What originally got you into BJDs?

Watching anime is one of my hobbies since I was 14 or so, It's already 8 years ago. So you see them once in a while if you go to conventions. But actually I didn't find them that attractive. Then I saw that there were a lot of different kinds and I wanted to try how it felt. Though I have two 1/6 obitsu's. I think I'll never buy any big ones, that's not my type.
What I like about m is that you can customise 'm and make real 'characters'. Also.. they're just cute, don't you think?

 

First time i saw BJD is by accident, i was googling a link about real human size doll (AV type) for a joke to a friend :p
I found BJD instead, i was fascinated by the doll..but tried to ignore the temptation to buy it since it was expensive.
Couple years later i saw BJD picture in Livejournal, and at that time i got money from my part-time job, looked for a beautiful model for my photo, and loved how they could be customized and much more flexible.
So i used my summer vacation bonus to buy my first bjd ...and then some throughout the years...

 

A friend of mine attends and works conventions with me and brought along some of her dolls. (Dollfie Dream) I have collected dolls since childhood, but initially told myself that I didnt *need* a doll right now.

About 3 conventions later, I put in for the doll lottery and will receive a DDDy Miu sometime this month. I am really quite excited about it!~

 

deviantart. uling and half jak were major contributers to my wanting a bjd !

http://uling.deviantart.com/
http://half-jak.deviantart.com/

 

When I was a part of an anime art forum called Bakaneko back in the day (around 2003), somebody posted a link to a personal site that had photos of some of the most gorgeous dolls I had ever seen outside of Barbies. That website had a link to where he/she got the dolls from, Dream of Doll. I was smitten by how a doll could be so customizable. Then I learned that you had to pay about $300 before shipping for a 42cm, naked, shoeless, blank doll with random eyes and hair and it would take months to get to your house. I wondered why, for that price, couldn't they just have sent you the doll as it looked in the photos, with the pretty wig, fullset clothing, perfect faceup and glass eyes? I gave up on them for a while.

Came back to looking at these dolls in late 2006 after I had earned some money and now I have 14 dolls: one is from DoD and two more of the one I had looked at back in 2003 are in production at the time of this posting.

 

Does anyone here know ACEO-cards? ( http://www.art-cards.org/ )
There also is a german forum for similiar cards, and there was a thread named "Picture-Show-Thread", or something like that, where you were supposed to post your favourite pictures.
Well, and one person posted a picture of a BJD (one of Dollmore... don´t remember which one though^^)
She was so beautiful... and as most of the people there drawed manga, I wasn´t the only one who fell in love with one of the dollmore-dolls. (There only was the link to this site, we didn´t know another company^^)
I particullarly fell in love with Zaoll Luv, and looked at her picture for ages, showed her to my mother (who, I think, thought I was crazy XD), etc.
And as the picture-thread got more and more OT with talking about some dolls, a know thread opened, just for discussing BJDs. And we also slowly found new companies.
Well, in the end I didn´t get a Luv (sadly shes just to big for me...), but I found BJDs^^
Would have been better for my wallet if I hadn´t looked in this picture-thread -_-

 

I bought the book "Japan Ai" when it first came out.
It made Volks dolls sound really good, so from there I used Google and erm..yeah. I really liked the photos I saw of these dolls.
Also, in it, it has a little biography section about Aimee Steinberger and it had a link to Den of Angels, so I went to the link and found cool photos here.

 

In my country I don't think there is anybody, or more than 10 people who knows about BJD! I saw them firstly on Flickr, many realistic and amazing photos made me cave for my 1st BJD. I mostly love the tinies, Pukifee, Lati Yellow sized ones, easier to photograph, carry with you and craft for them!
so, I think the tempting was owners' pics on the net, otherwise I couldn't see them around in my city/country...

 

I was always really into anime and manga, and I bought a book one day called Japan Ai, and BJDs were brought up in there. I was immediately hooked once I saw pictures of these dolls online. =]

 

Hello,

This is our first posting to DOA as we are new to the BJD crowd. Our family was shopping in a local mall here in San Antonio, Texas and we spotted a young gal carrying a couple of larger BJDs. Desirae was very interested in these dolls, enough to want to inquire of this young lady as to where she got her beautiful dolls. After she gave Desirae a few websites and her parents warned us of the cost associated with the dolls, we did some talking and decided to look into the lifestyle. Well, Desiraes first doll is a Bobobie (Isabella) and she has named her Kaylee. The two are in-seperatable. She has also made a new friend here in town, Mary and her Benji and she introduced us to DOA. We all hope to make many new friends and learn as much as possible about this family of BJD enthusiasts.

Robert and Desirae

 

I'd heard about "dolls" in general for a few years now. There were a few people I knew online who were either saving up for one, or already owned them. It wasn't until just a couple of months ago that I really got interested in the whole concept of the hobby. Eventually I ended up visiting the VolksUSA Showroom in California, and it was then that I knew I had to have my own doll (even if just one or two). That progressed into learning all the different types of dolls, what are and aren't considered BJDs, their prices, customization, etc. I invested into my first doll (a Pullip, which isn't a BJD; I know) about a month or so ago and now I'm saving towards my first Volks doll. Not sure which Volks doll I'm going to get, but I'm head over heels on the Yo-SD Girls. I'm pretty new to a lot of things, and I learn as I go. I want to be able to visit conventions, see other owner's dolls, and meet people locally with the same interest. We'll see what happens from here on out.

 

I've always liked dolls, but I didn't like the first bjds I saw - I'm not into anime and I don't particularly like the anime aesthetic of many of the dolls (big eyes, small lips, small pointed chin etc.) Then I saw a woman's website (now sadly no longer operating) with the most beautiful photo shoots, with wigs and dresses in baroque style she had made herself. The dolls were more realistic, and I fell in love. I joined this forum, investigated more companies than just Volks, and now a year after becoming interested my first doll is finally on her way.

 

I was curious about them yrs ago when I saw them at my first anime conventions (2003), but didn't really consider getting one until this summer when I bought some monster high dolls. I bought them with the intention to collect them for my daughter (when she's old enough to appreciate dolls) but I opened one up and ended up opening them all.
I couldn't really appreciate the joys of an articulated doll until I had one, now I'm all about getting myself a BJD.
I'm saving up for a couple of 60cm's. XD

 

To be honest, the manga Angelic Layer! (Well, that and Chobits!)
Angelic Layer is about 1/6 scale robotic, controlled with your mind, BJDs fighting in tournaments. Fully customizable and really cool!
Chobits is about human-esque robotic computers, customizable and pretty.
Both of these got me really jealous because I wanted one, and so I looked some stuff up and POOF! BJDs!
I've never really liked dolls, even in my youth, but something about all of these made me need to get one x3

 

I can't remember the first time i found out about BJDs. It in some way related to my interest in anime and manga. I remember when i was about 12/13 looking at a website with BJDs marveling at their beauty then seeing the prices and deciding to not even get more interested in them since i'd never be able to own one. Since then up until about June 2010 i paid no mind to BJDs or any dolls of that matter.

I was looking online at toysrus one day for plushies and i saw the Monster high friends doll plushies. Through them i found the regular monster high dolls and thought "hey these are kinda cute". So then i got one of the MH dolls. When i was looking online at MH stuff i came across people taking pictures of their MH dolls. It never dawned on me to take pictures of them. I simply got her to display on my computer desk and admire and dress up. I'm artistic but never had done any photography so i though why not?

Taking pictures of my MH dolls led me to more people who take pictures of their dolls which in turn led me to more dolls. I remember talking to my boyfriend about my MH doll saying how for an american doll they're pretty nice, still no where nearly as nice as those "fancy Japanese dolls". So with the photos i was seeing on flickr and my vague memory of once admiring Japanese dolls i discovered pullips.

I fell even more head over heels for pullips since they have much more clothing and customizable options and much more pose-ability and for that more photo-ability which now became one of my hobbies. In August i got my first pullip and got deeper and deeper into the dollie world.

Through the pullip sites and photos i was looking at i saw BJDs. It hit me. OH BJDs those were the "fancy Japanese dolls" i was originally thinking about. Along with these memories the memory of the prices came back to me too. For months i looked at pictures of BJDs and thought some were pretty, some were weird, and all were just too expensive. However a month ago the BJD bug bit me. I don't know why or how but i became very interested in them all of a sudden. I started looking at lots of sites and pictures of them and i fell in love. I recently ordered my first BJD a RS/BBB Mei. She's very pretty and a great price and i'm so glad to be part of this hobby now. I've never had a real "hobby" for myself and dolls have given me more joy than i imagined a hobby could.

 

can't describe it though..first time saw it on dannychoo.com and instantly fell in love..

 

I'm just starting out but I'm a collector of Pullip dolls and have always been interested in BJD's for a few years I just haven't been able to afford them and when I was younger, got put off by the waiting period XD but I'll hopefully be ordering some soon~

 

I had a similar experience...pretty photos on dA -> getting curious and looking up the dolls -> MUST HAVE.

The very first company I found out about was Luts... I spent many a hour looking at every single doll. And then when I found out that there were MORE companies that made them I all but exploded. XD

 

A friend on dA mentioned dollfies once, so I googled it and found Volks, looked through some pictures, and thought they were extremely creepy. XD Then like a year later I watched the anime Rozen Maiden about BJD-like dolls so while looking for dolls like them I re-discovered Volks, after a little research I found out about other companies and fell in love with Luts dolls >w<

That was two years ago when I was around 11 but I've still yet to get my first dolly D;

 

It was back when Luts was pretty much the main choice for dolls, or the trend anyway. I don't remember her name, but she had an El with blue hair named Kuja. I found her pictures while browsing dA once, and though 'Wow! Those are cool!'. About 5 years later and I finally got a doll that I love! XD