My doll journey, 2002 - 2017
The story of how I entered the doll hobby must start with a friend from school - Djinn. I was never particularly fond of dolls as a child, so when she told me about these âsuper dollfiesâ that she had discovered, owning one myself was the farthest thing from my mind.
Then, in 2002, she showed me a photo of Mini Super Dollfie (MSD) Hewitt on the Volks website. This was the Dolpa 10 release, so he was oldskin, and this was in an era before high resolution photos were commonplace online. Nevertheless, something about him really spoke to me despite the grainy pictures, and I wound up ordering him via an official Volks reseller in Singapore (now sadly defunct) and had him shipped to me in the UK, where I was studying at university.
Then followed six years of enjoying the hobby, participating in the community, watching the number of collectors grow, and so on. I purchased a few more MSDs to keep Shiina (Hewitt) company, solidified their characters and made photostories about their interactions. I started learning to sew and craft for them. I even ventured outside the MSD size range, which I hadnât expected to do, and acquired a few Yo-SDs.
In 2008, I began working life and found that it gradually began to demand more and more of me. I had no time for hobbies and hardly any time even for family. I barely played with the last couple of dolls I had acquired (Yo-SD Puff and Kanon) - Kanon in particular was unboxed and then more or less left to her own devices. In 2009, as work swallowed up more and more of my time and life, I took an unplanned hiatus from the hobby and basically disappeared from the doll community altogether.
Since this is about my doll journey and not about myself as a person, it will suffice to say that, since 2009, I have learnt not to let what I do define who I am. :-) I began to recover my life in 2012, but with other interests and even an overseas stint, I didnât feel drawn back to the hobby till late 2016.
So here I am, playing with my dolls again, over a decade after we began. These days, I find that I enjoy my dolls mainly through sewing for my Yo-SDs. I canât find much clothing for Yo-SDs in the style which I like, especially for boys, so why not make it? It would be amazing if I could put out a collection of Yo-SD boy clothing some time later this year. Iâm also actively searching for my Yo-SD Kanonâs permanent wig and name. Poor little thing, she really was left in limbo when I dropped out of the hobby.
Iâm very much looking forward to rediscovering the hobby, enjoying my dolls (especially Tatsue, Peter and âKanonâ, who are relatively undeveloped character-wise), Â making new friends in the hobby (maybe even in Singapore?), and reconnecting with old ones. :D And thank you for taking the time to read this!
