Is collecting BJD's your only hobby? Which hobby came first?

Ugh, so many hobbies.. Painting/pencil work, video games, gardening, aquariums and aquascaping, collecting designer handbags, customizing other kinds of dolls, writing, and sewing (though, badly so far).

 

I think with anything bootleg/fake/recast related, it's mainly people who aren't aware or educated about them. Heck, for the holidays I purchased a facial cleanser tool called Foreo Luna and it's a gadget that retails for about $200. I thought I might as well get a good deal and head over to eBay and saw some that were as low as $50-70. I thought it was odd even though they were selling like hot cakes with many people bidding that I randomly wondered if they were bootlegs. One Google away, I was right. They were indeed bootlegs and it was difficult to tell if something was legit since the things you would look for were like if the instruction text was in grey; if it's black it's fake but not many people who take close up shots of the instruction manual. The sad thing was you can get these bootlegs elsewhere for $20 each, no bidding (although what you pay instead of price is they die easily, made out of cheaper silicon, and I heard sometimes will get burnt out from charging...etc)

To the average consumer whether that's online or at a convention for figures/plushies people don't think about if something is fake or not. They just purchase it at face value. They heard good things about something or like something ascetically and just buy it. After I researched the Foreo Luna, I managed to snag an authentic one for $65 which I felt bad for the seller since she had to price it low to compete with the bootlegs in order to sell it but I doubt she knew that the others were bootlegs :/

As for figures, I think for a company like GoodSmile it's a blow but not a giant blow. Their main demographic is in Japan and bootleg stuff aren't as "popular" or I guess readily available as it is here in America. In Japan, collectors usually would pre-order directly from the manufacturer to get it delivered to their home. They also have ways of obtaining merchandise for an affordable price such as monthly lottery where you pay like $2-4 for a ticket and if you win the top prizes such as S, AA, A...etc you win a figure. On top of that, Japan has a big market for used anime goods where they have shops dedicated on used figures that you can buy for cheap or sell ones that you don't want anymore.

Unfortunately, we don't have anything like that in America and for us it's usually a lot more expensive to purchase items/figures/plushies from Japan. After all the PayPal fee, agent fee, shipping...etc it would be almost 25-50% more than the actual item price. Thus people opt to get the cheaper thing even if the quality is terrible.

I also forget to mention that the cost of things in general is higher in Japan compared to China. Even something like Nendoroids which is $30usd if you purchase it in an anime store in Japan is very expensive in China. I guess a good example is when you buy a Big Mac Meal it's $5.99 and I think in China it's like $4 instead. However for that same $4 in China you can feed a family of 2 or 3 instead of buying one Mc Donalds meal. If anything, fast food and stuff like StarBucks is considered very expensive in China and is a type of luxury since there are food and drinks that is way cheaper. When you put the difference in money value, then $30 for a Nendoroid is very expensive for people who are interested in collecting in China. Thus, that is how Chinese factories make their money even when they are selling their Nendoroids for like $10-$15 (which is where I got my first Nendoroid which was in an anime store in China for $10 before I was more into the hobby and realized it was a bootleg).

 

Oh my god, herbalism?! How excruciatingly cool! I've got a big occultism habit, not that I'd call that a hobby per se, and herbalism is one of the things I don't do and find fascinating.

 

I have a lot of hobbies but I'll just talk about dolls.

Before BJDs, I collected American Girl Dolls. I had an Instagram and stuff for it but idk it got too competitive and scary for me lol. Then I started getting into articulation and fashion dolls so I was obsessed with the 12 inch scale for awhile, but it wasn't big enough for me. So I found a happy medium; BJDs! Theyre articulate and can be big so I fell in love ^^ I think I'm going to stick with this hobby for a long while!

 

Figure collecting and Cosplay are both hobbies I had that came before BJD's, both of which have drastically reduced due to BJD's. I also enjoy the occasional doodle and sculpture. Some people have some crazy cool hobbies! How do you guys find time for everything?

 

I like to play videogames a lot, and I'm also into anime and sewing. I also make cosplays, usually one new one a year and most of the time video game based.

 

I have a thousand different interests and hobbies. Dolls seems to be a come and go hobby. I'll get really into dolling for awhile then phase out into my other hobbies for awhile. I'd say drawing was probably my first hobby when the need to make my drawings into something I could hold and and enjoy I took to sewing. Then I discovered dolls and my characters were able to come to life in a completely different way. And well...animal collecting will always be my favorite hobby...haha.

 

Before anything there was art, drawing, then painting. Later ceramics, both thrown on the wheel and sculpture, then metal smithing, casting in bronze and silver, fabrication, mainly jewelry. Somewhere in there is a little gardening, sewing, crochet and beadwork. There is some 30 plus years of showing dogs, first Borzois and now Silken Windhounds under the kennel name of Legend. My husband is not the doll enthusiast but as he supports emotionally my hobbies, his are intertwined with mine in our life together, I will mention them. He once built a number of sail boats, cats and tris, now enjoys turning wood and stained glass. Hmmm, maybe those would come in handy making a doll furniture.

 

I have some other hobbies, such as drawing, writing, crafting, reading, etc. I'd never really liked dolls before, and the reason I'm getting in to BJDs is because of these other hobbies, drawing and writing, where I've created a lot of characters I really love.

 

BJD collecting is my newest hobby. I was actually never a fan of dolls growing up. As a kid I was a massive tomboy. I loved racecars, Legos, Bionicles, and collecting plastic lizards. I had a few more effeminate toys, but normally my dolls, if given to me, were chucked in the toy bin and forgotten about shortly after getting them.

I've been an artist since I was quite young. I started out drawing dragons, and then only a couple years later started following in my sister's footsteps to become a writer at age 8. I've been sketching, writing, and painting with pastels ever since. A few years ago I got very in depth with my spirituality and started a few different hobbies within that range. It wasn't until a couple years ago that I stumbled upon what BJDs were after my wife told me quite enthusiastically, "Google BJDs!" I started using their beautiful faceups for art inspiration before deciding it was time to invest in the hobby myself.

I can see myself doing this hobby for many, many years.

 

Writing, photography, reading, singing and I do collect porcelain dolls and Monster highs though I am currently trying to downsize my collection.
I got into monster highs before I got into bjds. In fact they are kinda how I got into bjds!

 

I've always liked dolls. A favorite past time is to find a doll at a garage sale or resale shop and fix her up. Usually by the time I'm done one of my friends will see it and want it, and they get re-homed, that way I'm not swamped in dolls. I also like to read and crochet and play video games.

 

I also do analog photography and Urban exploring, which I both started before I got into dolls.

 

I was more into dollhouses/miniatures before I really got into doll collecting. I then was very heavy into both. I have slowed down on the dollhouses, but still am an avid doll collector.

 

I draw, write, play video games and collect figures and other types of toys in addition to collecting BJDs. Drawing and writing were the first hobbies I seriously got into, followed by video games and then toy collecting. BJDs came last after a graduated high school and went to college.

 

I have many, many hobbies. BJD collecting was certainly not the first one. I also collect plush toys, collectible figures like figmas and hot toys, swords, I cosplay, do origami, art, writing, a little photography, I do a lot. BJD collecting isn't the first hobby I adopted, but it is the most recent.

 

I started off mostly reading and drawing, which led to writing and more reading. I used to be an avid video game player, too. I went through phases of liking dolls and then being a tom boy, but I've always loved collecting all sorts of things. I feel like BJD collecting is my main hobby now, aside from being a boring adult.

 

Before BJDs, I was collection action figures/toys and I grew up collecting Barbies because my Mom (who was admittedly more into them than I was) would give me a special one every Christmas and birthday. I was also cosplaying and writing and playing video games. I also wrote (used to be a lot of fan fiction but now it's original stuff that I work on with my wife). I am also really into history and science and more recently, I've started drawing again.

The great thing about BJDs though is that it's been a gateway to other interests. I've learned photography and stretched into trying to sew and make jewelry and I really want to try my hand now at face upping. One interest doesn't preclude the other so much as it can extend from it.

 

I was a cosplayer before I was a doll collector. I was also interested in concept design and I still do a lot of my own artwork (though it's not usually high quality stuff lol). I watched a lot of anime too, and it was a combination of these hobbies that really attracted me to the hobby. The idea to make an actual 3d representation of my imagination was the real appeal of the doll hobby.
Right now I'm trying t learn to sew for these dolls, and it will help me with my cosplaying hobby too I think.

 

I didn't really have anything in the way of hobbies until I was almost 40 -- too busy with work and kids. I then had my best friend sucker me into anime . I spent the better part of 10 years collecting cels and sketches from anime (still have them and once in a great while I will get around to scanning more and put them up on my gallery) and anime figures, of which I still have way too many. 10 years ago another friend said "look at these! We could make full-sized versions of" (our favorite characters) and it was all over but the weeping of the wallet.