My experiencies in the BJD world

 ESPAÑOL

As I have a certain experience in the BJD world and I know what going to doll meetups is and I have talked to other people into this hobby, I'm telling you some of the strangest experiences that I've had so far.

❶ A few years ago I went with to Palau Sant Jordi (Barcelona) with my friend Mia-chan to take photos and each one had a doll. Iook Toshi and my friend one of her SD (you can see photos here). We were talking happily when two women asked us about our BJDs because they thought our dolls were weird. Apparently, they already had occasionaly seen some groups of people from a doll meetup because they asked us about it and we told them that it was. These women were very friendly and asked us thousand questions about these dolls, not in a derogatory way, it was just curiosity and perfectly accepted that it was just a hobby. They were talking with us for a half hour or so. We all have had this similar experience for sure. 

❷ Something very common. As you know the ones who take photos outside, people look at us with curiosity when they see us taking photos of our dolls. Some people have no shame to get in the middle and spy what we're doing without asking and others do it behind my back. When I took photos of Danielle and Byron for last year's Halloween, a woman who was walking with her dog stood looking at us and another group of people with dogs also stared from a distance, though they had the detail to respect what we were doing. Although something that amused me were a couple who were leaning out on the balcony to see what we were doing and the man went outside to spy away while he reported his wife what we were doing with "those weird dolls" while she was leaning out the balcony 

❸ At the last doll meetup I've been happened a couple of curious things. When my friends Nadia and Chandrama and I left the meetup, my friends took their dolls for a moment to order their bags and a foreign man approached to us and asked my friends: "Are they for sale?", referring to the dolls. Obviously, my friends replied with a resounding "NO" and the man ran away without looking back. 

❹ The next experience I'm going to tell you was quite surreal. It happened just when my friends and I were saying goodbye to several people in the last doll meetup we went to. We were talking to them when a car from security of Anella Olimpica -Olympic Ring- (where Palau Sant Jordi is) stopped and the security man, still on the car, asked us "about the group leader". We were like "what?" and we told him there was no leader group as we were a group of friends who had met for taking photos. The man asked again for the group leader and asked if we had permission of the city council of Barcelona for taking photos. In that moment we were like "what the hell is going on?" and we returned to answer "there's no group leader and we have no permission because we were taking photos as a hobby." The man wasn't satisfied and insisted again for the permission and wanted to talk to the nonexistent group leader because it's not allowed to take photos to publish them in magazines. To sum up, a couple of girls approached to the security man to explain him that we were a group of Asian dolls collectors that had met to take photos of the dolls not professionally, while we joked with the idea that we would be arrested by the police and go to prison for taking photos of dolls. Still, the man didn't seem to be very convinced and let alone having seen so many people with DSLR cameras, but he went away and left us alone.

Before this incident, my friends and I realized that the security car passed quite often in the area and the man stared. So now you know, before taking photos in emblematic places of your city, just go to your city council for a permission because if you carry DSLR cameras, you'll be confused by professional photographers working for some magazine and you can be arrested and go to prison. That doesn't happens to tourists.

❺ Are there no more hobbyist with no wishlist and who have put limits on when buying dolls and clothes for them?

This is the question I ask myself after speaking face to face with several fans. I'm surprised that philosophy in this hobby is consuming like mad and without limits. It's impressive to see how they look at you when you explain that you don't have a wishlist, don't buy BJDs for a long year, neither tempts you to see so many dolls together in a doll meetup for relapsing and cycling to buy again (I have checked, I've become immune and I'm absolutely not interested on buying and having more BJDs) or that I didn't go to the "Dolls&Party" because it didn't attract my attention because I didn't need to buy anything (other than I had some family commitments); not new dolls and neither things for the ones I have already. As I explained to a girl, it's just to psych yourself up that is not necessary to consume that way, it's just to have willpower and comes a day that you don't have to fight for it. But seem that it isn't, that "normal" is having a wishlist, not set limits with dolls and buy nonstop. Well, I'll be that rare case that there is one in a million.

By the way, I talked about this subject in this post.

❻ Who does have never fallen one -or more- of their dolls? Sure that we all have got frightened more than once. The first time a doll fell such as to get scared was with Maiko, just three months after her arrival. I was taking photos in the dining room with the doll on the big table when and in a moment of lapse of concentration because my mother called me to look not remember what, I heard a big "plop" sound and I suspected what had happened. There Maiko was, lying on the floor with a posture that having been a real person, she would have broken limbs in several places with the consequent hospitalization and long recovery. The first thing I thought was that the doll was broken and we had enjoyed the doll for a short time, so we were surprised when I picked she up from the floor and we saw that she didn't have a single scratch and all her fingers were in place (we took for granted that they broke because they're very thin). Only had skipped her wig and head cap. 

Despite the scare, I have kept taking photos of all our SD on the same table and now I regret not having taken a photo to have the memory of that painful pose, although I took a photo when my 3 SD fell in chain. Well, I took a photo of one of the dolls only XD

Message: you have to assume that sooner or later one of your dolls will fall and you must prepared for the worst because you never know when it will be. 

❼ Years ago I used to chat with a girl in Messenger that ended driven me crazy. Rare was the day that she didn't ask me to sell Maiko because she felt in love with the doll. Despite telling her that the doll wasn't for sale and that she could buy the same mold, she insisted saying that she didn't want to buy a doll like Maiko, she wanted her because she liked her custom. I ended up blocking her on Messenger.

And that's all for today. If I remember something else, or even better, I have more interesting experiences (I hope not terrifying), I'll write a second part.

Have you had any experience you want to share? If so, don't hesitate to do it by commenting below ;)

Thanks for your visit!

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