Before i got my first BJD i did extensive research. Back in 2015 there was a small local con that had a panel about them wich i attended. There i got suggested to join Den Of Angels (AKA DOA). I remember my join date being May 2015, somewhere after my birthday. That same year in september i was able to buy my first BJD, secondhand from somebody that lives a 2h drive away from me, i know this bc my grandpa drove me there in trade that i had to accompany him to visit some family that lived close by. While i dont own the body anymore, i still have the head. A Vanidoll Zoe, it was an artist cast head so theres some imperfections but i still like the head alot. Only a handful of people own this head, back when instagrams tag system still worked there where like 5 difrent people with one (wich included me). And for many years now the artist has vanished from the internet.
As of next month DOA is officially closing down. Ive known for several months now, the reasen being that the owner of the site disapeared and the only 2 mods left are not able to re-new the site without ownership transfer. I was thus hoping the owner would do this... but alas... If im not mistaken this year DOA would have turned 22years old. Its no secret that forums and likewise sites have been disapearing more and more. And while DOA wasnt the most social place, it was THE place for information. There was also a secondhand market wich you could only acces after you where a member for a few weeks and had like 30 comments to your acc, this would help prevent scams. It was the only place you could be secure of buying a legit secondhand BJD. Afterwards people left feedback to eachother.
DOA wasnt a perfect place ofcourse. Tumblr has (had? not sure if its still up) a blog called BJDconfessions. There i kept up with the latest news and drama of the comunity... taken with a grain of salt of course (tho funny, everybody knew of it but if you confessed to reading it you where considered a drama seeker). On the blog DOA often got criticized for being elitist (in this context: collectors there preffered people who had the expensive brands like Fairyland, Dollshe and whatnot)...
Ok can confirm theres still similer blogs like the-bjd-community-confess, givemethatbjdtea and bjd-confessional. And while idk any of the current names thrown around, it is just the same old type of drama lol. An anoying thing i found myself is that you where allowed only one account, valid, this was so if u scammed ppl, you could not evade this by making a new profile... However you where NOT allowed to change your username!! At all! They claimed this was for siml reasen HOWEVER?? Just do like steam and display like "xyz used to be known as abc", problem solved. The main problem was that if you made a new acc and they figured out you got thrown out on both accs... This was a big issue when somebody tried to make a new acc bc their old one had their deadname and the mods where like "rules aply to everybody"... On another note my username was "Oliver", no numbers or special signs, just Oliver. Was pretty proud of that... Except that it for years felt so removed from my current identity. Ofc i put on there my current handles and what have you. But still yea
For a reeeaaallly long time i was obssessed with BJDs. I constantly kept up with the latest releases (NOT BUYING! Just looking lmao). I was pretty active in the comunity and still have alot of mutuals from back then. But im intrests have shifted, i still love it! Its just not my main intrest nowadays. The comunity used to be mainly on instagram but with the tag system broken it became imposible to find anything. People shifted to discord and while sure i am on discord, im just not great in big social comunitys. I often just feel ignored or confused bc theres to many difr chats and then loose intrest.
Dispite all that i still have retained all my knowledge, whilst its a bit more dificult nowadays bc i havnt kept up with new releases, im still able to identify a big portion of dolls... Hell more recently my friend asked me what sculpt her doll was wich she bought years ago... and ofc i remembered LMAO.
I find it sad that DOA is closing, today i wanted to take a final look around, take some screenshots of some memories and whatnot... but its like broken? Like the CSS isnt working? I could still log in but other then that i wasnt able to actually look around... Ill try again in a few days. But heres a pic from the wayback machine
I really wanna make a shrine on my site for BJDs, add a bunch or resources too for ppl... but that might take a bit till i get to that
If anybody reading this is intrested in BJDs pls let me know. Id love to share my knowledge and/or answer any questions.
For now i will leave these:
BJD Collectasy - For new releases and any news
Alice's Collections - My go to dealer
The Discord Server
If a doll is for sale on Alixpress, Amazon, Wish or likewise... Its not real, avoid at all cost.