everything feels so new and I still have too much to learn.

I'm currently 28, had three dolls, sold them and now I'm waiting for a girl and already saving for a new boy...I think now it'll be better, because I'm more into buying things from different places to make them like I really want (I was always a little afraid of doing it in the past, because of the money and the time and all the fears with the post offices)

 

I had done research so I knew what they were and all that. But I didn't have anything for her when she arrived. So in that sense, I wasn't prepared. I also had very little money after purchasing her so it took a while before I was able to get her nice things.

 

LOL! Not at ALL! I had to make her crappy clothes so I could take her places because I had NO clothing! No shoes- and only one wig. But this was WAY back in the day when it was harder to GET clothes for dolls. And I couldn't afford anything from Luts. It was lucky I paid for the face-up or she would have been naked AND blank.

 

To be honest I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was. I was 28 by the time I got my first doll.
Before ordering my first girl, I had every intention of doing things for her myself. Once having her in person, that was different, and proved to be a lot more difficult than it looked. Thank goodness I ordered her with a faceup!! She also came with some free eyes and a wig! Even if I didnt like those, for the time being, they were something. She was naked for a while, till I made a sock dress for her. Just when I was feeling semi confident in what I had, I saw my cousin and sisters dolls, and still realized I hadn't a clue what I was doing. Thankfully they helped a lot, especially with questions I never thought to ask before getting her. It was a learning experience. DOA helped me a lot too! Took a doll or two more before I started getting the hang of things for them.
Still feel like I'm learning with every new doll make I get.
Oh! Getting guy dolls after I had so many lady dolls was like starting from the beginning all over again too!

 

I started off repainting monster high dolls and just fell in love with dolls. I did a bunch of research on YouTube from outfits to face ups and everything in between. I only have one doll but I saw her and knew I had to have her for one of my characters!

So I'd like to say I was pretty prepared because I had some experience making doll wigs and doing face ups already. Some aspects still scare me though, like restringing for instance.

 

I wasn't as prepared as I had hoped I was. I saw bjds for the first time when I was about 16/17, I didn't get my first doll until I was about 24. It was a semi-impulse buy. While I had some knowledge I wasn't really prepared. He was a 21cm and I was totally shocked at how SMALL he was. Fortunately(/Unfortunately) he fit into Barbie clothes.

 

I was madly in love, but I forced myself to do research first XD - I did that frantically, by the way, because I really really really wanted to buy my dollie as soon as possible...

My greatest concern was the stringing. Elastics don't last forever, and I wasn't about to buy an expensive doll and have it fall to pieces somewhere along the way. So the first thing I went looking for was information on all the parts of the doll, how they were strung together, and how to replace the elastic. I also discovered that there were dolls with magnetic headcaps and dolls whose head caps were hooked to the elastic. I knew I really wanted to avoid the latter, which would have complicated my life (I knew that I'd need to do my "doll maintenance" all by my lonesome). So I read up on Dollzone MSDs and reassured myself.

I also watched some face-up tutorials and got a cheap practice head. I still bought a full-set doll to be on the safe side (the doll I wanted had the face-up I wanted, too, so that was great), but I knew that if my first doll pleased me, he'd soon be joined by a few family members, so... :P

Basically I wanted to be sure about how to handle a resin doll and how to take proper care of it. Once I knew it was doable, I went ahead and never looked back...

 

I spent a good couple of years as an admirer of BJDs before ordering my first last month, so she wasn't an impulse purchase for me. I know some of the basics from watching YouTube videos and browsing this forum (e.g. how BJDs are assembled, what a face-up is, what body blushing is), and have gotten some ideas together as to how I would like to design her and her clothing (I've bought a blank doll, as I would like to have a go at designing and face-upping her myself). However, I have absolutely no hands-on experience. I do have some general art and sculpting knowledge though (from painting Warhammer models and making my own clay sculptures), so I'm hoping some of it will be transferable. Thinking of getting a practice head as well, as I still have a good few months before my doll arrives.

 

I just ordered my first doll about 6 weeks ago. I did a ton of research into the company and the distributor. I have been watching as many videos as I can. I'm more concerned I'm not prepared for what to do when he actually arrives, as I'm still not 100% sure where I am going to put him.

 

I got my first BJD this year, in may.
I actually did a lot of research, so I knew how to care for my doll a great deal months before I even got him because he was pricey and I wanted to keep his as clean and 'unharmed' as possible.
Yet I'm sure I have a lot more to learn.

 

I had been interested for a few years, but this was around 2004-2007 when I was only dreaming of a BJD, and it was much much harder to find info back then. Google didn't have nearly as many results, I hadn't found DoA. Tumblr, Instagram and YouTube weren't even around (plus on dial up, it would have taken hours to even watch a 10 minute video. XD) I ordered my first doll in April 2008, and other than knowing what size wig, eyes, shoes and clothes he wore, that was about it. I dove right in and did my first faceup on him and sewed an outfit for him. Both were very poorly done, but I was so excited! It took me another two years to work up the confidence to restring or fully disassemble and clean him. It's been nearly ten years now, and I'm still learning!

 

When I first started collecting, I had a lot of time on my hands. I did a ton of research before even dropping a dime. When I ordered my first doll, he came with a face up, eyes, wig and I bought clothes and shoes for him. I was totally set. I'd spent hours reading everything on DoA, watching video's, blah, blah. About the only thing I couldn't really imagine, no matter how "prepared" I was, was how big a 62cm doll is in person.

 

My first doll was a tiny (1:6) Dragon Doll girl w/no face-up I don't think I had a thing for her - because I wanted to measure her myself before making her clothes. Which I did immediately LOL I had 3 wigs that I'd gotten at DragonCon that year (at the meet, so cheap), & a bunch of little stuff for her! This is a pic I took of her about 3 days after I got her:
Debbiesteaparty by Cheri Teleri, on Flickr

It took another 3 years to get her a face-up LOL

 

I was pretty prepared for the basics since I had my husband show me how they work in real life when I expressed curiosity in his dolls. However, this was many years ago so a lot of specific tips about things like faceups and sewing didn't exist back then. I just recently got back into the BJD hobby and I'm just amazed at how many tutorials and resources exist now when compared to how few did back then!

 

I'd been wanting one for almost 8 years, so I knew quite a bit about them in theory (that I'd need a wig, eyes, clothes, etc) but I never expected to have one, so I didn't research where to buy those things or how to care for them!

So when I finally ordered my first last year, I realized oh god I have so much to learn and spent the 3 months I waited for her to arrive researching doll care and browsing sites/stores for eyes/wigs/clothes.