What originally got you into BJDs?

I was browsing Deviant Art and I saw pictures of BJDs. I thought they were pretty but it was a few weeks before I actually did any research. The first website that came up on Google was DDE, so I went and had a look. I was 13 at the time and the price was a big shock, so I stepped back and decided to leave it for a while. Almost a year later a girl in my class got an Obitsu 27cm doll and it rekindled my love for them. I then did a bit more research and came across DoA. After joining DoA I learnt more about different companies and in February I took the plunge and bought my first doll, and I haven't looked back since

 

Well, a year ago, more or less a friend of mines showed me her BJDs, and I just fall in love with them. Since then I really want one and I'm saving some money for buy me one. At least my dream come true and my new friend is coming.

 

i cant remember what got me into bjds... but since im a anime and japan lover for over 7 years now it must be because of advertisement from a japan website :3

BUT i can remember the first company was luts

 

The shows/comics Angelic Layer and Eyeshield 21 8D"

Because I had bought the boxset for Angelic Layer (A series by CLAMP about owners owning... MSD? sized dolls that would battle each other) and I wondered if there were any dolls like that. I checked around but didn't really find anything ^^"
Then I was reading Eyeshield 21 (A series about American Football) and decided to check dA for pictures of Hiruma (one of the main characters). I found that someone had modded a doll to look like him and I fell in love~

That was more or less it XD There were probably other reasons, of course, but those are the most distinct ones I can remember.

 

Back in 2002 or so, I was looking at doll wigs on ebay for my blank obitsu and noticed a few auctions for wigs that would fit a Super Dollfie and one showed pieces of a BJD (only Volks at that time). There were no whole dolls available... only kits directly from Japan through Japanese-speaking third-parties... or at least that's all I could find. As I didn't have much time in those days, I didn't bother looking more into the matter, although I was definitely curious and liked the aesthetic.

I started stumbling upon more auctions on ebay in 2004--most notably, for an entire Volks doll with a head customized and sold by Satoko Ohno. Again, I checked around the internet and found a few companies that sold limited dolls on the internet (mostly from non-English websites). There were a few standards available from Volks and Custom House and Dream of Doll, but not much else. Oh, and Cerberus Project dolls. Luts was just starting their website. I liked the look of their El, since I liked the boy dolls, and the more mature, the better (and at that time, El was about as mature a sculpt as you could get!). Then I heard that there would be an Elf El version and I knew I had found my First Doll, since I adore elves!

I ordered through Liria, who was the English-speaking rep of CP at that time. I had to learn about bank transfers and how much shipping was from Korea! (My first three dolls were Delf Elfs, and none of them were ordered through Luts, so I was used to just referring to them as Cerberus Project dolls...)

Then I joined DoA and then I found out that I knew other people who were also crazy enough to spend so much on a doll... and the rest is history!

 

I first saw a bjd on a scanlation credits page. He was a beautiful vampire boy, and I *really* needed to add him to my anime merch. collection... until I discovered that these dolls cost a little more than your average pvc figure^^; Haha.

I let it go for a couple of years, but was reminded of them when I came across a couple of luts dolls at a local anime convention. A google search found me at DOA... which eventually led to my finding and bringing home my very own beautiful boy.

 

I'd been going to anime conventions for a long time, and occasionally saw people carrying around these stunningly beautiful dolls...then every once in a while I would catch a photo on DA that was starring a bjd. One day I decided to do a little research, and, viola! I FELL IN LOVE. I still don't have a BJD of my own, but I'm pretty close to picking my very first babyyyyyy!

 

I've loved dolls since I was a child, but I had to leave them all behind when I returned to the states from the Philippines. Since then, I actually did want a doll, again, but for the most part, I knew that if I got a doll, I wanted her to be truly special, but I wasn't quite sure in what way, for a while. However, as I got deeper into drawing comic book artwork, I realized that, after going through a few things I used to help me with character posing, that I definitely wanted a doll that could move and bend like a human, so she could definitely help me with figure drawing, as well as providing me with companionship. After getting hooked on the manga and anime style of artwork, I realized I wanted a doll that resembled such artwork, again, to also help function as a suitable drawing model. Somehow, further along the way, I realized that I also wanted a doll that could be customized. About a year or so ago, I decided to try and see if such dolls existed, and googled something like, "customize dolls" or "make your own doll." I still can't quite recall what search terms I had used. But whatever search terms I used, they somehow brought me to the Volks web site. After doing some further searching, I realized that BJD's were exactly the kind of doll I was looking for.

As I mentioned in my introduction, through this discovery, I had found DoA and decided to sign up and ask a whole lot of questions, especially questions concerning where I could find a dark skinned doll, as I wanted my first doll to look as much like an anime/manga version of myself as possible (I like comic books and superheroes, my ultimate fave being the X-Men, and I long ago decided that if I can't be a superhero in real life, I'll be one in my own comics!), so she can be a model for my artwork, as well as my friend. However, as I think I mentioned in my introduction, real life got in the way, and I never got to ask my questions.

Apparently, though, I was meant to have a BJD, because when I went to the San Diego Comic-Con, last month, I noticed that there was an event listed on Sunday, the last day of the con, involving a BJD doll meet. Seeing that, I decided, "Why not go and see if there's a BJD stall on the floor?" Sure enough, on preview night, I found one (an OT BJD seller). When the lady pulled out one of her dolls, I knew I had to have her, as she was EXACTLY what I was looking for in my first doll. (Certainly, due to my weight gain, the resemblence was a little hard to see, but when I took out a picture of me in my less heavier days, my husband and friends were shocked at just how much the doll DID resemble me.)

Unfortunately, while $80, I've discovered, is actually an incredibly good deal for a BJD, vinyl or not, at the time, though, the price seemed pretty steep, as my husband and I are both college students living on financial aid, currently (and he has an on-campus job; I've got a learning disability that makes it so that I can either go to school or go to work, but not both, or my grades will tank). This summer has been tight on our finances, and I really needed to justify the expenditure, especially since it was unplanned. My husband finally came up with this solution: we'd put her on the credit card; since I plan on using her as my model for my artwork, if I could get six panels worth of comics done by the 25th of August, then everything was good. If I couldn't, then I owed him $80 when we get our next disbursement. So, I got to come home with dolly!

[And, for those who are curious, yes, I did get the six panels done. While I'm not too pleased with the inking and coloring job, as I never really did those, before (I'm a pencilist, really, and that's about it, and I don't consider myself a good one, at that), it's good enough for jazz. Unfortunately, he won't post it on his web site until I make a banner for the comic, another thing I'm not good at, but I'll certainly give it a try!]

I'm hoping to have enough spare cash from my disbursement this fall to get my doll a boyfriend (if not, to at least put some away towards getting her a boyfreind). I've been looking around, and it seems like he's going to have to be a resin doll, which has me nervous (spending that much money on something I could break really makes me nervous), as the resisns seem to have the kind of look I'm going for. And, yes, since my dolly looks like me, I plan on making her boyfriend look like my husband. It only makes sense. After that, who knows? Although, the likelihood of my raising a mini doll army seems pretty high.

 

I got into BJDs (I don't have one yet but I'm almost there) because I've always had American Girl dolls (my mom got me my first one for Christmas when I was like 9), and then later when I was about 13 I joined a forums about those dolls when one of my friends there started her own board for not just American Girl dolls but also off topic chat. After that, my friend's brother (I hope I'm explaining this right) had collected japanese figures and what not throughout the years when he heard about Pullip dolls, so then my friend started selling them as a US distributor. So when I started looking for pictures of them and stuff on Flickr I ran across BJDs and thought they were awesome.
That's it I believe, but not until now have I decided that I was willing to pay so much for them, so that's what I'm getting for Christmas, is my first BJD! YAY!
Lol.

 

i was looking for rozen maiden dolls on ebay back in 2006 and here i am today!^__^

 

It all started with Celaran. Back in 2003, while I was writing some kind of story, he suddenly kinda crept up to me from behind. (Celaran's the main character in a fantasy story I've been trying to write ever since). I couldn't really imagine what he looked like - well, I could but I couldn't "see" his face. Around the same time, I was a constant reader of a magazine called "MangaSzene". In one of their issues, they introduced Volks Dollfies. Not the big ones but the 30 cm ones that are off topic here. I saw them and went like "cool, DIY action figures! I'm gonna get one and do Celaran!" - but not right away since they were kinda expensive, at aroun 30 Euros apiece (that's what I thought, then).

So I started saving some money and several years later (I kept using the money for other things, like a vacation), I finally went to the Volks website, signed up and started browsing. And came across the big Dollfies - the MSDs and SDs. I thought "wow, neat! - but they're too friggin' expensive" and besides, there wasn't one that had the "wanna!!!!"-factor, as I call it. Some time later, I realised that Volks wasn't the only company doing "those dolls" and that there might actually be one out there that I actually might "wanna!!!"

I started saving money, just in case I found one. Then, in 2008, I had enough money saved to finally buy a BJD (which made me go "oh my gosh! never would have thought!"). So I started to search for dolls I might like. I had come across Dollshe Hound some time before that and quite liked him. But I wasn't really sure because I also liked Soom Sabik. And then there was that Unidoll Ark who wasn't really handsome (imho) and who wasn't my first choice, either. But who managed to wriggle his way right to the top of my list of "dolls to buy". So I got him first and to this day, haven't regretted it because Luken's just way cool. *gg*

Anyways, it was Celaran who started it all by suddenly popping up in my mind. And I do have him as BJD now, too. Him and Luken are sharing a small wooden bench on my living room table and seem quite content to have my Evangeline Ghastly sitting between them. Oh, and of course, I still do have Celaran the First - my Volks Neo-Guy Dollfie.

 

It was funny how I first got into BJDs, I was looking for new bands to get into when I came across a site where a person was doing commissions of the 12inch volks dollfies, Volks was the first company I saw and I started to look further until I came across Dream of Doll, the dolls there blew me away so I begged my mom to buy me one XD

 

I just allways loved the way dolls look. Forever young and beautiful.

 

I went to a bjd meeting at Xmas in Madrid with a friend of mine, and that was the first time I saw bjdolls. Now she has 5 dolls and 3 heads, and I have 2 dolls and one head

 

A fellow Blythe collector brought in Lati dolls to our Blythe meetings and as more and more people brought in BJDs, I became hooked! I like that you can pose them and love the great detail put into their features

 

Every since i was little, i've been looking to customize things. I had barbies, which i cut the hair off of (trying to make them what was "unique" back then), but i'd never really been able to be as creative as i wanted to be. So after taking a home ed class and learning how to sew i wanted to try it again. Only this time, i wanted to get polly dolls because they were smaller (i'm a miniature freak for real..) and their clothes, to me, were cuter. The problem was i didn't know how to make clothes out of that sorta plastic for them. So i went through several customization methods..from cutting the polly dolls hair off to making new hair for them out of non drying clay (which got EVERYWHERE).

I went on vacation one week during the summer and decided to go back to barbies. i was desperate for a walmart to go to but instead ended up getting a barbie from k-mart and when i came back the search was on for inspiration from other OOAK barbies. And in the process, i discovered japanese dolls. MOMOKO dolls. Then OBITSU. i was hooked. In the months it took me to get a 30$ obitsu doll, i looked for pics of them and did research on flickr. but all i could find were pics of these amazing, "high-quality japanese dolls". i later found out they were called BJD dolls. I ended up getting an obitsu doll, and coming here to join the community, but soon left because my type of doll was not allowed here.

later on, i upgraded the obitsu doll, but found many flaws in it... For instance, obitsu dolls SQUEAK. A LOT. and plus, while the chestplate was squishy, the body didn't look exactly real. And it was a pain having to paint the eyes on..
That's when i decided to get a BJD and i thought it would take me forever to get one. as in, it wasn't possible. But i found a cheap "starter doll". A bobobie isabella, whom i soon fell in love with as soon as i felt her resin. it was on my birthday that i got her.

A year later, i got a puki who has now been with me for i think 3 months^^

 

I was browsing google images for pictures of piglets and I bumped into Alice Cherry Blossom.

 

My sister's best friend got a bobobie Mei and posted a pic on facebook. I wasn't really interested, I just thought it was a really pretty doll. Just this last Christmas, I was bored and remembered the doll. I searched google, and came across DOD, then Bobobie, then LUTS, then Volks, then Fairyland, so on so forth. I love my little Khyler!

 

Like a lot of other people in this thread Deviant Art started my obsession with these gorgeous dolls! I'd be poking around the search section and see numerous pictures of these dolls so, I decided to do some research on them. I fell in love with the fact that BJDs are completely customizable, I'm an artists so I adore adding my own twist to everything I do. And I couldn't be more happy with Ginger

 

I stumbled upon pictures of the Dream of Doll dolls, found their site, and... I am beyond all salvation now xD