A History of my Personal Doll Collection

 Out of curiosity, I looked at my order history on AliExpress to track when and what I ordered and was actually quite shocked to see I didn’t even begin to buy my larger dolls until late 2019! I thought maybe I’d accumulated them over a few years, but no, not even two years since I began. It’s startling just because of how much I’ve put into the journey, how much I’ve learned and progressed. If you know me, though, you also know I forever underestimate just how much I absorb and do when very passionate about something.

The first thing I bought was a Bomelon head, female, grey eyes, pink lips. I remember the first large doll I wanted to try was going to be my project to create my character Rienna. I though the Bomelon bodies looked generic so I didn’t buy the body right away. I actually ended up finding a company called DreamFairy and I liked the bodies but not so much the heads. 

I didn’t know much about the differences in scales and that the heads didn’t fit but this was also part of the reason I wanted to start with a cheaper vinyl/silicone doll than resin. However, I talked to the DreamFairy seller and they offered to send me the attachments used for their heads to try and it worked. I was able to anchor the heads on that way. Also noting that the plastic version is technically hinge-jointed and not really ball-jointed, the difference being that BJDs are typically strung together. Another learning curve I wasn’t ready for.

In the process of making Rienna, I decided to get another Bomelon/DreamFairy hybrid, deciding I wanted to also use this sculpt to make another character, Talia.

I’ll kind of zoom ahead a bit here and there or this will be a pretty long post. I had the money so I also decided to acquire a generic 1/4 scale female doll and a 1/3 scale male, both plastic. I love both of them but I never named them or had any particular designs in mind for them either. However, they were important in helping me develop my comfort levels before taking the next big step.

I really wanted a mature and gorgeous adult male type doll at this point. The generic male was... pretty, but I was looking for more maturity. I ended up fixated on a Soom ID72 Hyperon sculpt. I also took a gamble and went with tan skin, although I was warned that darker colors were harder to get consistent results with. But I really saw my Maxim character in him so he was... my first official resin BJD.

Almost immediately, I found his adventurous counterpart Endramena in the Iplehouse SID Mari sculpt. Also, tan skin. Both characters grew up on an island nation, beaches and sunlight so it wouldn’t make sense to make them pale.

I hadn’t planned on getting any more dolls for characters in that story but ended up seeing Kaffir in the Soom SuperGem Dia sculpt.

I’m probably getting the order a little off at this point. I also acquired my Fairyland Minifee sculpts, Karsh and Celine, around the same time but I had saved up a lot of money working and it was around the start of the pandemic so I  had bought a bunch, didn’t realize my job would be shut down then stayed conservative about buying any for a while. At least until sheer boredom and desperation made me desperate for more.

The next doll I wanted was the Soom SuperGem Epidia, in dark brown skin. I developed a curiosity for skin types at that point but also had my eye on the Soom Zinc White Archer centaur sculpt and... got him too. 

At that point though, my family started making plans to move, so I stopped buying doll stuff for maybe six months to save for furniture and things we’d need there. Annnnd I already had more to pack than I cared to. It was easy to save when I thought about reducing what would need to be packed and carried. I actually ended up getting rid of quite a bit, just to avoid that as much as possible.

When I got to house number two, I didn’t even think about purchasing any for a long while either. Mostly, because I was sick of looking at boxes. Annnnnd then, well, my last post happened. Ordered six more diverse sizes and colors and sculpts of dolls. Once more a scattering of Soom, Iplehouse and Minifee because clearly I have a type. The diversion being my first Smart Doll, who... is not a BJD either, but a vinyl/silicone type with an articulated hinge skeleton.

Of course... I also have a collection of nendoroids, Barbies, and other generic dolls and even just heads that I’ve acquired along the way, but I’d need to have my order history open as a reference to track all of that. 

My collections have kept me hungry for projects, even when I haven’t had the drive to actually do them. I actually like that so many of them aren’t just book character projects or even get names, because they are there to alter according to mood. I’ve gone a tad overboard but not to where it’s a hindrance. It’s more like overpacking a bag. It’s a strain on space but you don’t truly regret having more than you need; better than having less.

I look forward to seeing what the latest ones become. As I work on Endramena and Maxim, they’re my free-play dolls. I can change their identity or look at any time. They’re not married to a specific idea.

There may be more still but at this point, I don’t foresee it. I’m quite knowledgeable on the selection of dolls out there and I don’t have any teasing me on a wish list. I’ve answered a slew of impulses and I feel a calm I haven’t felt in a long time. 

Time to enjoy the fruits of that journey.