What would your collection look like if you could have a re-do?

I would have collected largies exclusively. Tinies and minis are cute but they just don't do it for me like largies do. I also would not have bought any tan dolls because they are impossible to hybrid.

 

Oh gosh what a question! Hm… I probably would have skipped my smart doll phase and just have a bunch of custom dollfie dreams, puyoodolls, and fairylands. Live and learn.

 

I think I'd have less than 10 dolls. Or maybe like six 1/3 dolls and a bunch of pets. I have a very large crew (currently, including incoming, 25 SD, 1 MSD, 3 on topic pets, and a bunch of off topic pets/weirdies.) I'm too bonded to them all to want to sell any right now, so I'm not cutting back, but I think ideally, I'd want a small crew with a ton of clothes and accessories! And totally skip my phase of "buy everything that's cheap, but nothing looks good". So much money wasted that way.

 

I actually did that redo about 2-3 years into the hobby, when I figured out my aesthetic taste and how I wanted to collect dolls and shell characters with them. Of the 5 dolls I bought in my first 2 years, I sold 4 of them and rebooted my collection with the sole survivor and the next doll I bought. Now I have 6 dolls (plus a few more on the way), and they look quite different from the 5 dolls of my newbie (first 2 years) BJD collection. I'm glad I figured out my tastes and collecting habits early on, and if I restarted the hobby with this knowledge, it would've saved me selling a bunch of dolls.

But more than that, it would've saved me a lot of frustration and angst with my own dolls, which led to a bit of burnout and me storing my dolls and completely leaving the hobby for many years (though my hiatus is more complex than just hobby burnout). I'm having more fun with BJDs these days, so all worked out well in the end.

 

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Oh, fun question. For me, I think it could go one of two ways:

(1) Mostly the same as it is now/slightly smaller, with fewer detours into dolls that I didn't like as much as I thought I would; or,
(2) Hard left into exclusively niche fantasy/horror/stylized etc. dolls.

It's become apparent to me over time that the dolls I really spoil are the slightly creepy oddballs. I wouldn't give up the more "normal" ones in my collection for the world now, but if I never had them? Hmmmm...

 

Well, I have already had a redo, though the thought has sometimes crossed my mind, what if I put all of my energy and money into one single doll? how crazy glorious she must look by now
But no, I selected each member of my collection thoughtfully, so I would not change anything
I would not undo my past "mistakes" either, I got a chance to handle many beautiful pieces of art this way, even if they did not stay with me forever, it was wonderful to have them.
I sometimes regret dolls I sold too, but even if they did not find forever homes after all this time, they get to visit a lot of wonderful places, like a museum piece on tour and get imprinted by so many artists and collectors, I think that's really cool. So I would not stop myself from having bought them or selling them either.

 

Knowing what I know now after over a decade in the hobby, my collection would exclusively be vinyl bjds, no resin, and all anime style. I’d sell all of my resin bjds now, but it’s too much hassle so they will stay in storage. I have seven vinyl dolls right now and think I’m keeping it under 10 total. Wish it didn’t take so long to figure this out.

 

mostly the same but maybe id have gotten a few dolls sooner like minifee kyle in tan and soom serin in tawny....maybe a few more tan skin dolls. im still holding out hope for finding a tan minifee kyle.

 

Hmm interesting question! I think if I had to 'redo' it all over again (knowing what I know now)...

I still think I would probably have a lot of the same dolls I do now~ Since I still have my first doll and many of my early collection. However, I definitely would have managed my finances way better. Young me wasn't very financially stable when I was younger, so I did a lot of "Sell one to buy one" decisions which made me sell some dolls I regret letting go of.

 

Smaller. Yep, it would be smaller. XD

I wouldn't have made impulse or FOMO buying decisions.

My esthetic hasn't changed, I still like my resin BJDs to lean toward the anime side.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

Not much different, really.

I think the big change would be that my Lusion Dish would have the boy body (boy bits modded off) which looks more childlike than the girl body. I think I'd have arrived at a similar place but had fewer dolls pass through my hands that didn't stay.

Teddy

 

I wouldn't have a single human MSD, I wouldn't have the Maskcat doll, and I would have at most 3 Supia SDs rather than the 5 I have now. I do like their faces but as they're all the same version body except 2 different bust sizes it's just too much of a same thing.

On the YoSDs I've gone back and forth on whether I regret them or not and whether I want to keep them still. At the moment I'm happy I have the one full YoSD as about a year ago I realized I could shell into her both my lalafel WoL (FFXIV character) as well as Myne from The Ascendance of a Bookworm (I had half accidentally customized my lala to look exactly like her except for the eye color). The other YoSD head is on an MSD body, I used to be fine with that but recently realized I could shell that character onto my extra SD head, so maybe I would rather not have that YoSD head anymore.

I used to think I would be happy with having only a couple of SD bodies that the heads would share, but eventually figured out that to be able to fully develop my characters, I needed them to have their own bodies. Unfortunately I was still stuck on the idea that they MUST be able to share clothes, so the first 3 bodies ended up being the exact same even bust-wise. I had tried to get some sort of variety with the Maskcat as the measurements all around seemed to match, and well, sure, she was same size enough to wear the same clothes, but only when I got her I realized just how much I hate the actual aesthetic of it... Nail on the coffin for that doll is that her head is much bigger than the other SDs and apparently, I also really don't like heads with a bigger wig size than 8.5".

The human MSDs I don't like because I don't like how that size handles in general nor do I like to sew anything at that scale. Not at all attached to their faces either.

 

I wouldn't have any human dolls and I'd just have anthro ones.

 

Mm... I think many of the molds I currently have I would still choose again, but there are a few things I might do different:

• I wouldn't set for a cheaper doll for my first one, but instead wait till the perfect head sculpt appeared in the second hand market (as it finally happened) and buy a better body to hybridize it with.
• I maybe wouldn't have bought my Yo-SD, cause she doesn't bring me that much joy as the others and doesn't fit in the story anymore, but I'm still figuring out if I can give her a second chance as a new character.
• I would've started collecting anthro dolls from the beggining, so I wouldn't have missed the preorder of Dearmine Loc labyrinth edition (I was just starting to get info about BJDs when that happened in 2013).

 

I thought about it before (I am quite nostalgic lol) and here is what I would have changed :

• Just taking more time to think before buying and selling dolls : I tended to experience with new companies and brands mostly out of curiosity and the will of change, even though some thinking would have told me the new dolls were either too expensive or not in my style (for example buying a single-jointed doll while I know I have a large preference for double-jointed dolls and that would have been a frustration in the end)
• Setting myself a limit on the price of a doll (I've realised over time that I've often been more disappointed with a doll I've invested a lot in than with a cheaper one, mainly because I'd set too many expectations on them because of their price and I was disappointed)
• Staying in tinies or yosd, other sizes are just too large for me

 

If I could do a complete redo, I would probably have 2 well-planned dolls in either bigger 1/4 or smaller 1/3 scale, without buying second hand deals on a whim just to have to throw money at fixing dislikes later. I would have also been more consistent with the sizing of my dolls from the get go so everyone could share wigs/eyes/shoes/clothes interchangeably and I would have probably taken a better look at resin matches as well (and maybe have like... gray and tan instead of variations of NS).

I do love my rag tag hybrid crew as it is for the moment, though, and appreciate how it's been a lot of happy accidents

 

I would have a smaller collection. I bought a few over the years that I’m not really in love with just because I wanted a new doll, but selling takes time so a redo would be nice actually.

 

As an old timer within this specific type of dolls (and IRL as well!), I would say I wouldn't do a complete redo.

As much as I prefer smaller dolls, I still love the larger ones I own. It was always my goal to keep my resin count under ten, because I never considered tiny mature BJD being a thing. They are still highly unpopular, but I have no interest in adding more resin to my collection, ever! That was another reason I wanted no more than ten resin dolls (I dislike resin very much, always have always will).

So, I don't have any real regret of owning the dolls I do. My resin collection is still under ten full dolls, so I'm good! It's more like regretting not owning certain sculpts (mostly very unpopular head sculpts that were discontinued a long time ago). DX