What originally got you into BJDs? - Pt.2

Oh wow gaia online talk about a blast from the past!lol. Also I redo the faces on vintage porcelain dolls so they look less creepy and more alive haha.

 

I have met a lot of good people there. A few of my really good friends are there. Anyway, you do? Mind showing me a few pics? I'd love to see some non creepy ones.

 

I was in highschool. Back at the time when Friendster was still a thing, I stumbled upon this profile who uses a beautiful picture, and I was surprised to find out that it was a doll. So I did my research and bam! Ever since then, owning a bjd has been one of my life goals.

 

I was definitely introduced to BJD’s through Andreja’s faceup stories on YouTube, and from there my obsession just grew! I watched her channel for YEARS before doing any real research on them, but once I started looking into them I fell in love.

 

I had been interested in custom dolls for years, and was searching ebay for OOAK male dolls, came across a Volks Neo Go Guy, searching for more info on him lead to finding BJDs.

 

I started out collecting Japanese wooden Kokeshi dolls and then discovered other traditional Japanese dolls and did a google search for ‘Japanese dolls’ . Many of the pictures were of these beautiful dolls that were unlike anything I’d seen before, so I started researching. BJD’s completely captured my imagination with their ability to be customized. This was seven years ago!

 

Saw someone at a convention hefting around their SD-sized doll in full Japanese regalia. Being a Barbie modder I had to ask about such a gorgeous, poseable, customizable doll. And got snubbed because the doll was just too expensive - "If you have to ask, then you can't afford it" type snobbery. It put me off a lot, but over the years I'd write and want something stronger to visualize my characters that eventually I started looking for customizable dolls and ended up on the LUTS homepage, just yearning for one. When I did get lucky and was gifted with my first, I decided that with some budgeting, this hobby could be for me after all.

 

Ewww, that's a shame. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with a person like that. But I'm glad that someone gifted you your first doll! That's really awesome!

 

I admired ball-jointed antique French fashion dolls for years because of their pose-ability. I never bought one, though, due to price and scarcity and not wanting an antique. Years ago, I saw a tiny black and white photo of a Volks Super Dollfie in a doll magazine. The price was - I think - $3000. I thought I'd never be able to afford that doll.
Well...times change and I have a Volks SD and she didn't cost anywhere near $3000.

 

I followed a link years and years ago and came to the Soom site. I was impressed, but didn't really want to spend that kind of money on something I assumed would disappear into a closet because I had no idea what I would do with it. That's how I found out. I didn't go back for years and just let the thought go. It wasn't until much later through another site that I spotted a doll I couldn't resist.

 

I learned about ball-jointed dolls from Barbie, believe it or not. I was leafing through an issue of Barbie Bazaar and saw an early advertisement for Volks' Super Dollfies. The price was way out of my reach (and truthfully it still is), but I never forgot that article and the ethereal faces of those dolls.

 

I was searching for jointed dolls, but in 20 cm for the modelhorse hobby. The first BJD I saw was a Ducan. I just fell in love, but thought he was just crazy expensive. But that face - OMG!

Then I detected Iplehouse EIDs, who were even more expensive. For about one and a half year I told myself that I really do not such an expensive toy. In the end, my hubby told me I should try them and get such a doll (guess he was curious himself). So I decided to go for a slightly less expensive option - a first generation Granado. In the end, I was not too thrilled with his body and sold it. But I kept his head and still have him. So that's how it all started. I really like that there is much less pressure (in the modelhorse hobby, you have competitions. In order to win, you really have to present something new every time. And if make almost everything yourself, this is very stressful. So in the end, I quit it.).

 

a youtube video about loongsoul tortoise sculpts made me interested in this hobby

 

A neighbor of my best friend posted photos of her Pukifee on Facebook and I loved it so much but I was super discouraged by the price so I forgot about it for about 5ish years. For whatever reason that little Pukifee popped into my head again and I looked into bjds every few months for the next year until I finally bought my first two dolls.

 

I found out as a teenager through the anime Rozen Maiden... when I found out that those dolls actually exist I wanted one immediately But after years and years I still don't have one ><

And I was on Gaiaonline as well around that time but I didn't see any talk of the BJD back then. The memories, I had more friends on that website than on facebook and I actually liked and talked with all of them xD

 

I collected reborn dolls and my old friend started to talk about BJDs, at first I didn't like them at all because of the dolls she was showing me weren't my thing. Then I started to explore them more and stumbled over Iplehouse and Luts then looked at what others could do with their dolls.
And boom my obsession was born and I completely fell in love with them. I loved the creativity and possibilities of the dolls depending on what the owner wanted to do with them.
Then I saw the fantasy dolls and I was gone lol.

 

I was building a dollhouse -- something I'd wanted to do my whole life -- and was searching for better-looking dolls to live in the house. I ended up on a blog where someone had built a modern dollhouse and put mature tiny BJDs in it, and I was intrigued enough to look them up.

Their prices prevented me from buying them for a while, but eventually I convinced myself

 

I started out just looking at pretty pictures of the "dollfies" on the internet when they were just starting to boom. I think I was in my mid to late teens and I wanted one more than anything at the time. My parents shut me down of course, what with the high price point and all. So I'd pretty much written them off and kind of forgot about them until just recently.

This came about because one of my roommates showed me this video of a Monster High doll repaint and it was really, really neat and I wanted to do it so I've been talking about wanting to get my hands on some Monster/Ever After High dolls so I could try and repaint them myself but haven't quite gotten my hands on any yet.

And just the other day I was talking to a friend of mine who saw all my "I want to repaint dolls!" posts and asked if I'd like one of their dolls. ;o; Which the dolls they were offering turned out to be some very beautiful BJDs which got me all back into them again. XD

And now here we are.

 

The year was 2000, I was on dial up at my parent's farm and spent my nights looking at Japanese fashion blogs. There was a girl with a doll in a matching dress that was really cute and I was curious. After a few hours searching I was hooked on these really expensive ultra customizable dolls as my hobby was customizing basically every toy I could get my hands on. A couple months later my parents got me a Volks MSD kit cause I was into building models and that seemed like a good idea. It wasn't, but it worked out in the end.

 

I actually collect other types of action figures, movie replicas, and such. But the one thing that always frustrated me was that big mass produced dolls never seemed to embody the characters I had come to love quite the way I wanted to, or they would focus on the characters I didn't like at all. Haha. So I was determined to find a way to make my own custom, OOAK doll of some of my favorite characters and bjds let me do that. I'm in the process now of shelling one of my favorite video game characters!