Any advice for bringing DDs with you during travel?

I am moving overseas to Europe for my job. I decided to bring my DDs with me and carry them on the plane. Its just much safer than letting the moving company handle my fragile goods.

 

I was curious if anyone has advice for transporting DDs during travel?

Has anyone ever been searched by airport security for carrying their DDs on them ?

Should I wrap them in any type of cushioning to prevent damage?

 

Would love to hear your thoughts or any funny stories. Thank you.

Never done the overseas travel by air, just road trips by car. I've got a couple of the Volks doll bags and I wrap them up in a blanket I made, or the Volks travel wrap and put them in the bag. Also taken them by public light rail in the bag. If I were to fly, I would also have my girl(s) be part of my carry on. Danny Choo (Of Smart Doll fame.) just carries his on the plane in his hands no bag, or hanging off of his carry on bags.

I've been wondering this too, because I've been wanting to take my Rin with me on vacations. Thank you for the advise. :>

 

Are there any places you wouldn't take your DDs? For example, I want to take my doll with me to a resort, but my mom has convinced me that somebody will steal here. I don't see why anyone would steal her it's not like she's of any value to anyone other than me. :T

I've taken my DDs with me on the airplane and never had any issues. I'm from California and have taken my DDs with me to Texas, New York and Japan.

 

I just had them wrapped in a white towel and had them in a sitting position in my backpack. Going through security wasn't a problem and I never had to open my bag to have TSA check the contents.

 

If they have a custom face-up I would suggest getting a plastic face cover You can buy those at TATA's Paradise, Alice Collections or any other site that sells BJD accessories. Sometimes the humidity, heat and other atmospheric changes mess with the gloss on the lips. One of my dolls got sticky lips and the lint from the towel got stuck to them. :/ BUT then again, looking back it might have been because I did a stain treatment on the head prior to giving a face-up so there's a chance that I didn't let the solvents in the stain treatment evaporate.

 

Anyways, I don't think it'd be much trouble bringing them in your carry on luggage. If you happen to get pulled aside, TSA might just take a cotton swab to the DD to test for drug residue or other contraband. If you get embarrassed just remember that you'll probably never see those people ever again and they'll probably forget about you.

I've taken a DD to Japan and back with no issues at all. I used a hard shell carry on suitcase to carry Manami:

 

001 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Here she is packed in there with my camera and lots of other things.

 

002 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Her face was covered with a soft towel and she was padded well. And there was plenty of room for other stuff in the other half of the carry on.

 

003 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I've never carried more than 1 girl with me at once but Manami is a DDdy girl and if I had nothing else in that case, I *know* I could have easily put 3 more DD sized girls in there with no problems. And this was a designated carry on sized suitcase so it fits in the overhead areas of planes.

 

Hopefully this helps you out!

 

 

 

Billy

Has anyone ever been searched by airport security for carrying their DDs on them ?

 

Not at an airport, but at the Smithstonian. They do full X rays at the entrance of each one, and I had a couple of dolls for photo op purposes with me. I noticed the security guard at the X ray scanner subtly waving over a few other guards and I was like "I bet that's my bag" and surely enough, it comes through the other side and they would like to have a look. So they got to see my dolls and my dolls' tiny plastic crowbar and sledgehammer and... so I should probably point out there was a gem exhibit involved.

 

My advice is to have a good sense of humor. I laughed it off and showed them the dolls' articulation and chatted with them and one of the guards asked me to write down the doll name/where to get them because he wanted to show his granddaughter.

I took my 3 DD to my parents place, 5 hours of travel (3 plane, 2 road). I decided to disasemble them since I wanted to have them with me so no one could hit the bag or anything like that.

 

I took the 3 heads and wraped them with tissues and transparent film, so no scratches not stains could get to them, and then I put them in a small purse with padding and put that in my hand bag.

 

For the boddies I separate the arms and legs from the torso, so they wouldn't need as much space, and then wraped them like the heads + bubble wrap.

 

All three girls made it to my parents place and back home with no stains nor scratches, but it was quite stressfull...

 

I recomend protecting the head the most, you can always buy a new arm xD

When I go around and carry my dolls, I used to wrap them in a big and soft towel. I have never carried them in a luggage, especially not for long journeys.

But now I have acquired a custom doll sized sleeping bag/kigurumi, similar to this one, but shaped like a teddy bear! I'm now gonna use it to take my dolls around :3

Lol, that’s so cute. Her lil face peaking out.

She does not seem too pleased in that pinguin, lol

She does not seem too pleased in that pinguin, lol

Lol, that’s so cute. Her lil face peaking out.

I don't own the penguin, I have a teddy bear shaped one! I will shoot a pic later to show it ^_^ it is actually quite cute.

She suffers for our amusement

I'm going to a doll con this year, need to get one of those cute bags for my dolls...

I've been going through the random photo thread looking at pictures for ideas and I feel it is my duty to quote a post from there:

 

If you let me out of the penguin now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Little bitter penguin. So cute!

How fluffy and padded are those? I had bought a bunny one (DD size of one like this.), but it wasn't listed as a sleeping bag, and it's not fluffy or padded at all. I was hoping to use it as something to pad and protect the girls, but it was no different than any other outfit.

Just giving yall an update. I've made it though 2 security gates so far without any issues. This might shock some of you DD owners, but I stuffed two DDs inside the standard volks DD carrying case. Doesn't really seem to tight or anything. Honestly it being a bit tight is helpful because they won't shift around too bad during transport.

 

I made sure to cover them both up in soft white towels and shirts so they both got plenty of cushioning. Again I do want to mention that I'm carrying this carrying case by hand. My final flight is tonight and hopefully I won't run into any issues.

 

P.S. thanks for all the wonderful tips. Didn't even think about disassembling them. They are ball jointed after all.

The Volks SD (DD) bags can hold up to 3 DD's, BTW.

How fluffy and padded are those? I had bought a bunny one (DD size of one like this.), but it wasn't listed as a sleeping bag, and it's not fluffy or padded at all. I was hoping to use it as something to pad and protect the girls, but it was no different than any other outfit.

 

That penguin outfit is SUPER fluffy and thick. I think you could drop a girl off your rooftop and she'd survive the fall easily in that thing. I don't own one but my buddy AsianEd does and his is really puffy and thick.

 

And yes, my Volks SD bag also holds 3 DD girls inside. I can't use any padding in there with them other than hand towels to cover faces and such. There's no room for those body pillow things that some resin dolls come packed with.

 

 

Billy

Then I hope Volks does other animals to make puffy outfits for them. Whomever got to wear it would get to stay in the bed at night. That'd make Yaya happy.