Who inspired you to collect?

Nicole's Dreams and many other youtube channels including Swandzz (pintsizepalace)

 

I admired BJDs for a long, long time without committing to buying one. "I wouldn't do anything with it," I rationalized, "I'd probably regret buying it." I had dolls I really liked, even a couple dolls that I thought "If I was gonna have one BJD, that would be the one," but never bought one.

One of those I said would be "my only one" was Fairyland's Pongpong. Didn't matter the size. That giant smile reminded me of my son and it made me happy.

And then Fairyland re-released the Pukipuki one last year.

And it happened to coincide with Dollzone's Yo-Carter release.

A good friend of mine that I share other hobbies with (writing and text-based roleplay) also likes BJDs and had a couple already. She loved Yo-Carter. She showed him to me saying "I'm not sure if I should get him or not...!"

The link she sent me happened to show me an ad for the recently re-released Pongpong. I mentioned it to her, how Pongpong was one that I wanted.

"I'll get mine if you get yours," she said. ... so I did. And she did.

... of course then the flood gates opened and now I own three times the dolls she has and she keeps yelling WHY ARE YOU BUYING ANOTHER ONE but

 

Nobody in my family collected dolls but ever since I was little I just have been so drawn to them, I am a self-taught photographer and I'm still learning but dolls help me so much because they are like shooting real people! except I can pose them and get super creative. I found BJD dolls when I went down a strange internet rabbit hole and discovered custom OOAK blitzes and then I found Andrejas channel which inspired me to collect!

 

My grandma has been an antique doll collector for longer than I've been alive, and she always had an entire room dedicated to her doll collection so I've always been really comfortable with dolls. Then in high school I saw BJDs at an anime convention, and thus the doll collecting gene emerged and now I have 10 BJDs. My grandma loves that I collect them, has made clothes for them, and invited me to talk about them with her local doll club!

 

That's the most wholesome and heart-warming thing I have heard all week! Does your grandma have the antique bisque dolls that inspired BJDs? That would be a truly awesome presentation to see side-by-side at a doll club! Wish I had an older family member like that who inspired me!

 

god i forget how i stumbled across bjds honestly...it might've been deviant art...though i do remember coming across Aimee Major's blog back in the day and fell in love with her dolls which led me HERE though i've always loved collecting various things so its not like collecting in general was new to me, i've collected toys, art supplies (whoops) and books, bjds are fun though!

 

My babysitter when I was a child actually inspired me to start collecting dolls. She got me a collector Barbie when I was young which I forgot about when I grew up. One day I found it in my closet and began collecting Barbies. Then I moved on to bigger dolls like Sybarites and then finally BJDs.
My mom has been nothing but supportive. She even has her own mini collection. I'll never forget her reaction when I went to get my first doll (a ResinSoul Mei). She had been expecting it to be more expensive and I could decide on a skin-tone so she said "Why don't you get both?" I was like "Mom, you're not supposed to be enabling me." But she still does, lol.

 

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I had a friend who owned one of those character vinyl dolls by Volks. I was dying to get that doll back then, but of course I didn't have the funds. Spend my days looking at pictures of her or the Dream of Dolls website, making up stories about them (who didn't lol). That's what first inspired me to get a BJD someday.
Stumbled upon Ringdoll ten years later and then started looking up other companies, but it still took several weeks of research and sleeping over it until I finally ordered one.

 

I'm not sure if she does, I'll have to ask next time I see her! I should take some photos of our collections together

 

Being an unashamed weeaboo my interest started with anime figurines. I really enjoyed the playset experience of nendoroids. I even frankenstein'd a fan character into life based on a guide by Bracklain on tumblr.
Then I started watching a few youtube channels that customised monster high dolls like Dollightful, Etellan (her Junji Ito doll is to die for), Moonlight Jewel, etc, and got some of my own to modify (unfortunately none finished OTL).
I think it was natural progression that I'd end up with a bjd.

 

Ouch, that’s a touchy subject for me. I was actually already collecting different dolls though and bumped into Volks Magu and it’s history from there.

 

Originally I just happened to stumble upon dollightful's monster high customization videos and at one point she customized a Hujoo Freya and I just fell in love with them! I had never seen a doll with such articulation, inset eyes, and endless customization possibilities. From then on was when I started looking into more ball jointed dolls and that was that!

 

Pacthesis! Way back in the day (we're talking middle school for me, oof), I loved playing her flash dating sim games. One day, she uploaded some pictures of her DD Sasara and it's ultimately what opened up the world of BJDs to me.

 

My Great Grandma had half of her bedroom set aside for dolls. You would see porcelain, baby dolls, Raggedy Ann, and just about all sorts. I would love to go in there and look at them. There were so many that I never got bored of it. I only learned of BJDs from the game Nameless after discovering the dolls in the game were actual dolls. I didn't really think I could ever own one and caring for kids takes a bit of ones brain priorities. Took a look at the website recently, and have decided to save up for my first doll.

I love the possibilities of BJDs. There's just so much you can do since they're the equivalent of blank canvas in doll form.

 

I knew like one person at school who has them. Plus this hobby fits in with my other hobbies. I first sewn clothes for my sister's Build-A-Bears. And I discovered Smart dolls then it lead to the bjd hobby.

 

While it didn't start this way, the person who made me feel less weird about collecting dolls is my mom's Aunt Dolly. She was actually nicknamed Dolly because she was so small as a baby that she looked like a doll. I think she either passed away before I was born or just shortly after but she collected dolls and treated them like her children just like I do with my smaller ones.

No one inspired my initial collection but I like to think that I'm continuing that "tradition" if you will.

 

Nobody, I simply came upon a thread in an anime forum about anime boy dolls and I felt immediately interested. I don't even know why, I was never a fan of dolls, in fact, I hated dolls when I was a kid.

But here I was as a teenager interested in $500+ dolls. For a while I just looked and admired. I thought every doll was beautiful until I came upon a doll I fell completely in love with and felt in my heart that I NEEDED this doll. It's the feeling you get when you see 'THE ONE' and it was! he is still my #1 doll, I got over 20 dolls now but he is the one I love the most.

 

No one inspired me to collect. I just know bjd by accident then I love it so much. So it becomes my hobby naturally.

 

Other people’s collections in general. I don’t remember who I found first or when. But I saw a bunch of different Instagram accounts and liked what I saw so I looked into it more and started collecting.