What do you think will happen to your dolls in 20 years time?

i've never really wanted kids before, but getting back into this hobby makes me want someone to pass my collection onto in the future. i'm just 18 though, so at 38 i think i'll still be into dolls/toys/miniatures and all of the work that goes into them! i have been into dolls and tiny things ever since i was little and working/playing with them has always been an incredibly relaxing hobby for me.

 

Ahahaha, asking this question of myself makes me feel old. Like, this is the sort of thing young people worry about before they settle their lives down.

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, my life will probably be much the same twenty years from now. Same house, same wife. Maybe a different job. Different cats for sure, but I can't see myself cat-less. Or doll-less, for that matter.

Twenty years from now, I think my dolls will still be with me. I don't know how resin ages over the long term. Will they become fragile, like my mother's childhood stuffed animals? Or will they simply all turn cream colored?

Maybe they'll have some 3D printed brothers and sisters by then. Hell, maybe "smart dolls" will take off and they're have robotic friends! Just look at how far cellphones and laptops have come in twenty years. I can't wait to see what kinds of advances we make in the future.

 

Agreed, GammaVector, this seems like a late adolescent anxiety about changing into a no-fun fuddy duddy. In 20 years, as long as I'm above ground, I'm still gonna be me. So I'll probably still have some toys running around my house, whether bjds or whatever futuristic thing supplants them. Even if your interests change, that's okay! If we only did things we knew we'd sustain for 20 years or more, we wouldn't do much, would we?

If I die, I know my partner will sell them for the best price. He'll probably say they're all haunted, though.

 

I already have my first bjd for 10 years and 9 years for the second so I'm almost there. I still see myself collecting dolls and sure this ones will have yellowed but I will love them just the same. I think there will have more cool features for bjds in the future and is exciting to think about it.

 

They'll still be with me, hopefully! I have no intention to stop collecting. ;3 Provided we don't fall on hard times that would force me to sell, by that time the kiddo will be moving out and I'll be able to turn his room in to a craft room. ~

I wonder how many I'll have by then?

 

Considering I have my old cabbage patch kid from 1984 that I got when I was a kid, I don't think any of my dolls will be leaving me anytime soon. Since my ball-jointed dolls have shelled some characters that have existed in my mind for over ten years, they're more important to me than most of my other dolls.

I may re-shell a couple, but most of them have 0 chance of leaving my possession while I'm still alive.

 

This is a really interesting question. I will probably still have at least 2 or 3. I like to hang on to things that mean something to me. They may live in a box ( like my drawing table I have no room for) but they will be with me. Whats scary is how big it will get before then lol. Maybe I will be the neighborhood "crazy doll lady". hehehe

 

In 20 years I will be 56 years old. Who knows what will have happened to me by then. Hopefully I will still be around and collecting and filling up a room with dolls and their stories. Maybe by then the dolls will be made out of some space age crazy compound that doesn't yellow and never dents, stains, or breaks. My husband is in the plastic industry and he knows all the new additives they put into the plastics so it's not out of the realm of possibility.

 

I figure my resin crew will be more yellow, with the exception of Chloe, who is one of Bobobie's green dolls. I'm not sure how she'll age, but I figure she'll fade more than anything. I also predict that my dolls will have a few dings and scuffs by that time, and probably a few of them will have received a new face-up. I strongly doubt that any of them will be departing the group unless something pretty major happens.

 

I’m sure they’ll just be more yelIow and older looking(just the resin) but I seriously just hope the resin won’t chip

 

I mean, hopefully I'll still have them and I can keep them looking basically okay. I've had one vinyl play doll for about 18-19 years now and while she doesn't look anywhere near new, she still looks good. (Gosh. That doll is old enough she could drive and hold down a summer job and go to school with me by now. I really should make her start paying rent...)

 

I’d say mine will mostly be here and probably there will be a lot more!

 

They will probably be more yellowed & will go to auction to benefit the local animal shelter. I'll be in my 80s & hope to keep some until the end but by then, the end will be approaching soon. Can't take them with you & I don't really know any young BJD collectors to bequeath them to. All I can hope for is that their new guardians love them.

 

Well in 20 years I'll be mid 50s. I haven't grown out of dolls yet so I don't see it happening in the future. I'll either still be happily playing with them or have them stashed away in boxes - unless I need to sell for financial reasons, which would be sad but survivable. My kids will be grown then and might want to take one or two - or might be desperate to get away from mum's freaky doll collection!

One thing I've noticed is that as time goes on, my new doll characters get older - so my first doll is still a student, but my current story is about a struggling single mum and the character I'm about to shell is a divorced witch in her early 30s. As my own life story progresses I wonder if that will keep happening and whether I'll get frustrated with the lack of age diversity on offer from doll companies - whether I'll want characters that reflect me and my peers. Not sure.

 

I just start collecting BJD, still not sure what will happen. I imagine that I will have a room decorated with dolls than as time progress as I grow more mature and having my own family. I will become less attached to some of them and sell them and keep few that I absolutely love and treasure them till I die.

 

I hope I will continue to play with dolls in 20 years, I will keep them, and can receive my dream dolls, I will show them.

 

In 20 years I may no longer be alive, and the dolls, if I have not kept them up, will end up in a cardboard box on a curb I am thinking. Maybe one, or two will get kept.

But if I do not keep their elastic renewed and their face up, hair, clothes, etc. appealing, no one will want the burden of doing that when I am gone. I notice that my fairyland dolls for instance, that are 5 to 7 years old now, all need new elastic, their string has lost all its elasticity by now, and the dolls flop around, unable to hold even the simplest pose ( never would have thought that of Fairyland dolls 5 years ago )

I know that, to other people, the dolls will merely be: heavy, burdensome, yellowed pieces of resin - if I don't keep them pretty and poseable, so that people after me will see the appeal of them.

 

I have a teddy bear I bought myself when I was 19. I love it very much. I don’t have any toys or stuffies from my childhood for reasons but I have that teddy bear! In 20 years, I’m sure I will still have my dolls and other weird assortment of collectibles I have right now with a few additions here and there. I don’t have my first BJD yet but I am very sure I will still have her in 20 years. Once I’m gone, who knows? Maybe I will want to be cremated with my favorites, maybe my kid will want them or whatever grandchildren that may exist - I’ve not thought that far ahead yet. If I were to die before I’m a cranky old lady (I just know I will be a curmudgeon) I won’t really care what happens to my possessions because I won’t be here anymore.

 

It seems like this question has (at least) two possible frames. 1., do we think our collections are likely to have any long-term value as collectible or art objects, and 2., what do we think will happen to our personal dolls in precisely 20 years.

I'm old enough to have experienced a few cycles of collectibles, and I think it works pretty much the same all over:
unless you collect currency or legit jewels, there's no collection that will retain consistent value. Any bjds from this era that are uniquely valuable in two decades' time will be novelties for some reason or the other, and the overwhelming majority of the dolls currently available on the market will only be valuable to the people with an emotional attachment to their particular doll.

And that's okay. We collect what we like so that we can enjoy it in the time we have. Chances are, the hypothetical children and grandchildren mentioned here will not want our dolls. Most of us haven't preserved the collections of things that were important to our grandparents. (I certainly didn't feel any ancestral obligations towards my Grandmother's mountain of TV Guides.) So it's probably safe to assume that the true value in most bjds is in our personal interactions with them.

Mine may still be in my possession in 20 years. I've kept dolls for longer. But whether they are in my hands or someone else's, I would imagine that they are simply going to be providing ambient beauty and interest in a quiet corner.

 

Im hoping to pass my dolls down to my daughter to pass down to hers and so on