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

[Kd_Bunchanumbers]

*cracks knuckles* Well, when I was 11-12 I collected Kelly dolls but kinda stopped when Mattel kept fucking around with Kelly's design and eventually gave her cartoon eyes of evil. I still have over 130 Kelly dolls around here somewhere.

Around this time I found a Todd at a yardsale for 20 cents and thought "Huh, this doll size isn't as scary as Barbie" so I began to slowly buy 1/6th stuff. Eventually I bought my first Barbie cuz I thought she looked like the perfect sister to my Todd. Theeeeeeeeeeeeen I bought an Action Figure, a Fashion Fever Kurt and a Super Star Barbie, all of which I customized and put on better bodies.

Then I realised that they needed friends and I yardsaled the hell out of my local area. I kinda forgot how much I accumulated back then but it was a lot to a 13 year old me.

Eventually I heard of this new fandangled thing called the internets. A bit of digging around, a bit of making friends, I eventually came across these interesting Japanese dolls called Volks and Obitsu. I think the only reason why I became as enamoured with them as much as I did was because I wanted my Todd to have actual friends his size.

So yeah, as a 13 year old, I didn't know much, my mum was against my collecting, but I was a boy possessed. Due to the generosity of the JS forums I got my first Obitsu. Then someone told me about money orders and... hell, THAT was a slippery slope.

Eventually I replaced my entire collection with Obitsu and Volks dolls. Lols, I was into hardcore story telling by this point, having written a crazy fantasy using my dolls and edging into the idea of gay relationships and how normal they could be.

So yeah, my dolls helped me come to understanding my sexuality and such.

At this, I had collected Momokos and even got a Fashion Royalty, cuz yeah.

I think because of this I edged my way into 1/3 scale cuz I got a REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY cheap Obitsu.

And that began my two year love affair with bjds and Obitsus. But even though they were pretty and it was nice knowing there was other doll collectors in my area, I couldn't do the same things I could with 1/6th scale. Plus with the community drama and such I couldn't stand it anymore.

Coincidently this was the point where Mattel, Liv and MH were coming out with CHEAP, PLAYLINE, POSABLE dolls that I didn't need to order online for. Plus with Barbie basics and such, the quality gotten really nice.

Add into the fact that for the first time in years I found a vintage Barbie, I eventually began to play less with my big dolls and edged back slowly into 1/6th scale. This meant digging up the dolls from when I was 13 up til my Obitsu phase, all of whom that survived my bartering and selling throughout the years. It's why you can see I'm excited to finally upgrade some dolls that had been waiting around for years to be completed.

Anywhos, I have a bunch of dolls from about 8 years of collecting and I'm pretty happy with where I am at the moment. These plastic things are part of me and I'll be hardpressed to give them up entirely.

[solitary agent]

As a kid I had the typical batch of ratty Barbies whose hair I cheerfully mutilated, and a Cabbage Patch or two. I was more into stuffed animals and Hot Wheels cars, though, really. As a teenager I gave away most of my toys, aside from a few with sentimental attachments (like ones I'd had since I was a baby, given to me by relatives, etc.) In high school I started getting into anime and manga. I think I was in my early 20s when I bought a few anime figures, which hung out on my desk at work. A bit later I got several Pinky: St figures, which I still have. Eventually I came across photos of Blythes and Pullips, and while I thought they were cool I didn't buy any until about two years ago - I ended up with three Pullip Taeyangs. But then I started looking at BJDs. The price was a turn-off at first, but once I got my first MSD-size boys - my CH Little Junior Mars and my AoD Xun - I fell in love with them. Being able to choose different face sculpts was a big plus, because I had roleplaying characters that I wanted to have in doll form. You just don't have that same range of possibility with Pullips or Obitsus. With BJDs I could represent my characters accurately, plus they're just lots of fun to photograph and buy clothes for. I ended up selling my Taeyangs and expanding my BJD family. Now I'm waiting on my first SD size doll, and I'm sure there will be more.

[theodoric]

*cracks knuckles* Well, when I was 11-12 I collected Kelly dolls but kinda stopped when Mattel kept fucking around with Kelly's design and eventually gave her cartoon eyes of evil.

sorry ... I couldnt resist

[K2!]

I did not want to see that.

Now I have diabetes.

[ivory stardust]

I did not want to see that.

Now I have diabetes.

^^^ THIS!

Anyway.... I started collecting barbies before I even have clear memories of doing so. I had over 20 by the time I was 4. I also had an extensive Cabbage Patch and babydoll collection. These all got sold in my early 20s.

I started re-collecting barbies about 5 years ago when my friends gave me one, but I just never got back into it like I had been. It just didn't have the same appeal. Then, my friend got a 1/6 Volks WTG Boyfriend Yamato... and I fell in love with the posing. So I got a 1/6 girl. Then started plotting out a whole 18 (or more) character army, based on my now defunct D&D campaign. By the time that had fallen apart (7 dolls into the set) I had fallen in love with the bigger dolls.

So, I sold the barbies and 1/6s and all their stuff to get Zane, my first bigger doll, a 1/4 BBB Tony. He demanded I bring home his older brother Quinn... so, having found a doll second hand that I had totally fallen in love with, I gave in and brought Quinn home.

From there, Quinn has taken over my brain, so sweetly asked me to bring home the other two members of his band... and now they want others relate to their story...

And Ginaphae happened on her own... and then wanted her friend Amrynn...

*sigh* Goodbye, paychecks!

[theodoric]

... From there, Quinn has taken over my brain, so sweetly asked me to bring home the other two members of his band... and now they want others relate to their story...

And Ginaphae happened on her own... and then wanted her friend Amrynn...

*sigh* Goodbye, paychecks!

boy do I know THAT feeling ... I get as tiny a disability check as the Veteran's Administration can legally get away with giving me

I guess I'm lucky ... Mio doesnt want to share me with any brothers, sisters, or friends .... I dont mind ... because she makes it worth it



she has been quite happy with my spending on her so far

[Trethowan]

I saw a BJD at Dragon*Con probably 9 years ago now? Maybe 8. I lose track of time. I wanted just one doll, thought it would be nice to finally have Ivan in a physical form. I created a character for him, and then it just snowballed. I'm in love with the hobby, it is so much fun, and there really is something for everyone out there. These are characters in my novel, but the novel came about because of the dolls, so... it's a very circular thing.

[victoriavictrix]

Well, when I was a kid, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, my mom would never give in to the commercial siren song and get me a Barbie. I eventually got one when the dog of a friend of mine bit the hand off hers and she gave me the mutilated one. I discovered the head would come off, so I spent my time making historical costumes for her and chopping her head off.

What I actually collected were my relatives' antiques (back when no one thought they were worth anything) and ethnic dolls. They sat on shelves mostly.

Fast forward to the 1990s and I started collecting the collector Barbies because I loved the costumes, and making Barbies out of my book characters to sell at SF Convention Charity auctions. I also collected Genes since my editor Betsy Wollheim started giving them to me as Xmas presents and I adored the outfits.

Here's the Bedlam Bards set:



Kethry



Tarma



Then as my eyes got older (worse) I switched to porcelains, which I still occasionally do

This is Rose from The Fire Rose



Francesca from Shadow of the Lion



I also collected porcelains to go with my Barbie collection. Mundia, Jan MacLean, the better Paradise Galleries dolls. a VERY few Franklin Mint.

Then I started seeing BJDs in the doll magazines I was buying. I was absolutely enamored but how the heck did you go about buying them? Eventually two things happened, I saw one in person when we were the Guests of Honor at SwanCon in Perth Australia, and they started showing up in US shops--which is how I ended up at JunkySpot. Barbie went on ebay, as did many of the porcelains, to start paying for my first BJDs--an Obitsu Haruka, which I decided I didn't care for and eventually sold (I am in the minority that prefers Gretel)--then first Astra (DZ Cherryh) and her mother Seraphym (DZ LinLan) and then....it started to cascade and I was determined that I was going to have as many of the Secret World characters resinated as possible. Somehow along the way I also ended up with Robin Goodfellow's Elven Court from the Bedlam Bards.

I feel awfully guilty because I have several that haven't even been deboxed, but I have this deadline....and as soon as I am done with the book....

[victoriavictrix]

I made this in two posts so as to divide up the new and old....

Some of the Secret World dolls---

The Seraphym:



Vickie and Djinni:



Bella and Saviour:



JM needs the right wig, Bullwark needs his faceup and assembly and costume, Aedan and Astra are not (yet) part of SWC, and I am still debating on Scope and Acrobat.

Then there's the Elven Court. This is part of them. I really need to do another group shot now because the size of the court doubled.

[Linteia]

Well my collection officially started with a raggedy old bunny when I was about 2. I still have him and just about every other stuffed animal I've received throughout my life. But human-figure dolls started when I was 4. For Easter that year my mom gave me her Barbies from when she was a kid and I adored them. At one point I had a massive rubber maid of just Barbies, but all the remains now are the three my mom gave me.

I was pretty content with just those three until I discovered porcelain dolls, and I started collecting them at garage sales and places like Goodwill. They, too, ended up mostly leaving (usually by breaking since I was not very gentle with them).

I reached the age when dolls weren't "appropriate" anymore and didn't pay attention to them much until I started seeing dolls with articulated joints - one issue I'd always had with Barbie - and then BJDs utterly hooked me. But since I wasn't sure yet if I really wanted to spend that much on a doll for a feature that...well, I hadn't payed with dolls in years, so maybe I wouldn't like them after all. So I picked up a Moxie Teen (which would be my Kailey) so see if it was really something I was interested in. I quickly decided that I definitely was interested, but I still couldn't bring myself to pay hundreds of dollars for a doll. I would look at the Pullips on Amazon because they were about the cheapest dolls I liked that I could find, but I still couldn't shell out that much.

Somewhere in the list one time was a Hujoo and I was fascinated. I started looking around to find out more about them and found Junkyspot, where there were tons of beautiful dolls with reasonable prices. I got a Hujoo Suve first, because she was adorable and cheap and that was the end of me. In under a month my doll collection has tripled and I don't see it stopping any time soon. ^_^;