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What originally got you into BJDs?

Jan 19, 2010

    1. At roughly the same time, I came across BJDs in passing, and read a book for class (Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age) that made me want a doll of the main character. I've flirted with the hobby on and off for five years now, but I'm finally saving for my first dolls! They won't be that character, but she's still on my list.
       
    2. This is a really wonderful memory for me. What got me into BJDs my best friend in college. We used to hang around with a group of friends that had created an anime club on campus. I've always been into anime and video games like that as a kid (and too this day) and wanted to find people that were into the same things as well. It just so happened that AFTER we graduated from college we met up again at a local coffee shop. They were having a BJD doll meet. At the time I had no idea what they even were. My mother and I went and I was enchanted. I wanted one so bad. However, over the years I forgot about them and started other hobbies.

      In 2015 I thought about them again and got a great new job that allowed me to pretty much just throw money at an insane amount of things. So I decided, what the heck, I'll get a doll. Now I have three in hand and two on the way. My friend and I have fallen out of contact, not because we weren't great friends but when you move and do other things you just kind of fall off. However, I will be forever grateful for her and my other friends for introducing me to the dolls.
       
    3. For me, my partner was into them before I met her. At first I was a little unsure, more familiar with the quite common "dolls are creepy" prejudice. This quickly changed once I was able to get hands-on with her SD dolls. I was able to see how finely they are made, and my opinion moved to viewing them more like art than toys. They make a perfect focus for her talents of painting, sewing and photography, all combined, and has a large and respectful community to boot.

      I'm sold, and having just ordered my first doll, excited to join in!
       
    4. I came across a doll named Rei on dA, but didn't think of getting one, until I saw Amare Dolls' stand at MCM Comic Con Belgium, and totally fell in love with the hobby!
       
    5. hi all i just wanted to know what first got you into this hobby, was it an art perspective, curiosity or a collectors view?
       
    6. For me, I've been interested in bjds for a little while after reading Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto, as it mentions Volks. Curious, I looked it up and found them to be really pretty, but being in high school and having seen the price of them, I put them out of my mind and decided to stick to just admiring photos of them.

      Fast forward some years later, I started getting into Ever After High dolls, which led me to Pullip dolls, which exposed me to bjds again. I learned that there were more companies out there outside of Volks, and a friend of mine had some bjds of her own, and I became more enchanted by them. :)

      Eventually I found a picture of Luts' KDF Corni and I fell completely in love! She was the first bjd that made me really want to own one, so I saved up so I could get her. ^_^ I ended up getting her in April of last year, and I have been growing my collection slowly since then. xD
       
    7. I don't remember how I came across the term "bjd", but I remember that the first site I browsed was Dream of doll. I remember thinking "600 usd for a doll? No way". Also, at that time I didn't know anything about shipping and customs fees (I was more or less 15 yrs old), so thank God I "learnt the tricks of the hobby" recently, when I started my figure collection. I made up my mind one year ago and joined DoA and looked through all the new dolls until I found THE doll.
       
    8. I was just a really nerdy anime loving 6th grader at the time and i stumbled across fairylands page and the first doll that caught my eye was a minifee chloe that made my heart drop. i was hooked. i got her in my freshman year of high school and will continue to love her forever. now that i am in college it's nice to have something to cope with the stress
       
    9. A loooooong time ago (like, 2006) (I was 11) I was super interested in lolita fashion. Not that I had the ability to get in to it in any way, but, you know, young weebs gonna weeb. Well, I stumbled across a picture of a girl in an old school coord with a matching BJD. That, along with finding the Encyclopedia Dramatica (geeze, there's a name I haven't thought about in decades) article about Den of Angels, I found myself reading about BJDs. Somehow, I ended up on the Luts website, enamored by these pretty dolls but so off put by the price tag because I knew my mom would never buy me one. And you had to paint their faces YOURSELF? Or pay EXTRA? What do you mean they don't come with eyes!? I pushed the thought away...

      ...Then it resurfaced last year. I had just gotten in to collecting anime figures, and it just sort of happened. I fell in love with the Unoa Zero, I think, and began my descent deeper in to the hobby. Then I found Dollfie Dream, and knew this was the right hobby for me. I'm very happy my brain held on to this thing from a decade ago. :whee:
       
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    10. At first, I was into anime and fantasy, then I started to collect small dolls (like Monster High, Pullip, Momoko and others). At one of the doll meetings in our town I've met a girl who had many BJD. She invited me to her house and it was first time in my life when I saw BJD live. I thought that they're so huge and uncomfortable compared with small dolls) But with time I understood that BJD are very beautiful, they offer lots of possibilities for craft and art, you can make any character you want. So, I've bought my first BJD head and then bought a body for it. Now I have five BJD and I love them all very much)
       
    11. With me it was a love of dolls in general!
      I've loved dolls since I was a young lad & several years ago I got one as a gift/trade & though I sold him I've been gaining ground on my collection since late 2015 with five more boys coming...
       
    12. When I was smol, 10-11ish, I was very much into Tokio Hotel, and googled for everything I could to satisfy my fangirl greed. I stumbled over a blog called 'Puppenjungs' whose owner had custom bjds of Bill and Tom, even showed the dolls to them and such. I was very amazed, started looking around and soon collected a lot of knowledge about these dolls. What at first started off as a wish to have my custom Kaulitz twins, ended up in swooning for dolls and making them my own characters. That was the point in my life where I stopped admiring idols and fell in love with dolls, haha..
      I believe the first one I saw, or remember seeing was Elfdoll Wu. Then I fell in love with Dollmore Kyle Reese and after years and years of loving I gave up on them, only to briefly spot two girls carrying bjds around on a con. That was an immediate strike and since then, I couldn't get my eyes off bjds. Years later my wallet cries but I'm happy, so thanks, Tokio Hotel. Too bad the blog seems to be down .-.
       
    13. Hmm, for me it was simply seeing pics of bjd's on google while searching for something else and thinking, wow, these are pretty! Then years later I saw this otome game about dolls coming to life, did some research and found out they were something I could actually buy :D Still took me another few years before I actually bought one though!
       
    14. In the beginning it was the purchase of a big beautiful doll. And then I remembered that I like to photograph, knit and just to communicate with people.
       
    15. I saw a Volks dollfie (the Barbie sized ones) at an anime convention when I was 14ish. I really wanted one and asked a whole bunch of questions. Owner was distracted and I got the distinct impression she though I was trying to steal the doll because she quickly picked it up and put it away. When I got home I googled "Folks dollie" (it was loud in the convention and I couldn't understand her well) and couldn't find the cute doll so I gave up.

      Then when I 19 I stumbled across a lolita blog and the owner had Volks' super dollfies. I freaked out when I realized they came in jumbo size and had to have one. At the time I couldn't afford any of he Volks dolls, so I started with a Ringdoll who I liked just as much and slowly moved up the budget from year to year.
       
    16. I got into the hobby about 2007-08 ish time I think but didnt get my first doll til 2015. I was first introduced to them on deviantart and was so curious about them I googled everything I could about them as well as stalked the galleries on deviant art hehe
       
    17. I first got into the hobby because I stumbled into it from dolls/ dollhouses/ miniatures.
      I love the sizes of the larger dolls.
      The mobility of the dolls is wonderful.
      I like that there is a big craft aspect to this hobby.
      Oh and the accessories...I drool over accessories. :celebrate
       
    18. When i went to a lolita meet one of my friends told me that she collects bjd's, She told me to JUST DO IT! and i was like okaay...and now i have 5 dolls hahaha xD Ive always envied bjd's and really wanted one but i never asked myself why dont you just get one? I think my friend telling me to get one made me realize i should :P
       
    19. I found these dolls in the strangest way ever. Looking for Got7 dolls on taobao. At one point they stopped making the Got7 plush dolls and I was new to the fandom. I got desperate and stumbled across Taobao. Not sure how I did it, but I managed to buy my Jackson plush with NO agent and a crappy translator! To make a long story short, I found IOS dolls on taobao and just couldn't believe they were so expensive and not even Tonner. I did my research, found Luts and Crobi websites which were WAY easier to use than Taobao(thank god because I didn't know anything about recast). Thats how I ended up getting my first Luts. :love I sold him though.
       
    20. One of my friends was talking about how she wanted one and I was intrigued, so she showed me some pictures. I was hooked after that, but didn't buy one until 2016. So there was a good seven or eight years in between that.