Mistakes You've Made in the Hobby?

My biggest mistake in this hobby was in initially trying to limit myself in my collection. I was determined to keep it all under control insofar as numbers were concerned, and was overly concerned about focus. Oh, I tried out different sizes here and there like everyone does early on, trying to evolve my collection by learning what works for me. But when a new size seemed appropriate for something, I sold off the old to buy the new…and that was my biggest mistake. I was trying to be “sensible” and pigeonhole myself and my collection too narrowly. It took a few years for me to realize that what truly made me happy was collecting my fantasy characters regardless of size…I was creating a fantasy world after all, so diversity was key. Once I realized this, I felt free to collect whatever I needed to best express my characters. It was very freeing and brought me so much joy. But all these happy years later, there are still some of those dolls I sold from my early times that I wish I had back. I guess that’s where the old saying “live and learn” comes from.

 

@PoeticSoul I am new to BJDs and I'm feeling the opposite thing. I'm not sure if I'm in the right place... I really like the old school, SD10/13 size of dolls with a big head, and I'm super happy with my first doll. I think these dolls look very sweet and endearing and when I buy things I naturally go for that vintage-gothic style of dress which IMO that type of doll pulls off better than any other. That's easily my comfort zone, but because SD16 dolls exist I feel compelled to branch out and get one for the sake of variety. Of course I see the appeal and there are things I want to pull off that aren't possible otherwise, but I don't know if I'll be happy with it or not and if it will be worth hybridizing as well as the smaller selection of clothes I like (I don't care for modern clothes very much). Is it just going to be an itch I'll scratch?

 

I have done 3 major mistakes one is falling too hard for soom limiteds back in time, they look lovely as statuettes in front of background of in a fancy vitrine but sitting on a regular shelf they are average Joes and they would look better with less fantasy parts , 2nd floating heads there is a limit before floating heads start getting on your head and I didn't know that limit until it was far gone by 3rd as I mostly display my dolls in clothes and not really play with them they don't really need many clothes and accessories just the outfit they're displayed with and maybe one more just for change the style once in a while so this was mostly a crafting not purchase mistake I made some clothes I have no need for.

 

I've mostly been pretty lucky with my time in the hobby... The only two really notable mistakes were not buying a couple of specific sculpts when I had the chance (Because they've turned out to be so rare that they basically just don't exist at all on the secondary market-) and buying some of my early CP/Delfs in white resin. Particularly the one that I had a massive ear-mod done on that makes him irreplaceable. I absolutely hate the way CP's white resin ages, and with Nightengale? I'm just stuck with it.

 

I'm still pretty new to the BJD hobby and I'm sure I'll look back in a few years and realize I've made way more mistakes, but the only one that sticks out right now is that I wish my KDF Kai had double jointed legs! I really should of done more research, especially because I really enjoy posing my doll, but I was just so enamored with the head sculpt that the body became a second thought. I will likely have to rebody him but for now he does a lot of standing straight...
Well at least now I know for the future!

 

This doesn't sound like a mistake. Your parrot knew exactly what he was doing xD

My biggest mistake was with my very first doll, and falling in love with a head while not considering hybriding. Fast forward 2 years and I absolutely hate his body, and now I gotta deal with getting him a replacement (and then selling the old one, which will be...an experience in today's market lol).

 

My biggest mistakes in the hobby have been shelling other people’s characters. I currently have shelled my entire dnd party from one campaign, because I feel that friend group is stable, and won’t fall apart from the inevitable. Before that, when I got into the hobby, I shelled a bunch of characters created by my abusive then-partner. It was very expensive and time consuming to correct, because I had to either sell or re-do the characters for more than half my dolls. I still can’t look at Feeple60 Erda the same way, especially if he’s in a long wig.

I then made the same bad decision with my next ex’s characters. At least I’d only shelled three of them, and they were all fairly easy to resell. I now have to pair off a lot of my existing dolls, whose partners were her RP characters—cue me making so many new characters. But big life lesson—don’t spend money making other people’s characters. When you fall out with those people, you will have an expensive mistake and it’s hard to sell anything with how the market is.

 

Hawkley... kind of suspicious

 

As for my mistakes (of which there are many), I'd say the top three are:

• Buying Barbie clothes for my first doll... which was a YoSD proportioned 1/6 (In my defense, this was before I actually had her in hand...)
• Poorly removing eye putty and accidentally pulling out my doll's eyelashes
• Letting my doll stand by herself for long periods of time (when I came back from work that day, my dog had lovingly "adopted" her wig...)

 

This parrot has aspirations.

 

... I feel like I worked out a lot of my mistakes on 1/6 scale fashion dolls before finally transitioning into this section of the doll hobby. I developed my skills on those dolls and in other hobbies (I'm ADHD so I collect hobbies), and I've been fairly methodical about my collection of larger dolls (like, I used 3d printing to help me feel out what sizes I liked before really committing to a primary size range, so I saved time and money on that front since PLA is cheap and really only spent on heads, so I skipped that awkward "oh I hate this size and need to flip these expensive dolls I waited on for months" phase)....

I think so far the only stuff that hasn't really worked out is the yarn tail I made for my catboy (hated it; re-made it in faux fur and LOVE the new one), the fit on a couple articles of clothes I've made (pants too tight to get over the feet of one of my dolls and I didn't put S-hooks on his feet, but it still worked out since I cut into them and made them "weathered" so they still work), elastic that's a bit subpar in dolls I had to string from scratch, incorrect print settings on dolls with 3d printed parts, little things like that. I've got a couple extra pairs of eyes from being indecisive about what eyes I want in a head until I was able to see it all together, but that's just the doll hobby.

 

Parrot ordering a doll named Hawkley? Guess he wanted another bird friend!

 

Well, let's start:

Selling my Shiny Petsha DoC. I miss her every day. (I had to sell her due to an emergency).
I burned a bit the wig of my first doll two weeks after he arrived.
Ruined a company face-up trying to glue eyelashes.
Buying character dolls. I never know what to do with them as I enjoy the customization part of the hobby.
Waiting too much to buy a doll for it to become sold out. Found it last year second-hand after MANY years of waiting.
Getting rid of all my 1/3-sized dolls. Now I like that size again. (I guess this also was a matter of my situation back then and space).
Buying wigs, clothes and shoes in a "nesting" rush that I never used when the doll arrived because didn't vibe with the doll's style.
I wish I started sewing earlier because I´m enjoying it a lot.
Saying "I will never buy X" for then find out you like it and try to fight yourself against it.
I wish I could've made more friends in my country's BJD community.

Oh yes, and "allowing" my ex to buy me a doll that he used to blackmail me.

 

I absolutely ruined a wig trying to restyle it and make it less fluffy. It wasn't a super special wig by any means but it was still a bit embarrassing with how awful it turned out :-/

 

I think my biggest mistake was selling one limited doll. Six months later I regretted about it. The company has not re-released the doll for a long time. And I haven’t seen it on sale anywhere(.

 

My biggest mistake was buying a doll just to have one. I had just gotten into the community and only had bjds I had made a that point. I didnt really know what kind of bjds I wanted but I felt like I had to have a big company bjd so I could go to meetups and conventions. So I bought a doll I wasn't super in love with just to have one. Now I regret buying her and wish I had waited till I knew what I wanted in a bjd so I couldve gotten one I wouldve loved more.

 

That's a shame.

Sell her on, and put the money toward one you prefer....?

Teddy

 

She is actually for sale, not on this website though as I dont have marketplace unlocked yet. Im hoping to sell her and get some outfits for my other bjds!

 

I have done plently of mistakes in my 14 years in the hobby! The most memorable would be soaking a head in nail polish remover too long, I was panicking seeing the face features became smoother, less defined.
My first ever mistake was getting SD as first doll. I was overwhelmed by the size and weight. As beautiful as the doll was...I had to part with it and get a mini which was perfect and managable for a begginer like me!