April 2022 - post a memory

It's been a tough two years. It's hard to get motivated to do things. This month's challenge asks you to post a doll memory here. You can include a photo or just text. The photo can be old, or new.

Here is one of the oldest photos I have on Flickr, taken on March 30, 2008, on a trip to Tennessee to visit my mother (who has since died, and we've sold the house, so it's a bittersweet memory). The Dal is my Rot Chan Royal.

Royal 2 by TrueFan, on Flickr

That's sad, indeed. My own mother was doing really well in 2008. She passed away in 2020 and my brother and I sold our childhood home.

My other brother was doing well, too - married, with a toddler daughter, with a good job. How things changed for him - wife moved out with some old rich guy, he lost his job and couldn't find another, and he died in 2019. Today, actually, April 2.  

But in 2008 things were good - I was living in Hawaii, and doing fairly well financially; well enough to do some traveling. 2008-2009 was when my toy and doll photography was at its peak. My pics were sometimes being featured on blogs. I was mostly in to Pinky-Street figs at that time. I did not even have my first Pullip (Lala, who came along in 2009).

I had a chance to visit Boston in 2008, sent there to participate in a science seminar for my job as an elementary school teacher. That was also the year of my first ever trip to Utah:


Little did I know that, seven years later, I would be living only 45 minutes away from where that photo was taken.

Or that seven years after that, I'd still be living in Utah, with a part-time residence in Florida.

Neither Utah nor Florida are anything like Hawaii, though. And 2008 was one of my best years in Hawaii, and best years in general.

Remember how online forums were so popular back then? Nothing like they are now. That was before everybody adopted Facebook as their online home. In fact, LiveJournal was still a thing, and that's where I met a number of online friends who are still online friends today.

Work was good. In addition to the Boston trip, at the end of 2008 I was picked to attend a NASA Schools Seminar for science teachers in Yellowstone National Park. A winter trip to Yellowstone, all expenses paid! That was an epic experience.

Hard to believe all that was 14 years ago. Hard to believe my mom is gone, my childhood home is gone and new houses have been built on all the vacant land around it.

Bittersweet is the right word. Those were good times, and while I appreciated my good fortune (and good health, and relative youth) at the time, I look back and wish I had made even more of it. I look around me now, and the state of my life, while I am far better off than many, is nothing like it was then. The state of the country and of the world seems bleak.

Ya know, that first Pullip, Pullip Lala that I got in 2009, a "limited edition" SDCC doll, cost only $70.00.

Yeah, the last two years have been discouraging. I don't know if The World will ever return to "normal," although I must say, your Italy photos, TruFan, give me at least some hope that maybe, someday, the world will come to its senses.

Anyway... that was some ramble, huh?

2008. Good year.

2008 was a good year. I'd quit my toxic job, finished my library degree and found a good new job, and discovered Dal! I think my first Dal was around $60? Hina ichigo, the Dal that started it all for me.

Hina and Drta by TrueFan, on Flickr

2008 was the year I began my very first "365 Toys" project, which has now evolved in to "A Doll A Day." Back in 2008, I started mid-year, after I ran across the idea on Flickr. There used to be "365" groups on Flickr - for toys, for dolls, for selfies, for random photos.

Here's my first "365 Toy Project" photo from 2008:


I've had a lot of fun (and a little bit of frustration) with "365" and "Toy a Day" and "Doll a Day" projects over the years since. I haven't done a project every year, and I haven't always been very consistent about posting the photos to Flickr (some images are or were hosted elsewhere, including at photo hosts that no longer exist), but off and on the "365" photo projects have been an ongoing interest ever since that first one in 2008.

Very Hawaii! I've never done a doll a day. Since I started PUDDLE I know I will never have time.

TrueFan wrote:Very Hawaii! I've never done a doll a day. Since I started PUDDLE I know I will never have time.

There was a nice shout-out to PUDDLE by PullipStyle on Instagram today.

Thanks! PullipStyle came to the first few PUDDLEs, which was amazing. Then they moved to Arizona.

I love the Hello Kitty surfer!
I'm sure we all have times that we'd like to revisit, and things lost that we'd like back. People, opportunities, hopes and dreams.


The First Photo... of the one lil mini who started it all.

The mighty mini! Thanks for posting.

Alliecat wrote:The First Photo...  of the one lil mini who started it all.

First mug shot of the troublemaker, eh?

When was that pic taken?

davidd wrote:

Alliecat wrote:The First Photo...  of the one lil mini who started it all.

First mug shot of the troublemaker, eh?

When was that pic taken?

*cough*  First portfolio shot of the mini supermodel.
She arrived January 28, 2013, and this was taken the next day.  
I wish I'd noted when all the other dolls arrived.  It would have been fun to have the record.  Too late now though.

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Going along with the "Hawaii Memories" theme, here's Aloalo in the magic garden.
...talk about times you'd like to revisit...

I remember when my first two Dals arrived from PullipStyle - Rot Chan and Monomono. I just happened to open Rot Chan first and it was so amazing.

Here is one of my earliest photos of Monomono, in Nahh-ato's stock. August 2007!

Genie Monomono by TrueFan, on Flickr

Angela was one of (if not the first) Dal I took on a long trip. Here she is at the Keukenhof in the Netherlands, April 2010.

Angela at the Keukenhof by TrueFan, on Flickr

Well, I can't go back to 2008, but here's one of the first pictures I took of my first Groove doll, Nikolaj, in August 2015. I like to think that my photography skills have improved a bit since then... at the very least, I've upgraded cameras and changed out Nikolaj's very reflective foil chips for something more camera friendly!

[/url]Nik3(effects) by tisue999, on Flickr[/img]

Thanks for posting! I know for me it's amazing to see how much better I've gotten at photography. I'm still not a top notch doll/action figure photographer, but I put a lot more thought into things.

dargosmydaddy wrote:... but here's one of the first pictures I took of my first Groove doll, Nikolaj, in August 2015.

That's a cool pic, all dark and mysterious and kind of Bladerunner-ish! I'd say you started off strong right out of the box with your Taeyang photography!