What Sets BJDs apart for you?

So I'm the last person you'd expect to be in the BJD hobby. I was never interested in any type of dolls as a kid and adult, neither was I into related hobbies such as figurines, plushies, toys, Nendoroids, etc. I have a few figma and plushies but they're more like novelties than actual collections - if I'm collecting anything with them, it's dust.

Case in point: I recently told a friend about my return to the BJD hobby. Now, I took a very long hiatus where I stored my dolls away and literally forgot about their existence, and while on hiatus I became very good friends with this person, so she knows me quite well. My friend wanted to guess what my new/rediscovered hobby was, and after going through a bunch of guesses, she laughingly said "those dolls I've seen in Akihabara?" (She's lived in Tokyo.) And was astonished when the answer was Yes. And said, "I NEVER ever expected that answer from you."

So yeah. I'm not the kind of person who'd be into BJDs. In fact, even though I've had BJDs for around 14 years now, I haven't been enabled onto other kinds of dolls, figurines or toys. They simply don't interest me whatsoever!

But BJDs do - very, very much. I was drawn to their aesthetic (the perfect mix of realistic and ideal/fantastic that I liked) and versatility/articulation in their jointing. A BJD has that somewhat blank canvas quality where you can make it a completely distinctive character. Yes they're dolls, but they can become their own persons.

Most of all, I was drawn to their potential to embody my OCs. Another story... When I first encountered BJDs around 2003-2005, I thought it was a thoroughly weird hobby and brushed it off. But that was because I saw them merely as toys, nothing different from Barbies and playline dolls I already knew about and had zero interest in. But when I started researching more, and discovered that BJDs had the potential to embody my OCs -- the switch completely flipped in my head and I became captivated.

I've always made up characters for imaginary stories and worlds - my OCs have "life" in my imagination, and I occasionally represent them in art and writing. All my dolls have their own characters too, but unlike my other OCs they actually exist in material space. Yes, my dolls are toys, but they're also much more than that: they're my imaginary characters given physical form. I'm convinced a bit of the "life" the character has in my imagination somehow gets transferred to the doll shell too. No other doll or toy can embody my OCs with the same kind of liveliness and realism, and this is the main thing that sets BJDs apart for me.

 

I wasn't interested for the longest time. But, when I discovered BJD centaurs, it was all over for me. I love their posing and cute faces. Eventually, I branched out into more human looking dolls. Yet, my centaurs still rank as one of my most precious possessions.

I own many, many playline and fashion dolls too. They're all their own little characters and I adore them.

 

It is definitely the customizability that stood out the most to me. I encountered the hobby while looking at ways to practice art on dolls, and BJDs are by far the best for almost everything: sculpting, painting, sewing, etc. The possibilities with even one doll are endless, let alone all of the different sculpts from every company! Looking at others' interpretations of already-created characters as well as their takes on their own characters is so much fun. BJDs are just really special in that they allow everyone to make their own unique creation.

 

For me, what is comes down to is mostly the tactile experience. There are other types of dolls that have beautiful paint jobs and faces, and other types of dolls that are excellent at posing. But a strung doll with joints that click into place is just...immensely satisfying. I like the sound and the haptic feedback. It's like having a fidget toy that's also shaped like a friend.

 

The options and the customizing. I got into them when I started looking for ideas for customizing fashion dolls, because there's a sad overall lack of anthros in the fashion doll world. Googling for inspiration brought up lots of BJDs, and eventually, I caved. Which led to look up more BJD stuff, finding more fantasy options, and having those options spin off ideas. While it's way more expensive than buying a ready to go doll, there's something really satisfying about getting all the parts of BJD together and making your own characters. Being able to change out eyes and wigs on a whim really set them apart, too-lots of options, less dolls taking up space.

 

The thing that drew me in 15 years ago was the standard level of meticulous detail in the dolls. Not just the sculpts themselves, and the face-ups with real eyelashes and such, but like... The outfits, which were expected to be removed, so they looked like a real outfit (down to the last ribbon on the socks), instead of those fashion doll or Barbie outfits where you realize that it's just for show on the outside, but is just bland light cotton extending under any of the outer details.

What made me stay was the sheer variety of aesthetics. To this day, I don't have a single mass-produced doll that I can look at and say "yeah, you totally fit what I want to look at". When I was a kid, I desperately wanted male dolls, but they were all either Ken (and therefore, an accessory to Barbie) or action figures and I hated how "ugly" and angular they always made their faces. Now that I'm the appropriate age to actually find angular dudes attractive (), I don't mind, but it was a breath of fresh air as a teenager 15 years ago to find male dolls that appealed to my teenage tastes.

And I guess that's still true to this day - even more so than when I started. There are so many different sculptors and visions out there - you're bound to find SOMETHING that matches your tastes. And face-ups can always be used to accent or diminish certain features to make the dolls look exactly how you want them to look, so even within the owner group of the same dolls, very few look alike.

(I also really REALLY liked shelling my characters when I first started, because I was too afraid to actually write or draw the stories. But now that I actually make the narrative content featuring my characters, the drive to find a shell for them is significantly diminished, and I just find dolls for their aesthetics).

 

For me, it was the articulation, the realism of the faces, and the realism of the clothing that is produced for them. I used to collect fashion dolls, and the ‘Barbie’ aesthetic just did not do anything for me anymore. I wanted something that looked more realistic.

 

It's absolutely the art quality and customization ability for me. I can make so many of my characters and ideas.

 

I've always loved dolls My toy and doll collection is not all BJDs, but BJDs are my treasures! Made in small batches by artists in many different styles, designed to be customized in every way! It's like owning a piece of art, but even better because you are meant to interact with them! You can feel the perfect sculpting at your fingertips, add your own stamp to them with a new wardrobe or custom makeup, or curate perfect full sets posed just as you like It's a luxury adult hobby that also appeals to my childish obsession with cute toys

 

I collected Barbies as a kid in the 90s and I believe it was Gen 2 MLPs after that, and out of those that I still enjoy it'd have to be the ponies. I tried collecting Barbie, Rainbow High, Monster High, and early LOL dolls more recently, but none of them can match BJDs. (I have not tried getting back into MLP, so that might change.)

Hinge joints don't appeal to me at all. Even the new jointed bodies for Barbie dolls don't work for me. I think part of it might be the pull of tension you get from the strings in BJDs being a much better tactile feeling to me? It's kind of similar to the silicone legs in old Barbie dolls, with there being some give there. For this reason, hinge-jointed dolls feel less "alive" to me, if that makes sense, so maybe that's why I can't connect with them.

In addition, there's the customization with being able to change out the hair and eyes. And while you can get it with some playline dolls you have to do more work to get there, especially with rooted hair. I've got bad executive dysfunction, so being able to "cut corners" anywhere I can is often what I need in order to break through it to do crafting stuff. Like, I can't get around executive dysfunction to paint a playline doll's face for some reason, but I can start and finish a BJD faceup without issue.

 

I use to collect pullips before moving on to BJDs.
They also stand out more than any other dolls to me; the reason might be because of their realism and the freedom of how customizable they are, even if I send them to artists and don't do the customizing myself.

In comparison to pullips, blythes and other dolls in that genre, the fact each sculpt is unique I think just appeals to a wider audience in that they aren't all the same under the makeup?

 

I started by collecting other type of dolls, mostly Pullips, Licca, porcelain dolls, some Barbies and immediatly fell in love with BJDs. I saw a picture of one when I was actually searching for pullips on Google, and then I saw one in real life at a convention and was very impressed and also quite intimidated by it. It was an SD size. I knew nothing about them, so I asked the seller what was this doll exactly but her explanations weren't very helpfull (as she was actually selling pullips and the BJD was just here for decor). So I decided to look BJDs up on the internet and what I found outstanding about them was the fact that they were fully customizable, and also very big and "heavy". When I got my first doll, I really liked the fact that I could feel him, feel his weight in my hands, I wasn't scared to break something while moving his arms etc. like it sometime happens with vinyl dolls. I also liked the fact that there is a huge variety of sclupts, skin tones and morphologies so that we can make our dolls unique.

 

I think the culture around BJD sets them apart for me.

Consider the take VOLKS has with the doll being a very special companion you're welcoming home. I think it's rooted in Shinto animism, which is something I've practiced in my own way long before I knew it had a name. I've found that in art dolls and Build a Bear slightly but how BJD owners refer to their dolls tends to be different from them being only a collectable.

To be less emotional, BJD are fun and big. I can see the details better and worry less about my cat eating them.

 

As others have said, BJDs are 100% customizable. My favorite part of the hobby is purchasing clothing and accessories that other artists have made. The sky is the limit, and I love that! I don't use BJDs to shell original characters, but the BJDs themselves become their own character to me.

 

All the options, styling and customizing! It’s amazing to have a doll that’s exactly how you want it. As a kid I didn’t really like dolls because they weren’t really how I wanted them to be in terms of style etc, however I LOVED playing games like The Sims 2 and with kisekae dolls and other similar dressing up games on the computer because there were so many possibilites with them. Having BJDs feels very much the same to me… they also feel much more “real” to me than a lot of other dolls I had in the past did. I don’t have characters for my dolls but I like styling each one of them in a specific way.

 

The variety of sculpts and level of customization definitely is what caught my attention! Specifically though I've been obsessed with some of my original characters and I got so excited at the idea of making a "real" version I could dress up and carry around with me. I described it once as being able to make merch of my own story just for myself XD

 

Customization freedom for sure!!!

I was raised with both Barbie’s and Bratz but didn’t like that I couldn’t change their look. My mom didn’t see my vision when I would cut their hair and use markers on them lol, but now as an adult I understand why, their value was what she was looking at future wise.

Being able to customize each doll to look how I envision them is absolutely the selling point for me!

 

Like many others here I will say the ability to customize the dolls to such a high extent and the fact that customization is the norm, not the exception. I love that I can look at fifteen examples of the same doll and not two are alike.

Related to that, this hobby tends to attract creative people and that is always a plus for me. It makes me feel very at home in the BJD hobby.

 

Like others have mentioned, BJDs are attractive to me for their posing ability, quality, and variety of options for customization. When I was really young, I would create my own 'dolls' (usually various animals and fantasy beasts) with just paper, scissors, and scotch tape. Despite the flimsiness of paper, I had much more fun with my paper dolls than my Barbie dolls for example, which felt very limited in what I could do with them at the time. Now with BJDs, I feel that same sort of creativeness as I did with my paper dolls during childhood, but with better materials. Resin is far more solid and durable! xP

 

It mostly boils down to size and materials. Before BJDs I fell in love with the more modern articulated figures (figma, etc.) because they were so posable and expressive. I don't like anime or the other themes these usually go for but I went in anyway. I found that the scale and materials do poorly for play. Joints start to wear out, in some cases the repeated stress on a joint that's a bit too tight from the factory would lead to cracks, and so on. I got really tired of doing maintenance on these figures that I recognized were made for display. They're more like anime statues than dolls in my opinion, except you choose what pose to leave them in when you put them in the glass case. Sculpted hair and clothes often get in the way of movements. I really wanted dolls but I always thought doll = barbie, monster high and I was even less interested in those.
I can't remember if I saw Dollfie Dream before I learned about BJDs but in any case I wouldn't have committed to that since I don't like the aesthetics and I assume the frames have the same issues with wear as smaller figures.
Strung resin BJDs were everything I was looking for so I was bound to make the switch. It took me a while to decide but in the end I cancelled all preorders I had pending. Best decision ever. I have tried to pick up the 1/12 figures again lately and I can't stand to touch them anymore, BJDs are so much better in every way.