My journey into the Valley of the Dolls
As you may recall, I mentioned at the end of my Dragon*Con report that I took part in a con tradition of Shadow's for the first time and that said tradition (or rather, how I came to be a part of it) had a bit of back story. Lest anyone think I was referring to "Dragon After Dark" or anything else of that nature... well, I wasn't. I meant the doll meetups that occur(ed) throughout the weekend.
No, I don't own any Asian ball-jointed dolls (or BJDs as they're more commonly known) at the moment, nor did I at the time of Dragon*Con. However, it was Shadow's own collection of these, or rather how she makes her dolls into various characters (usually her own original characters, but some are slated to become various anime characters), that inspired me to get into doll collecting in general. Well, either that or it's inherited and skips a generation, as my grandmother collects various dolls and has for as long as I can remember. In any case, I didn't anticipate getting into doll collecting and customization as much as I have. I thought maybe I'd track down a Jem doll here, a Disney doll there, and be done with it. Obviously it didn't work out that way- ended up getting a bunch of Barbies and Kens (plus two Hasbro dolls, from the Maxie line) to be made into various "Harry Potter" characters, Shadow having told me she would make them so. Then, on Shadow's advice, I ended up getting a Tonner doll to be made into Sirius (he would be made from a Tonner solely so he would be taller than the teenage characters- no, there's no official Tonner doll of him I could have just bought and left as-is). At that point, I decided that aside from the Disney and Jem dolls I was still intent on tracking down, I would get another male Tonner to be Professor Lupin (nope, no pre-existing doll of him, either), the existing Tonner doll of Professor McGonagall, and maybe two more Tonners to be made into alternate universe (i.e. had they still been alive) versions of Lily and James Potter.
However, in the meantime I gave in to my new-found love of the show "Criminal Minds" (that's also Shadow's fault, BTW- before I moved in with her I didn't even know that show existed) and its main characters. This led to what I've come to call Project BAU (after the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, which "Criminal Minds" is about). I originally only wanted Dr. Reid, but quickly realized I'd end up wanting all the main characters (well, the mid-season 3-season 5/season 7 cast, anyway). For reasons that escape me at the moment (though it was probably Garcia's body type), like Sirius and Remus they are being made from Tonners (and no, re-enacting that one episode of the show was never my intention). Prior to Dragon*Con, I had acquired the starter dolls for Reid and Garcia, and decided I wanted to have them as finished as possible for D*C so "somebody" would come to the "Geeks of Primetime Crime" gathering besides Shadow and myself (yes, we did ultimately get one other actual person, but at the time no one had responded to the thread besides ourselves). These were the dolls I brought to the meetups at D*C, Shadow having told me it was okay to bring Tonners. As of right now, they still aren't 100% finished but one can still tell who they're supposed to be if one is familiar with the characters.
Currently, aside from what I've already mentioned, I do indeed have some "Jem" dolls, though my goal is not to collect the complete line, just one each of the first year dolls. Okay, I have two Jems, but that's so one can always be Jem and the other can always be Jerrica. I also have Clash, but she's the only second year doll I really wanted (and she was hard enough to find in good condition, all the more reason I'm otherwise sticking with first year dolls/characters). I also have an official Disney Alice doll from 1994, which I think was produced due to her movie being re-released that year. Of the ones who are getting customized, I have indeed since acquired the base doll for Remus, and as for Project BAU I now have the base dolls for JJ and Hotchner. I do have (admittedly many) other doll plans, but right now my focus is on Project BAU (which I hope to at least have all the base dolls for by next summer) and at least Sirius, Remus, and the twins (those last two especially given Shadow's and my plans for next Dragon*Con) from the "Harry Potter" set we're making. And I should mention that, in case you couldn't tell, I'm more concerned with having the characters than the dolls themselves, and I think just leaving a doll in its original packaging is silly, so I'm not a doll collector in the strictest sense.
Yes, I'm well aware that I've just confessed to still playing with dolls on top of still playing dress-up.