Question for ALL. How did your collection develop/grow?

[AlmySidaKay]

(My photo skills improved as I got more dolls. Plus I've come to realize I love photographing dolls, it's part of why I love collecting them. :p)

I was introduced to Pullips shortly after they came out in 2004, by a friend who had one. But I never got to acquire one myself, and thought that most of the BJD lifestyle was out of my reach. I was a small time anime and figurine collector at the time, but was kind of bummed that I would get them and they would just chill on my shelf. But I never bothered doing any research into dolls or Pullips (of which someone insisted that they were ball jointed dolls to me) until many years later, just browsing Pullips occasionally on e-bay and wishing.

I received my first doll, a J-doll about 6 months ago, via Gift_in_Edge discovering that they had some J-dolls at our local Tuesday Morning. Being totally in love with Jun Planning for this entire time, I said good enough and bought her without a second thought. I then traded off my J-Doll Vass. Sofias, after only a month or 2 finding they were just not my style, and I thought she had a face like a dead fish.



I have since since started learning as much as I can about all BJD's (and not just Jun Planning) because I realized that if I wanted a real ball jointed doll it was going to take a lot of planning, and saving.

I then proceeded to buy several other fashion dolls as well to try and satiate the doll cravings. A Moxie Teen Tristen, but she just wasn't poseable enough for me, as well as being an odd size to find clothing for. And 2 Monster High dolls, Clawdeen Wolf and Lagoona Blue, but dolls with painted on eyes, not for me I later discovered.



A little while later I got my current photo ham a 27cm Obitsu named Violet. She's actually a Obitsu body with a Little Pullip head. I got the idea from someone on DS actually because they had made one. I love Violet and might actually make another Little Pullip Hybrid at some point after I have all the resin beauties I want.



So as of 2 weeks ago I was down to just Violet again, but I finally finished off paying for my first MSD girl's head, a Resinsoul Ju who will hopefully have a wonderful Yao body shortly from DDE. As well getting my as my first SD girl a YuHao Luo Ji who I'm calling Amelia in the mail only last week! Amelia has been kind of a disaster, the company turned out to be low quality, and then when I did finally get her they had sent me the wrong head, her ear resin color as well as the high heeled feet they sent were not matching resin colors as well.





I love the sculpts of RS MSD girls plus they are a photographers dream, but I also love the size of SD girls, so I'll probably keep Amelia around (tho possibly with an Obitsu Gretel head as owner photos of current YuHao face ups were downright ugly). And then my other plans from there on out are a small clan of 5 RS girls who will all be fae-like. And discovering that they came out with a Doctor Who Tonner recently makes me want to put a Doctor doll back on my list again.

And that brings me to currently where I have 2 and 1/2 dolls with another 5 1/2 on my list of wanting, but will only happen over the next several years while I save up for them all. >.<

[Greyhaunt]

I started out as a kid with Barbie dolls (of course) but not really any of the baby doll type dolls - I've never really cared for those. I think back on all the cool barbie stuff I had and wish I still had it - oh the money I could make on the vintage market LOL

In my teens I got into harlequin or pierrot dolls. Most of mine are from Europe and were purchased either by my Mother or by myself on trips to Germany and Hungary with a few "domestic ones". I still love them for the look, but you can't really do much with them - they aren't "playable" dolls.

Then in my 30s I started on Disney/Animation dolls- the barbie style ones of all the princesses and stuff. I had Ariel, Jasmine, Anastasia, Prince of Egypt, etc.... Used to display them on this built in shelf in my Texas apartment. Most of those ended up getting given to my niece (except the collectables which I sold) when I got into BJDs. As for BJDs, they actually started with my discovering Little Pullip dolls on a manga website. I bought some of the Little Pullip (cause they were inexpensive in comparison to the big ones) and my coworkers conspired behind my back and bought me a full-sized Pullip, Zuora! She was lonely, so I bought Chill shortly after, and then, when I was searching for Pullip info online I stumbled across a website with a photo of a doll that looked just like Dream from DC's Sandman series. I was totally intrigued by it. The website said it was a Dollshe Hound with a faceup by Luts - none of which meant anything to me!

I remember finding the Luts website and nearly dropping twinkies at the prices (ah, the days when I was cheap)! hahahaha. That made me go to ebay and somewhere on Ebay I found Junkyspot and their 1/6 obitsu. I ended up on the Jspot forum after buying some 1/6 obitus, then I started looking at the resin dolls. I kept thinking they looked so cool - they reminded me of the porcelain dolls sculpted by a Japanese artist named Kira. One of the less expensive DZ 1/4 dolls kept catching my attention, so I finally bought him....and the rest is, as they say...history.

[Lokiholic]

Hrm. Well, I did have Barbies when I was a kid. Still have them, actually. There are more heads and limbs missing than when I originally played with them, as apparently my cousins just love popping heads off, but I still have them. The ones I actually liked are in storage with the Ponies.

My current collection is all because my friend Robin posted a Lagoona on her LJ. She went through, taking off the clothing, testing flexibility, showing how the eyes bulged, all kinds of stuff. I thought it was awesome, especially since I have my Kamen Rider Kiva dudes (that are also based on Universal Monsters). So I had to get a Lagoona. I ended up getting all of the basic dolls (because the diaries are hilarious) and then just keeping track of them.

Then one time I was in Target and saw the Liv in Wonderland dolls when I was looking for Monster High, and I love Alice in Wonderland... so that's what got me into Liv (and wanting to fix them. White Rabbit should have WHITE hair, not dirty blonde with pink streaks). After that were the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas, which I took a picture of with my cell and sent to my friends about how the heads come off and if I should get some. They said yes, so I did.

And any future larger scale doll purchases will be due to DS, because there are too many awesome pictures.

[theodoric]

It is fun to read eveyone's doll stories. I didn't have dolls as a child...

oddly enough ... I did ... though back then it wasnt called a "doll" ... dolls were for girls

I guess I grew up at just the right time ... as a kid I watched all the usual guy shows ... "Combat" ... "Rat Patrol" (and I bet most of you in here who watch the Soaps cant tell me what HUGE soap star {and has been for many years} was a very prominent character on Rat Patrol) ... "Sea Hunt" ... "Gallant Men" ... etc

so in 1964 ... (I was 10 that year) ... when Hasbro put out the very first "action figure" for us guys ... I had one ... I am referring to the original G.I. Joe
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe

America's movable fighting man (1964–1969)
The conventional marketing wisdom of the early 1960s was that boys would not play with dolls, thus the word "doll" was never used by Hasbro or anyone involved in the development or marketing of G.I. Joe. "Action figure" was the only acceptable term, and has since become the generic description for any poseable doll intended for boys. "America's movable fighting man" is a registered trademark of Hasbro, and was prominently displayed on every boxed figure package.


hehehe ... that poor wuss Ken never stood a chance ... Joe had things like a .45 cal service pistol ... grenades (the "pineapple" fragmentation type) ... an M-1 rifle ... a .30 cal machine gun ... and a backpack flame-thrower ...

and if you put Joe in his black wet-suit and scuba gear he made a GREAT James Bond to pose with a naked Barbie

[OkamiKodomo]

I think doll collecting is in my blood. My grandmother had an entire bedroom dedicated to her Barbie collection. She also had a glass curio cabinet with vintage porcelain dolls, which I would sit and look at for hours as a kid, and I always wished she would let me play with them. And not those German bisque dolls, but the delicate little ballerinas and china dolls. Some of them were her mother's. When I got into my teen years, I still played with my dolls as a secret guilty pleasure. What 16-year-old girl wants to get caught still playing with Barbies? I also bought a Max Steel doll, because I loved the posing abilities of the dolls geared towards boys. I have a bunch of pose-able Digimon, and sculpted Monster Rancher toys, which were "pets" for my dolls. Hm, I should really get those out and see if they're still in good shape. Note to self: When I go to NY next week, I need to go through my toybox from childhood to see what's in there...

I loved handling my dolls and making up personalities and stories for them, but I never saw them as particularly customizable until I became involved in this forum, actually. I saw pictures of BJD actually, on Encyclopedia Dramatica, when reading the article on "weeaboo" lol... after looking up the real definition of what these curiously pretty "dollfies" were, rather than taking the ED article at face value, I wanted one for my own, but with pricetags in the hundreds, I put them aside as nothing more than a whimsy. After all, I was an adult, right? With a job, and bills to pay, and why on earth would anyone spend that kind of money on a silly doll. Something I could indulge if I ever made more than minimum wage, or won the lottery, but not realistically desired.

Until I met two girls who came in to the restaurant my hubby managed and I worked for. At the time, we were trying to get a Dungeons and Dragons campaign going, which we'd been actually trying to do for almost 4 years, since moving to Florida, and these two girls happened to want to learn how to play. We got the game going, and a few months later, they were talking about some conventions they've been to, and showing me pictures, after the game, because I would be visiting my mother in New York, and attending a small convention with my childhood best friend, while I was up there, and they were giving me advice and telling anecdotes of the Funny Things that Happen with Roommates at Conventions. There was a picture of their two dolls, both Angel of Dreams, cosplaying as Hiei and Kurama from YuYu Hakusho. Instantly, I remembered my search for BJD and some of the bookmarked pages I had stashed, and mentioned that I used to like looking at the pictures and stuff... They then went into Enabler Mode. Pointed me in the direction of Featherfall.ca, and recommended the ResinSoul as great beginner dolls, because they have such a wide variety of styles and colors to choose from, and are among the least expensive on the market. I fell in love with Jun at first sight, but I was working only part time, and couldn't afford even the hundred and change he'd be. Then I got my job as a graphics artist, and realized I could afford him now!

Then I got my tax return, and had since learned about JunkySpot, and bought an RS Ai.

Since joining this forum, I've started looking at even the cheapest of dolls in a whole new light.

[1/6andtinylover]

@ Evelien

Maybe if you fall for a resin, you can get just the head and stick it on an obitsu of the corresponding size?

[1/6andtinylover]

@ Evelien

Maybe if you fall for a resin, you can get just the head and stick it on an obitsu of the corresponding size?

[Evelien]

Yeah, I could, but I'll get my Gretel and hopefully a Visuadoll Moegi (also vinyl) first, hopefully ^^. But you're right, it doesn't end with the limited amount of vinyl heads available ^^. There are quite a few resin head sculpts that I'd love to see on an Obitsu body. Not now though. One day... ^^ who knows!

[embyquinn]

I can't remember a time when I didn't have dolls. My very first Barbie was a 1967 Color Magic Barbie (with color-changing hair) that I got for Christmas when I was seven. I had all manner of dolls growing up, but I never really cared for baby dolls or little girl dolls. I was all about the Plastic Princess. When I was twelve I officially declared myself "too old for dolls" and gave all mine away...and spent the next four years or so feeling miserable until I finally broke down and bought myself a Superstar Barbie (though I hated the permanently bent arms). The same year I discovered Uneeda Dollikins and the joys of full articulation. Since then I've always leaned towards jointed bodies as opposed to the click-knee and straight-arm fashion doll standard. My love for dolls has persisted throughout my adult life, and eventually I discovered Volks and Obitsu, the ultimate in 1:6 articulation. Today my beloved Dollieh Krewe (which is the "core" group of my dolls, which currently number in the dozens) consists of two Obitsu hybrids, a Fashionista/Shakira hybrid, a Moxie Teen Tristen, a Liv Jake modded to wear wigs, a My Scene Doctor Eleven, and of course my beloved Moxie/Liv hybrid. I can't even bear to have a non-articulated doll anymore. I've been spoiled.

[quidam]

I was not a doll lover when younger. I did have an extensive plushie collection, though.

I guess my first semi-foray into the doll hobby was in my late teens, early twenties with action figures (I guess that they are technically dolls!). Most of them were comic book based. They eventually all went away with the exception of my sumo wrestler.
In my mid 20's my mother bought me a Cabbage Patch I had fallen in love with. Around this time I also purchased a Gotz doll I found at Tuesday Morning for a ridiculous price of $20. These two are still hanging out for the day I have a little girl to play with them.

Around this time I tried to cure my doll-phobia by trying to force myself into the hobby. I went with Madame Alexander. This did not last long as they started creeping me out a bit. (Seriously, they aren't the best type of doll for curing fears!) At this time I discovered Volks, but looked at the price and quickly forgot about them. M.A. dolls were latter sold at a toy fare and went to much more loving homes than I could provide.

The bug finally bit me this year. I rediscovered Volks, tried to shrug them off again but in the process discovered DollZone and went "Wow! they are much better looking that Volks, and cheaper by far!" This happened to coincide with a severance being payed out by my former employer. Huzzah! I now have 3 DZ's, 1 Bobobie, and a Dragondoll on the way. While I don't want a giant collection, I'm not certain how big of a family they will demand from me.