When does it end, the doll acquisition stage?!

I will stop buying dolls when they will stop releasing beautiful dolls


in other words, I'm screwed, I'll be broke forever

 

The drive to buy *should* eventually end. It will either end by your own accord, or through external means (i.e., you can't afford more)... or your parents refuse to let you buy anymore...

You might come to the realization that you can't get to anything without bumping into a doll, or you might try putting something on a table only to realize you don't have a lot of room because there's a doll there. You also might come to realize that your bank account is getting uncomfortably thin.

For me... I want a floating head right now. I started wanting this head three days after the arrival of my second doll. I figure, if I was successful the first and second time in terms of saving up, saving for a floating head shouldn't be an issue. I also feel that having the head of the doll is like having 75% of the doll. Don't ask me about why it's not 50/50; I just somehow feel that having a head makes more sense than having a headless body - maybe because bodies are more expensive than heads. So, I'd rather have six body-less heads.

I have other miscellaneous dolls and floating heads on my list as well, but that list can - and probably will - change. Dolls are taken off and put on the list every now and then.

I think I said this elsewhere, but for since I got my first doll, 'family members' have been coming out of the woodwork. Emma was going to be my only doll - mostly because it was a song and dance to get her - and I was absolutely fine with that. I thought SD-sized dolls would be really cool, too, but I was fine with my MSD-sized doll. Only one doll to buy for.

Since trying to do photostories with her (it's been a while since the last one) I decided to introduce a brother character. He was supposed to be her never-seen-but-still-existent older brother who lived in England... then something in my brain sort of clicked, and I came up with the idea that he had to actually come to America - which meant he had to have a doll-form. They say if you're going to mention a gun, make sure it goes off (I forget who actually said it, but it was a famous writer), and I couldn't have her brother mentioned without having him physically appear at some point. I did it for writing's sake.

Then, as I was trying to write little short-story vignettes to shape Stephen's character, I accidentally wrote in him having a girlfriend... and like before... well, you know what I'm getting at. She's not in the works at all yet, though.

That hasn't stopped other people from popping up. I'd thought of a cousin, but scrapped that because I thought that would be too far-fetched. I thought of maybe another sibling, but that was too far-fetched. It's like my mind is constantly trying to create new characters so that I will find dolls for them.

What I'd really like to do, though, is do something similar to the story of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and sort of do my own version of something like that. It was a great book, and a great concept - and would allow for a lot more doll/character creation.

 

I hope it ends some day!
hahahaha
I'm really trying to tell myself I'm happy that I have one doll at home and three more on the way. Maybe when I have the full group I'll feel a bit more complete? Right now it feels empty with just the one.

 

I'll probably keep buying dolls at times when I have money. I'm not really worried about it; I'm pretty sure I won't love them all just as much, and when the number starts nearing, say, fifteen, I'll sell some that I like less. Of course there's no guarantee that I won't get a collection of fifty, but I don't think so, because I'm not really a collector type. ^^

 

I feel like I am almost to my perfect number, granted that number is somewhere around 23 dolls but still. Lately I have been spending more time picking out outfits and wigs rather looking at new dolls like when I first started collecting.

I do have plans to add one more character to the group but after that I think I will be set.

 

I don't know if it'll end since companies keep on churning out beautiful dolls (which isn't helping my growing wish list any, either) but I really want it to end, someday... as much as I love these dolls, I don't want a whole house full of them D:

 

I don't think it ends. Companies keep making pretty new dolls and my aesthetic preferences keep changing

 

I think the stopping point might depend on your hobby style. For me, styling a doll and buying the clothes, etc, is the hardest part...in the first 3 years, I bought many dolls just based on the mold, but 90% of the time I ran into creative roadblocks where I couldn't complete the doll's look. And so, I would sell them and get more.

Now that I think of it, I really stopped buying more dolls out of sheer laziness. I have two now, and it's enough. The thought of going through the whole process again makes me groan inside, lol. I'd rather spend the energy working on the ones I already own.

 

It doesn't end. Unless you give up the hobby. There will be more and more dolls to always get.

 

I hope it slows XD However I don't find myself to be wanting them like a fiend..I have 5-6 planned which is a lot but I find that when browsing company sites or the marketplace I haven't found any others I really wanted.

 

I'm not sure that it will necessarily end since things will always continue to catch your eye, and over time your tastes will refine and change... but the drive of MOREMOREMORE does.

When I started my plans were small, 2 dolls- maybe three. Then as I got more into the hobby and made characters they grew to proportions that I didn't even think I'd be able to handle. As I was in the middle of switching out sculpts for other sculpts (which I do entirely backwards, since I wouldn't sell the old ones till the new ones came in XD) I realized that my number of Yo-SD sized dolls could not exceed 4 max. I had 6 sitting around and it really overwhelmed me! So it was then that I realized my max would have to be around 3-4 of each size and after that they had to be reduced to faceplates/ heads only (thank god for FL's faceplate system!) Maybe this will change after I move out and have more of my own space but for now, this is my 'magic number'.

Of course... even though I'm nearing the end of my current want list (Only 2 PKF to go, really!) I'm constantly refining things and reshelling when I find a better mold for the character. So even though I'm nearly done getting my troop, I think there will still be doll buying in my future- Whether for reshelling, upgrading or just adding on an extra unplanned member or two. And I'm entirely ok with that

 

I'm sad to say it never stops lol. The more dolls that get released the more chance there is of you liking them. I swore only to have two, I'm now saving for my 6th

 

I started in December with Emily that I had gotten for christmas. Only a week later I put Yoko on layaway, then a week after getting her I put Shin on Layaway. Now I am at a point where I not buying none stop. I do have plans on getting more, but it's not a buy buy buy, I want am now working on is cloths and wigs for the lot. ^,^ Then again my stopping of buying came from not getting hours at work. So hobbies suffer first in my line of sight. Now that I'm working more I get to use my money for my hobbies again.

 

I think it's not going to end. Well, at least for me it won't.
People change, and when they change, so do their tastes. You may get a girl you love in pictures but when she gets to you she could be nothing like you want, and on she goes to a new home.

You could be in love with a doll and after a while you find that they don't fit into your family anymore, and on they go.

Or... more dolls come out ALL THE TIME, and chances are you'll fall in love with one or two of them. They're like Pringles, once you pop you can't stop.

 

Right now money and space constraints have slowed me right down -- I haven't bought a doll this year -- but when I'm a position to do so I plan to have another acquisition stage . I did find that I calmed down a little after a while and didn't bring so many home at such a rushed pace, but there are a bunch still on my serious wishlist. The other side of it is everything that goes with BJDs -- wigs, eyes, clothes. I don't see ever stopping adding to that part of the collection.

 

I didn't buy a doll for two years and then Iplehouse released standard Kamau. Now I'm back in the aquisition stage. I don't mind. As long as I'm sensible with my money, it's okay to buy one doll a year.

 

I just started but I know I get overwhelmed by too many of something so I'm hoping to take it slow.. Saying that, I've already made a impulse purchase of the A-S Cinderella. Honestly I think at most 5 dolls for me is just right and I'm trying my hardest to spread out the amount of time it takes to get those five. I want to keep my collection small so I can concentrate on building up character and personalities for each through building the proper props and wardrobes. But that's all in theory and like I said I've already broke my rules and it's only my second doll.>.<

 

I discovered abjds in spring of 2010, and spent quite a while reading about them before buying one. The most important point seemed to me to be true flexibility and individual character, that is the bjd potential, more than just physical beauty. DoA certainly was a great help, even without being a member because search engines kept leading to good comments in the data base.

Two makers stood out in the literature, ShinyDoll and Domuya. I started the order process with dealers for both, and in a few months had 2 Domuyas and the first of my ShinyDolls. They really showed me the different directions for bjds.

The Domuyas are beautiful, translucent resin, excellent default faceups, really beautifully shaped bodies, fairly poseable. And their hands and toes fall off constantly. But they are like lovely models, always pleasing, but not able to be REAL They are another version of dolls that I have known all my life, fun to play with, but I can put them away for a long while and not think about them.

The ShinyDolls are the essence of the ball joint doll mystique, for me. Infinitely poseable, exquisitely engineered, very individual sculpts, coming to life immediately. When they are put away for safety, they call to me from their boxes-- OK, when are coming to get us out, anyway! The house is lacking something when they are not hanging about. That has never been the case for a doll before.

So in the time between, 6 SDs, 1 MSD and 1 Yo size ShinyDoll have come to live with me. With each one, I needed to explore more of the qualities of the ShinyDoll, sizes, different sculpts, then the potential of faceups. Exploring the differences between manufacturers of eyes, and why it is really worth it to have beautiful glass eyes. Each added step is another layer of interest, to fulfill the character inherent in the doll.

Now, each character becoming individual, they are competing to have clothes specially designed for them. Each one has different taste in color, style, fabrics. It all seems to flow from the actualization of the artist's original vision when he created them and set the process in motion.

I've never had a hobby that seems so self propelled. In the past, with more time in hand, I've designed and made whole dolls, and all their garments, from scratch. There's alot of process in that, and heavy investment of time. The joy of the bjds is that their creators generously start the lives of these dolls, then let them venture out for us to bring them to completion.

So, for me the dolls on hand form a cohesive unit, and the continuing challenge will be clothing and scene setting, plus the necessity of getting to the point of taking decent photos of them. Doing justice to the darlings that are with me now means not actively looking to acquire more dolls, really. That said, if they come out with a new Realpuki, I won't hesitate a minute! That's different!

 

Seriously? It never really does. I thought I was good, but then I saw Iplehouse's Claude... and I'm mentally doing contortions trying to figure out how to get one for myself.

 

I keep telling myself it's going to end soon, but it keeps not ending. I'm pretty new to collecting, but I've been on a roll in terms of acquisition. I started telling myself I need to stop getting new dolls (y'know, after picking up those last couple I'd been planning on... ) so I could start buying things for the dolls I already have, buying non-doll things (Those still exist? ) and recovering financially.

Instead, every time I think I'm almost there, another doll shows up that I cannot possibly deny myself. (Hnnn. I'm with Lyzrd - Claude is ruining my plans. )