What originally got you into BJDs? - Pt.2

I can’t remember exactly how I found them but I stumbled onto Dream of Doll’s site and fell in love with them. I didn’t understand how to order them and couldn’t figure out how to get the dolls with face ups, wigs, and clothes. It was intimidating and so was the price since I was just a high schooler. I went looking for other dolls but at the time it wasn’t a savvy international online shopper so I just gave up ever hoping to own one. It’s funny how easy it was to figure out now.

 

I think for me it's the same as for many others: The Internet got me into BJDs first. Some other situations worked together and made me decide then.

When I was a kid, I used to sew outfits for my Bratz-Dolls because the sold outfits in store were too expensive for me - so I already liked getting creative in that way.
Then back in 2011 I watched a person on deviantART who did face-ups for these plasic dolls from Monster High and other Mattel-Toys. I thouhgt it's interesting to draw something on them instead of keeping the often times rather simple and a Little "cheap"-looking company-dollfaces.
Later when I started looking into the topic I got "related" stuff recommended and saw beautiful BJDs on deviantART and other Websites, too. The photos always were so artistic and like "real" model-shootings.

Then over the last year lots of things came together. I made a new friend and she has a huge BJD and showed me that she made her face-up and Tattoos on her own. And when I saw Smartdolls (I know they're not BJDs by now) at a huge Anime/Mangaconvention I got even more fascinated by the possibilities of outfits and stuff because I realized that it's not just "Buying a Doll and stuff for it and put it on a shelf".
I usually spend my time drawing on paper, not dolls, but when I found out about face-ups and body-blushing and, sewing own clothes and all the other creative aspects of BJDs I thought it might be something I might think about investing some money into... somewhen.

But I wasn't actually "into" the hobby because I always considered BJDs to be too expensive... even though I know that there's lot of time and effort put into the parts by the BJD-creators I didn't plan to actually spend my money on them - also because I was way too insecure to order something from an online-store for THAT amount of money. I just don't trust online-shopping enough...
So it was still nothing I actually wanted to buy... until an online-friend decided to sell some to get new ones and my birthday was coming up so I decided to get one of hers as a present for myself - with the help of my Fiancé who didn't need to worry about getting a gift then xD

 

I ran into Volks dolls on e-bay while looking for more traditional-style japanese items. I was never really a doll person, but when I realized they could be customized, my interest was piqued. So I looked into them and ended up with a handful of the regular 1/6 Dollfie and Obitsu dolls first. But I kept thinking a larger doll would be more interesting to have, and finally decided I could spend the money to get my first resin, a Dollzone Yuu. I thought I'd have two, maybe three at most back then. I had no idea how they would end up multiplying.