Would your collection be different if you started with a different doll?

I don’t think it would as my tastes have changed mainly due to outside influences (movies, art, maturity) just as much as advances in sculpting and doll diversity.
I started with tinies, have ventured into 1/3, sold them then over a decade later repurchased the same sculpt and ventured into 1/4 size too. I buy because I like that doll based purely on its own merits and never even think about whether it ‘fits’ my collection or not.

 

I feel like only the size would've been different. If I didn't have Minka (tall yosd) at home when I returned to the hobby I probably would've gone for the msd-minifee scale instead for the main size I collect. (My first ever doll was msd(I sold him and all my other dolls when I "quit" the hobby), and that size is so convenient! It's not as itty bitty as yosd to 1/5 but also way easier to deal with than bigger dolls)
Aesthetics wise everything would be the same, I am very fond of the whole baby faced but edgy thing I have going on in my collection

Maybe my dolls would have more shoes... Finding nice shoes for yosd and 1/5 is such a pain

 

I don't think so. My change has been changing since I started in the hobby like 16 years ago.so I just go with the flow.

 

I think I would've ended up on the same track although I'm not rigid and I make exceptions if I like a doll. On the other hand I would've gone crazy if I had bought my first doll from a company that took 8+ months.

 

Yes, for sure!
When I started I thought the 1/3 dolls would be to big for me, so I went with the 1/4 and smaller dolls.

But slowly the 1/3 started to creep into my collection. I found out I really prefer the larger sized dolls. They are easier for me to photograph, find and make props for, and make clothes for. I have more dolls 1/3 and up then I do 1/4 dolls. I still have my 1/4 collection, but they just sit on a shelf looking cute. I don't really do anything with them.

If I had started with the 1/3 dolls. I would have realized this was the size doll for me. I would have probably only picked up a few of the smaller 1/4 dolls for curiosity, and realized they just didn't fit with me. I now have nearly 20 of them shelved. I love them don't get me wrong, but they just wouldn't have been in my collection if I had started with the larger dolls.

 

I actually did this after about 4 years of collecting in this wonderful hobby. I initially tried out some different sizes, then settled on the MSD size and proceeded from there. But then something magical happened…Dollzone released their flower dolls, Moment and Anson. I was absolutely mesmerized! I moved heaven and earth to bring Anson (see avatar) home that year, and even though she was also MSD size, she simply eclipsed ever other doll in my collection with both her uniqueness and her character. I put so many layers into her artwork and rich character development that all the others felt redundant by comparison. So I made the very difficult decision to sell all the others and rebuild my collection from scratch around her. No longer was I tied into a certain size…instead I was building fascinating characters she would like to engage with. I created a fantasy world where everything and any size BJD was welcome as long as they truly inspired my creative imagination. It gave me the freedom to build a wonderful collection based purely on imagination alone, which was secretly what my soul was yearning for. Now, nearly two decades into this hobby, I’m still in love with my collection and inspired by each and every doll I own.

The moral of my little story is that it’s never too late to restart your collection if that’s what you truly would love to do. It’s your collection after all, and the quest is yours alone.

 

Do you ever think if your collection would have shaped up differently had your first doll been something else? A different overarching style, different sizes, different companies? Or would that have no influence?
The year when I bought my first doll was also the year one limited, yo-sd sized, anthro doll I have loved for a long time now was released. Had I done a better research and found out about the existence of the company and this kind of doll, I would have probably started collecting with that doll then follow up getting similar dolls to build a world around it. I'm not sure I would've gotten a human-like doll after that, but a bunch of little animals with their personalities and jobs to form a little kingdom.
Of course my tastes have changed since I started, the meaning of my collection has changed, but now, having with me a resin family of 3 humans and 3 anthro dolls and knowing how/how much I interact with them and what I enjoy doing, I think it would've been really bad for me unless I changed that idea half-way, and probably would've meant for me to abandon the hobby at some point.
So, despite any mistakes and the changes in taste, I'm so happy with the way the things turned out.

 

Honestly... probably not. My first doll was a Migidoll and I'm still obsessed with the same Migidoll sculpts to this day, even though I keep buying and selling them (I'm determined that the ones I have/am getting now are staying!)

Getting my Delf Soony made me realise I love Delfs, possibly more than any other dolls, so if I had started with her I might have bought more Delfs sooner... but I think I still would have wanted the Migidolls too and would have ended up with more or less the same collection eventually.

 

I think so. Back in 2015 or so when I was still trying to save up for my first BJD, I had made up my mind that I wanted that doll to be Elfdoll Dami. I'd waffled between her and Minifee Shushu for ages but Dami won out. Unfortunately, I don't think Elfdoll ever made Dami again after that point and by the time I could actually afford my first doll (in 2017) they had shut down completely. I naturally went for my second choice, Shushu. I liked her sculpt a lot, and Fairyland, particularly Minifees, were very hyped. I heard wonders about their posability, and I had a kind of "if I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on a doll, I want it to be the best there is" kind of mindset.

And I was very excited about her when I got her, but as the years went on I had to face it. I wasn't happy with her, particularly her body/posing. But spending so much on her and looking forward to her for so long kind of made me feel like I had to be happy with her. I still love my Shushu to death, especially after rebodying her, but I feel like I've ended up enjoying the less expensive dolls I've owned more. I think if I had started with maybe an underrated and less expensive (less perfect) doll I would have been happier. In fact I think if I'd managed to get Dami like I wanted to, I'd still be enjoying her to this day.

It's interesting to think how my collection might have been different if I'd started in a different place.

 

the key thing for me, there won't be any collection, because I knew back than if I wouldn't be able to buy the one doll I fell in love with, I wouldn't buy anyone else. Just to be clear, despite I liked lots of bjds, yet I dreamed about specific one for 7 years! When I was able to finally bought him, that was the turning point, not the vice versa. Only because I acquired him the collection is started. If we talk aesthetically this is also not the case either, each doll is crafted very carefully, I didn't sell a single doll or parts I bought and it's when 80% of my bjds are hybrids. 11 years and my collection is pretty consistent and stable, I need just one more character, but it's not so crucial. Only one thing that I consider right now if it's feasible to get new WIP mecha-body from Ringdoll, but even if it's not, it won't change anything

 

No, I don't think so. Maturity was a huge factor and not the first doll. I had no vision and no goal. After 10 years of collecting, I had only 2 dolls that looked decent together and pretty much every size that was available at the time. It would have been a disjointed mess regardless of who I started with. Only in the last 5 years or so has anything come together when I was able to decide what I wanted the most rather than EVERYTHING.

 

Well, my first was Soom Mini Gem Idrial. I thought I would stick to the fashion doll sized BJDs since I grew up with Barbie or American Girl dolls. Then Soom released Elf Dia, around the same time that I think the Hobbit movies were still a big deal. He was my first big doll. I think if I hadn't bought him, my collection might have stayed small. Now I have so many dolls, all kinds of sizes because I went from "oh it'll be nice to have cute fairy dolls" to "LET US RECREATE THE SECOND AGE OF MIDDLE EARTH MWHAHAHAHA"

I do think I need to thin out my collection - I have some human dolls who look sort of out of place amongst a hoard of elves. But I don't know if I can part with them - two are supposed to be based off of favorite video game characters, another two are from a favorite high school anime, and then the other 3 are supposed to be a "human ended up in a fantasy world and befriends a fairy prince and a cat girl!" I also have two anthro cat dolls but they're Japanese nekomata so I don't really want them to go either. I feel like I need someone to help me look at my collection and help me make it more cohesive.

 

When Little Monica announced they were closing down, that is what pushed me to take the plunge and buy my first (two!). I think that if I hadn't bought those two dolls then, it might have taken me even longer to take the plunge! I'd been wanting my own BJD for years and years at that point.

I wonder if I'd started with only a 1/4, if I would have avoided buying 1/3s! Though my biggest doll is 75 cm, so perhaps I would have always gotten there eventually!

 

My first was 60cm, my second 70cm and then I never looked back
I always knew I wanted big dolls, 70cm just happened to hit the spot best.

I do think though that maybe with mir fashion sized options back then I miiiight have leaned towards that at some point? 70cm just had the faces I wanted, but my fashion sized guys are definitely easier to handle.

 

I don't think so. If I had gotten other sculpts or sizes I would just about taken the same amount of time to get here and I would have eventually tried one size or sculpt at one point or another. Maybe I would have ventured in a different direction sooner and got where I'm now sooner, but the trip would have been similar.

Most of the reasons for my collection now versus then have to do with knowing what exactly I like in dolls or I don't in terms of poseability, something that I didn't pay as much attention back in the time, as well as the advancement in doll making and the availability of a lot more diverse sculpts, things that I simply wouldn't have been able to acquire back in the 00s when I started. What I want in a doll is a lot more clear to me now than it was at the time, so certainly maturity and experience with different sculpts has helped shape the me of now, as well as ageing has shaped my likes and personal aesthetic over the years a lot more as well.

 

Hoo boy. If I hadn’t started my collection with a Volks SDC Kurenai I really don’t think I’d have gotten the bug to “Catch ‘em All” Over the years I’ve gotten more big dolls, and smaller ones. The differences make them all interesting so I would probably still have a zillion dolls, even if I hadn’t been compelled to collect every SDC girl

 

I don't think so! I started my collection with a Kid Delf Cherry back in the day, convinced that 1/3s would be entirely too big and too pricey to ever reasonably collect. She ended up not working out (I gifted her to a friend) and I moved over to 1/3s and nontraditional 1/4s anyway.

As I've matured in the hobby, I've learned to stop sacrificing what I really want for the sake of saving some money. I think, no matter who I started my collection with, I would've eventually self-corrected to having a collection that looks roughly like my current one.

 

Maybe not completely different, but if I had started directly with SD-sized dolls, I wouldn’t have ended up with some of my adult MSD dolls later on in the hobby. Now, whenever I consider buying a new doll, I always try to ensure it will be a stylistically and proportionally consistent choice. All of my dolls represent characters from a single story, and I like them to form a cohesive cast that looks good together.

 

I think so. I have only SD-sized dolls, because that's what I started with. I like my dolls to match. Kinda regret not starting with a tiny doll sometimes.