Who inspired you to collect?

My uncle did. He gave me my first action figure/doll when I was a kid, and it was all down hill from there

 

My friends got me into the hobby. I'm not friends with one of them anymore but I still cherish the memories of bringing our OCs together into a little "crossover" event, lol.

 

Well, nobody inspired me to join this hobby. I don't really relate to the idea of doing new things because other people inspired me to do them. I can and do often feel inspiration from seeing other people's creative work but it's bodies of work, and creative ideas that inspire me, not individuals.
So... I guess if anyone it was the dolls who inspired me to collect them.

 

So this is the first time I write this, because it felt like a dumb way to get into the hobby and I was a bit embarrassed.

Nyusszdesign on Instagram introduced me to the hobby when I found her account and her beautiful clothes. But I didn't get really interested until after I actually managed to buy one of her clothing sets. After that I did some research and became interested in finding a doll to actually wear the clothes.

 

I was closely following the webcomic of a french artist (solkeera) in... What, 2007 maybr ? and she started mentioning somewhere that she'd gotten into bjd. I checked out the forum of french collectors, fell in love hard with the creativity and potential of those dolls.
And that comic artist started doing photostories with the dolls, which for years I followed as closely as I'd done the drawn comics

 

*gestures vaguely at all the BJD owners, crafters, and photographers on DeviantArt in the late 2000s/2010s*

Thanks, y'all

 

I can't even remember, but i must have first seen bjds on gaia online and then i saw them on deviant art and that led me here. That was well over 10 years ago. I also loved dolls and as a child i feel like i formed deep connects with the dolls i had so i guess i wanted to recapture that in a way.

 

I been collecting dolls since I was around 7, getting very interested in a specific 1/6 brand at the end of 2005. My childhood friend didn't exactly inspire me to join the hobby, but she got a doll from that brand for New Year's and I became obsessed haha I still have these dolls and my friend ended up giving me hers when she "grew out" of playing with dolls.

When I got internet access and got on social media, I became more involved in doll communities around other 1/6 brands. At some point I got introduced to BJDs, probably through some photos floating around. Some people in the communities had BJDs as well, so I kind of learned from their experiences what these dolls entail. So yeah, it wasn't an intentional decision to start collecting. It just evolved from playing as a kid

 

Oddly enough, I would have to say myself. From my earliest recollections, I’ve been utterly fascinated by people and faces. Whenever I did fine art, for instance, it was always portraits of existing people or imaginary ones. It’s all I ever wanted to create. Add to that a fascination and love of fashion (as part of the human experience, no doubt.) So once my children had all left the nest and I had more free time, I actually began to toy with the idea of collecting dolls. I tried all kinds over my early years of doll collecting (buying and selling to recycle my limited hobby funds) but none of them ever really gave me what I was truly looking for and I’d begun to lose hope. That was until someone put a BJD in my hands. At that moment I knew I’d finally found my perfect muse and I’ve been happily collecting ever since.

 

Nobody really... I have always liked dolls and just started to collect them when I was old enough to pay for them.

 

I had been watching doll customizers on YouTube for a while, and one of them, the doll fairy, started doing unboxing vids of smartdolls and customizing them. I loved them and when researching I found dealers and resin dolls, so it just snowballed from there

 

idek at this point, but i remember seeing a VERY brief picture of a bjd on instagram and being like…”wow…that’s so pretty and amazing!” and now i’m here

 

It wasn't a person... I stumbled over amazing photos of several dolls in a Vintage fantasy look and didn't get them out of my head.
In the end it was Dragon Age Inquisition that made me want to create my OC as a bjd and so I bought my first doll

 

Nobody, I found them on my own and fell in love with their beauty.

 

Actually, nobody inspired me. I've always liked dolls, and I spent all my time playing with them when I was little. After discovering that dolls for "grown ups" existed (Pullips and such), I started to look into them and that eventually led me to collecting BJDs too

 

I really miss Swandzz's doll content and her boy Ashure, he inspired me to make my own characters

 

I've never been attracted to bjds, I considered them too demanding, but when I saw some real ones from my friend, I fell in love with them! And still today the majority of promotional photos don't appeal to me, I have to see real photos to decide which one to take.

 

Truthfully I have just always had a draw to toys and action figures. I've always thought they were the coolest things in the world. I continued collecting into adulthood and still get new figures from time to time (profile picture). I think I saw my first real doll when I was about 20 years old. It was the Smart Doll. I was instantly enamored. I told myself I was going to get one of these one day. The situation I was in at the time didn't allow me to get into them, but I always kept it in the back of my mind. Ironic since I still don't own a SD yet... I got my first BJD when I was 25, but it was a Dollfie. I still think about SD still and I'm actually trying to find one that I can afford right now. I admittedly have my reservations about Danny and his company, but I can't deny that they do make one beautiful product.

 

I don't know I think it was a book or a random TV program I saw. My mom doesn't like dolls she hates toys, but my sister gifts me toys and dolls. I guess then it would be my sister as well. My mom would say how crazy people are for buying toys and get this strange expression on her face, but sister would just buy it for me without making me feel like I'm some sort of maniac. So I guess it's a combination of my sister, that book I forgot the title, and that random tv program. It's not really inspiring, but that's probably how i got into doll collecting once i began rebuilding my collection of toys. My mom and aunt threw awya or gave away the majority of our stuff, so i had this need to build up my world and i guess lost childhood.

 

Two people inspired me to collect.

- YouTuber Dollightful with her customization video of a Hujoo Freya and Freyr.
- YouTuber MyFroggyStuff with all her Barbie and craft related content.