Of Barbies and BJDs

As I child, I was only really interested in one Barbie, which was able to bend their knees and elbows, and even could move her thumbs. So to say, a riding Barbie. She had one fiery steed, and I loved those two. My parents bought me two or three other ones, but I was disappointed, as these could not ride the horse.

At the age of 11, my parents allowed me to learn horseback riding. At that time, my friends got unnerved because I used my riding Barbie to demonstrate what I was learning.

When I was 14 or 15, I lost interest in Barbie. I had no interest in any dollie things, but started model making until I bought my real horse.

Then there was time for nothing else.

After having sold him, I realized that I had time for other things but horses. I got into model horses, and from there to BJDs. I think BJDs are a nice combination of playing and model making. I have a whole new sight on many things - seen from a 60 cm guy. I am about making an off-topic doll (non-cast ABJD), and of course I appreciate that in theory he can also ride a horse.

I was pretty careless with the Barbies, I never made clothes or something for them, or cared how they looked like. So I am quite astonished about myself that I think about how to make pants, shoes, shirts. Or which hair and eye color suits his character. Girly things like that.

Well, perhaps its all a matter of growing up? Getting creative, allowing new perspectives to yourself? Hmmm...pretty interesting thread.

 

Oh my childhood was spent on dolls, stuff toys and yes, Barbies lots of Barbie dolls! Happy memories...
All of the Barbie dolls owned by me and my older sister are still stored in a glass cabinet...(for the record we have 2 glass cabinets full of barbie dolls) It was collected and preserved by mother, she said "these dolls are actually older than you, they will be the memories of your happy childhood and who knows they may pitch a high price in the future *wink*) and so our Barbie dolls still existed... but I stopped playing with them til 8 or 9, though I'm not really sure. I stopped playing dolls or any toys for a while when I discovered videogames! haha! but when I discovered BJD dolls, things has changed never knew that I would return to the hobby connected to dolls again. I'm already 19, I have played with dolls and still playing with them. Barbie dolls have been part of my little girly childhood and fantasy...

 

I wasn't actually a huge fan of barbies (or any other types of dolls really) when I was younger. I had a couple of barbies that I'd received as gifts through the years and they'd mostly sit around on my shelves and get dusty. Occasionally my mother would bring home some outfit she'd found for one of them and I'd diligently dress them in them (as she was excited) and then... put them back on the shelf. The odd one or two would eventually be mauled to death when my brother and I were bored enough to see how much damage they could take. The only time I'd really play with them was when I had friends round who wanted to do so. I gave most of them away to a friend when I was 11-12 and moved countries. I was always much more interested in playing with my little pony's and running around the desert with my brother and our friends capturing scorpions and dung beetles...

Which is probably why me announcing I wanted to buy a bjd to my family when I was 18 went over with so much confusion. My Dad in particular was convinced I'd get bored of him after a couple of months. I've never really thought of my dolls in the same light as barbies, granted I spend a lot of time re-dressing these guys and fixing their wigs, but otherwise I tend to see them more as an extension of my artwork and storytelling then as toys. If I'm not doing something with them at that exact moment, most of my dolls tend to sit around diorama-esk and looking pretty. XD

 

Barbie will always be my first love I played with them (making up stories, ect.) from when I got my first Barbie at 4 years old up through 6th grade. After that my hobby became "customizing" them with nail polish, Sharpie markers and scissors. I used to go on websites where people would create all kinds of fantastic custom Barbies and I was inspired. I still have my old Barbies lying around in a box somewhere and there are a few in NRFB condition (not really worth anything much, unfortunately). It was only natural that I would enter the world of the ABJD when I found out the level of customization involved!!

I took a look at the current Barbies for sale recently and I don't like what I see... Barbie looks smaller/thinner and she has an ugly smile The new video camera Barbie is an interesting concept, though; I wish I could have had one when I was a kid.

 

I still have Barbies and they were the gateway doll to 1/6 customs which have taken over my life. My first on topic doll is an Obitsu 60, he is waaaaaaay big so when I felt ready for a resin I wanted smaller and went with a MSD size. Now it looks like tiny sie will outnumber all he others, but then again the tinies can use the stuff for the 1/6 scale.

My oldest and dearest Darci has turned 30 so I'm in it for the long haul with many of my dolls. I still play with Barbies, I'll buy a new jointed body for the head of an old friend, and don't see any reason to stop. I feel the resins get a bit left out because of their odd sizes but I have action figures too. The dolls have been my most constant companions over the years, we played and worked out a lot of things together, especially in my teenaged years.

 

How Old were you when you stopped playing with barbies? Was it young due to needing to feel older or was it because you just felt it was time?
I mostly got the barbies with the animals.... for the animals. I think I maybe liked 1 legit barbie - though I always wanted the barbie you could customize (I feel like that was a good indicator right there). I gave up buying barbie stuff when I was probably 10ish

Was there anything that you did with barbies, that carried over to how you treat your BJDs?
Thank god no. I used to rip my barbies to pieces, pull out their hair and destroy them as much as I could. I hated dolls as a kid except for the American Girl doll I had - but even then, she never really went anywhere with me. I liked her because she was pretty customizable. Again, another indicator of me loving this hobby.

 

A modly reminder: Remember that Den of Angels is a forum for BJDs only and that discussions on this forum should primarily be about these dolls. Posts in this thread should mainly be about BJDs rather than Barbie dolls as Barbies are not the focus of DoA.

Should the thread become more about Barbie than about BJDs, it will be closed. Thank you for understanding.

 

I have no idea when I stopped playing with Barbies. But I started collecting them in fifth grade...never got so far, cause I always wanted to take them out and play with them. They are stored under my bed. I like them. I never got any expensive ones, anyway. My favorite one, the My Melody one is still in her case.

 

My family used to buy me Barbies a lot but my cousin used to play with them more than I did, I got a shot of his action men in exchange! XD I do remember trying to play with the Barbies 'properly' because I saw other girls play differently, but that ended with me pretending one of them was evil and they went away again. Gave them to my school to sell at a charity bring and buy thing when I was about 9.
Funny now that I like my dolls so much more than I could've imagined. XD

 

I disliked Barbies a bit, when I was younger. I think it was because my room was small and it was difficult to build settings for them. It was much easier with Playmobil and Lego. So I had a Barbie but dont played much with her.
I dont know when I stopped playing with barbie completely. But I think I was 12 oder 13.

But for me BJDs are completely different from Barbie. I like them despite of the fact that the room where I life is the same small room as I was 12. BJDs are more realistic (and I like that!) and its a bit easier to sew for them. And BJDs aren't pink! I hate pink!
BJDs are for me more a part of art. I sew things for them and make nice pics. I think pics with Barbies are not so beatuiful... But thats only my opinion, if others think they are, its completely ok for me.

Levi

 

I grew out of 'Barbie' specifically when I was around 5, and took to collecting the much more fun little Kelly dolls and friends. I grew out of that forcibly at 11 when my mum literally threw them all out. What's worse, I'd had no idea she was going to do it, so I'd packed them all up nicely to be put away, and she'd just tossed them in the garbage. It was just a bit traumatic because I was extremely attached to them- I'd had most of them since I was 5, and they'd all had detailed characters and backstories etc... (see a hint of my future bjd love there right?)

I got into collecting TY Beanie Boppers and bigger dolls after that, and played with them all until I was around 14. (The trauma was probably why really, if she'd just let me grow out of them, I'd have most likely got rid of them myself at around 12.) After that, I didn't collect any dolls until I went away to college. I spotted bjd accessories on ebay while looking for cosplay stuff in my freshman year and I was pretty much hooked. I'm 20 now, and no signs of stopping yet!

 

I don't think I ever "played" with my barbies, I just liked dressing them up and such. I played more with my model horses (I had A LOT) and obsessed over Sailor Moon xD I did a lot of art too.

I still have a couple of my old barbies. They just sit in the plastic bin under my desk and I steal all their clothes for my Momoko's.

 

How Old were you when you stopped playing with barbies? Was it young due to needing to feel older or was it because you just felt it was time?
I was 9. I had this HUGE "grown up" thing back then. =/ So yes, I definitley thought I was big for barbies.

Was there anything that you did with barbies, that carried over to how you treat your BJDs?
Hmm... No, not really. I cared for my barbies in a whole lot different way... Like for an example I would chew on their legs. I wouldn't do that to my BJD (I think you know why).

 

I never liked Barbie. Ever.
That's why my family thought it so odd when I fell in love with BJD! I was plastic dinosaurs and hot wheels cars!
When I was gifted a collectible Barbie she would be put in the closet and forgotten until I gave her away several years later.

I find my love for playing with BJD totally inexplicable and unexplainable. Except maybe for the fact that they are so hands on!

You can't paint Barbie like a BJD, you can't pose Barbie like a BJD and you can't fall in love with her spaced out smile.

 

This story makes me hurt a little inside. Internet hugs!

It's great that it didn't completely put you off dolls, though. If my mum had done something like this to me, I think I would never have collected dolls again! It's great also that your BJDs haven't suffered from your past experience, either.

 

I never stopped playing with dolls in general, and with Barbies in particular. I still miss the beach van my Malibu Barbie had in the 70s. It was so much fun! But Quick Shave Ken was a creeper -- in fact, I had a hard time liking Carl Sagan later because I saw some resemblance between the two...

Personally, I feel like BJDs are in many ways what we always wanted our Barbies to be -- customizable, very posable, and soulful. Even the most lovely Barbie -- off the shelf or repainted -- still looks lifeless. You never forget she's a doll. In contrast, it's hard to find a BJD that doesn't look like she's been caught mid sentence, or mid thought, and that her inner life exists regardless of whether you're in the picture. It always feels to me like they occupy some realm between the inanimate and the living. If there really are fairies, I'm sure we would find BJD collectors among them.

 

How old were you when you stopped playing with barbies? Was it young due to needing to feel older or was it because you just felt it was time?

I have no idea when I stopped playing with Barbies. I'm guessing it was around middle school when I started 'growing up' and finding myself busy with school activities, like the band. I still had them floating around as well as an american girl doll and a porcelain doll, but I never played with them much.

Was there anything that you did with barbies, that carried over to how you treat your BJDs?

Absolutely not! I was horrible at taking care of my Barbies. I mean, I didn't mess them up horribly, but I didn't take the best of care with them. I definitely tend to my bjds a lot more gentle like.

 

I played with my dolls until 13 or 14. I spent hours with my friends and the slightly older girls in the neighborhood, making up elaborate stories, sewing clothes, styling the hair. We had horses (mine was Silver from the Lone Ranger, fully articulated, very cool compared to Barbie's) and made up rooms with the furniture. I quit when one of the older girl introduced sex (i.e. necking with Ken) into the storytelling. It sort of soured the whole thing for me and I passed everything down to my sister.

Do I treat my BJDs like I treated my Barbies? Nope, I don't. I'm much more careful in general. I wouldn't jam a BJD onto a horse (even if I had one), but that was the only way to get a barbie onto Silver. I probably wouldn't need to; BJDs are more flexible.

 

How Old were you when you stopped playing with barbies? Was it young due to needing to feel older or was it because you just felt it was time?
I think I was about 11-12, but I can't bare to throw them away, I have always been a dolly addict of some kind. I guess I just gradually stopped playing with the Barbies... I have been through Barbie, Bratz, China dolls, not so much baby dolls and now I'm on to BJDs. But I do have one collectable Barbie doll, she hangs out on her stand in my room.

Was there anything that you did with barbies, that carried over to how you treat your BJDs?
I don't really think so, but I did cross-dress Ken once... or twice

 

I never had any Barbies as a child. I was given a handmade rag doll when I was very little (I still have her!) but I mostly just had plushie animals. My mom never liked dolls much, and didn't encourage me to want them. I think I always did like dolls, though, especially if I could make them into favorite book and movie characters. I did collect vintage Barbies for a while, when I was in my late 20's, but quickly grew bored with them and sold them off. For me, no other dolls compare to bjds.