What originally got you into BJDs? - Pt.2

It's been so long so I can hardly remember! I admired them for years, but only just became involved.
My introduction was just through instagram, I believe! Big accounts like elfgutz, as I'm sure everyone can relate to lol
Recently it's been youtubers like swandzz and sighthoundlady !!!!

 

I’ve always played with dolls growing up and when I got too old to play with them, I changed to sewing clothes and designing dress for barbies. I always wanted a doll that has articulate body and moveable joints, but never knew they existed. I coveted Tyler Gene dolls as well.
Then 8 years ago, I came across a HZ Roro on deviant art and learned it was a BJD. I was curious, well, that was the rabbit hole for me. I fell right in. I got my first 2 BJDs and rest is history. So, deviant art was what pointed me to the hobby.

 

I watched craft videos for the longest time after graduating from High School (for some reason seeing people build a dollhouse from packaged materials gave me a weird satisfaction). Then one of Andreja's, who goes by the username Nicolle's Dreams on YouTube, face-up videos appeared on my recommended feed. It was the butterfly design, and I found it extremely beautiful and intriguing, so I looked through the rest of her content. Once I realised what BJDs were, how much more high-quality they were compared to regular dolls and action figures and that they were unironically made for adults with higher artistic tastes, I was hooked.

 

I started seeing them on DeviantArt and it was just so inspiring to see people make the dolls into their own characters like that. I thought 'I have to have one!'. It was a while before I actually committed and bought one, but the passion started on DA first.

 

My best friends collect them! They are the ones who introduced me to the hobby and even bought me my first doll from the market place on this site. I was really grateful for that.

 

I was at gaming with a friend who had just gotten a doll of her character. That was... 2008? I remember holding out b/c the price scared me, but then I couldn't wait anymore. xD NO REGRETS!

 

I think I saw one some years ago on Tumblr, but wasn't interested at the time. Then, a couple years ago, I was watching ASMR videos and searching for "unintentional" ASMR. A MH repaint artist video was recommended to me, and I was impressed. That video led me to Andreja/Nicolle's Dreams' channel, and her BJDs.

 

Back in 2009 I was really into anime figure blogs, and one of those blogs eventually posted about buying bjds (especifically dollfie dreams) and I've admired them and wanted one ever since

 

My daughter introduced me to BJDs back in 2011. She wanted me to buy her one but I could'nt see spending $400.00 for a doll! Of course I did buy her a doll (Resinsoul Gang) and then I had to buy a doll too (Resinsoul Li) and the rest is history! Needless to say I have spent a lot more than $400.00 for a single doll!

 

Sometime around 2009 I saw one on Deviantart, but didn’t know what it was, just that I’d seen a boy too pretty to be real. It would have been late that year when I stumbled across a doll meet in progress at an anime con, but was far too shy to go up and talk to the owners. I still remember they had a 70cm guy standing up on a coffee table and the feeling of utter shock I felt as to how enormous and stunning he was. (Maybe that had more influence on me than I realize- my first was 70cm and it’s still my favourite size.)

I then made the connection that what I’d seen online was ‘one of those’, somehow found out what they were called and began to stalk them. I pined for about a year, found DoA, pined some more, saved up and bought my first in 2011.

 

Started with Pullips and obitsus, which led me to denverdolls website back in ~2009. Discovered there was the hobby that would follow me for 9 years and drain my wallet for all it was lol

 

I learned about them from an ex best friend in about 2012 I think? I forget the year. She was REALLY into Ducan from DoD, and then my first doll love became Twing-Key's full set.

I didn't get my first doll till this year. XD

 

I don't remember exactly how, as it's been 13 years and my memory is, well, bad, lol. I just remember searching for dolls, finding Dream of Doll's website, and immediately falling in love with Sha. I found Angell-Studio and Volks shortly after that.

 

The first time I saw one was at an AWA Lolita panel. The lady running the panel had one on the table. I didn’t think much of it at the time until I saw a super Dollfie issue of Haute Doll the next year. That’s when I became interested in the dolls in 2005.

 

Hmm, I think it was 2014? I was at a Japanese street festival in DC and there was a booth displaying all kinds of dolls, and there was one gorgeous MSD amid all the little traditional dolls. Of course I had no idea what it was and the booth manager just told me it was a resin doll. Probably a year later I spotted one on DeviantArt and went "ohhh it's one of those!" Bought doll #1 in 2016.

 

I was on a doll message board called Prego. It was primarily for fashion dolls that there was one collector in particular that had one of the original Volks super Dollfie that she referred to as her alien.
Then a few other people started popping up with dolls of their own a couple of people had custom house choa's and sia's. Then cereburus project came out with lishe. And about that time I started filing away pictures of various ball jointed dolls that I found although I didn't make my first purchase until around 2007. I think.

 

i remember the first time I came across bjd was in the early 2000s looking through a book called the ‘new york look book’. it was mostly just photographs of street fashion, but there was one girl who they photographed primarily because she was walking around with an sd boy!

they were wearing matching hoodies and coordinated outfits, and in her interview she said that she was a fashion student who made most of both of their clothes. it called out to me as a super creative hobby that attracted a really unique group of people. i wound up not taking real steps to join the hobby until recently, but the image of that girl and her doll really stuck with me.

 

I belive that I first saw bjds waaaaay back in 2004 when I was doing research on Lolita fashion.

I found a picture of two Japanese girls dressed in Lolita dressed carrying a doll in their arms.

At the time I was fascinated by the sheer size of a doll that was certainly bigger than the average doll. The memories

 

Wait! Are you from southern California? My story is similar! I still think it's so strange and have never been able to find the article again! The newspaper was the Orange County Register, I do remember that much, though this was certainly before local papers published online so maybe that's why no one ever typed it up to archive it digitally.
I remember my mother telling me to read this article about a doll craze in Japan and at first I thought "it's probably limited quantity action figures or something hiking the prices up" but no it was customizable dolls, and a few years later, Tenshi No Sumika opened in Torrance.

Do any other Californians remember this newspaper article? I never thought I'd hear about it again so this is such a blast from the past!