How did you first start out?

I have to blame Baldlylox & his Yoko. So while researching my trip to Japan for last year, I ended up on Figure FM and then came across Yoko.

 

I still find it hard to beleive that *my* Yoko got you interested in DD collecting. It's super flattering and I really can't fathom *me* being any type of guidance ofr someone to adpot a girl. But I'm glad you liked her and that you got into the DD world!

 

Yoko is a grail/unicorn doll for me and I still look for her at a decent price.

 

 

And I hope that you are able to find her soon for a good price as I know she will fit into your family really well.

 

 

Billy

Well, I had a lot of action figures (Star Wars, G.I.Joe, Transformers, etc) growing up. Later on, I got into anime figures and collected them for a while. I got my best friend and natural enemy into anime, then figures. She got into dolls a while back and I resisted the temptation. Discovering dannychoo.com, I started really seeing the DDs and really liked Saber as I really liked Fate Stay Night. I still didn't give in, though.

 

Eventually, it was a combination of factors that got to me. First, the price of figures started going up a lot as the exchange rate was getting worse. Secondly, I was getting more figures than I had space for. Third, there was a huge push towards the poseable figures such as Revoltechs and figmas. I didn't like the blatant joints and they broke way too easily (and I take good care of my figures). Finally, I decided that I'd rather have a few dolls that I could change out and pose than a lot of individual figures. Bought my first DD (Zoe, an Aoi) and don't think I've bought a figure since. (Though, honestly, I do still need to go through and weed out my figure collection and sell a chunk of it to free up space).

I had been a collector of resin dolls for a few years when someone joined our BJD group on facebook and posted pictures of his Dollfie Dreams (this was UltimaKnight.) He had linked them to pages on Figure.fm and I followed the adventures of Rin and Yoko, and his quest for a Saber. Then slowly, I started browsing on figure.fm and came across some of Billy's girls ( so cute!) and that was when I began thinking pretty seriously about getting one.

 

But then Soundwav2010 came to a convention I was selling BJD things at with his Mio. It was the first time I had seen a DD in person, and I felt bad because I was practically bugging him the whole time with questions about her.

 

Then he brought all of his girls to one of our local meets ups, and I knew I was sunk. I got to pose them a bit, and they were all so cute. I knew I had to get one for myself. And then a few weeks later... I got Ichiko and the rest is history. XD

How did I start? That a very good question. I start about 5 months ago thanks to Flickr. About 6 months ago I divover BJDs for the very 1st time when I was looking at pictures of dolls on Flickr. I join a group to post pictures of the only two dolls i had at the moment. The dolls are Robert Tonner 11" Miss Piggy. They are also made of vinyl. So one day in that group I saw a picture of an iplehouse Jerome and that was how got introduce to the bjd hobby. I spend a whole month not knowing those dolls were call bjd.

 

Until one day I discover the term. So I type the term bjd on google and appeared the site of volks. I click the link and that's how I found out about Dollfie Dreams. The first thing I saw on volks was their super dollfies because at the time i was intrigue with dolls made out of resin. But then I saw this cool grapic that said Dollfie Dream on Volks so I decided to clicked it and that how all begin. I was immediately attract to the body dynamite. I saw that boody and in my mind was gorgeous. Then I saw the heads and I was like WOW they look like anime character. I imediatly thought of my favorite anime girls when I saw the heads. I though of Candy White from a Vintage anime called Candy Candy, and from Drangon Ball, Bulma.

 

So I typed Dollfie Dream on Flickr and found out all this cool pictures about this awesomely cool dolls and join a group there and since then I been looking at pictures of dollfie dreams almost everyday. At 1st my idea was to made a Dollfie Dream that look like Bulma. But then the time past and I wasn't able to fin a head that resembled her and I felt in love with HDD-03 or Yukino. She just look so sweet and The dynamite body. So I decided to create my own character. So I started saving to buy a DDdy body and HDD-03 and finally yesterday I was able to buy my 1st DD. I do still Hope some day to find the perfect head to create both of my favorite Anime girls

 

and that's how I started

Edited April 1, 2012 by Guest

I have to blame Facebook and an old friend of mine. He introduced me to cosplayer Alodia and I saw her BJDs and that made me want to have one of my own so I did some research and adopted an MSD. When I saw Dollfie Dreams on Mandarake, I made the plunge and the before I knew it, I have 7 DD girls and 2 pre-ordered. Sigh. And that's just the Dollfies. I don't regret it though.

Does anyone know the story, "If you give a mouse a cookie..."?

 

It's kind of like that. A friend gave me a Pinky:St figure, which quickly snowballed into a collection of 20-30 pinkies. Someone on the Pinky:St forums had a Pullip, and the next thing I know, I'm ordering my first two Pullips. That quickly snowballed into a collection of 20-25 Pullips. Of course, someone on the Pullip forums had a BJD, and soon enough I ordered my first BJD. Wouldn't you know, too, there are DDs on the BJD forums?

 

Now I have 1 Pinky (sold the rest), 16 Pullips (with plans to sell 6-7 of them), 4 SDs (after selling 2), 1 Mini (after selling 1), and 2 DDs (1 I'm keeping, 1 is on lay-away for someone), and 2 more DDs on the way (1 of which I may sell).

 

Hmmm, I think I might be kind of fickle. Cauldy's Revolving Dollie Door?

Some very awesome stories!

Mostly, mine started on twitter, of all things. As a few of you know, I'm a big fan of MegaTokyo, an online comic. So, I had found out the author, Fred Gallager, had a feed there, and I follow it to keep up on updates and such. I read a post where he mentioned someone wanting a Dollfie of Tohya Miho, one of his characters. (I also read on his rant that DannyChoo was going to sell Oppai Stormtrooper mouse pads, so I was ready to check out this mysterious Danny person, anyways )

That lead me to the sites known as DC and Figure.fm, where I started remembering my experience with anime, such as, when I was in school, Speed Racer , Marine Boy (very obscure, I know) then Robotech, Star Blazers, Galaxy 999, Dirty Pair, Akira and so on.......

 

Anyway, back to the topic.

After being on Figure.fm for a bit, I started picking up a figma here, a Shinki there, until I saw Billy with Manami, and poofiemus with Miz Agatha. ( I say the "Miz" 'cause I'm part Jaegermonster myself! *read the story! GirlGeniusOnline.com)

After I saw Miz Agatha on figure.fm, I had decided she needed her signature "geeky" glasses, and volunteered to make a set for her.

Well, after three attempts, I'd decided I needed a guinea-pig

smack!!!!

Errr....... "Assistant"

Tana: "That's better"..........

to make them closer in size.

So, partly in creating a Tohya Miho, and having a closer scaled model for any other crafty things I might make for dollfies in the future, Tana came home. A body from Chise on figure.fm and an SQLabs head that had the expression I was looking for.

It does seem that Tana has developed her own character, though, and I haven't regretted that once since she's been here...

This is my story of DD discovery. :3

 

I've always been an anime fan, for as long as I can remember (saw my first anime, Gaiking, at age 4). I went to my first con in 2005 (late bloomer, I know), and through one of my suitemates I was introduced to Pullips. I also got to talk to someone with a resin BJD. The Pullip was kind of creepy, but the little bjd boy was beautiful, so I started looking up bjds online. I drooled and drooled over them, mostly the Sooms, but decided they were too expensive for my poor college self.

 

Fast forward to 2009, and I finally get into Pullips (they'd come a long way). They're highly customizable, and one of the most common "upgrades" was to put the head on an Obitsu body. But I noticed that some people mentioned Dollfies as a preferred alternative.

 

So I went to VolksUSA's site. Browsing through the Dollfies and trying to decide if that's what I wanted to use. Then I clicked into the Super Dollfie part, and squeed over the pretties. The next part went like this:

 

Hhhmmm, what's this? Dollfie Dream? *click* Huh, giant anime... OMG OMG OMG GIANT ANIME DOLLS!!! WANT!!!

 

The pricetag was a bit prohibitive, but after seeing Sooms and Super Dollfies, the amount they wanted for a standard model was much more realistic. So I lusted after Yukino for months and months, waffling over whether or not to purchase her.

 

And then came Natsuki.

 

My heart stopped and I literally gasped when I saw her. She was PERFECT. An anime loving otaku that cosplays. And her face was adorable! I had to have her! I emailed Volks (both Japan and USA) to find out how to get her, and was told that the Japanese AE was over, but I still had a chance through VolksUSA. However, they would have to ship her to a relative in the states, because they didn't ship to APOs at the time.

 

Unfortunately my husband was deployed during all this, and I didn't have the courage to ask if he was ok with me buying such an expensive doll. On top of that, I didn't want to deal with my family asking questions when she showed up on their doorstep. So I let her pass by, and to this day I still regret it. Natsuki has become my unicorn.

 

I started looking up Dollfie Dreams in Google, and came across Figure.Fm and the community there. I'd shopped on Yahoo!Japan for Pullip items, and found out DDs had their own category. After a few months, I bit the bullet and bought a customized DDH-02 head (who I would later name Makoto). It wasn't as wonderful as the pictures and had a stain on the chin, but I was still fascinated by her. I was determined to ask my husband about acquiring more dolls.

 

Sakura came out, and I thought she was beautiful. I talked to my husband, and after much assuring that it wasn't just a fad for me (he had no idea I'd been looking at them for so long), I entered for her and actually won! Thankfully VolksUSA had just started offering Express Mail Shipping through USPS, so I received her in record time (for an APO, at least). Opening her box and marveling at her for the first time was an incredible experience.

 

Now I have 8 girls, with two on the way (Sabers) and 3 floating heads. XD

I had known about them for years, an ex-girlfriend of mine was a huge Volks collector when we were dating she had probably 60-70 Volks SD my initial impression wasn't entirely favorable as I happened to stumble into her doll room one day and well I had no idea she had a doll never mind the 60-70 SD all dressed identically in white dresses and all neatly lined up, all staring back at me with their dead glass eyes. After the shock wore off, I started asking questions they were Super Dollfie for the most part but she had a few that weren't resin including her newest pair that had just been released they were called Dollfie Dreams and they were Estel and Feena. Didn't really think about it at that much at the time, I was already a huge anime fan but I didn't even recognize the characters the way she had them done up (all her dolls had white wigs/identical white dresses to this day I am not sure if it was just her favorite color/preferred look or she was deathly afraid of staining). Promptly kind of forgot about them.

 

Fast forward a couple of years, eventually broke up with her dated some other people before starting to date this guy who happened to be a huge anime fan. He introduced me to Rozen Maiden and I eventually started collecting the Rozen Maiden pullips and then pullips in general... anyway I was showing my pullips to my friend Jon and he countered with his newly acquired Saber DD who had just been released. I became extremely interested in DD after meeting his Saber and wanted to buy one right then myself but at that point I was newly married we were discussing all major purchases and he vetoed any and all large dolls citing the explosion of the pullip population. Then Danny Choo who the male was a huge fan of got one (I personally never really cared that much about him either way) and suddenly well one of those dollfie things might be okay After long debate, we had narrowed the choices down to the two Ikki Tousen girls I preferred Ryomou and he preferred Kanu; eventually we settled on Kanu as I loved both but he was very much lukewarm towards Ryomou. Danny happens to get a Ryomou while we are still waiting for Kanu to arrive and well hot damn now he is saying we should have got Ryomou instead of Kanu or better yet wouldn't a matched pair of Ikki Tousen girls be grand? Kanu wouldn't be lonely I found a Ryomou with both of her outfit sets up for sale so I bought her, as luck would have it she ended up arriving the same day as Kanu. Now we have twenty one DD not including my two custom projects that are currently in pieces or the three we have preordered.

I had always been into dollfie dreams when i found out about them, but back at the begining information and sales of them was very sparse outside of Japan. I remember them becoming more popular with the release of the dd2 body and eventually they became a bit more discussed and owned. Because I could not get a dollfie dream back then, I settled for more stylised resin dolls, but I always really wanted a dd more then anything. I had been interested in anime since i was a kid and I loved dollfie dreams because of their anime characteristics and back then resin just couldn't match the anime look like dd did. Back then, they were still rather rare outside of Japan and pretty much unobtainable for me so I admired them on the web only.

 

In October 2005, I finally got my first Dollfie Dream, a Volks DD Yashiro Kasumi, I named her Lilly. She came without her wig or outfit, but at a bargain price, she was about £200 including postage and customs fees. Try get a dd for that price these days, you can't do it lol.

 

Lilly was my only dd for a few years, Eventually I got a mdd mirai, I forget what year. In 2009 I got a dd Marya and an Escalayer. In 2010 i brought another Escalayers and a Yui. Since those days I sold all of my dd (I regret selling EScalayer the most) because I had things going on in my personal life, I needed money to buy a car and I wasn't playing with my dolls back then so they went to give me car funds, but now I'm looking to build a new family

Danny Choo did it for me. He had more recently gotten into dolls, I believe, in 2008 when I started reading his site. Then he had to post up pics of DD Rin. It was love at first sight and, well, here I am.

 

Admittedly, I've been more into the doll hobby lately (the past year or so?) than I ever have been before. I think it's mainly because I can more afford it, plus Volks has been making more clothes and dolls I'm interested in lately.

I was looking at Touhou merch on Ebay about a year ago (I'm a huge Touhou fan), and during that I saw DDS Reimu and Marisa. They were expensive, but they were so pretty. I googled "Dollfie Dreams", seeing the name in the title of the sale, and was led to Figure.fm.

 

A year later, I have DDS Marisa, and will eventually get DDS Reimu.

Blech, I just remembered the real reason I looked for these dolls.

 

I watched Angelic Layer in 2003 and realized there must be a similar looking doll in Japan. That's when I found Volks.

Blech, I just remembered the real reason I looked for these dolls. I watched Angelic Layer in 2003 and realized there must be a similar looking doll in Japan. That's when I found Volks.

 

 

Ha! I remember seeing Angelic Layer almost 2 years ago, right after I got Manami and thinking "This is awesome! It's just like DD's with all the customization and clothing and character building! I wish I could do that with Manami!"

 

I can see it now... Super Peach Pai Bomb! SQUISH!

 

Cool how AL led you to DD's!

 

 

 

Billy

Billy, under the AL setup Rei would have Hypermode because she's a DDI.

 

^_^;

Billy, under the AL setup Rei would have Hypermode because she's a DDI.

 

^_^;

 

 

LOL! I wonder if swapping out bodies but keeping her original head would allow me to keep Hypermode? I'm sure that's asking too much tho. Still fun to think about my little Battle Maid whipping other DD's butts with Batou in Hypermode!

 

 

Billy

Here's my story. It's not very exciting, but it's still a happy story for me.

 

I've been collecting BJDs since March of 2006, all I've ever had are resin dollies, I think 18 in total, but I've sold a lot. >.<; I currently have just one BJD at the moment, a MSD sized MiniFee Shushu named Myliex. I love her.

 

It all starts, long ago back in high school (2001?) when I would spend many after school hours hanging out in the art room keeping to myself. One day, an anime club was formed and started meeting in the art room to discuss, squeal and watch animes on the tv. The only anime I had ever known was Sailor Moon when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade (which I loved btw), but that was it. Anyway, this new little club kind of peaked my interest, but alas, I never joined or really got involved in any anime/manga. Flash forward a couple years (2003?) when I was in college at the book store and I passed the manga section. It immediately triggered memories of those anime club kids, so timid and shy, I walked into the isle and started looking at all the colorful mangas. I finally saw a name I recognized called Chobits. I could remember the anime kids talking about Chobits. So, I picked it up, started reading and before you knew it, I had purchased the first couple in the series and finished the series not long after. I really enjoyed Chobits a great deal, but after I was done, that ended my little adventure into the manga/anime world. Now, flash forward some more (2012!)... and for whatever reason, I remembered how much I enjoyed Chobits. So my boyfriend and I have started watching the tv series, with Gun Smith Cats in between and Elfen Lied next on the list! So, I've had this new spark for anime and have fallen in love with the art style and characters I've seen thus far. I've really been excited to finally enter the anime world, but not really sure why it took so many years! >.<; Anyway, this then reminded me of Dollfie Dreams, which I remember seeing a long time ago and thinking they were cool, but at the time, wasn't really open to the idea of having an anime inspired doll. I used to be one of those BJD collectors that liked only realistic sculpts (not so much anymore). So I quickly went to the Volks site and the rest was history. I spent weeks drooling and reading and drooling some more over pictures and videos and articles about Dollfie Dreams and then finally couldn't resist it anymore so I purchased my very first DD, a v.2 Yukino. LOVE at first site! ... and now I want more... >.>

 

And there it is, my long winded, boring story. ^_^'

I think your story is interesting denaliwind. Basically you got into DDs thanks to anime. I think I'm a similar way. Despite being female, I never cared for dolls much as a kid. Not even your "regular" baby dolls or Barbies that a lot of girls like when they are young. I've always like figures though. When I was a kid, that was mostly superhero figures. Now I mainly buy PVC figures of anime/manga characters. I've been into anime for a long, long time mainly because I like the art style of anime.

 

The reason I like DDs, honestly, is that they are like bigger, more customizable versions of those anime figures that I buy. I prefer the anime look that DDs have. DDs can sometimes be a gateway to other BJDs for some people, but not for me. Pretty much all other BJDs are either much more realistic (Super Dollfies, a lot of the Korean resins, etc) or less realistic (as an example, Pullip dolls have large heads that make them look like super deformed anime characters. Never been a fan of super deformed style myself.). The DD anime look has the right amount of realism/non-realism for me.

Oh well, at first I don´t really liked Dollfie Dreams to be honest.

I wasn´t sure how to see them: more like a huge action figure or a real doll. Sometimes I thought that they may be some kind of love doll or things like that *haha*

 

But then in November 2010 I saw her: YUKINO. She was on the marketplace at another forum and I immediately fell in love with her gaze and face. Even the seller was so nice to give me a small discount ^.^

After she arrived at my home, I was so overwhelmed of her that I started to get more into DDs and then my mind about DDs changed completely.

I gave Yukino a new wig and called her "Bunny" as she reminds me a bit of Sailor Moon now.

 

Then at the End of last year a friend of mine wanted to sell her DD custom girl and I was so sad because I loved her so much. She is so full of character. That´s why I bought her in a heartbeat and Since then I a fell in love with DDs again and will soon buy my third girl ^^

 

So that´s my DD story so far.

Well...there is a German online community called Animexx, about Japan, anime, manga etc....

One day i went in the crafts section of the forum and noticed a category which was called "BJD"...

Being curios what this could be I went on it and saw those realistic dolls made of resin.

But I did not clicked with them...something was missing...

But altough I did not like their look, I still went searching and by accident went on the Volks USA website.

I looked around it a bit, going in diffrent categorys...and suddenly there it was...the Dollfie Dream section...

I fell in love with the cute face of the DD Nagisa model and well...this was how it all started out around 2 years back, and I am glad it did... ^^

Can't believe I never posted here.

 

I guess how i started out with DDs was a complete accident. I had been searching for some random figures, and i stumbled across a pic of DD Airi. I haven't seen the anime she is tied to, but always thought her character was cool. I clicked the link and it took to me to Wolfhheinrich's website. After looking at his pics of his Airi, I started to look at the rest of his girls. Soon after. i followed a link to Danny Choo's website and saw his girls. I was taken in by his Aoi and decided I wanted one for myself. Soon discovering she wasn't hard to get and discussing such a large purchase with my wife, not to mention even if she was ok with me having a doll, I decided to purchase her. At first I was going to do some modding to her and make her more of a custom, but as soon as i took her outta the box, I knew she was perfect as she came to me. A real dream indeed!! Still not knowing to much, I started to see how i should take care of her. looking for places to get her clothes, and meeting tons of cool friends to share our adventures with. Now I'm hooked, always looking to get more things for her.

 

For those still not sure of getting one, I say take the plunge. The dark side is always cooler anyways!!

 

Wayne

I started out with ABJD's amd then l found out that they are hard to get parts for if they break. (l still like them) So l started looking at obitsu and then get one of those and love it. Now l'm wating to get a DDS and a the new MDD body.

I started not too long ago. I wanted the Saber Alter v2 so I ordered her last year and I have yet to have her in my hands! Since then, I've been shopping for Dollfie stuff for her, waiting for her arrival. During my wait, I managed to get her a little sisters, Noumi and Mariko. They're both patiently waiting for their older sister to come!

I started with PVC collection and photography. Before I started with dolls, I am photographing my PVC outdoors. Before that I also browsed websites like figure.fm and some Taiwan websites which have some nice photos as well.

 

Then as figure.fm grows, I saw more photos. Then one day I bumped in two Japan blogs which really impress me and started to consider having a daughter myself. One of them is Azure Toy-Box, which have outdoor beautiful shooting while the other "Another Side, Another Story" have wonder story encounter with his daughters (now 3 of them). They really inspired me a lot so I started my research to decided on one.

 

After some research I decided to get a Azone PN, Mia (Mia's Sunday), which I was pretty lucky as it was only 2 wks before her pre-order opens when I was still searching around. After she arrived, she followed me around Singapore, and with me she witnessed the closure of Singapore's KTM railway.

 

As I spent more time with Mia, I feel myself I am more prepare for a Dollfie. My initial target was Estel Freesia from Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na. But she was quite expensive (when you count in the proxy charges). Luckily Volks heard many cries of want-to-be owners with the release of the two Sabers. So I have taken my chance and now I have Saber Alter Ver II as my first Dollfie.

 

For me, the girls not only bring me joy. They are also the motivation for me to step out of my house to do more shooting with them (that's why my shoots are mostly outdoors and I am not good at writing stories as well ^_^||| )

Once upon a time, I was at my second con- San Japan :3. My friend and i were lurking around, when she told me that the ball jointed doll panel was happening soon, and thought we should check it out. Since there was nothing going on, we trotted over there and plopped down. I was extremely interested in all the dolls that were there- they were new, quirky, and honestly, i had never grown out of dolls no matter how much i tried to reassure myself. Once the convention was over, i plopped down at my computer and just stared at the Volks website for hours on end. Although i had originally intended on getting a MDD, I instead found myself with Ciel, a MSD Sakura who i got from Kerbey Lane Doll Shoppe.

 

It was a year later, around October 29, when I met Kiyomi. I had waltzed into Kerbey Lane one day, searching for clothes, when i noticed a white skinned DD looking down at me. My curiosity piqued, i asked Miss Rochele about her and if i could pick her up. She explained that he was for sale ($300) and came with everything on her. I held her and posed her, but ended up placing her back on the shelf- I didn't have enough money, and i thought 3 dolls would be enough for me. But every day, my mind would drift back to the sad looking doll with the pink eyes....

 

My second encounter with Kiyomi was sometime late last December. It had been a long time since i had dropped by, and had decided to Search for presents for my resin Children. Not even 5 seconds after i walked into the door i found myself gravitating to the dolls for sale- and who did I see? Kiyo. I was shocked such a gorgeous doll was still up for sale, especially when i noticed her price was dropped $25. I guess it was her staining that repelled potential buyers, but i still found myself in still in love with her. Finally, i tossed my arms in the air, and asked if i could place her on layaway. I payed a down payment up front, and left the store grinning to myself.

 

None of my resin dolls got anything that day.

When i sat down in the car, my mom said: "Oh, goodness. I forgot something in the store. need to go get it." and promptly left. I sat down and waited, listening to an odd Christmas song about a christmas donkey that crossed mountains to bring presents to all the good children of Italy. She came back with a rather large bag (much too large for the clothes we had bought for my friend's boy) and was struggling to get it into the trunk. Knowing what the nice thing to do was, i lept out of the car and offered to help her. Her quick and panicked "No!" tipped me off that there was something in the bag OTHER than a piece of clothing. Curious, i asked her about it. She expained that there were no more small bags in the store, and it took long time to find another. It was a rather flimsy exuise, but i went along with it for her sake.

 

Since my grandparents live in New Orleans, we travel there every year for christmas. I didn't have any time to place another payment, and resigned to the fact that Kiyo wouldn't be with me for christmas.

 

You should have heard my laughter when i found Kiyo in a box christmas morning.