How Prepared were You When You Got Your First Doll?

I knew a bit about BJDs, but had nothing in terms of a wig or eyes or anything else. I was in my last year of college at the time, so I was a bit preoccupied with that.

I had an interest in BJDs for a while before I actually wanted one. Several times I'd looked at at the Volks USA site, and had a general understanding of what they were. It wasn't until I learned about Soom that I ordered one. At the time the price was the most intimidating thing about BJDs. I got a basic Soom Mini Gem blank as an "X-mas kit" and put her together myself. I ordered her a wig and eyes after I got her. I had her dressed in Barbie clothes for a while until I made her some of her own. It's been three years and although I have the supplies, she still doesn't have a face-up. My doll collection has grown to over 15, and more of my dolls are blank than not.

 

I hadn't really done any research before bought my first doll. I had a vague idea of how I wanted my ideal doll to look but that completely fell by the wayside when I saw Ringdoll's Eva Sculpt. I ordered her fullset and was quite surprised at how elaborate her outfit was. Needless to say it took me awhile to get her properly set up.

 

I did plenty of research before getting my first bjd. When I bought him though, he was an in-stock doll from Denver Doll Emporium, so he was without clothing or wig for a few weeks.

 

The knowledge of what materials were safe for a faceup was all the preparation I needed lol

 

I did a lot of research online so I was fairly well prepared, technically... but having never seen the dolls in person it wasn't really like how I expected. The weight and size of BJDs was pretty surprising to me because it's hard to get a good idea of that from photos and text.

 

I ordered shoes and eyes and a wig before my first doll arrived, and sewed him a loose night shirt, which nonetheless was too small at the arm holes, so I sat down and made him a nice traditional Chinese robe in red and gold brocade the day I got him. I bought him without a faceup, but a friend helped me, and had me over to her house and walked me through doing his first faceup, so within a couple of days, he was pretty much good to go.

 

In hindsight I wasn't prepared at all. I paid for the base doll straight up and totally forgot to buy him anything else. The previous owner was nice enough to include stuff, but it was mostly random stuff that didn't fit the character I had in mind for him. I even ended up buying the wrong eye size like twice. I really hate the face-up he has too, I've had him for about 4 months now and still haven't found a face-up artist for him, and yet I'm already planning on getting my second doll. I'm really bad at planning and impulsive. On the bright side, I stick to my decisions, so I know I'll get around to buying him stuff eventually. So far I've only bought him a wig xD

 

I discovered bjds back when i was at university. I spent hours lusting after a few dolls but not quite being able to justify it. Back then I had no idea really what I was getting into, just that they were pretty and I liked them.
But i never took the plunge.
Partially I found the whole work required a bit intimidating, the price scared me and also at the time (this was like 12+ years ago) the community was very small and honestly a little bit well.. not overly welcoming of clueless noobs. I didn't really feel welcomed so I slunk off and forgot about it.
When I had my eldest child I got into fashion dolls and started looking at bjds again but still couldn't justify the cost.
But that's about when I joined DOA properly. Back when they still had a lot of awkward difficulty in actually becoming a member lol.

I posted maybe twice, but found it all a bit overwhelming and had no clue what was going on, so i slunk off again.

Now some time last year I was browsing a friend's flickr feed and saw one of her bjds and thought "that is such a cool doll" and ended up back here, looking at sculpts and marvelling at how much the community and market has changed in the last decade.
When I last seriously looked dolls were generally pretty cutesy, msd were child-like and everything came in white or peach and only white or peach.
Now there were fantasy colours and dark resins and fantasy dolls and stuff and omg horror themed dolls! EEEEEEE
So yeah, I fell down that rabbit hole fast hah

I still find the cost prohibitive and difficult, but I have managed to collect a few now. And i'm loving it.
I think i'm at the right point in my life to devote that time. My babies are all kids now so pretty self sufficient, i've become more patient and better with pencils and paint and i've had years of dipping in and out to learn and absorb information.

Before I ordered my first though, I spent months agonising over colour, sculpt, everything and learning all I could about resin and faceups and restringing and so on.
I even bought a tlc doll relatively cheap (she was like £80) to experiment with, which helped me get over a fear of handling the dolls.
I had to psyche myself into spending that sort of money on myself though, but I think i'd kinda helped ease myself into it by graduating from cheap fashion dolls (less than £20 a pop) to Makies (£50 each) and then an MSD scale Hujoo (£80) which gave me a good idea of size I liked but also eased me into the concept of paying over £100 for a bloomin' doll.

I still flinch a bit when I drop more than about £150 though. It's hard, even when I rationalise that i've saved that money, it's specifically FOR dolls and that buying expensive ones means I end up with less clutter and so on, it still triggers my "spend guilt"
I'm working on it.

But yeah, I prepared by taking it in stages without realising that's what I was doing. Makies came mostly blank so I had a lot of practice with faceups painting them. I already owned art supplies from my teen years, including watercolour pencils and pastels. I've repainted dolls before as well, so I had brushes and acrylic paint and sealant and all that stuff.
Makies take wigs and eyes just like bjds too, but have hinged joints and are 3d printed. But aside from joints and material, the similarities were quite close so when I made the jump, it wasn't such a shock.

The biggest surprise for me honestly was what resin felt like, as i'd never handled a smooth resin doll before. the only resin i'd ever touched prior was like little animal statuettes.
Also how tough resin actually was. I was expecting something like porcelain, because of how everyone talked about breakage and fragility and so on. So I was pleased they weren't as eggshell fragile as i'd anticipated. But I think i'd have been very very scared had I not bought a tlc doll first that needed complete restringing.

I think also being older, I have more patience but also more courage to try things out. I recently completed my first mod, sanding down a bust and i'm really pleased with it.
I would never have had the courage to do that in my youth. It's not just money, but I think it's that reasoning that if I really mess up, it's not the end of the world and I can find a solution.

So i guess I was pretty prepared... I still sometimes feel like i'm not though lol. Especially when getting a new scale, there's that shock at how big, or small, the doll really IS.

 

I wasn't prepared at all. She was an impulse buy at a convention! She still kind of just lays around in a makeshift dress.. I feel bad! She's so tiny though, I can't buy her anything!

 

I kinda just jumped in. I'd been aware those dolls existed and had been saving up for one for a year or two but I didn't really do any of the research that's so often recommended to people new to the hobby. I just went and bought my first one after narrowing it down to three I really liked and getting the one that was the least popular (cos I got a soft spot for "underdogs"). What I did do, however, was to look up stuff that I wanted to do with my doll. Like - face-up materials, how to string a doll, what not to do with your doll etc.

 

My first "proper" doll was sold to me by a friend who didn't want to be a part of the hobby anymore, and she was sold to him by an ex girlfriend who ruined her. And I really, truly wish I was exaggerating. A few years later and I'm STILL trying to clean her up.

I was very aware of how to do face ups, what materials I needed, etc. He sent me a massive bundle of clothes and accessories alongside her as a gift so I basically got £250-300 of doll things for £100. The only condition was I make her completely unrecognisable from what she once was as he didn't want the ex girlfriend to know he'd sold her on. He'd never attempted to do a face up on her or anything cosmetic.

When she arrived with me she was filthy. Random dirt in places you wouldn't believe, HORRIBLE stains, some God-awful sealant that refused to come off, a very sad face up.. I should really have taken some before photos, she was in a very sorry state. I got her a new wig and a friend sorted out the face for me but I was NOT prepared for the state she was in. I'm still trying to clean very sealed in layers of weird coloured stuff out of her ears...

Anyway that's the story of my first doll and how I'm still trying to sort her out, in hindsight, had I known more/had more money (I was about 16 at the time) I would have sorted her out sooner, but here we are 4/5 years later and I'm only now managing to fix her now I have the time and the means to do so.

 

My first doll was a fullset as I didn't want to mess around with face-ups or pay extra for shipping for wigs and clothing... or worry about things not fitting. She is a Tiny Delf Centaur and I was so thrilled to get her. I loved the resin and the posing. I think what surprised me the most was when I ordered a doll from another company and realized how different resins can be from each other.

 

I did a lot of research before buying and it actually scared me a bit because of stuff like restringing and yellowing. But when my first doll head came, I had absolutely nothing for him physically. I only started getting the faceup materials and some eyes, clothes and wigs after that. So he just stayed like a boiled egg in his box for a few weeks before I started doing anything to him haha

 

Oh man I'd tell anyone just getting into the hobby to make sure to do a lot of research and maybe go to bjd conventions to see actual dolls before they pick one. I was defiantly not prepared. I didn't do half the research really needed to pick a doll. I literally liked the picture of the doll and went ahead and bought it based off of a few company pictures. It was the worst decision I had ever made. Lol. I still have her and she will always be special to me but for now I sorta hide my first Bjd away until I can figure out who she's meant to be. Also really do research on the companies available. I swear I have a doll from every company lol, and if not every company I'm attempting to save up enough to keep buying more. Lol

 

I had done a lot of searching for the perfect doll to be my first doll, so I was fairly well prepared. Once I finally chose the doll I wanted I started buying clothes like mad so he wouldn't have to run around in his skivvies. I'd even bought a "test doll" (an off-topic Hujoo) so I could see how strung joints handled, and so I could get some practice in placing eyes and wigs. Even so, I was in for a learning experience when Johnny did come. About a month after he came I had to restring him, and let's just say that restringing a resin MSD was not the same as restringing my little off-topic doll. So I was pretty well prepared, but not perfectly so. I guess there's no proper way to gear up for restringing; you've just got to dive in and learn from any mistakes.

 

I was, like, super prepared by the time I got my first actual BJD. I had read a lot of threads on forums, looked at most "main" companies websites to see the options offered. Then I even made my own two dolls out of air drying clay and elastic because I couldn't afford yet to have a resin doll. I guess that taught me a fair bit on how BJD works ahah.
Still, it felt so special to have a proper BJD in my hands at last and to know it was mine. Nothing quite feels like them I guess!

 

Totally unprepared at all. Thankfully, the previous owner was sweet enough and helped me to do a face up for me. She gave me an outfit dress, inner pants + coat, wig and eyes to start with, seeing that it was my first doll. It was an MSD size.

My 2nd doll (a YoSD), I was unprepared as well, but when I adopted her, the previous owner asked me if I wanted any of her existing clothes. I said yeah why not, and she came with 6 full outfits!

Now, after a few months and a few online clothes orders, I feel they're still not as "finished" as I thought it would be. I guess that's just how it is. The amount of creativity and involvement will only end if you wanted it to. For me, it's just getting started =)

 

I guess I was somewhere in the middle. I did a decent amount of research before I got my doll (probably should have done more, but then, there will always be more to learn), though I have no major regrets yet! I ended up getting a secondhand doll, and I'm slowly becoming more comfortable with handling him as well as more confident the more I read and the more I talk to people on this site. ^_^

 

I was as prepared as I thought I needed to be, I guess? I did a bunch of research on DoA and lots of window shopping. I knew to be careful with the doll. I knew not to touch the faceup. I was shelling an original character, so I was on the lookout for a doll with the right look. I knew I wanted SD size. I knew taking advantage of layaway wouldn't break my bank (I was a poor college student).

What I wasn't prepared for was how big the box was! Or that my poor boy needed clothes and hair. So he hung out without pants for at least a month. . . But I never had a feeling of 'Oh, shoot, I'm not ready for this.'

 

it took about ten years before i finally worked up the courage to buy one, at that time I was fully prepared for it to not reach my expectations