Influence Vs Interest

 I am currently in the middle of procrastinating on a cull list. I am pretty confident that after this is done, I will be where I want to be at in terms of not only the hobby but the collection itself.

I have been thinking during this time about influence vs interest.

Are the dolls you buy influenced by those around you, whether this is on a conscious or subconscious level?

 I feel that some of mine have definitely been influenced buys and sometimes that isn't a good thing. Because when it gets right down to it, it's possible that it is only that particular doll that I like and not really the sculpt at all. It's similar to buying a doll because you like that particular face up rather than the actual sculpt (if I am honest is what made me buy that Juri 10 in the first place. I'm not all that in love with the actual sculpt itself.)

It's a very fine line I think between influence and interest because sometimes influence begets interest and that's not always a bad thing.

Whichever way you look at it, we're always influenced by something, it's how things become popular and well known. Without influence, some things may still be rotting in a dark attic somewhere.

So I think it can be a good thing. But it can also be a bad thing.

I always wonder what my collection would have been like had I not discovered the BJD community and plodded along on my own blissfully unaware of that side of the hobby. Would it have been very different to what I collect now?

I guess we'll never know unless there is an alternate reality in which this has already happened. What an interesting thought...