What originally got you into BJDs? - Pt.2

I have never owned a doll. I bought a doll house for my granddaughter this Christmas, and although she loved it and the Barbie dolls, I felt that they all just looked cheap and ugly. So I went to the internet and found Greenleaf doll houses. I built a small one for practice, then was not happy with the cheapness. While buying a blueprint for an enormous mansion, lol, I came across a picture of HER. Iplehouse Mari. That's when I thought, hm. My granddaughter can wait until I die to get this doll!! I want it for myself! I had never heard of bjd before. I read what I could find and thought how cool is that? Then I remembered an old memory, 50 years ago. I had been given a doll when I was 4 and the first thing I did was take it apart because I told my mom if I had some string I could make it's arms and legs move. Probably why I never got a doll again. Anyhow, these dolls are so inspiring, because they need clothes and palaces and jewelry and just everything. And I love to craft everything. I can't make anything as beautiful as Mari, though.

 

I have always been interested in dolls when I was a kid, so any doll I see, I fancy. Way back 2008, I was innocently looking through eraser collections (yes those cute little erasers that look like food) when I stumbled on a picture of a Pullip and thought that I really like it. But I discovered something better that pullips and that is BJDs. I was in complete awe. I knew that moment I wanted to have one day and several years later i'm finally getting one. ;; v ;;

 

came across them online and I just started to want to get it more as time passes ;; v ;;

 

I saw a glass cabinet with them at Anime Expo 2006 I believe it was, plus a few people walking around with them. Instantly hooked. X__X

 

Ironically, I always hated dolls growing up. I would melt them, dismember them, or otherwise modify them (I still have a gold spray painted Barbie torso with a fake flower in its neck hole that I made when I was ten). But in middle school, one of my friends at the time showed me pictures of her Minifee girl. I was enamored with how beautiful she was. I had always thought typical dolls were creepy and ugly, but I was blown away by her delicate expression (not some never-ending plastered-on smile). I was hooked. I went online and looked around to see if I could find that doll (alas, Minifees were waaaay out of my thirteen-year-old budget). I ended up on Luts' site somehow, and fell in love with the Kid Delf Cherry girl. She was much more affordable, but even with the dog walking and babysitting money I'd saved up, I couldn't afford her. So I asked my mom if I could loan some money from her. Turned out that she was saving up so I could go on this huge camping trip hosted by my school for students when the school year culminated. I figured, no biggie, I'll just save up some more for her. Well, I ended up getting really sick shortly thereafter, and it got to the point where my health was quite tenuous at best. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and told that I was too ill to be able to attend that camping trip. My mother felt terribly for me, and she ordered me that Kid Delf Cherry girl with the money she'd been saving up for my camping trip, as a surprise. I've long moved beyond being enthralled with Cherry's sad puppy eyes (I'm an Unoa addict now), but I can't bring myself to part with her because of the sacrifice my mom made for me when I was ill, even though she'd been struggling all year to even save up for the much cheaper camping trip.

Wow, I'm sorry for how long and rambling this is!

 

I had liked Monster High girls, later was one of the first fans of Ever After High, saw when the first few episodes came out, I always got a new doll of on of them them for Christmas. Even though I am 16 my collection has still never shrunk. Although I noticed that i didn't really 'play' with them I just displayed them, always into crafting and sewing I began to wonder if I could do more with them than just buy an dress them up in different outfit for display. I began to wonder if I should get rid of them and 'grow up' but //i loved them too mush, I decided that I would practice sewing on them; "yes, that would make them useful," I thought. So, I began to lookup sewing tutorials on Youtube, in my search I found doll customization videos. Dollightful videos were my favorite, from a few videos turned to binging, from Dollightful I watched others eventually I found the face up channel Niki's Dreams who repaints Monster high and Fairyland Minifees. The boll jointed dolls reminded me of Rozen Maidens, who introduced me to the idea that dolls can be for display and can be beautiful and elegant, not just tacky or creepy. I saw the minifees but their price turned me away from looking at any dolls again for several months. Yet, as I fell down the doll costomization hole I found Smart Dolls and Danny Choo, I was in love. Everything about the dolls I loved I desperatly wanted them and was reaserching them all the time, looking at them I couldn't find much specifics so i learned about the SD size. From there I continued looking and reaserching, eventually I found Youtuber Swandzz (Sarah, or Pint Sized Palace). Swandzz leaped me into the world of BJDs, and I was blown away I fell in love with the hobby and so desired to be a part of the comunity. From there I contuned and do continue to fall in love deeper and deeper, with so many aspects of the hobby that just seemed perfect for me, it was all my hobbies wraped into one, it IS perfect, i have never have and don't think i will ever look back. Basically Youtube made me fall in love.

 

Probably the Pullipstyle forum (RIP) when it was still active and I was still posting on it. Either that...or when I met a local Pullip collector awhile back (around 2007-2008) who also happened to have a MSD. Either way, I have to blame Pullips for getting me into the bjd hobby somehow

 

I was just like @Read It And Weep , I hated dolls when i was a kid. I was the only daughter in the family. In order to play with my brothers, i play with cars and legos and plastic bubble guns. I was (and maybe still) a tomboyish girl.
I love taking pictures, but find it boring or need a subject to take pics with during my everyday life. And one day, I was tumblr-ing, and found fairyland's bjds, and I kept clicking, and browsing, and eventually researching and adopting them, one by one.
That's when I fell in love with bjds or dolls ever since.

 

Well a friend introduced me to this hobby. She bought one and gushed to us about him. Then my sister found a doll she really liked so we talked about it together and ended up coming up with a concept for the doll (that will be made a reality some time in the future). And then I got curious so I asked her to tell me more about it, went to a doll meet up with here, and well here I am some months later.
Still very new to this hobby but it's going to start getting real to me when I finally get a doll o.o

 

I really don't know, I'd think it was because I found volks when I was a kid, but maybe it was because I had collected other types of dolls.

 

Well, I loved anime a lot, grew up on it and always searched for things relating to it. One day I just stumbled upon pullips. I wan't a big fan, but the concept was really cool. After seeing those types of dolls, I would search for them on google, stumble upon a picture of a bjd and then find out really what they were. Little did I know how much they were :,)

 

At the beginning, I found photographies of super cute realistic dolls on internet. With a little bit of search, I found out about BDJs and immediately fell in love with them!!!

 

I love playing with dolls ever since I was young. I came across bjds when i was browsing tumblr one day and fell in love with them. I started doing research and reading up about them. finally after a few years of discovering them i got my first doll and thats how my obsession with bjd grew.

 

Dolls.

Dolls got me into more dolls. Barbie was my gateway drug. (Still love ya, Babs!)

 

Well... I've always loved dolls! So, I looked at a YouTuber named myfroggystuff (check her out she has a ton of great tutorial diys for barbies but can be good for bjds if you make em bigger ;3) and fell deeply in love with her. I then saw one of her videos about her Pullip dolls.I fell in love with em and started looking up stuff about them. Then one day, I stumbled upon Andreja a.k.a nicole's dreams. Fell in love with bjds and then boom! xp

 

I came across some Pullips as I was looking at some sailor moon merchandise. Thought they were the cutest things ever! Did more digging and found the bjd community

 

It was actually azones first, and then it was Andreja's beautiful chloes.

 

Back when I was in middle or high school, I came across BJD's on Deviantart. I had little to no money back then, and I would've been a bit embarassed if my family or friends found out I had bought an expensive doll so I eventually forgot about my desire to buy a bjd.

Now that I've graduated college and bought my own house, I can do whatever the heck I want with my own money, so I bought my first bjd last year!

 

I had played with dolls when I was little of course, but my mother shamed me in to giving them up when I was eleven or so. I had loved sewing for them. It left a hole in my life somehow. Decades later, in my mid 40's , a friend showed me her BJD. It was like being struck by lightning. I was possessed by the desire for one. I am a complete Luddite, I did not know how to use a computer or drive. I learned, It took me a year to find THE doll I wanted and to save $$$ for him. He was an Elfdoll Mir, a decade later, he is still with me and I have acquired nine others.

 

in 2006 I saw an owner photo of a Cerberus Project El on a different forum (it was not DOA) and thought he was really cool and pretty. So I started to do some research to learn all about BJDs.