Try Before You Buy??

I didn't get to see any until I went to a con. I was in BJD cosplay, and a lady asked me to hold her dolls so she could take our picture. It was amazing!! I would've ordered mine anyway, but this was the first time I got see in person. I remember especially liking how heavy they were.
I used to think they were SD, just from my memory of how much they weighed, but I got to hold a big SOOM at a meet a couple weeks ago, and now I think they were MSDs...big dolls are so fun to hold!! That said, I only have slim MSDs that don't weigh very much...someday, I will get bigger dollies!!

 

To say I started from my initial temptation by pullips. From there I wanted something bigger.I seen BJDs for many years but the BJD people are really what I say hmm, elusive. As such I never really touch one before I bought my first one. My first one was off the shelf so technically I know what I am getting and see it before getting haha. There after is another story :p

Today I have 3 large dolls and 2 tinies haha.

 

I had never even seen a BJD outside of pictures on the internet, let alone holding one, before i got my first. There's very few people in my state that own them, let alone my area, and i didn't go to any conventions at that stage. The best i could do was to compare his measurements to things i owned to try get an idea of how big he was.

 

I hadn't seen a BJD in person, ever, before I got my first doll. I don't know why I didn't attend any meets...but anyway, I had seen plenty of photos, even before I knew DoA existed. ^_^ I knew I wanted one.

When my first girl arrived, the thing that most surprised me was her weight. I had read about it in a few threads and was expecting it, but it still came as a surprise! I had ordered an MSD. Of course, my perception of her weight changed drastically when I felt my friend's 70 CM. :O She was like a feather!

Past that though, my next observation was in what seemed like the major care she had been packed with. Laid out neatly within the box, hands protected, face wrapped and a plastic protector over that. The infamous "doll candy" pillow was lovely too. So neat and pretty. It was certainly a charming experience.

 

I had been interested in dolls a few years ago, but they had drifted off my radar for awhile because I couldn't afford them. Then I went to Otakon this year and got to see a few people's dolls and fell back into love so hard! I ordered my first doll less than a month later. ^-^ Getting to see the dolls in person can be really inspirational.

 

Well, I cannot speak for me, since I don't have my doll yet. But one of my friend fell in love with a SD sculpt and brought it, despite never having touched a BJD first.

Oh boy, she was surprised when she saw him. He's so tall and all legs. She was also quite perplexed by the blank head.

Since it's an american compagny, she never saw any owner face, and well, she kept looking at him strangely, trying to imagine how the make-up could make such a difference in the personnality of the doll.
She still love him to bits. XD Even when she's cursing at him for having his legs in the way. (The entire scene is quite amusing in my opinion)

 

Living in Colorado I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Denver Doll and see for myself. I was so skeptical of them at first. My best friend kept showing me pictures and of course I thought they were beautiful but couldn't grasp the concept of their price!! I just couldn't imagine anything could be worth that much money. Finally she took me to Denver Doll and we got to see them in person. I about died!! That same day we both ordered our first dolls! XD
Of course now I think most dolls are totally worth it! And I find the periods of saving up for a doll and waiting for it really heighten the enjoyment I get from them when they actually arrive!

 

Considering that the first doll I ever saw was a MSD, is still didn't prepare me for the SD17 or the YOSD. I never actually got to see a doll around those sizes so I was still very surprise when I got mine. The weight, I assume, would be a number one shocker for me. I still didnt know what the difference was about resin and regular plastic but now I know all that

 

I had never seen or held one in person. Someone who had become a close and trusted friend in deviantArt had her first 1/3 doll. She had a gallery of the little 1/6 Barbie size dolls that she customized.

I was applying for an art grant and described using BJDs and that was part of what I requested the money for. My friend decided to sell her big girl to me. She was prettier in person that in the pictures! This was an Angel of Dream Qian. She bought the body second hand blank.
She told me it was a Zi Yuan ~ which meant nothing to me anyway. And those dolls are very close. I had to keep looking up what the abbreviations stood for to remember the name.

I thought this was all pretty amazing, and the rest is some crazy history for me. I now have a large range of dolls, [already].

 

I was actually lucky enough to have a fellow collector lend one of his dolls to me before I got any of my own, which was fantastic.
However, I was so uber careful with him that I barely ever posed him because I was afraid he'd break
so I was still surprised how posable and sturdy they can be when I got my own dolls. And how hard it is to dress them, depending on the body and the type of clothing you've chosen. Geez, super-tight pants + turtlenecks~