Why are you into BJDs?

I love being able to work on them and find ways to improve their posability! A huge thrill for me is taking a doll apart and reassembling them-- when I was little I was really into those Zoid assembly kits and would spend hours assembling and reassembling my Zoids, so there's a similar joy in BJDs.
I also love the whole...putting a doll's look together and the crafty bits! C:

 

I think for me it's the combination of them being such beautiful pieces of art, but also being so customizable, and therefore it becomes a creative outlet.
I used to love action figures more so than dolls when I was younger, so I guess to me they're more like giant beautiful action figures lol.

 

I have always searched for ways to bring my fantasies into the real world. I love not just making up “something that happened” but breathing personality, preferences and quirks into a character until they feel truly alive. As a child I spent entire days acting out stories with my siblings and our Barbies or plush animals. It was very rare to get a new set piece, so we had to be creative; many of our props and clothing were handmade or modified bits of recycling and this and that scavenged from other toys. Every single doll we owned had a backstory and complex relationships with the rest of the townsfolk. If my little brother bit a doll’s nose off or broke her arm, we wove it into her story. BJDs were a natural progression from that universe and have offered a more sophisticated grown-up canvas to continue the creative playtime and escapism I enjoyed as a girl.

 

A lot of reasons, I think. From least to most important to me:

1) size
2) range of motion
3) aesthetics
4) emphasis on customization

While technically any doll can really be customized, it was something new for me to see a high-end doll actively being presented as something you should customize. Receiving a doll wasn't the end goal, it was actually the beginning! Owning a BJD meant utilizing your own creativity to really make the doll unique. It was enthralling even at the very beginning of the hobby's days to see how truly different the same sculpt could look in different hands. It really felt like a collaborative process, watching a doll maker send its fledgling art into the world and be reinterpreted by so many different people. That was just as hugely appealing to me then as it is now!

 

One thing that I really like about BJD is that my doll is the reflection of myself, I can try the style that I like with my doll, how I might look like, if I'm confident enough to step out of my comfort zone

 

I truly love the endless possibilities that each doll has. I enjoy sewing and crafting for them. Its also a learning experience, I've learned so much about sewing, photography and faceups. I hope everyone has as much fun as I do

 

I love BJD's for so many reasons. I've never been interested or collected other kind of dolls so, for me, BJD's are the dolls. One of the main reasons I love them is that they're my own characters come true. And they're not only in my mind but in the real world. I love touching them, playing with them and simply staring at them. I also think so much about their stories, personalities and relations, I write about them and I plan so many things for them. I can't even describe how I enjoy that process! I like changing their clothes and accesories, doing their face ups and taking pictures of them too

 

Hmm... *thinks intensely*
Before I knew what BJDs were, I was madly in love with figma and obitsus because they were so poseable, and even before then I made up all these intricate stories for my plushies. When I found about about BJDs, I was immediately in love and pored over them for hours on end, practically obsessed with them. I think my driving force was how "artsy" they were and the sheer possibilities those dolls held.

 

I am a doll collector and I like dolls in general. Becoming interested in BJDs was the next step in my evolution.

I don't see BJDs as different from other dolls except that they are poseable. I selected my BJD (I only have one so far) for the same reason I select all of my dolls: she was pretty and she could wear pretty clothes.

 

Initially, it was to provide myself with a worthwhile distraction, as my mum had recently [at that time] been admitted to hospital. When she was successfully discharged, we had moments of bonding over my first doll. So, even though I don't really interact with him now, I still don't want to move him on. Even if it means I could bring a doll of my dreams home.

I'm still in the hobby, eight years later, because... there's almost a sense of companionship in having the dolls around. There's something similar to owning a pet, in having the dolls around. Only, unlike pets, these companions won't leave until you send them off. There's a certain comfort in holding them sometimes. And, I adore the customisation possibilities. I love that I can take a blank, or bare doll with a face-up, and I can make them into my own Leon Kennedy or Chekov. Or a character of my own design. They can be a form of 3D fan-art or a physical representation of a character I have in mind for a story. I can try a hair colour on them, to see if it works. A hairstyle, or fashion style.

 

I've had my characters for decades; they're near and dear to me, and for a very long time I wanted a way to bring them into the "real world," so to speak. Plush dolls seemed too childish, I couldn't find the right base for kitbashing, and there weren't any playline dolls available that I could adequately style into what I was after (both options and my skills make that more possible now). I initially blew off BJDs because I didn't realize they were customizable, I just thought they were some trendy Lolita variant on porcelain dolls, but when I discovered that they were designed as more of a canvas than a complete package, that there was a variety of shapes and styles, and that there was a head that actually looked extremely close to one of my dearest characters, I was sunk. I started with a small group of my characters, that grew and spread and continues to grow, adding some favorite fandom characters, some new ones designed to fit dolls that fit perfectly into groups, and some that are just wonderful sculpts I wanted to own. But the true reason is because I can make the characters I want to make, and have them in a poseable, dressable, amazing 3D form.

 

I originally got my first doll to see for, then I got another to bond with a friend who was going through a hard time. But then they started to become companionship.

I have always been able to count the people I consider friends on one hand, not that I’ve wanted it that way, but have a hard time opening up. But the dolls are kind of a halfway step. They each have their own personalities and these days they fill in for human connections.
They also have started to open up a community between this and discord servers.

 

I became a doll collector when I became an empty nester. At the same time I started collecting doll furniture, 'I combined BJDs
and the furniture to make fun dioramas. I love making homes for my beautiful dolls. Of course each needs clothing so I make sure they have wardrobes for assorted occasions.

 

Dear Starlady, making dioramas sounds like fun. I like to watch the DIY videos. I don't really have the skills but it is fun to watch.

I am a doll collector also but I only have one BJD so far.

 

I like beautiful and cute things. I like dolls. I like art. BJDs are all of those things in one! I love dressing mine up and posing her cutely.

 

I have always loved dolls. I started collecting baby dolls in polymer clay, silicone and resin. I got my first BJD some time after and he was my one and only for years. I have more recently decided to add some more BJDs. I don't really know how or why that came about because I did stop buying dolls for a while. I guess I somehow I came across them again and decided they would be nice to add to my little collection of dolls. They are just so beautiful and delicate. I love that I can be more creative with them, make them furniture and display them in home settings.

 

I've always been obsessed with statuettes, figures, miniatures, and dollhouses, so BJDs were a natural love for me. I fully appreciate these kind of things as an art form, and I think the ability to paint, dress, style, and pose the dolls any way I want to is also a huge plus. I have a section of wall for figures and fashion dolls who are more for display like art pieces and once I get a better set up ready, I'd like to do the same for my BJDs. Having beautiful things displayed and taking photos of them makes me super happy!

 

For me, I have always loved dolls as my mother got me into them when I was a kid. However, I could never find ones that could represent what I wanted. Pretty as they were, they weren't what I needed as a whole. Don't get me wrong, I still love my other dolls but when I found BJDs I was a happy one. I can customize these however I see fit and can finally create characters and bring things to life.

 

one of the reasons why i'm into bjds is because customization and styles for these beautiful dolls are endless and i see my doll as a mini me and can express some fashion that i like that i'm not comfortable wearing outside the real world haha.

 

I have always liked dollhouses and miniatures. I loved playing with my dolls and imagining characters and making up stories for them. Now I get to imagine a character and see them come to life. If something doesn't work I can it change easily.
My main interest is writing so I like to write back stories and adventures for them. I think BJD allows you to really customize them and I love the poses that they can achieve compared to the dolls I grew up with. At least from photos online as I research as I haven't got one yet.