Of Barbies and BJDs

I do still collect Barbie ;-) I like them with the joints now, so that they can sit on a horse :-D
I did play with them some times when I was little.
I have always made clothes for them and make some beautiful braided hair hehe :-D
So I will newer stop loving Barbie ;-)

 

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 had lots of toys I loved as a child and all had personalities and stories, among them my Barbies which I adored. At 7 or 8 I received a book about Vintage Barbie and decided as an adult I was going to own vintage Barbies as I adored their intricate and well made fashions and I wanted to own Tutti and friends lol I gave up my Barbies around 14 or 15 when I moved onto my brothers Gi-Joe figures. Kens were so unattractive, so I always had 7 or 8 Barbies all trying to date Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker, but with my brother's Gi-Joes I could have 30 different Joes or Cobras all trying to date the Baroness lol Both the Barbies and Gi-joes had personalities and storylines and I continued to play with the Joes until I left for college. Other than romantic adventures, lots of stories involved monsters and vague Fantasy elements. (I seem to remember the Gi-Joes battling one another on My Little Ponies.)

Other than people buying vintage Barbies I don't think there were any strictly speaking Collector Barbies when I got my Barbies. My favorite was Scottish Barbie and "Oriental" Barbie. I still have both today and they're in pretty decent condition though I've long destroyed their shoes and some of their accessories.

As an adult, I got into Takara 1/6 and Momoko and that was my direct gateway into BJDs. I went to Japan to go to Doll Show and Licca Castle and went to Volks to pick up some Takara items and hair for re-rooting. I saw BJDs in person a bunch of times though before eventually I gave in and bought one.


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

I prefer smaller BJDs and I think that comes from my love of 1/6 I like minis but I really adore lots of tinies because I just prefer that smaller size.

Playing with my brother's Gi-Joes and Cobras taught me how to take someone else's creation and make it my own by reinterpreting things and that has carried over to nearly all my BJDs who are based on my own interpretations of various anime characters.

I also like photographing my BJDs which I got from owning Takara and from both vintage Barbie and later attending Japanese doll shows I developed a love for well made doll clothes.

 

I used to really dislike dolls. Srsly. They were mad doctor's experimental subjects, they were starship crew, they were basically "action figures" for me. I'd never buy them, I'd get plenty as birthday gifts and Chanukah gifts. I actually spent my own money for the Mego Star Trek action figures, though. I wish I had kept them.

I got into dolls when I met some people who were into ABJDs. I was fully adult at the time, although my mental age is still somewhere between kid and teen. I was first a bit iffy about spending lots of coin on a big doll, so I started off with 1/6 scale. Luckily one of my new friends was an incredibly talented faceup artist. Biff is her name, she's a participant here, and her faceups for my little ones were pretty amazing. I also revisited Barbie. Yes, I did. So many of them available at thrift stores and garage sales. And the 99 Cent Only store was basically selling out the My Scene clothes...the El Segundo Colossus actually made some decent clothes for a little bit of time...not all pink and shiny...quite attractive, really.

My biggest enabler was my BFF Chad: he didn't bond with the Yukino he bought himself on a trip to Tenshi no Sumika with our mutual dollieh-loving friends. So I wound up with her, and I never looked back. Now I've got five 1/3 scale dolls and probably eventually more on the way.

I'm actually going to try to replicate my 1/3 scale dolls in 1/6 scale because Re-Ment and other playscale props are all over the place, and stuff like vehicles are available where in 1/3 scale they would be unwieldy and expensive. I look at all this in the sense of being able to continue my photomanga and depict scenes I couldn't if I just used my "Furious Five." And yeah...I have enough 1/6 scale/27cm-23cm dolls to make convincing crowd scenes at this point.

However, my large scale brood, the ones I can talk about here, are my real loves. So much so, the 1/6 scale horde probably feels slighted. One of these days I'll wind up like Gulliver, with the Playscale horde tormenting me after first staking me down. I'd better do some photos with them someday soon....^_^;;;

 

Barbies were never a gateway to bjds in my case. My parents bought them for me, but I never played with them.

 

I never had a barbie doll. My sister had a Sindy doll and all her accessories though. we also had a large doll we both shared and spent time making clothes for and dressing.

What I liked about the Sindy doll was you could put her in her pool, but I wouldn't do that with my bjd's.
their stringing would get soaked.
I used to dress and re furbish old vinyl dolls, but gave them all away.
I also used to like and have porcelain dolls. Large ones. but sold them at a great loss years ago.

I love my bjd'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?
We used to play a lot with our Barbies (I had a Midge and twin Barbies) and our dolls experienced amazing adventures e.g. in India. I have to admit that our imagination had no limits and we continued playing with our Barbies until we were maybe 13. After that we concentrated on paper dolls - I draw around 200 paper dolls (men, women and children) and made also clothing for them (historical naturally) and my friend cut all those dolls and clothes. All the Barbies and paper dolls have been stored a my parents' house.

Was there anything that you did with barbies, that carried over to how you treat your BJDs?
Very little, except that they have a lot of clothes.

 

I never really stopped playing with Barbie. I gave up my active "play" collection with all the accessories, clothing and such to my cousins when I was about 14. I did hang onto 2 Barbies, a Ken and a Kelly w/outfits and then some of my favorite toys. It was one small boxl. While I didn't really play with them after that, I would crochet doll size items and give those to younger cousins and friends as gifts. The box of dolls was taken out when little kids came over...my Mom died recenlty and that box came to my home and now my daughter has those dolls. So I'm still playing with Barbie and Ken from the 80's!

Definetly my love of Barbie (and dolls in general) was a stepping stone to BJD collecting. I not only crochet for my dolls but I sew. I've done some face-up work and wig restyling/making. These are things I did w/dolls when younger. I always wanted to make my dolls my own and different from other people's dolls.

Strangely, for a while I did buy collector Barbies as display pieces and then sold them all on eBay a few years back when the hubby lost his job. I wasn't sad to see them go - it was actually harder when I let go of the dolls I'd unboxed and played with for so many years. We tried keeping a doll my daughter was given in the box and after nearly 2 years, she pulled her down and opened her up - so I guess she is like me and thinks dolls are meant to be enjoyed through play vs display. The only display set of dolls in the house these days are my anniversary Raggdy Ann and Andy. They sit on a shelf w/the teddy bear my grandmother gave me when I was a baby....but otherwise we play with our dolls (and plushies) in this house.

 

I gave up playing with Barbies around 11 or 12, but kept them because as dolls & with their cool accessories, the camper, the folda ble dollhouse, the car, you name it, they were teh introduction to 1:12 scale dollhouse miniatures- which I began collecting at 9 or ten when I got a 'real' dollhouse (wood dollhouse) made by my dad, then another when I was 13. By then my collectin g had definitely reached proportions where I was selective even at that young of an age.

I made stuff for my barbies, but mostly I loved playing with them. This has definitely carried over into my BJD's. I have two MSD's, and three tinies. I love the tinies because they can be incorporated with my other passion- Rement & 1:12 scale structures.

I returned in ernest collecting Barbie and Fashion Royalty, so it has never really left. I control the doll buying part of it simply because of room, but am still addicted. I do have certain dolls that stay boxed, but essentially I love to play. BJD's just takes it to the next level, because you can do faceups, make clothes, do scenes, there is no limit.

 

Interesting

People Who Played with Barbies:
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 17 when I stopped playing with Barbies. My cousin (pretty much sister, cause we grew up together) was very sad, because it was just her and I, and her brother, and he wasn't about to play with Barbies, but we got tired of playing with his Star Wars "action figures". She was 10 when I was 17. But I was told by my aunt at the time, that I was a young woman, and needed to stop playing with dolls and "grow up" a bit. She said it in a nice way, and it made sense to me (sort of) at the time the way she explained it, but I was very sad, because I really liked playing Barbies with my cousin. I wonder if I would still be playing with them if it wasn't for having been told it wasn't appropriate anymore. I'm glad for my cousin's age. I was able to hang on to my imagination a bit longer than most kids, because she still had hers

Was there anything that you did with barbies, that carried over to how you treat your BJDs?
Definitely. Brushing hair, changing hair styles, but specially making them clothes. My grandma gave me my first sewing machine wen I was 11 or 12, along with a HUGE box of remnant fabric, and back then I didn't even bother with patterns. I'd just drape and sew, and it worked I find now I am still sewing, and brushing hair, but I also get to change eyes, and play with posing, and taking pictures which is different for me, plus, my BJD's are somehow more special to me than the Barbies ever were. Barbies came and went around our house. We had lots. And we never bought them. Now that I get to buy my own dolls, and have fallen in love with BJD's, and they cost so much more, I find I love them and appreciate them more. Back then I wished I could change the Barbies' expressions, makeup, and type and colour of hair, and found myself frustrated that I couldn't.

People who only got the collected Barbies:
How long did you keep your collectors dolls? Did you have any dolls you were able to play with, or did you want to? I collect Barbie now. Loosely though. Not because I want to sell them, or because they might be worth more, etc. I don't care about that. I collect barbies I like, and mostly because of the outfits, specially if they are fantasy-inspired, or culturally inspired, just because I like the looks of them, and I love how they do they costumes for different countries, and eras etc. I've never taken those out of the box because I know I'll end up messing with their hair, and I don't want to ruin them, as I probably won't be able to put it back in the right place And they are pretty like they are, and I just like looking at them, but don't want them to get dusty or dirty.

Do you feel that you should treat BJD's the same way like a collector doll? I treat my BJD's much better than the collected dolls! I give them more attention, more affection, they get clothes (I have no patience to sew for Barbie anymore), they get hairstyles, different hair colors, different eyes, and they get names! My cousin and I only named the Barbies while we were playing, and that was not set to that particular Barbie forever either. Since I can wash my BJD's without ruining them, they get a lot more action than my Barbie collection ever will.

You got me thinking a lot about this. Thanks for that Now you know why I stopped playing with dolls at the ripe old age of 17 lol but I want to tell you (briefly) about the in between, from that, to now.
I was a very creative kid. Since I was very small I could draw beautifully. I could have learned how to paint, too, I'm sure. I had it in me. I find that when I gave up dolls, I gave up some of that creativity. Since then, I concentrated on drawing and other crafts, and my grandma taught me basic crochet when I was about 10. So I grew up, and when it came time to go to college, it was suggested to me that I go for graphic design because I could draw. So I did.
When I got to graphic design college, I soon found out (within a couple of months) that it wasn't about drawing or what you could create. I enjoyed SO much the life drawing classes, because we got to draw by looking at objects, people, and even a skeleton once. That was amazing. But that was ONE class. We also had an abstract sculpture class where we had to create weird shapes. I hated that. I've never been into abstract. But the rest of the classes were about taking ready-made pictures and fonts and placing them "correctly" on a page to create and ad. Hardly my type of creativity. So I dropped out of that, and stopped drawing and crafting altogether. I got into computers, cooking, raising aquarium fish, and dog training, all as hobbies, and eventually found quilting, and took all the courses I could take for that at my local quilt store. But I wanted more. I wanted to learn how to make clothes, and I thought of Barbie. Not my collected Barbies of course, but I thought maybe I'd buy one to sew for, but part of me knew I wouldn't have the patience to try to fit human shape garments to Barbie's waist, so I went looking for a bigger doll in the shape of Barbie (meaning a woman, not a big child-like doll), and here we are
My creativity is flourishing again, to the point I am looking at starting to draw again, too. I used to love that.

Anyway. I think BJD's are giving me a lot more now than Barbie did back then, but I'm glad I had those experiences with dolls growing up, and I want to thank you for bringing me back there for a little while

 

First of all, let me state that I am 56 years old, so take that into account when you read my comments.

Barbie first hit the scene when I was about five years old. I think I got my first Barbie when I was about six or seven. All my friends had the blonde ponytail Barbie. I was a little blonde girl. When I finally was given a Barbie (for my birthday?) she had a brunette bubblecut. I hated her. She looked mean (if you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the first Barbies. They DID look mean). She had weird pointy boobs and high heeled feet. I got a Midge, and she was cuter. Then I got a Skipper, and I liked her the best because she was a little girl like me and she had long blonde hair like me.

I got a Ken but he was such a bland sap. I got a GI Joe and he was WAY COOL because he could bend everywhere and I could pose him like crazy and he had a lot of personality. My Barbie dated GI Joe while Ken stayed home, naked and lost with his fuzzy head and weird bulge under my bed. GI Joe did everything- he even went scuba-diving in my friend's swimming pool.

I put my dolls aside finally in high school. Yes, I played with dolls til I was about 14. I remember this cool, popular guy making fun of me and sneering, "She still plays with dolls." When I went away to college, I used to sneak into toy stores and look at all the dolls. I had one doll in my dorm room- an old antique doll that was haunted and scared the hell out of my roommates.

Finally when I was 28 I had the first of two daughters and for the next fifteen years I was in heaven because I had an excuse to buy dolls. Both of my daughters had one million Barbies because it was the most popular Christmas or birthday present. My older daughter played with them, dressed them, did their hair. My younger daughter pulled their heads off and tied their bodies to trees outside. She's almost 23 and I still find an old moldy, headless body outside every once in a while. Neither of them liked Ken. They called him a "Boy Barbie".

They both grew up and went away to college, ballet school, photography school, and life. Now, I had no excuse to buy dolls. I started collecting the dolls of my childhood, making reproduction clothes, and selling them on ebay in complicated photostories with lots of props.

Then I discovered BJDs and finally, after a whole lifetime of searching, knew I had found the perfect doll. Poseable, unique, beautiful, expressive, creative- perfect for photographing. I have a friend who is way into Barbie who does complicated photostories with them- I am hoping to seduce him into the world of BJDs.

But Barbie- she never did it for me. Kind of ironically, one of my closest friends now is a man who ran the Barbie factory in Malaysia for many years (now retired).

If I ever run into that guy from high school, I will tell him, "Guess what? I'm STILL playing with dolls." And actually, I wish I still had my Barbie, because apparently they didn't make that many brunette bubblecut Barbies and she would be considered rare. I could sell her and buy another BJD.

 

I played with Barbie dolls, that Barbie head that had "re-growing" hair, the Dream House, and other viynoids and stuffed animals in between. My Crissy doll is sitll somewhere in the room at home. I styled their hair, I made them pregnant and give birth and raise their families. In addition to my own, I had my sisters hand-me-down Barbie, which was the original since she's 14 years my senior (yeah, we wish she was still in semi-mint condition). Becasue my sister was so much older than me, I was practically an only child, so my dolls where my playmates and secret keepers. I recall one night over at a firends' house when I was about 15 where we played dolls a la Knots Landing. That's the last age I remember active doll play. My teen years obsession became pro wrestling.

So fast forward to my college years when my best friend at the time got me into collecting Barbies. I still have those. I still drool over the catalogs, I just haven't been able to justify buying any in the past few years due to money and space. Of course, compared to bjds they're a steal and small, so I may indulge. I'm also keeping my eye on the Kenyon Dark-Hunter line from Ashton Drake.

Anything that carried over? Hmm. Maybe from the collecting years. I started paying attention to doll terminology, started watching Marie Osmond shows on QVC which lead to learning more about different kinds of collector dolls.

Should I treat them the same? I kinda feel like I negelct my collector dolls now. I've been a bad mommy. LOL. The bjds straddle the fence, I think, between collector and play doll, in large part because of all the personalization one does with them. A collector Barbie comes as it's meant to be (theoretically) and ready to go on shelf. Heck, the new Bob Mackie can't even stand. She's meant to stay on her swing. I don't feel the need to redress my partial porcelin or resin dolls. They're pieces of decor. They don't have special names, a couple of the latter don't have names at all. I don't do as much with my bjd as others, but I like that you work with a look or personality with the bjds, and I sometimes give him a cuddle, an act previously reserved only for my teddy bears (I have many). But I'm more careful with Barron. Don't want to damage he face up or chip him, etc.

 

This made me so happy. x3

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?

It was somewhere in my early teens, and it was mostly because of the peer pressure of it all. I didn't want friends seeing them and making fun of me for it, but I always had them in the back of my mind. I should have just ignored it and done whatever I wanted, but ah well. It was also partially because I got tired of how limited they were. My favorite Barbie ever was jointed everywhere. It was ugly and it limited her on some clothing and ALL shoes almost, but I adored her for her ability to pose. She broke, and I went on a search for another one of her. After that one broke too, I got out of Barbies because I didn't want to risk the ridicule for the (to me) crappier vinyl ones that didn't pose. Hell, I had one Barbie I got as a present have her vinyl foot twisted and screwed up from the day I got her because it was packaged wrongly or something. It was just frustrating.

All in all it was a love/hate relationship with Barbies. Even with the jointed one, I only loved her so much for her posing, not because I thought she was pretty. I've never found Barbies to be all that pretty. I just liked dressing them up and making stories with them.

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

I think the fact that Barbies' appearances are so limited (as in you can't really change it [as a kid]) made me do the same with my dolls. I find the right appearance for them, I don't change it. In fact I'm quite against changing their appearances unless it's absolutely for the better. For awhile after I first got her, I switched out my girl's hair between silver and black and that didn't last long at all. I got sick of it and ignored the black wig entirely. Same with eyes, except for my boy, whom I don't have the right color for yet. I can stand changing faceups, since I always keep it similar but just try to improve upon it in some way.

One thing that definitely didn't carry over was my abuse of Barbies. >_> Towards the end there, when I knew it was time for me to put them away or face getting made fun of, I started doing horrible things to them, like using nail polish on their hair. I knew it would ruin them, but didn't care. I also gave them horrible haircuts and silly makeup with human makeup that I also didn't use. I didn't take as good of care of Barbies either. Mine all stayed in a big pink bucket and their clothes were in a big clear backpack left over from a year of school. My parents' cat peed on that >_>. It made me mad then, but if he were to somehow pee in the big container I keep the BJD clothes in now, I would be pissed as hell. I insure that that can't happen with my BJDs though. I'm much more cautious with them.

One thing that did carry over though was making clothes. I never tried too hard with Barbie clothes (only attempted one very bad hand-sewn shirt), but I always wanted to make things for them. With BJDs, that desire is much more strong and I design and sew for them all constantly.

Also, I have to say that I hated Ken. He never had a jointed version that I was able to get. ><

EDIT: Oh, and also, I never had or wanted a collector's Barbie. I see no value in Barbies really.

 

cirquemom, that was great. Loved reading it

 

I am from the UK and dont really remember having a Barbie as a child ... I remember Tressy though - I cut her hair off and cried because it wouldnt grow back like the box said haha!
I had lots of collectors dolls from all over the world and loved dolls in general. Then boys, husband and motherhood came along - 2 sons so had to be content with Action Man lol Later I collected dolls like Ashton Drake. Made up for no Barbies as a child and had a field day on ebay lol I also had a Sindy collection. Then as someone else already said finding BJD seems like finding the perfect doll - can dress and redress and restyle, hair clothes, gorgeous photo's - just need to find that money tree now ...