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

This is a great question, and one I’ve considered myself over the years. My own fairly large collection actually got a full reboot a few years in, but that was do to character and not sculpt characteristics. And I’ve been truly happy with my collection ever since. But I think it’s only natural to wonder “what if” along the way. From the very beginning, I collected with an eye towards diversity in my collection…with each doll collected absolutely for character reasons. I was telling my own fairytale, and populating it with fascinating creatures of every size and resin color. So I think it’s only natural to wonder “what if” I’d stuck to only one company’s dolls for that perfect cohesion. A friend of mine collected only Luts dolls, and it was quite a gorgeous lineup to see a dozen of them, both 1/3 and 1/4 standing together like one big happy family. I always admired that (and if I had to choose only one company, it would certainly have been Luts for their quality and diversity of sizes.) But instead I chose my ever-expanding crew from many different companies, and in truth it’s worked out amazingly well. While getting them all from a single company would have been a fascinating experiment, I fear that I might have eventually become bored by the limitations. They certainly would have looked wonderful together though.

 

I would have bought an Elfdoll head or two before the company shuttered.

I wouldn't have sold my Narae and MNF Shiwoo(s).

I wouldn't have bought any 1/6 size dolls.

I wouldn't have bought and sold so many sculpts/eyes/wigs/clothes that didn't suit my taste.

Since it's been such a long journey, to end up with what I have now it would have taken a lot of patience and many years of waiting for a sculptor to make what I have now. But if I had to wait 15 years for, say, Sio2 to come into existence would I still want the same thing by the time I saw those sculpts again?

I'd like to think I'd largely have the same things, just have spent less money to get there.

 

If this redo involved going back in time to 2008 when I first joined the hobby... I would get more cp delfs while they were still available. I would have a collection that is all sd size and mostly delfs (maybe even all delfs). Even if I had to start the redo now, I would still just focus on finding the cp delf sculpts I love.

I am very emotionally attached to my JIDs and could never sell them, especially as I wrote an entire novel about one of them, but I don't really consider them part of my main collection now because of their scale, and I wouldn't get them again if I had to start over.

I would spend more time and money on getting nice clothing and accessories for the dolls I have, rather than always rushing to save for the next one. I've learned that I enjoy my dolls so much more this way.

 

Nightengale and Kingfisher would be NS instead of BW, and there would be an Oracle M sitting over there on the Lati shelf with Darcy, my Temple Knight K. There would probably also be a Soul Doll Celestyn and maybe a 50/50 chance of that DoD Lahoo I waffled over for too long to actually get hanging around somewhere in the gang.

I'd likely have chosen to keep my Dreaming Vampire Moon head instead of selling him on, too, even though he was BW. (I had NO CLUE at the time that Fairyland's "temporary" pause with the F70s would actually turn out to be a permanent discontinuation and the head-sculpt would subsequently vanish forever. I thought I'd just be able to replace him with a NS version a few months down the line.)

Otherwise? The rest of the crew would probably look pretty much exactly like it does now.

 

If we are talking about a total from scratch reboot with my current dolls all gone, my collection would probably look very different, since there are so many more sorts of dolls now than when I started collecting. It would probably be somewhat smaller in number and more towards the realistic side. There are some Iples and SartoriaJs I want, both in the full size and fashion size, and there would definitely be a Youpla Shuri in my life.

As far as changing what I have, not so much. I've got a couple of groups and several oddments and I love them all. Since I have a thing for rescue dollies, it might be that even in the case described above, I'd still have some dolls that didn't fit with the crew.

 

I'm only around a year in now, but my little collection would still look somewhat different if I could have a do-over . . . Definitely would've skipped my minifee phase. Particularly my cluelessly-buying-minifees-on-eBay-for-way-more-than-they're-worth phase ahaha.
I at least avoided getting any recasts, but yeeesh. I knew nothing about the secondhand market.
(I do still love my minifee Niella, though, even if I paid too much for him . . . one day I'll get him a body I like better, blehhh.)

Of course, there are a few sculpts I wish I would've grabbed before they became a huuuge pain to get ahold of. Though I've actually managed to pick up most of my current grails in the last few months!

Also would've have limited myself to strictly semi-realism OR anime-style sculpts for so long. I had it in my head that 'well, I started with semi-realism so NO anime dolls for me!' Then I got my first little anime baby and absolutely fell in love with him ahaha. I like both and own both now

Also . . . definitely would've paid more attention to getting my existing dolls' looks together before continuing to obtain more dolls & floating heads. Eternally playing catch-up on that! There's ONE more doll I wanna get my nasty hands on, but after him, I'm gonna try to hit pause on obtaining new dolls for the rest of this year and just focus on styling all my current boys (and picking up bodies for the ones who are waiting on those)!

Guess if I were able to go back and start over, my collection would be a bit smaller, with my dolls overall looking more complete with more clothing, shoes, wigs, etc to choose from! Hopefully that's what it'll be looking like next year, once I've worked on the boys I'm keeping and sold the two I've not bonded with.

 

I'm still fairly new on my BJD journey, so haven't got a lot to reset but I do have one regret I'd wanna get correct the first time xD My first boy, an Impldoll Joshua. I love the head sculpt (still) but. I have issues with the company faceup (it *did not* look like the promo photos and I was upset) and the Idol body I got with him. If I went back and redid, I'd skip the faceup and the body altogether. Just get my head, and find a different body to hybrid him onto that I'd be much happier with.

I am planning on getting a new body for him, as it bothers me so much. But it's a lot more hassle doing it this way than starting with something else xD (but at the time I was wayyyy too intimidated to even consider a hybrid so). I'm also waffling on keeping his faceup or getting something I'm truly happy with so *shrug*.

 

I'm undergoing a bit of a re-do at the moment, actually! My current collection is made up of a little bit of everything and it was mostly acquired with aesthetics and cheapness in mind. When I first got into the hobby in March of 2022 I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I just wanted to know if I liked dolls or not, so I purchased two in-stock dolls from Denver Doll Emporium: a Doll Leaves Amara and a Bobobbie Erin. Now, after a bunch of random purchases and trades, I've figured out that I want to shell the deities (and maybe some of the other characters) in the world of my epic poem. I am much too attached to my current collection to do much selling at the present, but I do have a better plan for what all I want in the future.

My current collection is functionally split into two: the "deities" and the "aesthetics." I have some dolls pre-ordered at the moment that weren't originally going towards the deity shelling, but now they are. Some of the current "aesthetics" are probably going to get a new character as well, but since I want to make my deities out of 1/4 sized dolls of a similar look, there won't be many who get revamped.

I can't feed both collections at the same time in terms of buying dolls and completing them. There isn't enough money to do that, so I've decided to only buy dolls for the deity shelling until that is complete.

There are several upsides to keeping such a large collection in general. One is that I can assuage some of my desires to buy more dolls by "going shopping" in my own stash of stored dolls. Another is that I don't get bored making clothing and accesories for one size. The "aesthetics" give me so many options to keep engaged in the hobby, while the "deities" will provide an end goal. There will eventually be a point where all the deities I want to shell are shellled, clothed, and close enough to my vision that they don't need more tweaking, yet I don't want to just stop participating in the hobby when that happens. I love the creative outlet this hobby allows me; it would be a shame to lose that creativity once I feel finished with the deities, and so that's where the aesthetics collection comes in. They won't ever be "finished" because there is no goal with them other than that of pure enjoyment.

So yeah, those are my thoughts. I know I won't always be able to avoid burnout by having two collections. In fact this may come back and bite me since having so many projects could just as easily cause burnout, but my hope is that I can set one project aside and work on another. I work best with multiple irons in the fire anyway.

 

So... I've been in this hobby since 2007. And I can't really see my collection going differently, because what I needed from my collection back then was different from what I need from it now. What I like, and know that I like, now, is different from what I liked and knew that I liked back then. In essence my journey through the doll hobby hasn't really been about trial and error, and more that I grew up and changed priorities and that was reflected in my collecting.

For example, when I started, I was young and terribly insecure in my own art and writing abilities, so doll collecting was an outlet where I could let someone else worry about the quality (of the face-up, of the clothes/"character design") and just enjoy the results. All of my dolls were characters who were dear to me, whose existence as a doll was the only tangible representation of my character that I had, because I was too afraid to try and make them myself.

These days I have physical books that I wrote and illustrated that feature my characters - that other people read. I go to conventions and even have a bit of fan art drawn by dear friends and readers. I don't need dolls anymore to represent my creativity in the physical form, so my doll collecting has been freed to just being pretty objects and a fun, low-stress pass time. I wouldn't be able to apply what I know now to fulfill my needs from back then.

Except maybe the knowledge not to settle. I definitely had a tendency to convince myself to buy things I wasn't sure I wanted due to FOMO or just not knowing if I could find anything better and... yeah that never made me happy and I always found something better. The stuff you settle for is always so hard to get rid of, too, so it's just wasted money that could've been spent on something better. >.>

 

It would be definitely smaller I would have less than half of the 1:3 size dolls , i would have less 1:4 too and closer to the aesthetic similar to my Aletheia notdoll and no super tinies like pukis it would be smaller more coherent with ordered face ups and more clothes

 

I would definitely have stuck to one scale size only. For years I bought whatever doll I felt like, but I realized how much room everything took up over time. Reducing to a 1/4 scale only has helped develop a curated collection I love. I only have one big wardrobe for all my dolls that everyone can share, it's like all the girls can have one big dress up party. There's some variation in the collection for certain dolls but it's soooooo much better than having to shop and make a wardrobe for 3 or 4 different size ranges. That was kind of a nightmare and 1/4 only has made me so much more relaxed. It has also saved a lot of money.

I would not have always bought primarily blank dolls. Some I have definitely wanted blank, but there's been plenty I loved the faceup and thought "Nah, I don't need to spend another $80-$100 just for a faceup", only to then have the doll sit around blank forever because my time is limited. Even now I'll look at some dolls and wish I had just gotten the faceup. Same with companies that offer to sand seams. Just buy the sanded seams, trying to sand them yourself sucks and resin is toxic.

I would have placed more emphasis on buying clothing, wigs, and shoes rather than getting caught up in FOMO(fear of missing out) whenever an interesting limited doll came out or when a discontinuation event happens. So many of those dolls I end up selling, which isn't bad or anything, it just ends up feeling like a lot of wasted time and money. I've learned the difference between a doll that triggers a special affinity versus one that is just cool or pretty. Wish I'd been more discerning from the start.

I really wish I'd kept my collection very small, like 2 or 3. I like to plan out really in depth personas for them that require one of a kind outfits, wigs, eyes, etc. When you keep adding new dolls to the collection though the old projects get forgotten about and it becomes hard to catch up, which can be stressful. I see some people who have instagram accounts, etc where they only post about their 1 or 2 bjd's and it always seems like it's such a better way to use your time and energy on a couple dolls/projects you really love.

 

I'd have barely any of the dolls I currently have and would have thought harder about which dolls I wanted, I impulse bought most of the dolls I have (my at-the-time undiagnosed adhd probably didn't help with that). I'd also have more completed dolls than I have currently, which isn't hard to beat since none of them are even close to "finished". I'm actually in the process of trying to do a soft restart of my collection after a few years of being out of the hobby and I'm letting go of a lot of the dolls I currently have (so far one full doll, though I'm heavily considering selling at least a body, another full doll, and maybe a head). I'm hoping this restart will let me bond more with both the dolls I'm keeping and any dolls I get in the future

 

Before I returned to the hobby I was in school limbo with a part time job, so I wound up saving up for dolls instead of clothes/wigs/etc for the ones I had bc money was hard to come by. I think if I re-did everything knowing what I know now, I'd have spent a lot less money on dolls that wound up not being for me and more on accessories for the dolls I had. So I'd have a smaller but more defined collection. I also now realize I don't need to shell all the characters in a specific story I have in mind. I can be happy with the main couple, or my favorite characters without the others.

Also one of the big reasons I couldn't bond with many dolls was that they spent so long blank. So I've learned that shelling out for buying an outfit with the doll helps so much more than having to scramble for clothes either after it gets there or making a bunch of separate purchases later on that might not arrive in time. Now I account for the price of an outfit, wig, eyes, etc, when I save up if the doll is for a specific character. It's a little trickier when I have no concept for the doll, but I try to avoid buying dolls in the first place unless I can think up a concept for them.

 

I would focus on a more realistic head to body ratio before my dolls have a bunch of clothes.
I would buy some limited heads. I might consider buying a less advanced camera, because full frame doesn't forgive you for mistakes.

 

Truthfully, I think my collection would be 98% the same after a do-over. I only have 1 impulse buy that I'm still on the fence about, but I tend to overthink most of my wishlist long in advance. I'm more worried about future endeavors and trying to be more scrutinizing about space and the struggle of shelling more ocs (I have... hundreds of ocs. How does one pick & choose...) I do get nostalgia for "simpler times" with me & 1 doll, but it wouldn't have lasted no matter how many times I have a re-do!

But for the sake of the prompt & reeeally putting a magnifying glass on it:

- I would have probably still got all the dolls i presently have, save for 1 impulse buy. Even my 1st bobobie I am still attached to, even though i could have waited for a wishlist doll! However, i do sometimes wish I spaced out my purchases of resin further apart so I didn't fall behind on faceups, wardrobes, and mods. My first paychecks introduced me to a world of indulgence I'd never known, and i had way too many dolls on layaways or PIF coming in during a single year for my comfort, in retrospect. I didnt get to adore & customize each of them properly before the next one came.

- on that note, I definitely wish I was more regimented about my dye projects as those dolls arrived too, because they're starting to pile up & I'm afraid I've gotten overconfident that it'll always go well....

- I have 2 yosd hybrids whose bodies I'm admittedly not as impressed with as I hoped, but I wouldn't have known until I bought & tried them! I also now wish I waited on my luts tiny20 purchase to get an oc shelled in that size instead, but I wouldn't have become obsessed with the idea until I owned a tiny20! Ughh

- I also found that I don't prefer pure snow white resin and wish I bought my ONE WS head in NS, but it was 2ndhand & it was early in my collection. I had no idea it would bother me! I also would have regrettably made the same mistakes with resin matching my tan elementdoll because i was given wrong info. So it really isn't a regret of my own shortcomings as much as it is simply experience.

I am relieved that my neurotic over preparing protected me from most buyers remorse. (The autism came in clutch to protect me from my own adhd impulses & fomo, if you will.... ) but I do also wish I could have spent less hours obsessively researching, price matching, budgeting & agonizing over sales/discontinuation events. I do feel like a lot of my free time was spent ritualistically preparing for the next acquisition and I would like that to significantly slow down going forward!

I guess if I think of anything else I'll add it...

 

If I got to redo my collection, I wouldn't accumulate so many tiny pet dolls. Maybe 5-6 of them would suffice instead of the 30+ I currently have. The number of larger dolls I have right now is a good number (5 SD's and 2 MSD's).

 

Oh man... at 20 years in, I definitely would've done a few things differently.

• No DoD Yen. He was a great "practice doll" when I was younger but I never really got him to click for me.
• Back in the day I wanted one of each of the AR Ren LEs. Should've gotten them when I had the chance!
• More School Cs. So many more School Cs.
• I wish I'd worked harder to get the right doll for one of my characters. I love the one I wound up with, but it never worked properly for the character. I knew what the right doll was at the time too, it was just much harder to find.
• I would have like fifty freakin' Unoas. Man I love those dolls.

 

I think mine would be a lot smaller. It's easy to underestimate how much space they'll take up.
I probably would have held out for specific sculpts more rather than just making spontaneous purchases.

 

There's a few things I think I'd do differently. There are some of my dolls that, while I would never sell them in this timeline, I might not buy in another one. Now that I've owned them, I'd miss them too much, but if I'd never owned them in the first place...

I would've probably also nabbed some dolls when I had the chance, now that I know they wouldn't be available anymore. Or when I could've gotten them cheaper.

I think I'd have a smaller collection overall (as it is I'm running out of room), but probably most of the same sculpts.

 

I love mot of my dolls. I don't love the size of my collection. With a startover, I'd have half the number of 1/3s, and one or two fewer 1/4s and tinies. Maybe then I'd have more space to place them on display.