Rough Play

This is so nice to read! My first dolls are on their way and I have been totally petrified about handling them. The way people talk about dolls, I feel like they must be thin porcelain!

I definitely will be careful and baby them, but things like padded carrying cases and keeping the doll in pitch black darkness while I'm not doing a photo shoot seems ridiculous.

 

Oh I don't tend to treat mine ULTRA carefully - I play with them, I keep them out of their boxes and not in a closet. I know they're not going to break just by looking at them wrong and I don't really have any intention of preserving them for collector's value. I'm careful in that I don't leave them in precarious positions or in sunlight but I'm not afraid to handle and enjoy them. I do my own faceups so I couldn't care less about what happens to their faceups. I am very careful to avoid chips and snapped fingers because that would bother me but it doesn't keep me from standing them on my desk or sitting them on a ledge when I'm somewhere nearby. I don't carry mine around but that's just because it doesn't really interest me to take them with me. I hardly remember to bring my phone and driver's license most of the time! I've had something like 20 dolls and all have remained in very good condition even through playing, posing, learning faceups (no stains or ruined dolls!), and dressing and redressing. My dolls are very played with and loved.

 

I think I'd be like you when I get my own doll... though I can kinda understand why people would keep them figuratively wrapped in cotton wool. If I just wanted something to look at, I'd buy a pic of one. My doll (when I've finally saved enough) will be handled for clothes and costume fittings on a very regular basis. Like you've said, all this can be done without damaging them too much, just need to be careful. Simple as that.

 

I tend to only really care a great deal about the faces of my dolls. When it comes time to dress up for the day, the head comes off and the wrestling match ensues. Watching me string my dolls is pretty funny, because I string tight enough that restringing is a very physical process that typically results in one bent coat hanger and the utterance of cuss words you didn't even know existed. Sensei never knew my jujitsu skills would be used in such a manner. As for posing the doll, I get rough if I need to. I stick them under water, perch them high up, put them near the cat that is currently nomming my iPhone because he doesn't like when I play my Pandora playlists on it, sometimes I sleep with them (a queen sized bed with just one person gets awful lonely sometimes) carry them around by their shirts, etc. I know how to mod, so if an accident did happen, I can always fix it. I have yet to have a serious accident while doing these things. Surprisingly all my incidents that have resulted in damage have been from perfectly normal circumstances, such as carefully standing the doll on a fully stable, windless surface, only to look away for a split second to have the doll fall over and just happen to land on his nose.

 

Some of the things I do even freak out people who don't own dolls. The big one mainly being standing my DZ Hong on a table and walking away. I know he stands. He'd only fall if someone slammed the table around. Sometimes I just leave him standing and go to the bathroom, make food, fool around~ Come back and he's still just standing there.

Also, the first time I saw dolls, everyone was freaked about fingers on face-ups and I got my boys and I'm just groping all over their faces. xDD;; I'm a little bad...

 

While I don't take my crew out much, they are often just on my couch (under towels when sun's coming in), and I don't pay that much attention to whether I'm touching their faceups or not. I have definitely used some serious force on dolls when restringing (sometimes wondering if I should be *L*), and I don't think much of grabbing a doll by the ankles and pulling them across the couch/floor that way to bring them over to me. I've yet to see any damage. I might be getting better at handling them, though, because I haven't had a faceplant in months. I only do the lick-my-finger routine on wigs though, not on their faces. I typically get more paranoid when I'm carrying them around at an event, but am pretty casual about how I handle them at home.

 

I tend to man-handle my dolls. XD They're always out, sitting on a shelf, dresser, or lounging on my bed (even the floating heads hang out on a shelf). I never take their heads off to put on shirts, unless the shirt requires it (even my MD Ryu, who has a lip ring and a not-so-cheap face-up keeps his head on, but it's a pain to take off XD; ). I do most of my dolls' face-ups, so I don't worry too much about that, same with body blushing. If eyelashes get crushed from clothes changes, I have extras. |D I'm guilty of touching their faces, too.
My dogs has snuffled a couple of my boys' faces and the cats are always laying on them if they're on the bed, my mom's cat put a dent in one's toe from biting it. The cats are also notorious for sleeping on the clothes when I have them on my bed. Lots of dark clothes + light cat hair = lint brush time. I have even carried my tan boy around, outside, in the heat and sun and didn't cover him with a cloth or anything. My dolls are well loved. XD

I try not to worry too much about how I handle them, I just make sure my hands are clean and to always have magic erase with me. XD

 

When I first got my tiny, I always attempted to be ultra careful with her she kept falling anyhow in the split second I wasn't looking. (The last one being at a doll meet off of a table and onto cement floor - no damage whatsoever, the sound was startling enough that everyone turned to stare and coddle her xD) After all the time she's fallen I've become less cautious, mostly with her. My Lesley (Implstar Bosco) I'm a little cautious with.. mostly the fingers though, not wanting to snap them at all.

I don't worry about yellowing all that much. Roxy comes with me everywhere, I usually carry her out and about unless it's raining and she goes in her bag. When home they basically sit anywhere, Les' perch is the wide armrest of the couch/loveseat/chair. Curtains are never open so they're always out of direct sunlight unless I'm carrying them outside. Les would come with me more often - I basically only go out to work lately, I work retail though, he wouldn't fit in my locker and I don't like the idea of my coworkers handling him.. even though I know he's not as fragile as I once expected them to be with everyone stating to handle them with kid gloves. xD

I'm a little more cautious about faceups. but not by much after having to magic erase dirt marks and nothing coming off even in the most dark areas of pastel/paint. They're both with default faceups, and so far I've not tried to do my own (only succeeded in a superb - in my amateur opinion; torso blush) and I'm too cheap for the moment (money goes to their clothes instead o.O) to commission a faceup I'd like to keep them as they are best. Though still when positioning I touch without thinking.. and I don't remove head for shirts unless I have to.

Needless to say I'm not the most careful doll mom.. but I don't look to resell and no harm has come - I don't plan to let there be any.

 

I definitely don't keep my dolls in a dark closet - just on a shelf in the deepest corner of the rooms where little light reaches even during the summer (the sunset is about 12:00 AM and the sunrise at 4:00 or 5:00 AM?). Still it's not pitch dark and scary.
When I carry my dolls I use a normal laptop bag, no cushions. Or carry them in my hands when making photoshoots in the forest that's close enough to my house.
I sometimes get extremely rough when posing one of the dolls - I love her sculpt, but she's a posing nightmare, making me cry sometimes because she's so immobile >_<
However, I rarely touch the faces of my dolls and I am careful when positioning them on hard ground. I don't want them to land on their noses
I think BJDs are pretty sturdy and unless you actually do play football with them or do something almost as rough, nothing bad should happen.

 

Well, I'm usually good at not damaging things without being unreasonably careful.. but with my doll, she's still new and the price has effected me, so I think I'm a little more nervous even though I realize she's not really that delicate. XD;; I keep her in a drawer when I'm not around.
And I don't have clothes for her yet. I think when she has clothes and when she's blushed and coated with UV-protective MSC I won't be as nervous because she'll be much more protected in general. (I wouldn't mind a little yellow, but her head is already coated and I never close the blinds so she might get an uneven tan...) I definitely got her with the intention of playing with her.
But yeah I do the spit-clean thing too. It's just the easiest way to clean something. I also unstrung her and didn't have enough hands to restring so I touched her with my somewhat dirty toes. Dirt is just dirt, so that's one thing I'm not nervous about.
And I just put her in my pack to carry her. It never seemed that unsafe to me, since that's how I transport pretty much anything I need to take somewhere and nothing ever really breaks. (It has 3 compartments so I can put delicate things in the middle one alone or with soft stuff.)

 

hehe I'm with you, I don't really handle them like they're made of glass, the first few days I did, but later on that changed.. XD
When they go with me I just dump them in my backpack, sometimes even on top of eachother. And my other stuff goes right in there with them. But nothing ever happened. I do mind their hands, so that they don't stick out or something so if I bump into something they don't break and stuff.
I leave them standing unattended and sometimes they make a face plant, but well.. face ups can be redone and I never had something chipped. (except the face up..)
I don't leave them out in the sun to long, they go with me on meets and stuff, and sometimes they sit on mu couch, but since one of my dolls turned out a little green i don't leave them out in the sun too long when I'm not playing with them..

 

Living in California, I never know when the ground is going to shake so I never leave them standing unattended and make sure they are not perched on a ledge. Normally I keep them out but if I'm going to be very busy with projects then I will keep them in their boxes.

 

I guess I'm not the most careful person with my dolls... Even though I care for them as good as possible.
I need to learn not to let my Sapphira stand on anything when walking away, he has broken 2 sets of ears and a set of hands already by falling over. So he's rather dangerous to be left unattended :p

My dolls just sit on a small shelf almost all the time, just big enough to keep them on there sitting ^^
I'm not too careful with faceups either, except when I haven't done them myself. Defaults are just a lot prettier than my own so I try not to touch them too much. But if it's neccesary I touch to turn the head, when it's harder to touch under the chin etx.

And from time to time I just grab them by an arm when picking them up. It's strong enough to hold them entirely so yeh...
(I don't like it when my bf grabs them by the legs and makes them fall over, the fear of damaging the head just makes me crazy...)

 

By most people's standards I'm not too careful with my dolls either. I used to treat them with kid gloves...but experience has shown me that they simply aren't as fragile as I was made to think they were before I had them. I don't even know how many times Yoru has face-vaulted or Sage has tumbled off of something, and somehow they've turned out fine. ^_^;

My dolls were bought with the intention of taking over my living space with me. I mess with them all the time, change their clothes, re-pose them...I wouldn't dream of having them live on a shelf, or god forbid, their boxes. I suppose I'm a little careful of Yoru's faceup, though, since it was custom and I LOVE it, and I try to be conscious of their hands so no little fingers break.

 

I'm pretty much the same xD
I never really felt the need to handle my dolls superhypercarefully since I got mine I just felt it could take it =3

I do my own faceups, I know which doll cannot stand and which one can "take it".
For example the only way I found to "style" the hair of my MNF is to take his body and shake him so the head bobs until the hair is all pretty and in all directions... I do take off his hands to make sure they dont fly around and I make sure his head his not loose (wouldn't want it to fly away too O___o).... Doing this I scared a few friends but its not like the doll felt anything and I knew what I was doing ^^

I also do not go around with them with a super padded bag, if I know I am not going too far I will put them in my school bag and just go. I do want something smaller since they move alot in the bag but its never for a really long time ^__^

I'm not scared of touching their faces (I even have one who is almost entirely blushed and I wont start creeping out everytime something touches him!) If something goes off I'll just do it over :P

 

I treat my two carefully as you might expect but I'm not terrified of them or anything. When I take them anywhere, they go in my back-pack, no face mask or padding. I know they'll be fine but I'm not reckless.
I don't see any need to touch their faces on purpose unless to clean them.
If your too protective of your doll, how can you ever fully enjoy them? I think it's a balance we strike according to our personal attitudes =)

 

I was so freaked out when I started this hobby, with all the warnings to make sure to have a doll carrier, don't touch the faceup, they're really fragile, etc... but now that I actually have the dolls, I find that it's not so much the case, really, ha. I'm still really nervous about them and worry constantly when I take them out and such, but that's less because I want to treat them with kid gloves than because of my anxiety disorder. ==; Because of it, I always think that I'll break or ruin anything I touch.

But I try not to let that effect me. I don't have a proper doll carrier right now, so I use a tote bag and doll pillows, and everything is fine when I have my dolls in that. :3 I don't ever put them away in a closet or anything, either... they have pride of place on top of my dresser in my bedroom, with their boxes for beds, where they sit or lie posed if I'm not actively having them out and about with me (which I do often around the apartment, and occasionally when I'm out). I do a lot of "extreme" posing during shoots, too, especially with my BFF (who does really awesome, dangerous shoots with both of our dolls, hehe).

The only thing I really worry about is the faceup... I try my best not to touch it, because I know I can't do faceups, so if it gets ruined somehow, it would be horrible. ._.; (I do use face protectors when I take them out in the tote bag, lol.) I also worry a lot about staining and such, but since I got the magic eraser, that's not as scary~ I wouldn't even want a doll that I couldn't hug and cuddle and play with, though oo;; if I had to be so careful I couldn't really handle them... what would be the point?

 

I never really played roughly with my toys when I was a kid so I'm pretty much the same with my BJDs now. I'm gentle and careful with them, but I still like playing! They live on their little sofa on my desk, so if I'm sitting here bored I can pick them up, pose them, style their hair etc I would feel sad if they lived in boxes...