With DoA's looming closure, I've sold half of my already pared down collection (oops, need to update the blog header). It was suprisingly not hard, but did require being honest with myself and what I want - which I think is generally a bit complicated to do in a collecting hobby with an active online community? Dopamine does not run in rational ways when it has to do with Buying Things and seeing others do the same. I know there will be other community forums (or at least I hope there'll be 1 good one I'd like to be a part of eventually) but I think I wanted an end with no regrets/fresh start a bit and the big news seemed like a good catalyst.
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With the DoA closure coming closer and closer, I've naturally thought about the hobby a lot - about the dolls, the community, how my dolls and I function in it.
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The second quarter of the year is ending and I set up some goals for 2026 in December - a fair time to check in on this.
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With the DoA closure coming closer and closer, I've naturally thought about the hobby a lot - about the dolls, the community, how my dolls and I function in it.
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Something I always appreciated in the "older" web/blogs were questionnaires (that seem to have nearly died out these days). I guess we have social media now...? (Nobody is answering silly questions there though). Similarly, I've also enjoyed the games on DoA that kind of carry the vibe (and were one of the few ways to have fun within the community w/o spending money haha), but that'll be gone in 2 months or so.
So...
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After the success of the last film photos (by success I mean: they turned out, camera is fine, etc) I immediately jumped on taking more. I had some rolls of very very expired Fuji Superia (RIP) 100 that I was curious to try out.
This could have been a total waste of effort/money because 100 is a *tricky* ISO I never even use digitally and the film being (nearly 2 decades) expired and stored whoever knows how meant??? no idea what comes out. I used a light meter (as a phone app) just in case and made sure to only shoot in bright sun and hoped for the best.
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I had made a plan to take doll photos on film this year. Adding an expensive hobby to expensive hobby, yay! The last time I'd photographed on film was before the pandemic, but my camera seemed to still be in good working order so I bought a roll of 24 frame Kodak Ultramax (aka Gold 400) in January and started snapping away.
Film photography and the doll hobby have a bit in common - it's physical media and also takes a lot of faith in delayed gratification. Pre-orders take time and you hope and pray the doll that ships will be worth the (longer or shorter) wait. With taking photos on film, there is no way around taking the shot half-blindly and hoping that the developed and printed/scanned image will come out good. I am much too impatient to buy nothing but second-hand and in stock any more, but with photos the wait and did-it-did-it-not is kind of appealing to me.
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I've been playing with the thought of selling one of my dolls lately. I just feel like I prioritise all others a lot more for various reasons and I'm not *as* inspired by them. I've also not properly picked them up for a long while and I'm not interested in having box babies (for context, I don't display my dolls and take them out when actively doing stuff with them - which is often enough tbh). BUT I'm also on the fence for many reasons!
Maybe it's good to list some good ol' pros and cons?
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As long as I've been in this hobby (or any hobby?) I've struggled with some form of no-buy and no-buy-failing. Now, obviously, the BJD hobby is something that kind of requires buying... things... to participate in it as a baseline, but I choose to believe a moderation is possible. I'd like to be that moderate person! I can't stop buying little shoes.
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Every year, I've been trying to set myself some doll goals (mostly has to do with not buying things and then failing several times throughout the year). In 2025 I set myself a "doll website" goal and ended up deleting it altogether so I didn't dare to write down the same thing in 2026... yet I somehow did end up putting one up again (mostly because of the DoA closure news).
I think I went a bit easier this year altogether, and it's already been like 3 months so let's check in below:
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