How did everyone get into collecting 1/6 dolls?

[MeltedCaramel]

Well, I'm still relatively new to this hobby, but I'm insatiably curious, what was the moment when all you dolly collectors knew a 1/6 was the dolly for you?

*Raises hand*

I guess I'll start?

I'm an admitted kitbasher and modifier, but the largest figure I'd ever treated myself to was the Durarara 1/8 static figure set by Alter. (Never let it be said I won't fall for a pretty set of guys! ) They were so...large, and took up so much space in my room, but then I found out about Medicom's RAH line, and the endless movie-replica characters, including some figures from anime in the early 90's that I'd never even dreamed would have dolls for them! And the articulation on all of these dolls amazed me! They were like my figmas but with even more detail and actual cloth clothing!!!

So, how did you guys get into 1/6 dolls? What is your favourite? Is there a doll out that you'd never imagined they'd make a 1/6 doll for? (Right now my biggest surprise is the 1/6 Medicom Human Alphonse from Full Metal Alchemist, but I'm giving him a faceup due to...well...if you've seen the doll...)

Tell me some dolly discovery stories! :3

~Caramel

[Iwa_Hoshi]

I'm a big fan of the Street Fighter series and collected them since they were GI JOE size action figures, after dumping last Barbie 4-7 years prior to getting into said series. Ventured into 1/6 dolls when they made 12 inch technically action figure dolls of Ryu and Chun Li with sculpted hair. It made me realised I still like the changing clothes and dressing up part where dolls were concern.

But nothing happened until the next 12 inch Ryu that came along and made me want a Mamachapp Chun Li along the way. I ended up with a customised Obitsu (with rerooted hair!) and that dear doll open up a flood gate of more customised OC and character dolls(7 more customised Obitsu, volks and Hybrids buddies in about 1-2 year) and was eventually more or less responsible for the big dolls and bjd part of things(its convenient to blame Obi-Chun and Ryu for this doll population explosion thing)

I have a Medicom Chun Li but she had trouble stepping out of the shadows of my customised Chun Li(I just liked her more). So yeah Obi-Chun would be my fave 1/6er, with air-headed, adorkable Kula somewhere behind her. Granted the customised crew all fave characters in one way or another. Ironically Medicom Snake was partially responsible for me getting my Iplehouse Dexter...

[MeltedCaramel]

Ahhh, is that your customized Chun Li in your icon? If it is, I can see why even Medicom Chun Li is having a hard time comparing to her!! You're a Street Fighter fan? X3, when I was a kid you were either a "Street Fighter Fan" or a "Mortal Kombat Fan". Mortal Kombat has always had horrible toys to go with it, and I'd never even thought to commission a character from the series until I happened to notice the user SetsunaKou has done a Mavado and a Hsu Hao custom. (I'm beginning to think SetsunaKou is a ninja doll master in disguise. The sheer amount of customs!!!)

As for Street Fighter, my memory always brings me back to that silly eighties movie cartoon where Ken and Ryu care more about each other than their love interests and it's all very funny and unintentional. I remember being in love with the Eastern influenced outfits I saw on the arcade screens though. Street Fighter is probably my first 'brush' with Eastern animation as a concept and a culture, so I regard it fondly. I've also always adored Chun Li's character design.

(Still, at the arcade, nothing beat hearing that voice go "Finish him!" *Mortal Kombat geek to the core*)

[embyquinn]

I started doll collecting with Barbie, like a lot of American girls did, especially back in the 1960s when your choices were basically Barbie, Barbie knock-offs, or baby dolls. Over the years, I discovered articulation and gravitated towards dolls such as Dollikin, for their increased poseability. Then at the turn of the millenium I discovered Asian 1/6 and, except for the articulated Fashionistas and the all-too-brief reign of Liv dolls, I never looked back.

I prefer 1/6 because it's the scale I'm familiar with, they're more portable than larger sizes, and there are a BUNCH of accessories available for them if you look. I'm not just talking about Barbie stuff, either. Keychain bobs, food erasers, scrapbook notions, Christmas ornaments...the sources are many and varied and very accessible, both physically and price-wise.

Even as we speak, Cherry and Johnny are happily settled in their own personal homemade Dream House, sitting on a futon built of popsicle sticks, watching a television cut from a pre-formed packing tray, nibbling on food eraser sushi and drinking out of pen-topper glasses. They say it's a wonderful life. Who am I to argue with them?

[Iwa_Hoshi]

Ahhh, is that your customized Chun Li in your icon? If it is, I can see why even Medicom Chun Li is having a hard time comparing to her!! You're a Street Fighter fan? X3, when I was a kid you were either a "Street Fighter Fan" or a "Mortal Kombat Fan".

Toasty!

Thanks. she's the one alright, even though she's semi retired from hair problem T_T. My Obitsu50cm takes over as the 'current Chun Li' to work the 1/3 scale while my 1/6 take a break and wait for the big dolls to catch up with their work.

Used to play Mortal Kombat somewhat until I lost interest after 2. I'm aware that there are newer characters after that but I lost the plot. More into 2D fighters like SF and KOF and its core star characters series and there after it was 3D fighters like Virtual Fighter and Tekken.

By now these games are pretty much a clothing catalog for my non-game dolls as well. There is a certain kind of fun in having my dolls cosplay and be the physical representation of fondly remember game characters. I do bits of anime cosplay for them as well. Its a bit sad that I don't play that much anymore after I started work.

SetsunaKou is many levels of awesome, its always a pleasure to see her post up her sister's and her work

The MK movie was awesome though.

[DollyKim]

I grew up with Barbie and her family, still have most of them and their stuff, so it was a logical transition. My first custom 1/6 are original characters from my stories then I added fan dolls mixed with a bit of I don't have one of those. My Power Team Elite troops certainly suffer from One of Each syndrome. The result of that is my website DolfieLittles.com to share my hoarding tendencies with other people.

If I didn't have the stuff and started cold turkey I sill see myself sticking with this scale because I'm familiar with it.

[WhiteDove01s]

When I was a kid, it was my cousin who was really into Barbie instead of me. I actually liked Transformers and the less popular (to others, not me) Gobots. In actual dolls I had Spectra dolls (no relation at all to the Monster High character who seems to be all that comes up when I try to websearch for them these days) that I pretended were androids due to their shiny chromed plastic bodies with better joints than Barbies back then, and a couple Barbies that I'd kitbashed in one way or another. But for the most part I just seemed to be there to sew clothes for my cousin.

Now, I've always liked to have some kind of artistic outlet, and since 1991 it's leaned towards roleplay games, scribbled fanfic scenelets, and all kinds of things along that route. I also wanted to do artwork. I have some issues getting proportions right, but it's sadly something I can't just practice to get rid of as arthritis has started setting in and drawing long enough to actually finish a picture is literally painful. Yet, for a while, I have very much wanted to do some kind of comic or illustrated version of some of the more amusing fanstories and craziness I have saved logs of. (I actually have a whole series where I took Spider and Dynamo from my (pre-existing) Mega Man AU and (long story regarding interdimensional travel discovered in that AU skipped) played them through several old D20 and D6 Star Wars Tabletop games.)

Which is when I happened to realize the problem with just doing photoshoots of the stories was that the characters and scenery were all in my head. Dolls are a perfect way to fix this problem, while getting around the arthritis issue as any facepainting I do doesn't take that long, and props can be reused and so on. There were some delays to get a decent camera, saving up for dolls, I still have faceups and hair to redo, and the 'stage' is covered in a pile of fabric to sort. But eventually I hope I can start on the photostories. It seems a neat way to clean up those old logs and turn them into something like a comic book I can go back to read now and then.

As for why 1/6, it seemed to be the logical scale. There were already some discarded Barbies of my cousins' in the back room that could be used for 'extras' (or heads) as needed. I still had a good chance of snagging Liv bodies, and Fashionista, and Obitsu and the like for the poseability I'd need. And the bigger dolls would have busted my budget just to get one doll, forget about ever having a complete cast...

[Siead]

got into it for it's easy kitbashing. i like making toys of characters i like, and i can't afford to do them all as big guys!
plus the sheer volume of heads, accessories and etc out there for the scale makes it divine to work in. need a bigass shotgun? they got it! rolling pin to beat people with? done!
it's a riot and so limitless.

[MeltedCaramel]

XD, Siead, your comment made me laugh. There does seem to be an endless weird variety of props in that scale (the full medical kit with 1/6 scale pill bottles and /pills/ comes to mind) doesn't there? I'm also a fellow kitbasher (my motto was "Don't have one? Beat it into submission until you do!"...then I almost sliced off the tip of a finger with an X-acto knife in my vigor and my motto became "...Ehh, maybe I should hold the knife THAT way."). Unfortunately it's far from limitless, hence our customizing buddies here who I think most everyone agrees (unless they happen to be one of those perfect "Oh I sculpt, faceup, sew, kitbash, and do bakesales on Fridays" types) we couldn't do without for certain costumes or accessories for our dolls!!

Wow, it seems like so many people got into this through Barbie!! I was the exact opposite way. When I was done with barbie, I was done and I didn't I'd ever collect another "doll" again. Then anime happened. Then action figures and kitbashing happened...then I noticed those 1/6 dolls were really more masterpieces of art than toys, and my artist side completely justified it by sinuously whispering "He's artwork, not a pretty boy from an anime," in my ear and I sold my soul to the---

doll companies. ^_~

[Geektopian]

I was told that the ladies all love a man with a big collection of 1/6 scale dolls.


The people who told me that lied!

But now I've got 'em so I figure, what the heck, might as well stick with 'em.