Who inspired you to collect?

I've definitely told this story before, so I'll summarize.
I fell in love with a franchise call Mo Dao Zu Shi. I searched for merch and found pictures of the licensed BJDs. They were sold out, but I discovered BJDs and needed them. Keeping researching and ordered my first doll in a similar style a month later. My second doll was an Iplehouse Caleb because I have a cyborg-arm weakness.

 

Both of my grandmas collected, so I feel connected to them by starting my own collection. Also, my close friend's mom collects. Every surface of her house has dolls on them and she has an entire room that is stacked from floor to ceiling with Barbies!

 

A friend had mentioned it, I was already a doll collector but I had never seen a BJD. I was hooked once I looked it up. First glance was Volks.

 

I came across The Junky Spot's Facebook page by accident back around 2014, and I was super enchanted by all of the doll pictures. I'd never seen dolls so realistic before!!

 

I came across photography and faceups done by Dollchu online years ago and fell in love with dolls then. I then researched more and really agonized over wanting a Dream of Doll, but by the time I grew up and could afford one they were gone.

 

So at first I just wanted a doll that I could sew outfits for and see if I wanted to make a version for myself. Then I saw a lot of folks on youtube who collected, and I thought, "wow, those dolls are so beautiful!" and the posing was so cool. Not a very inspirational story, but once you learn about a new hobby, you get sucked in. I'm glad I found this hobby though.

 

Fairy Milliner (she's a member here on DOA) aka Keri when we were both involved with The Sims forum Neighborhood 99. In a thread where we could talk about our other hobbies, Keri showed pics of her BJDs. I had never heard of them before. I googled BJD and fell head first into this world. That was over 10 years ago.

The first site I visited was 5 Star Doll. Keri had a 5 Star Amy, which I fell in love with. But once on the site, I discovered other dolls I cold not resist. My first 3 dolls all came from that site. I never did get an Amy.

 

I found DOD accidentally and loved how they looked. At the time I couldn’t afford one, but they never really left my mind. But I’m prone to collect stuff, like figurines and books and do on anyway.

 

I met them by a user faceup process videos and a Dollfie-Dream related video on You-tube. I loved how beautiful and customizable they are.

 

No one, but I have always collected something. I graduated naturally from starting out with Monster High to Pullips and on to BJDs.

I first saw bjds on mint on card, shown to me by my sisters friend. We would admire the boy dolls together but the price was just too much compared to pullips and MH, then life happened and I stopped looking at dolls alltogether and also had to sell most, along with my massive Star Wars collection.

Then as life got financially a bit better I started looking at pullips again and came accross Smart Dolls and I really wanted one for a long time but the price was just way too much.

As I kept looking at stuff I would like to get for my smart doll (that I didn't have) I came accross BJDs again, this time girl ones, and I was in love. I started doing some research but the price scared me a bit. I was so afraid that I would'nt like the doll after all or that it would break easily etc.

I started looking for second hand dolls and stumbled across my Minifee Celine and I still adore her, and have another doll... and another coming in... and another on layaway...

 

I actually never liked dolls, not even as a little girl. I was more of a Tom boy and played with cars in the dirt! But I always had a love and soft spot for unique/unusual and oddities kind of things. My Grandma is a big doll collector, but she doesn’t collect BJDs. My friend Michelle introduced me to BJD’s and I got interested quickly, and then very fast fell in love with one of her creations. My first doll was made by her, and since then my group expanded quickly Now I am entirely into the hobby and LOVE everything about it

 

My mom and grandma both collected dolls so I guess I absorbed that from them growing up. I didn’t used to like Obitsus or BJDs because I found the ball joints ugly and distracting, but somewhere along the way I stopped noticing them and now I actually like how they look!

 

wild to think, but years ago I became friends with someone who frequently commissioned me on a pet website called flight rising. They recommended me to several of their friends who also commissioned me, and several of them had bjds of their ocs, which they sent me as reference for the drawings I did for them. I'd never encountered bjds before then, but found it really interesting at the time and it was always in the back of my mind for several years. Anyway, fast forward to the present where I finally have the disposable to afford one lol. Crazy to think I'd probably have never stumbled into the hobby if not for that one person

 

Nicoles dreams is the first bjd artist I ever had seen, so she got me into the hobby.

 

My best friend honestly is who got me into the hobby! She had BJD's before me and we ordered my first BJD together which was a really great experience!

 

I got into BJDs via webcomics, actually! I went to a webcomic author's personal website to see more of their artwork and found a bunch of what I THOUGHT were character profiles from the comic, but they turned out to be doll profiles! Some of the characters were BJDs in the author's collection. The first BJD I ever saw was photos the author had taken of their BlueFairy Jerome, Vikas. I don't think that person is in the hobby anymore, and they completely rewrote the comic story, renamed the characters and everything. I still remember the dolls' names, and some of their sculpts! They had a Ricky artist head, a Volks F-28(old F-16), and a few more as well. Kind of sad to think they left all those characters and stories behind, I went to reread the comic a while back to see how far the story had come since 2005 or so, but that's when I discovered they had completely started over and most of what was available was concept art for the redesigns. Oh well!

BlueFairy is still one of my favorite companies (old school BF especially, I'm not a fan of their new style bodies but their face sculpts still have the same vibe), I actually have my own Ricky head in my collection (a Demian!), and now I've been part of this hobby for more than half my life. I love it here!

 

I just loved dolls and found them on my own.

 

this is exactly what i was gonna say! lol

 

My grandmother. When I was small I use go over to her house and I always loved just spending time in her doll room she had a huge collection of porcelain dolls .she had the whole room full of them from ceiling to floor . They was all set up neat on shelves ..I still remember it like it was yesterday ..I sit in that room for hours just admiring them ..but no touching lol.. trust me she would of known

 

My dad collects 1/6 action figurines, and once every month he would bring the family to a shopping mall in town that was dedicated to collectibles.

There was a shop with a corner that sold BJD items, that was how I found out about the existence of ball jointed dolls!!

My dad would also make clothes and props for his figurines, and I was always fascinated by how he could create really intricate items for such downsized humans

It just felt really natural for me to delve into this hobby because of the way I grew up watching my dad pour all his love into his!