Creator, explorer, collector of hobbies.
Gamer, crafter, D&D player.
Just how the hell did a 30s something dude end up with two dolls…
Well, it’s a story of a quest, a turn of events and an empty wallet.
How I got into BJDs, or, how my Wallet gently weeps.
Just before the whole Covid thing started I wanted to expand on my anatomy drawing. I looked up courses, found one, then Cocvid hit and we’re in lockdown.
To bring figure drawing into my home I experimented with a beamer to simulate a classroom like drawing experience. Then I found small mannequins for drawing by Bandai and S.H.Figurearts.
Bigger is better, so I looked on to find the SFBT-3 artist anatomy mannequin. The problem? It’s expensive. So the search continued.
A friend mentioned ball jointed dolls, or BJDs. At first I didn’t feel the connection. This was clearly a community of cute dolls I didn’t belong to. Though I was intrigued, and in the following weeks I followed the white rabbit. Until I found the Alchemic Labo dolls and went down the rabbit hole.
I wasn’t going to fork over €500,- for a doll though. If the SFBT-3 was to expensive, a BJD would most certainly be. Then my friend heard of my predicament. Turned out he knew about BJDs because his aunt had BJDs untill a few years ago. She got rid of her collection, but he put me in contact with her.
She had one doll left. It was hard to sell because it was incomplete and had seen better times. For a small price and the promise to give her a good spot on my shelf I could have her.
You should have seen my face when I saw it was an Unoa.
Sadly, a MSD Unoa doens’t have the posabiliy I was looking for. A pin on Pinterest showed the poseability of the Fairyland Minifée dolls. Luckily Minifées are not that hard to find and I soon had a special BJD drawer with two dolls.
While the Unoa isn’t suitable for drawing, it’s an amazing doll.
The aftermath
So I kept her. She got a name and now has her own page… Yeah, I went a bit overboard.
The first thing I wanted to do is make a BJD costume of my D&D Character. Which would involve a lot of creative skills I wanted to practice anyways.
I’m not that keen on sharing I have two dolls in real life. I got some slack from my girlfriend, first because I bought a doll, and then some more when she found out what it had cost. Everything is alright now though. After this I wasn’t to excited to sharing. It’s for my own entertainment anyways, so why bother.
Right now I’ve picked up sewing, got a machine and am learning more and more about hand sewing. I’ve got a stack of fabric, both for doll clothes as for me. In that way the BJDs are a nice segway into making my own clothes.
Building on my other hobbies; airbrushing, mini painting, sculpting and dice making I can learn face-ups and modify parts. So it offers a lot of possibilities and hours of creative work.
Two dolls is enough, but I’m in love with Alchemic Labo dolls. I’ve set out search queries for AL dolls and parts in the region. Currently I’m hoping to get my hands on a Unoa Zero, a SD sized AL doll.
Ah, well, one can hope right.
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