Your true reason for having a doll?

I want a doll that can wear clothes that I can never wear in public or can not find for myself. Also I got him because I was planning a trip to Eruope at the time, and I wanted to take personal pictures of not me. So I thought he could represent the personal-ness but I won't have to be in the picture. But I changed my mind when he came, because i thought it would be too risky to take him there, so I went to Europe by myself, leaving him at home by himself. And I made the right choice, because it started to rain suddenly when I was in Paris, and had he been with me, he would be soaked like I was.

 

honestly, i'm getting a doll because of events that will happen within the next few months.

My boyfriend, who i've known for 4years, is leaving and going into the navy seals.
i see him every day, almost. even if it's just for an hour or so, and he's really the only REAL friend i have.

I have other aquaintences, but no one like him, so when he's gone, i'll literally be dead.

I'm going to get a doll, because they seem to take up a lot of your time.
Making clothing, taking pictures, designing things for them, etc...
so, to pass the time, besides just painting like i usually do, or browsing here, i'll get a doll.
That'll keep me busy, and happy, untill my boy comes back!

 

I've always loved dolls and customizing (had hundreds of 'Barbies' since I was 4 yrs old) and adored 'character dolls' like the Sailor Moon dolls that Irwin and BanDai had. Characters come to 3D life through dolls---that's my favorite thing!
However, I remember being UTTERLY disappointed when I first bought a BanDai Japan Super Sailor Moon 27cm doll. She was so ugly, chubby cheeked, distorted body, and childlike looking.
However, it was the only type available at the time, so I carved her face a bit and put up with the set. (I remember being horrified with the Tuxedo Mask doll particularly.... ^^;

Then, in 1998, I discovered the magical customizable world of Volks Dollfie!!!! I soon gathered hundreds of the 1/6 dollfie to make into all my favorite anime and game characters!

After a few years, a friend told me about the Volks Dollfie Dreams and from there, I was just hooked! From one to dozens of them and all my beloved characters REALLY come to life in 60cm and 70cm sizes!!!!

So to me, dolls are my ultimate 'art' of a character---to paint their face (I like the non eyehole DD heads best), sew their clothing and just make them as close to the character as possible.

That's my goal and why I collect and love my dolls. ^^

 

I buy them because they are so beautiful! I can not live without beauty around me.

 

When I was younger and had colouring books I loved colouring the people because you could decide what colour hair and eyes and clothes to give them and you'd get entirely different people depending on how you did it - they were the only things I ever enjoyed colouring. So when I found out about BJDs and how you could buy wigs and eyes and clothes for them I got pretty excited, but not enough to justify spending hundreds of pounds on one.

I think what really attracted me was when I found out how attached people got with their dolls, to the point of taking them out in public to restaurants and stuff that I actually saw their full potential. Being someone that names anything I'm attached to (including my laptop and even my mug) the thought of having a doll as a companion appealed to me - I still have my childhood toy beside me right now! So I think the real reason I want a doll is because it's quite exciting having something around you that feels like it has a soul and being able to customise them too! Now I think that, compared to the enjoyment you can get out of them, they aren't really that expensive.

 

I loved the looks, style, and height of BJDs! I didn't buy a doll for a few years after I discovered them and in that time, I was really drawn to the creative aspects of the hobby. I love needlework, crafting and making things, I used to enjoy photography and had always wanted to learn to sew, knit, crochet, and make jewelry. I also liked the idea of meet-ups and DoA. I'd never seen a doll as anything but a shelf accessory before and had never been part of a doll community. BJDs seem much more "real" to me because of my interaction with them.

Because of my dolls, I bought a DSLR and am relearning how to take nice pictures. I also bought editing software that I...plan to learn someday. I took sewing lessons and bought a machine, learned basic crocheting, and have made some of my own jewelry! I'm going to take a knitting class next month and I have some needlepoint and other crafty projects planned for the near future. I just joined a few swaps and can't wait to make my first cards. I've also bought a scrapbook, papers, and accessories and drawn up lots of templates so my dolls can have their very own memory book.

 

Well aside from the obvious "Ohhh they are sooo pretty" reason to have dolls. I have mine for more..selfish reasons.

I don't really have friends in real life. I'm painfully shy, although I have modeled, had friends before, and changed my entire look to feel better about myself. I have a tendency to push people away who might want to get to know me better because I guess I feel like..I'm not really worth knowing. So my dolls have been here for me as a social crutch.
If I start to cry or feel emotional then I grab one of them and let it all out. I guess I use my dolls more like imaginary friends than collectors items or photograph models. But who knows, maybe I'm just crazy XD

 

I'm making my own doll so for me, I view it as an art project. But if I bought one I'd view it as an art project too, because I'd customize it myself. :3 Sort of like an ongoing art project, since you can keep adding and changing stuff, and because I plan to use her as a figure drawing model, hehehe.
Also it's kind of like having a pet. XD You know, one you get to groom and show off.. (not that I do that with my actual pets, but if I did, I'd imagine it would be like having a doll..)

 

I originally came up with a few trivial reasons to get him because I wanted to prove to myself that it was a good idea to get Aubrey.

The truth is though I got him because I was just fascinated with him. I originally was drawn to BJDs because of their beauty. I love art and I love pretty things so I suppose that was just natural. Then came him being an outlet for my creativity and giving me someone to draw, to make clothes for, shoes for, and just about everything else.

When he arrived though..it turned out to be quite different. He has become a companion. I have my family around, my cats, and my friends, but I have no one to be a significant other. No one I want to just talk with about any silly thing. No companion. I'm not necessarily lonely but he gives me an outlet so I can free the thoughts and words trapped in my mind and tell them to someone.

Of course I am still using my creativity to make clothes and shoes for him, but it's nice having someone here at times. I'm somewhat curious to see what it will be like with two dolls when my girl arrives this winter.

 

I'm still asking myself that!! Repeatedly... I'm a senior citizen and hadn't fooled around with dolls in ages. But when my adult daughter asked me to make a dress for a doll she was doing as an art project I somehow got hooked. I started googling eBay for dolls, stumbled onto BJD's and the rest is history. I think I was first attracted by their fantastic faces - so beautiful and soooo NOT Mattel!! I had no idea these ball jointed, poseable creatures were out there waiting for me and fell - hard - into the wallet draining well of BJD's! Still wanting more ...

 

I love my characters more than anyone rightly should. I can draw, but it never comes out in a way that correctly portrays what I'm looking for. I can photoshop, but adapting somebody else's face to be my character feels... cheap somehow... so finally I discovered the giant, pretty, customizable action figures that are BJD... and somehow it was perfect.

 

I had always thought that my reasons for wanting BJDs were insane, but after reading through the first two or so pages of this thread, I don't feel as alone in my reasons for getting into this rather expensive hobby.

When I had more time in my hands throughout middle school, I made up some characters along with my friends and we roleplayed together almost every night after we got home from school. On weekends, we could be sitting right behind each other and vehemently typing away on each of our computers, but we were still talking to each other through the stories we made.

By the time I became a freshman in high school, my friend had graduated from her Catholic middle school and moved on to a local public school where there were many more people and much more opportunities, while I stayed in my independent school with the same classmates and friends I've known since elementary school. Nothing really changed for me and I suppose I stayed the same, but my friend began to change and soon drifted apart from me.

I was pretty devastated at first although I had other friends I saw much more often than I had ever seen her, but she was the only one who felt the need or the connectivity we had while making an entirely different world apart from our realities. As a high schooler, I had loads more homework, I had activities that lasted late into the night and I soon stopped writing altogether for fun. Not only did I feel an emptiness from the new rift between my old best friend and me, I had lost that other world and the creativity with it. Call me crazy, but the voices, the personalities of my characters were incredibly strong back in middle school but began to fade as I stopped writing, and that got me a little scared. It felt almost like I was growing up too fast, too soon.

I suppose the main reason I wanted to get dolls was because I did not want the slivers of creativity and the remnants of my characters to slip away from me. BJDs helped me rekindle my ability to come up with characters through their seemingly infinite ways of customizations and they never cease to amuse me although I am almost a college student. I definitely got into BJDs are a creative outlet as most people here have probably in some aspect whether it be through photography, drawing, writing, design, or simply the art of customizing. For me, I have been inspired to never give up on art and I have at various moments, unconsciously stared at my BJDs until an epiphany strikes me! Most recently, I have gotten back into writing (most likely because I want to get away from the stress of reality and continue writing about a fictional realm where my characters reside), and I have to give the majority of credits to my dolls for inspiring me to do so.

 

My reason for deciding to join this hobby is on 4 different levels.

1/ I love designing characters. I write alot. The opportunity to create an actual physical representation of some of the people who exist inside my head (or in Shadowvixen's case only as a pretty pixel avatar on World of Warcraft) was absolutely something i could not refuse.

2/ The posability of bjd's as compared to standard western dolls which have very stiff, limited posing ability. I find posability absolutely fascinating and I can spend hours just posing the two 27cm viynal jointed dolls (not bjd's) that I currently possess. I can't wait to experiment with my coming dolls.

3/ I LOVE making doll clothes. It's nuts. Dolls didn't interest me at all as a child and certainly making clothes, apart from knitting a few human sized jumpers didn't interest me either. But I LOVE knitting, crocheting and sewing doll sized clothes.

4/ This one is the most sensitive and personal reason. I like people. I really do. But whenever I am around people I feel nervous and on edge. I also find that a lot of the banter of usual conversation is hard to follow and hard for me to concentrate on. I have deep suspicions that i may have asbergers syndrome to a very mild degree which makes it stressful for me to be amongst others. Because of this I NEED to have a period of at least two hours each day when I am isolated so that i can relax and de-stress. having a doll/s will be having the comfort of other 'people' nearby without the stress of having to communicate with them correctly and not appear wierd. So i guess i want dolls for companionship as well.

 

besides the beauty.. the fact that their the highest quallity doll in the world basically
their customizeable.. they last a lifetime
its one of the best forms of art in my opinion..
and it gives me confidence.. its complicated.. but i can controll how the doll looks.. and i can give it a personallity..
also.. i am also very lonely alot. and... dolls are kinder than people

 

same exact thing here. i have always been bullied since my first day of school
i liked to be alone better than be out in public.. but now i have these beautiful dolls.. i mean.. i dont carry on conversations with them or anything..but i really do feel.. conected to them somehow.. some people think its crazy but i know some people understand like all of you wonderful people

 

The main reason for me is when i first saw BJD's something just clicked...i dunno. But the price tag was what stopped me from getting one. The resently I found a BJD i want more then anything and know im prepared to do anything to get him. I want to be able to dress him, choose his hair and eye color, do his face up and carry him around everywhere. I want to customize my dolls into what I want, not like other dolls where your stuck with hair and eye color. I know its a lame answer but its the truth.

~Kat

 

I am partially disabled presently and have always used dolls as a creative outlet. It's also as others have said, you get to determine their entire world. Paint them as I like, dress them and display them in a way that gives me pleasure and/or personal satisfaction. I have spent most of my life as a peacemaker to friends and family and it's nice to be selfish and so totally focused on something that is just for me. I also take in abandoned animals and everyone's needs can be so overwhelming. It's great that a doll can take a break anytime you need it to and will always be there waiting when you are ready to come back to it. My best friend recently got a pair of the bjds and she said she is having a second childhood but more completely than the first time around! She just loves spending hours dressing and arranging the hair of her dolls and then just having them around her after she is done. Then she starts over and gets great joy from handling them. Even though I am well aware that they are not "real" they certainly service a real purpose and support true feelings and I'm very sentimental about them. I think the fact they can be what ever you need them to be whenever you need them to be makes them irresistable!

 

For me it is partly for the customizing aspect and partly for companionship I think.

I've always had a very ambigious relationship with dolls. On the one side I've always been more of a tomboy,
I enjoyed playing soldiers with my brother and building huts and such much more than playing with dolls, so the dolls
I had were mosly used for target practice. But on the other hand from early childhood on I have always felt the need to
recreate some of the people I read or heard about in doll form, so I could have them around to talk to and (I suppose) to take care of.
A lot of these characters came from history or fiction. (I was probably the only child who , at the age of 9, played around with
a selfmade 'William of Orange' doll since I felt sorry for the guy because he got killed .)

Since the characters I liked were usually male, and mostly adults too, I have always
found it very frustrating that there were so few male dolls available.
There is, after all, a limit to the customizability of ken and GI joe. This is so much better with BJD's....

 

for me it has been a creative outlet mostly ...sewing , photography and a chance to connect with a whole load of like minded creative people .

 

I bought my doll mainly because i use him for drawing poses, and i also wanted a bjdoll because i simply like them. I mean, who wouldn't like them? They're mini-humans well... except the fact that they're not alive