(Admins, if there is a thread called this in the FtM section already, feel free to add this post to it. [emoji6]  )

I collect Asian Ball-Jointed dolls (BJDs), and lately I've been so focused on my transitioning that I haven't taken them out and photographed them in months.  They literally have a coat of DUST on them!

I now realise its mostly due to "*gasp!*  That man plays with DOLLS!" syndrome.

So today, I went on Facebook, created an Event and will be hosting a meetup in my area! [emoji2]

First BJD meetup I've hosted in two years, since before starting my transition journey.

Since many of you probably don't know what a BJD is, here's a link to the wiki page.  Really old pic of my Crew sitting on my deck stairs posted below. [emoji39]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball-jointed_doll?wprov=sfla1

I have vampires, a weretiger, rock stars, an orphan, royalty, and even original Doctor Who/Torchwood characters in my Crew.

Oh man, most of them are still in winter clothes, and its 92F today.   Good thing they don't feel temperatures! [emoji6] 



Ryuichi



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Well, I haven't heard of those types of dolls before. They sure look trendy.

How did you get started in this hobby, and what keeps you interested in it?

Nice crew! I've heard of BJDs before, right here on Susan's, in fact.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,83551.0.html
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,93121.0.html

Hugs, Devlyn

Quote from: Dan on July 20, 2017, 02:59:20 PM
Well, I haven't heard of those types of dolls before. They sure look trendy.

How did you get started in this hobby, and what keeps you interested in it?

Like I've mentioned before, I go to anime conventions.  Way back in 2005 I was at one, and this woman was walking around, carrying one i  her arms.  He was a 60cm/24" inch one, and she let me hold him for a bit. I moved his joints and took a real close look at his clothes (made like human clothes!)  And I was hooked! 

It took me a while to save up for my first one.  I actually got the body I wanted first, and the head was gifted to me by another friend who helped "enable"me in the hobby.  Being completely customisable, fron the faceup (face makeup), the wig, clothes, shoes and even body parts, its easy to create the doll/s you want. 

Sure, they're expensive, but being made out of resin, they are made to be played with.  (Art you can play with!  Woot!)  Actually, many people in the hobby feel that "if you don't play with them (pose them and take pics usually), that you don't love them." [emoji1]

I've taken them to Niagara Falls, grocery shopping, state parks, even coffin shopping (I had permission from my friend who was doing the shopping).

I pose them, take pictures and post them on line, either on a BJD forum or on Facebook.  Its fun!

Ryuichi

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Quote from: Devlyn Marie on July 20, 2017, 03:08:23 PM
Nice crew! I've heard of BJDs before, right here on Susan's, in fact.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,83551.0.html
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,93121.0.html

Hugs, Devlyn

I read those posts, and the information on it is a little out of date, but still informative. 

Wonder if any of those people ever got their dolls?

Ryuichi

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On the other side of the gender role fence, I'm pretty happy to attemot picking up video gaming again. When I was a kid I played a lot more. Gameboy, GBA, SP, Nintendo DS, lite, Playstation, Playstation 2. I didnt play every major title and am still clueless to the biggest game series to this day but I love the ones that I did.

I'm picking up Steam more now to stay "in the loop", I played some games here and there, still a casual, and still a noob, but its one of the things I like to say I love because it's a "guy" thing, and I've related to a lot of other guys even with my basic knowledge of gaming and trying to stay in the loop.

Other than that I just love cartoons, art, anime, and furries. Im trying to work on my drawing skills, trying to do digital and animation. Still a process but Im getting there, and Im happy to do this stuff again

Gaming's awesome, WolfNight. Like you, I used to play a lot as a kid and had a ton of systems but I fell out of the loop for a while. Hit the ground running again a couple years ago and got a PS4 (always been a faithful PS guy).
Ever played The Last of Us? Dear god, that game is pretty much the pinnacle of gaming as far as I'm concerned. It's the sort of game I always wanted to play as a kid that the technology just wasn't there for yet. Silent Hill was always another one of my favorites; I sort of wish they'd remaster the original.

I'm glad you said screw it and plan on getting back into the swing of your hobby, Ryuichi. The whole pretense of most pastimes being gendered one way or the other is lame.

I do a lot of drawing, painting, weight lifting, gaming, woodworking, refurbishing, and metalworking but I'm also my fiancée's personal jeweler. She'll pitch a design to me and I'll flesh it out. It's often funny as hell to me to be the only guy sifting through the supplies for her projects but it doesn't bother me anymore. It was a ton more dysphoria-inducing before.

Aw man, Last Of Us was definitely on my list of what to pick up for sure! It looks really great and something I could get into. Thus far, Assassin's Creed (2 and black flag) Has been my vice and I adore the story, concept, gameplay.

Gaming is definitely a happy thing for me, I have a massive pile of unplayed games to get through. I'm excited for Last of Us 2 but I can't see it coming out anytime soon.

Favourite new hobby right now is building armour.

Quote from: Ryuichi13 on July 20, 2017, 05:40:35 PM
Like I've mentioned before, I go to anime conventions.  Way back in 2005 I was at one, and this woman was walking around, carrying one i  her arms.  He was a 60cm/24" inch one, and she let me hold him for a bit. I moved his joints and took a real close look at his clothes (made like human clothes!)  And I was hooked! 

It took me a while to save up for my first one.  I actually got the body I wanted first, and the head was gifted to me by another friend who helped "enable"me in the hobby.  Being completely customisable, fron the faceup (face makeup), the wig, clothes, shoes and even body parts, its easy to create the doll/s you want. 

Sure, they're expensive, but being made out of resin, they are made to be played with.  (Art you can play with!  Woot!)  Actually, many people in the hobby feel that "if you don't play with them (pose them and take pics usually), that you don't love them." [emoji1]

I've taken them to Niagara Falls, grocery shopping, state parks, even coffin shopping (I had permission from my friend who was doing the shopping).

I pose them, take pictures and post them on line, either on a BJD forum or on Facebook.  Its fun!

Ryuichi

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OK I didn't know that it was possible to take them apart and mix and match different parts. Fascinating.

Quote from: Dan on July 21, 2017, 06:14:40 AM
OK I didn't know that it was possible to take them apart and mix and match different parts. Fascinating.

Well, "mixing and matching parts" isn't as easy as you make it sound. [emoji38]

Because many of the dolls are made by many different companies, you often have to modify them if you, for example, want doll X to have hooves from company Y, AND still be able to stand. 

That might involve sanding, dremeling, using epoxy, etc. in order to get the part to function right.  Then you may have to paint it to match th  original body.  It can be time-consuming if you have the talent, or expensive if you don't. 

Being able to choose the hair and eye colors to match the image in your head of a being is often a lot of what draws people to the hobby.  Many people create "resin versions" of RPG characters, family members, original characters they've had floating around their heads, characters from movies/TV shows, or like I did, anime characters, or maybe even "I like that sculpt, those eyes and that wig!"

BJDs., being so completely customisable is often what draws artistic/creative types to the hobby.  I mean, how many things can the average person create from the ground up? [emoji6]

This rock group, 'Nittle Grasper' from the series Gravitation is what originally drew me into the hobby.  I wanted to create them "in resin."

 
   


And these are my version  of Nittle Grasper's band members.



I still need to cut Ryuichi's wig down (the green-haired one) and I also have a pigtail wig for Noriko (the lavender-haired one), but Tohma, the blond is basically finished.  I also taught myself how to hand-sew as well as (bought similar clothes) so that I could re-create the outfits from the DVD cover in the first pic.  It was a LOT of fun  as well as challenging, and one day I'll actually re-create that DVD pic and have a photoshoot! [emoji2]

Incidentally, that whole idea is what drew me into BJDs in the first place, the opportunity to re-create a band from one of my very favorite anime!


Ryuichi

P.S. Ryuichi, the green-haired one is also the vocalist for Nittle Grasper.  He is where my name came from! [emoji16]

Interesting.

I originally came to Thailand in 2010 to do bird and wildlife photography on the side, while teaching ESL.
I also make new inventions, mostly to enhance my birding pursuits, am an artist, writer, musician, and design/sew my own comfortable, versatile clothes and underwear.

In the US I trained my own horses to trail ride and drive.

Quote from: Ryuichi13 on July 21, 2017, 08:16:04 AM
Well, "mixing and matching parts" isn't as easy as you make it sound. [emoji38]

Because many of the dolls are made by many different companies, you often have to modify them if you, for example, want doll X to have hooves from company Y, AND still be able to stand. 

That might involve sanding, dremeling, using epoxy, etc. in order to get the part to function right.  Then you may have to paint it to match th  original body.  It can be time-consuming if you have the talent, or expensive if you don't. 

Being able to choose the hair and eye colors to match the image in your head of a being is often a lot of what draws people to the hobby.  Many people create "resin versions" of RPG characters, family members, original characters they've had floating around their heads, characters from movies/TV shows, or like I did, anime characters, or maybe even "I like that sculpt, those eyes and that wig!"

BJDs., being so completely customisable is often what draws artistic/creative types to the hobby.  I mean, how many things can the average person create from the ground up? [emoji6]

..

I can definitely see the attraction to this hobby for me. Not so much in the characters themselves, but if I had a friend who was into this and didn't have the skills, tools and motivation to learn how to customise these little lads and lassies to their taste, I would love the challenge and do it for them.  Doing it would be fun.

Quote from: Dan on July 21, 2017, 06:14:40 AM
OK I didn't know that it was possible to take them apart and mix and match different parts. Fascinating.

Many people get into the hobby simply for the thrill of having something that they could completely customise. 

Because each part of a BJD is cast by pouring liquid resin into a mold, they are pretty easy to take out the elastic string that holds the pieces together (and makes them so poseble) so it can be decided how someone may want to customise them.

Hopefully I can get this google pic to show up so you can see what I mean.  If not, follow the link.

http://i34.servimg.com/u/f34/11/43/88/35/p1010742.jpg

The elastic string makes it so that BJDs can prettu much bend similarly to us humans.  Many artists start out wanting "a model that can hold a particular pose for a long time," and end up joining the hobby, for the customisation aspect, and simply because they're fun!

BJD meetups are pretty fun affairs.  People bring their dolls, posing them together as if they were interacting and taking pics of them.  We also talk about all aspects of them, fron who has the latest body or head sculpts, clothes, shoes, how to do this or that to modify them and so on.

Sometimes, customization meetups are held, where you can learn how to paint their faces, use a dremel on them, use epoxy and the like.   

And for many of these meetups, you don't need a doll, only the interest is enough.  Everyone's often happy to enable people...uh...answer questions that curious people ask. [emoji6]

Straight, gay, trans, cis, old, young, black, white, purple, red, blue or green, differences between people at meetups doesn't matter.  (Especially since many dolls "backstories" also fall into these ranges.  And yes, BJD skin tones come in a literal rainbow of colors!)  At these meetups "its all about the dolls."

If only the rest of the world was this way towards individual differences, it would be a much happier world! ☺

I just realised that I haven't come out as transitioning to my local group yet!  Oh well, they mostly knew I preferred being referred to as he/him/his anyways.

Ryuichi

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I've made these before, in my line of work (sculpting), from scratch using stone clay and the Yoshida technique.

I'd like to get back to it, when my current contracts and commissions are done with.

No experience with those dolls (actually don´t like the connotation of playing with dolls - not an judgement of you - more an observation about myself I have an action figure (which you could call a doll) of Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet Street, though. He´s awesome.

What really gives me kicks is soaring though. I´ve taken to the skies in a lot of different ways and I could never get enough of it. This pic is from an airshow I went to.

Actually, I hated all dolls until I dicovered BJDs.  Being an anime fan, I was immediatwly drawn to the anime-style look they usually have.  So yeah, I'm a guy that plays with dolls. [emoji16]

Ooh, an air show!  I miss going to them!  Wonder if my new home state has air shows?  I'll have to look into that, I love airplanes and speed!.

Quote from: Viktor on July 24, 2017, 06:46:07 PM
I've made these before, in my line of work (sculpting), from scratch using stone clay and the Yoshida technique.

I'd like to get back to it, when my current contracts and commissions are done with.

I'm not familiar with that technique, but it sounds cool! 

What kind of things do you sculpt?  I'm not artistic but I do enjoy art.

Ryuichi

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If you Google Yoshida dolls some should come up. It refers to the name of the artist and their methods for creating them as OOAKs without molds.

I do mostly fantasy stuff in polymer clay.