What was your first doll?

[Geekmama]

I mean, what did you buy that you considered your first big purchase? I bought 2 Sasha dolls with hard-earned babysitting money when I was about 15. Nothing more (I'm in my 40s now, lol) until about a month ago when I got a J-Doll on a good deal. And now I'm in love with, of course, of very pricey doll. I see others that would be OK (but really, too pricey for just OK) but I really just want this girl: http://www.ddollshop.com/shop/step1.php?number=771 for nearly $300. O_o Maybe if I keep looking I'll fall in love with someone cheaper. ^_^

Did you hold out for your first love? Or maybe you looked at lots, found one to buy and fell in love more afterward. I'd love to read your stories!

[Iwa_Hoshi]

Her. 50cm Obitsu Parabox Megu(Chun). I am comfortably a small doll owner, even though I like bjds, I don't really expect to buy one since I was always gushing how awesome their concept style looks. My friends who are into dollfie dreams were trying to tempt me to get a DD(I have still have one of three to chose from blank, basic and limited.)

I have no idea how long I'm likely to hang around said hobby and I don't really feel my character in the DDs and am still drawn to bjd for character likeness. And then she showed up, threw me off a little with her size. For some reason my 1/6 integrated her into their concept (she resembles my starter 1/6er who is an older version of her), she's portable like a 1/6er and adorable to boot. By now I have 3 other bjds who for some reason also have 1/6 version of themselves (1 one is a younger self and two are literal titan shifters....)


[/url]

[MitisFeles]

This lady!



She's an MSD and the first REALLY big purchase (even if also my first purchase, my two first little Obitsu, were a big purchase for me at the time). I always said before her that I only collect small and not pricey dolls (like I did for my first two years as a doll collctor, stucking mainly on 1/6 Obitsu and pretty fashion doll) but when I saw her on Dollmore site (and that she looked amazingly like a beloved character of mine), all my conviction miserably faded. I saved for some month and finally ordered her.
Now I have 5 MSD and I'm really happy with them. They seems to me the best compromise between being small enough to manipulate them with ease and big enough to sew them detailed clothing without stressing too much my hands or my eyes.

[K2!]

Her. 50cm Obitsu Parabox Megu(Chun).

I'm very happy you fell for her. She's a great character/doll and I love seeing her out doing the things she does.

[LauraJ]

Andy was my first doll. He is a Goodreau Edge. I ordered a Doll Leaves Maya, but I wanted a doll, and Andy was on markdown and I decided to get him so I could have a doll while waiting for the Maya...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97764507@N03/17102811830/

[DollyKim]

First big doll an Obitsu 60, unnamed eye head and boy chest. I call him Shi Shi.


The default head and boobs are somewhere but they never get used.

I started with a pair of 1/6 scale Volks at first.

[WhiteDove01s]

My story's going to be something of an oddity (But then, no surprise from me. I am a big pile of oddities.). Because my first 'big' purchase didn't really help get me into dolls and actually kind of put me off them for a while. I hope you'll excuse my kind of rambly way of explaining the situation.

When I was a lot younger I used to sew clothes for my cousin's Barbies. I also had a few of my own as 'sewing dummies' to make clothes for, and I'd often end up with the dolls my cousin (or her extremely destructive brother) had damaged enough to want to toss out. I'd swap heads around on them, paint them if needed... there was even an old Stacie with a broken neck peg that I completely covered in paint and fur to turn into a cat-girl...

Anyhow... I was chatting with someone about that at some point and the discussion got into more expensive dolls. Until then I really didn't know there was as much of a hobby there as there is. There were some ideas about saving up for a doll to sew for and then try to sell the clothes on Etsy. Between what she knew of dolls and my finances (which were actually a little better then) and other factors, the Tonner doll company was targeted to provide my first doll. A nice 'big-ish' 1/4 scale girl at a 'budget' price. A good 'starter doll'.

In specific, I saved up for and purchased a blank-faced Tonner Antoinette, in Cameo color (pale with dark hair).The latter detail because a lot of the other combinations were already sold out. I think she cost somewhere between $50-$80 new, and that's still the most I've ever paid for a doll.

And I was afraid to touch her. She'd (from my perspective) cost too much to risk handling too often. I was afraid I'd damage her in some way. While waiting for her to arrive I'd wandered around the 'net doing some reading and I was terrified she'd be stained if I so much as put her on the same shelf as anything dark, colored. I made notes to never take her into the sun for fear of yellowing. She was new, and she was shiny... and she terrified me.

And if I was that bad about what most in the hobby would consider a relatively 'cheap' vinyl doll, I knew that the more expensive dolls that could be sewn for would never be for me.

Things happened, and time passed, and the whole idea was kind of back-burnered. My big girl sat around on her shelf, a reminder to me to try not to be that stupid again. I never took her hair down from it's factory ponytail (tho I did braid it for fear of tangles). I never did a faceup. Her only 'clothes' were a toga dress made from a white and metallic-gold kerchief that I was fairly certain wouldn't stain her.

Then, while cleaning out the back room after a roof leak and resulting mold outbreak, I found a huge discarded box of mostly ruined or near-ruined Barbies. Stained, with matted hair and chewed arms and legs... And suddenly I was having a ton of fun finding the best ways to detangle hair, popping salvageable heads off bodies with a hair dryer to swap them onto less ruined bodies that had had bad heads, and not being afraid to try risky and dangerous things like some of the harsher face-up removal methods because, hey, the dolls couldn't really get any more ruined. Along the way I learned to be a lot less scared of some 90% of what makes most collectors flail, actually ending up somewhere on the OTHER extreme where I do things to dolls that most people probably shouldn't especially if it's a doll they paid good money for.

And I realized I'm just someone who should have stuck with cheap playscale vinyl to start with.

About a year or so after this, to my surprise, my neglected big girl started 'insisting' she was actually 1/6 scale too, she just has some Giant ancestry... Even then, it's only been in the very last week that I felt she'd 'depreciated' enough in value over time that I felt comfortable finally giving her a face-up. (And then I had a panic attack when I got an eyebrow crooked, but it came off with rubbing alcohol (and then a lot of rinsing to be sure the alcohol wouldn't do any damage.) So I guess I'm finally starting to relax a bit about her.

Still, keep in mind, I'm a statistical outlier in this hobby. I never want a resin or anything with strings, and my current 'grail doll' is a 'pregnant' Happy Family Midge (with the pregnant belly that attaches with magnets, and her baby).

Here's Toni on the shelf today, still in the same ol' toga... tho I've relaxed enough to where I've actually started considering making her some clothes, possibly not even white.

(That's Cindy and Amber The Pony in the pic with her)

To wrap up the rambling, my advice is... If the expensive doll is the one you really want, and will love and cherish... save up and get it, no matter how long it takes. Likewise, if the ratty-haired mess from the bottom of the rummage sale bin makes you all giddy when you think about taking her home and doing whatever extreme things are needed to try fixng her up, don't be ashamed. The real value of a doll isn't in the price tag, but in how much happiness they bring.

[Yanagi-sen]

I blame Kiki-chan78... I was visiting her and had to hold her then new Eric while she did the driving. By the end of the visit I said, I hate you I need a Nagi! She helped me pick out what I needed to create Naoe Nagi (from Weiss Kreuz); a Dollzone Shoyo head on an Angel of Dream boy body. He's on his third face up by now but still the same head/body combo.

Original face up:


Current:

[Geekmama]

I'm loving all the stories and pics so much! Thanks so much for sharing, everyone! WhiteDove01s, my kids used to have that Midge. She was AWESOME! I loved her shape with and without belly. Sadly, we gave her away with the rest of the Barbie stuff to one of my youngest's friends and her little sister some years ago. I overheard my oldest girls playing with her one time shortly after I'd given birth to their youngest sibling, and after Midge "gave birth" one of them said, "you have to put her tummy back on for a few weeks now. It's more realistic that way." LOL!

[WhiteDove01s]

I overheard my oldest girls playing with her one time shortly after I'd given birth to their youngest sibling, and after Midge "gave birth" one of them said, "you have to put her tummy back on for a few weeks now. It's more realistic that way." LOL!

XD

I'm hoping to snag one off ebay for xmas, just have some saving to do to make sure I can get one loose but that still has tummy and baby... I don't want one still boxed, because it's definitely going to be handled and played with. I want to sew bitty maternity clothes! XD