Your Bad Experiences With BJD's in Public

Oh guys, how touching your stories are...
I'm 29. And you can imagine what people think when me and my husband came to the seaside, and start getting dolls from carrying!
And began take a photo with dolls...
What silly eyes they have!
My bad experience was last year, when i took my Iplehouse SID Shane to the seaside.
There was a family having a rest nearby. With a child of 4-5 years maybe.
The child was really interested to my doll. And was running around us all the time. When he was emboldened and tried to touch my doll, i said "Please, don't."
I took Shane to the carrying bag, and we wanted to leave. The child came to his parents and started crying and screaming, pointing a finger with us.
I saw he was really spoiled, and i really didn't care about him.
But his strange mother came to me and said - "Give him a doll, can't you see he is crying???"
I was shocked by her insolence and replied - "Sorry, i won't. This doll is very expensive, and very dear to me."
She didn't believe when i said how much this doll cost
Can you believe, she tried to take my Shane from bag to his hand!
My husband removed the bag behind his back and said her - back off.
We went to our car parked near, and heard this woman said to her child that we were idiots.
Strange enough, but i think that neither my husband nor i were. She was.

 

I have never had a really bad experience with my dolls.


I am quite patient with children who are not trying to jump on me to pick my stuff out of my hands, but it's not everybody who can be so. We were once in a café when two very kind ladies came around with a little boy and girl to ask about our dolls . While we were explaining them what the dolls were and how they work, the boy suddenly raised his hand to my friend's doll and I saw her holding her breath in agony. I just hold his hand softly and talked to them, explaining calmly that a BJD was a very expensive toy and have parts that could fell of, so I couldn't let him take it in his hands, however he could pet the hair and clothes while I hold it for him. He understood it quite well and I let him put his hand on my doll's hair and clothes. The girl did the same and both of them got really happy, the ladies thanked us and my friend just relaxed when they went away.


I understand her fears towards kids around her dolls, but I think it's just natural for children to get so enchanted by BJDs and you can handle it most of times explaining them why they can't touch. There's obviously some very disrespectful kids out there and you never know, but if you see the parents seems to be reasonable human beings and the children aren't jumping and squealing of hiperactive excitement, it's worth a try. Maybe they can really get interested by the hobby in the future

Ok, that's the exactly kind of kid I'm not talking about here. What a great family of morons! Kids are, afterwall, only reflections of their raising. I feel a bit sorry for the spoiled brat and for you who had to go through that.

 

after reading some of these experiences I feel lucky! Worst that's ever happened to me was at a doll meet in a cafe one time a lady came up and kept asking us if our dolls were for sale and how much they were. It was actually kind of creepy the way she asked. Even when we took them to a park for a meet one time we didnt have any trouble (it was interesting though because there were tons of teenagers there taking photos for prom, but none asked us about our dolls) and I live in California, and it's seemed to me that people generally mind their own business or ask with polite curiosity. We usually hold meets at the cafe I mentioned before and the customers who go in while we're there generally look at them, interested, we've even had quite a few ask us what they were and compliment us on them the owner of the cafe even came out to take some pictures of them once so I really hope all of this doesn't cause people to think america is saturated with rude people! there are nice people too!

 

I was first starting out with dolls. I got a DIM marianne off ebay(she came from a doll owner and it was a very pleasant experience buying her. The person I bought her from was a member on here and we kept in contact. I sent her photos as she got her faceup and clothes ect) anyway I was so proud of her and loved her so much I took her to a few local places. I first took her to get mcdonalds. She was sitting in the car as we drove through the drive thru ad the guy handing us our food goes "that doll is really creepy" my reaction...f-you.

Then I thought ok I'll bring her to a local hot dog joint. We ordered and sat down and I got stared at...then an older woman comes over ad basically says my doll should never come out of the house it was getting so bad my fiance had to tell her that I basically I made this doll with my own hands and she backed off very quick and told me I should try to sell my creations at the stores around there...

At this point I was feeling pretty upset but I tried and took her an asian festival. That went ok and I won a $20 gift card. When I won the person told me that my doll must be lucky lol.

The worst situation is my family. My sister is very demanding and pushy and she really hurt my feelings about my dolls, saying they are creepy and when her kids came around them she'd tell them how creepy my dolls are and how they are to NEVER like them. It sucks having her as my sister...

 

I've taken my dolls (primarily tinies) out quite a bit, anywhere from a busy beachside to an elegant shopping center, and I've never had any issues. No one has ever approached me either about my dolls, I think I'm just so zoned into taking photos that I'm in my own little world and seem unapproachable, but I've never been given weird stares to my knowledge and no one has ever said anything derogatory. Overall just wonderful experiences in public without any hint of bad by any means.

 

I'm sorry if this has been posted before, but I tried to look it up and didn't find it. I know there's a thread about "worst doll experiences", but this is specifically during meetups in particular.

This didn't actually happen to ME, but it did happen to a friend of mine. The group was hanging out at the mall and we were walking from the bookstore to the food court when, out of the blue, this woman who works at one of the nail salon stands just grabs my friend's MSD right out of her hands and starts asking questions while rubbing her fingers all over the doll's faceup! My friend was absolutely horrified and had to demand to get her back after explaining she would have to pay for any damages if she messed her doll up.
I'm almost too scared to go to any meet ups after seeing that happen!

 

People are so rude ugh!
I thought it was common courtesy to ask anyone before taking something out of their hands regardless of what it is.

At one of the doll meets we had (which was in a park) these kids were just running around and one walked up and tried to touch my friend's doll and she quickly chastised her and told her not to touch them.
but Im not sure if that really counts as a terrible experience. More just very inconsiderate.

 

i dont have any bad experiences yet whenever i bring my doll outside.
there was one time when i brought my doll to restaurant for lunch, the waiters and people were fawning over him...taking pictures, patting his hair cause its so fluffy and such... asking random doll questions etc
there are some people that are receptive and some are clueless...

 

i don't take my dolls out much, because i read things like this and i am afraid! i once take my tinies to the park for pictures, but i stayed off near the trees and so nobody bothered me
i would be very afraid if some of this things happened to me or my dolls

 

To be honest since the "THAT is one freaking scary doll." comment I got at Karoshi con last year involving Avalon (Still proud of him for it! XD That's my boy) I haven't really had any bad experiences...Except driving to a designated meet up spot only to find out the meet up had never been confirmed as canceled, and going to the local museum for back up, again no one showed. But thankfully the ladies there were really nice, and said since they were bored to death (very, very slow day, no one except me and my mom had walked in) they wouldnt mind if I took pictures of Avalon around the museum. I had so much fun doing it, and they didnt' charge us (I didn't go past a certain point though since it'd feel like I was taking advantage) that for my birthday this year I went back to that museum, paid admission and took pics of Kazumi and Vala all through out the museum.

 

I would give them a knuckle sandwich for THAT! Are they crazy? Touch someone they do not know at all? Just because you are bald? How dare they? But I know that there are people who cannot keep polite distance, they touching a pregnant woman's belly as well. Even with women I know quite well I ask before touching.

 

Unfortunately at the age this happened, I was a crappy throw so I couldn't throw a good punch...But my mom nearly ripped the brats who did it in two...>A< It's really annoying, had a couple of girls at a meet up try to touch my head after I told them to not touch the dolls and then wouldn't get out of my way. They kept staring at me and their mom was on her phone ignoring her kids til I had to tell them: "It's polite to look rude to stare!"

 

well, my camera pretty much forces me to go out with my bjds, and i've been out with them like 40+ times now, I guess, including parks, meadows, churchyards (no profanity involved, tho, as i'm religious myself and so one thing I can tell you: sure, people are gonna talk and stare, but you just get used to it!

Apart from folks pointing their fingers at me (usually teens), I've had a few weird things happen to me, like, a guy walking with his dog, telling the latter: C'mon, Dear, let's go away from this weirdo... (while I was posing my boy) and I was like... wow... at least if I talk to my dog I make sure we're alone, so who's the real weirdo now? :P

Truth be told, I've never had any problems with folks outise, and - if anything -t hose were always things that I'm used to in general Like, thru my adolescence I went thru tons of subcultural phases and crap like this, I've had all kinds of hair colours (often two contrasting shades mixed) and, really, I'm generally used to people talk crap about what they see me doing.

So, i usually get stared at. So I just stare back, and they turn their heads away. I'm sure it may look amusing, esp if it's the middle of winder/autumn and I'm out there dressed all in black, nearly 6ft tall, with a 'Gothic' all-in-black, quasi-vamp bjd of mine... and my neigbour (infamous for being the biggest gossip girl around) just came over to clean the church before Sunday :3 (as many graves as there is around, I never even approach them, and I just like the place because the grass is always neatly cut, so there is no danger of spiders, of which I'm super-scared... truly!)

of course, I feel sorry for some of you, people, especially since so many problems seem to be caused by spoilt kids and their even dumber parents, but in general - my advice is don't care. Just it. I mean, as long as it doesn't get physically violent/aggressive. Always remembered that while they may laugh, you just happen to play with a 500+ usd worth of resin that their kids can only dream of :P Feels better, doesn't it?

 

I've only taken a doll out in public twice, and both times it was my off-topic 1/6 ABS bjd, because he's much cheaper! (Hopefully it's still alright to mention him - he'd be otherwise on-topic if he was made of resin, and it should be a relatable doll experience anyway.) One time was for a photoshoot, which was weirdly uneventful, even though we ran all over downtown Savannah taking pictures. Then on the way home for winter break, I had to carry him in an airport, because I didn't have a face mask that fit him and I had packed too tightly already. I was surprised at how well-recieved he was - people on the shuttle from my school to the airport talked to me about him, the guy who checked my id and boarding pass complimented him and joked, "Didn't you know you need a ticket for him, too?" I also had more people from my school crowd around and get excited about the "cool doll", and the flight attendant thought he was cute too! This might be because he was an anthro and basically fashion doll sized, but it was really encouraging, and I'll probably try to take my resin guys out in public for photoshoots when I go back to school.

Here's my "bad semi-public experience", though: I've actually had worse luck taking my dolls to friends' houses. People always go straight for Amriel's faceup, poor little guy!! Their face scar is like a magnet, people just really wanna touch it. I've only had one person slightly touch their face so far - I'm pretty good at doing ninja moves to politely avoid people touching it - and since then I've always warned people about their face before I even take them out! He's also the only one who's ever creeped out family members...it makes me feel bad for him, it isn't his fault he has a scar carved into his face :'D At least it seems to make the others untouchable by comparison, I've never gotten a negative comment about either of my other two dolls.

 

My dolls never leave my house, and when I lived with my parents they never left my room unless I was home alone. I generally have one of them as my phone background. Most recently, my avatar was my phone background and I went on a week long holiday with my mother. On the last night, she finally said "Why have you got that horrible girl on your phone?" I could tell she'd been thinking it for the whole trip. This is why I don't take my dolls anywhere.

 

@Boof, c'mon, she's so adorable I love her warm-coloured makeup Cheer up, sweetheart, and know she's a cutie anyway (ps. my mum sometimes hates ony my bjds too ) If anything, ask ten random people about the photo and I can bet at least 7 will ask whether it's some famous actress or sth (until they notice the joints... if they ever will )

 

I guess my worst public experience (specifically dealing with people-wise) with my dolls would have to be when I took my newest boy Blade out with me to do some window shopping last week. Now Blade's an Iplehouse SID Claude head on a Ringdoll RGM-03 body, he's not small by any means and usually attracts attention from the way looks (fantasy clothes + blue body tattoos), so I'm used people ogling him and have come to expect it really.

But last week while I was walking around with him downtown some really creepy guy started asking questions about Blade, not the normal 'what is that?' 'why are you carrying that around' crap I usually get, no he was asking very odd and personal things like, "Does he have a working penis?" "He looks like he has boobs, is he a shemale?" "Why does he have those tattoos on his face, is he some sort of pagan ritual thing?" ...Just really, really odd stuff like that over and over again

It made me a little uncomfortable and several times he tried to touch Blade's face or poke his chest to try to feel his 'boobs' (Blade has additive mods to his chest that sort of look like large fangs), I had to shout at the guy once while I was in a store because he took a pen and pretended to scribble on him saying, "He needs a pentagram on his forehead!" Thankfully one of the stores I went into I knew the lady who worked at the front desk and she asked him to leave or she would call the cops, I hung around the store till I was sure he long gone, but I still kept an eye out for him the rest of the day.

 

my absolute worst experience in my entire doll life was when i brought my little Pinot to my (at that point) new psychologist and she asked if she could hold her and then out of nowhere just. tapped Pinot's head against her teeth???!! like to test what she was made of, but she had already asked and BEEN TOLD that it was resin???! she didn't ask or anything she just put my doll in her mouth????
it should be noted that at that point in time my ocd (with sanitazation compulsions + germaphobia) was so severe that i had been hospitalized and she KNEW THAT??? i dropped her after a few more appointments i hated her so so SO much she was the absolute worst and really ableist and gross and just. oh my god.
i went home and scrubbed pinot's head for a long time while crying it was a nightmare. it's been years and i still get really upset about it and have compulsions to clean her more even though she's squeaky clean.

 

Oh my god! I can't believe someone would do that!! A psychologist even! I would have snapped and yelled at her. I'd probably cry as well. I'm so sorry you experienced that. I get really scared when my boyfriend messes with my dolls.. So I can't imagine what you went through. I haven't had a nightmare story yet.. I'm afraid to take my dolls out in public.