Beyond Dolls: Hobbies Outside of This One!

On 2/24/2020 at 2:08 PM, McKennachu said:

I was just joking with my coworkers the other day about Warhammer. A lot of them are into DnD, but I mentioned how cool painting your own Warhammer pieces would be (or commissioning someone to paint them). They collectively agreed that Warhammer is too boujie for them since they really shouldn't sink thousands into that AND their other hobbies.

 

For my own hobbies, I play a lot of LoL, but I'm trying to break that habit and pursue drawing and watercolor painting instead. I also "collect" tattoos- so between DDs, PC gaming, and paying for expensive and painful art, my wallet is exhausted. ^^"

I honestly didnt ever think it would be for me, but I really find myself enjoying the assembly and painting aspects. I cant play to save my life tho xD. 

My brother plays LoL a lot, I was too nervous to start.

On 2/24/2020 at 4:03 PM, Mega Negi said:

we call it WarHammer 401(k)

Appropriate as I am learning 😂

I've always been into collecting things, before DDs it was pure neemos, before pure neemos it was nendoroids/figmas and doujinshi, before that it was cheap gachapon prize figures and before that it was cat figurines.

I want to get into photography as a hobby, mainly focussing on dolls and my cats, but all the technicalities are still too difficult for me to understand so I'm never very adventurous about it. Recently I've started collecting doujinshi again, though.

I guess I've also always been drawing comics as a hobby since I could hold a pencil, and I still have an ongoing webcomic (which I can combine with a separate hobby for historical fiction), but I always feel weird calling art my hobby because I thought hobbies are supposed to be fun and a lot of the time art stresses me out lol.

I suppose the main hobby outside anything related to anime/manga stuff (which I include dolls/photography/drawing with) is the obsession I've had from a young age with the paranormal/unsolved mysteries/unexplained occurrences/spooky scary stuff. I'm always searching for new content related to it in from old books to reddit posts - even the obviously fake and debunked stuff has always been really interesting to me and ties in a lot with my interest in historical trivia, as so many historical buildings are reported to be haunted. It's a passion that's kinda ironic because I actually get scared very easily and frequently regret reading any of it at night. The other main drawback of it is that a good deal of the content is unbearably cheesy (ie those Ghost Hunter shows) and the cringe factor is worse than being scared.

Just expanded my train addiction. OR rather I've had this for a long time, but finally got around to doing something about it.

 

 

That is a real coal fired steam locomotive.  Just don't tell Yaya that's the girl I've been with the last few Saturdays I was not home!

Well, apart from dolls, I also collect figures (does that count? XD). I like taking photos of both my figs and my dolls. XD

I also like playing games, mostly graphic novels or story rich games. I'm not so good with competitive games though.

I like listening to music too. I'm pretty much open to listening to any genre. Lately, I'm quite into lofi music. 😄

As anyone who has noticed the shelves full of them in the backgrounds of my doll pics, I'm very much into tabletop RPGs.

My RPG library has been largely in hibernation mode for the time I've been into DDs.  But about 6 months ago I started shifting gears back to my RPG hobby.  I've been focusing on acquiring games and game materials from the 80s and early 90s that I've wanted for my library.

 

Outside of the doll hobby I collect anime/videogame figures, make itabags, create machine embroidered designs, needlefelt, paint, attend cons (anime/videogame/furry), make costumes, and attend pseudo-historical reenactment events hosted by the SCA. 

 

Mecha Modeling; the sub-hobby that got me into Anime in the first place, nearly 30 years ago;

 

 

Before dolls my hobbies were cosplay and fountain pens. Equally expensive as dolls in their own ways. Eventually I transition to fully dolls and rare occasions fountain pens. I find dolls (vinyl and resin) more versatile as a hobby than my fountain pens.

This was supposed to go on the "what makes people leave hobbies" thread, but the more I typed, the more I realized this just pertained to my hobbies in general oops.

I have stationary hobbies that I can leave and come back to, and hobbies that I indulge in for a few moments.

My stationary interests are my OCs, drawing, and my doll hobby. I do alternate my focus between the three (or two. my OCs wouldn't exist without my art or dolls?) depending on what I'm feeling. There was a moment where I briefly left the doll hobby, but I was reeled back in when I reshelled one of my BJDs a year ago. Right now I'm on a break from drawing to finish up my doll WIPs. I guess my point is these never really leave my side and I can pick up where I left off whenever I feel like it.

For my not so permanent interests, they're video games now. Even then, they're mostly secondhand experiences 'cause I watch streamers play the games I'm into lol. I do play my own games when it needs my experience to be enjoyable, let's say Pokémon or Animal Crossing. I fell out of anime and playing games firsthand because I cannot allocate time for them nowadays. With streams, I can leave them running when I'm working or while I'm traveling. And it's a lot more entertaining for me with the added commentary. Extra points if they're funny. I'm also into a few Youtube channels whose content are barely adjacent to my interests, like new tech or deep web exploring. I can't really think of anything else that doesn't sound super boring, not like these aren't already.

But hey. The less money sinks I have, the more money I can put towards my dolls.

Outside of dolls, I do a little bit of photography- Not too much though, just primarily plants. I've been trying to get back to working on my cross-stitch abilities but the project I'm working on is a rather tall order 😅 It took a while to work on before life picked up for me so it's definitely going to take a while to continue making noticeable progress on. Knitting is also something I've been working on and currently trying to err, complete my first patterned project (I miscounted the amount of stitches I started with and don't feel like restarting. It's not going to impact the function of the product as it's a blanket thankfully, the finished item is just going to be a little off. But it's for me so I don't mind.)

As for interests that aren't quite so forefront, I do play video games a little bit but haven't played in a while. I did play some Animal Crossing the other day, but overall that was the first time in a month I've done so... I would like to try the new Project Diva game, but given that piece of information in the previous sentence, I can't bring myself to justify buying it 😶 + I haven't really completed any of the games I already have, or come close to it. 

I used to be big on figures like figmas/nendoroids but ultimately, not quite as much. I have kept a majority of my figmas thus far, but none are currently on my ordered list. As for the nendos, most of the ones I had previously have been sold off and I have a few on my ordered list that I'm not too sure on what to do with? Kind of stopped when I realized I was spending more time with my dolls than with my figures, partly due to the fear of losing the smaller props, partly because there's just. a bit more function to them as with the dolls you can play with the hair, change their appearance, etc whereas the figures are more static. Price increase over the years doesn't help as it definitely adds up quicker now. 

Like a lot of people here, I dabble in video games. In the last year I’ve played the new Luigi’s mansion, Pokémon, and animal crossing games on the switch. All easy games 😆 Unlike other people here, my big hobby right now is furbies! Remember furbies? The little owl-like toys that liked to wake themselves up in the middle of the night? I’m up to 13 with a lot of them customized! 

Most of my hobbies are all art related, I'm a creative soul to my core. 😂

 

I knit, paint, cosplay. Stuff like that.

I also garden! 
I've been planting porch veggie gardens with my partner these past few years, its really satisfying to eat something and know we grew it ourselves!

I do fursuiting, which is a rather expensive hobby too so I try to make my suits myself. Most people would probably find it a weird and creepy thing, but I absolutely love just being able to be goofy at events. (I am a little less fond of children though, but they are kind of a necessary evil xD)

 

Other than that I play a lot of Guild Wars 2 and I go walking in the forest/dunes a lot with my cats. No real hobbies besides that and honestly I am almost 24/7 busy with dolls so everything else it kinda on the side. Especially with events cancelled now.

I'm huge into drawing and sewing, both of which kind of bleed over into the doll hobby, too. Outside of that I'm really into gaming. Mostly JRPGs and management games like farming games and the like. FPS games used to interest me but I feel like you have to play those almost 24/7 to be any good/be able to play against everyone else, so I gave up.

I’m like some people here who bounce between hobbies as well. Sometimes I’m really big into playing video games or other times it’s collecting anime figures or my doll collection or watching anime. I like to be creative too but I find drawing very exhausting and not rewarding enough so in the past few months I’ve been into customizing nendoroids. It’s fun and I get a tangible result I can put on my shelf and be proud of, plus they don’t take up a lot of space, which is already at a premium for me. 

 

though i haven't practiced in a very long time, i used to be alright-ish at drawing, about 15 years ago; i did have some egregious issues i never stuck at it long enough to get over, such as far too many lines on a young woman's body... and... Uhhhh, THE SUGGESTION OF AN ADAM's APPLE ON A WOMAN?!? WHAT?!?!?!

Well, you live, and you Learn, i suppose...

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Tasuke

Besides dolls I also collect figurines. Furthermore, I like to read and learn languages.

I'm very passionate about my manga/art book/doujinshi collection! I also like to read books in general, and there are also one or two magazines out there which I like to read from time to time. I am studying Japanese, too (remembering what a kanji means isn't the hard part - it's remembering the multiple readings a single kanji can have, that's the hard part!!), so it could be suffice to say that dolls are my one "non-paper-matter"-related hobby lol.

Fun topic!

I draw cartoons and design Christmas cards for friends and family, but I don't consider myself an artist. When I was in my teens and early 20s, I did very realistic portraits, but had a traumatic experience and stopped drawing like that mostly all together. I still hope to get back to it someday, but the stupid perfectionist in me shouts, "You'll never be good enough! You'll always be behind, and everyone else is better than you!" Hard voice to shut off.

I write as well. I mostly keep a journal that I have been going since I was 8, but I also dabble with fanfiction and odds and ends. I find it so soothing to write at 2AM when sleep is just not there.

Photography, but I think that is all of us from the doll hobby.

A hobby I'd like to learn: sewing!

Outside of dolls I dabble in all kinds of stuff! I used to be an avid writer before my motivation dried up due to starting a full-time job, and took writing commissions for a while. I have written, and been paid for, so many fics of my friends' OCs. 😆

I also do D&D twice a month with a group I've played with for almost 3 years now. Managed to figure out a way to adapt Eiran into a valid D&D character using almost entirely official stuff, so I get to play as my beloved alchemist boy for a whole campaign! I'm also in charge of recording and editing the the audio for each session, a job i created and volunteered for all in one fell swoop, because I really wish I'd done so for my group's first campaign.

I also play some video games, bouncing erratically between FFXIV and the many many handheld games that catch my eye. Currently Neo TWEWY has my attention, but who knows how long it'll last before I bounce over to something else!

I'm also a collector of oddities, rocks, and art (my Eiran art collection alone numbers in the 80s now, and the number keeps going up), and I also have a variety of plants, both terrestrial and aquatic, that I take care of. My pride and joy is my lemon tree, Kaiju, that I grew from a lemon seed I fished out of a cocktail at a New Year's party.

And I haven't even started on the model building, origami, website coding, reading, audiophile tendencies, small but growing passion for aviation, secondhand fashion, etc, etc....I do a lot. 😅

Impressive how many hobbies you all have. 😂 And I love the amount of creative people around here.

Besides BJD’s: Yu-Gi-Oh collector, Aquarist, Riding my motorcycle, creating stuff with 3D printing and making stuff from wood. 
 

48 minutes ago, Rajke said:

Aquarist

Ooh, that's fish-keeping, right? 👀

What kind of aquarium setups do you have? I can't keep up with the maintenance myself, but I love seeing other people's stuff!

So I think even in doll communities it's a bit weird but I legitimately spend a crazy amount of time with my dolls because by now it's such a multifaceted hobby of socializing with doll people + window shopping + actual shopping + faceups + eye making + sewing + photography and so on. 

It used to be that I painted a lot. I'm mostly into painting watercolor and sometimes acrylic, usually kind of impressionistic dreamlike figures in med to large scale and such. But I've taken a long break this year to work on my dolls more 🤣

I do like to spend hours listening to music every day and I have pets that take up a lot of my time for better or for worse (one cat and one dog) but honestly that's almost all I've done for the last two years. I haven't even made it all the way through a movie or new tv show whoops. 

21 hours ago, Oculae said:

Ooh, that's fish-keeping, right? 👀

What kind of aquarium setups do you have? I can't keep up with the maintenance myself, but I love seeing other people's stuff!

you’re correct.

 

I have to mention that the lotus on the photo died. It is a Gourami and Shrimp based fishtank. Runs now for almost 3 years. It is my third fishtank and I am proud about this one because I earned my bondsdiploma (certificate earned when reaching a certain amount of points with the home contest) with this fishtank. 
Most important thing: the fishtank is healthy, no diseases, almost no algae or unwanted guests like snails or parasites.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Rajke

Wow that’s an incredible snow village! It brings back good memories! My mom collects the old Department 56 houses that are that weird slightly larger size than both older and newer houses. There’s something really magical about seeing them lit up at night! 

Like some other people here, outside of BJDs and other dolls, I like to sew mostly and a lot of related crafts like shoemaking, leatherwork, etc. I used to be really into historical costuming and I’m getting back into that now, but I’ve had to put serious restrictions on the size of the clothing…perhaps to leave room for dolls!