This article originally ran in the Winter 2020 issue of Intimate magazine. Attendees of the AVN Show can find XR Brands exhibiting in the AVN Novelty Expo and Real Doll exhibiting at the AVN Expo in Artist Hall.
For decades, when a man wanted a companion that was neither flesh nor blood, the only option available was the laughter-inducing blow-up doll—usually a petite figure that would need to be painstakingly inflated in order to have a good time. Because of the tiny valve in the middle of her back, you’d end up hyperventilating while inflating your sex partner, which resulted in a condition of light-headedness that would distract attention from the fact that you were romancing a bag of vinyl filled with your own hot air. These blow-up dolls had uncomfortable seams and unrealistic body parts, but they were the only option available to satisfy erotic needs without the hassles of dating.
The evolution of sex dolls has been rocketing forward ever since the invention of skin-like materials, most notably TPE (thermoplastic elastomer), which is a blend of rubber and plastic that mimics the elasticity and feel of actual skin. According to Wikipedia, “Thermoplastic elastomers show advantages typical of both rubbery materials and plastic materials. The benefit of using thermoplastic elastomers is the flexibility to stretch and return to its near original shape, creating a longer life and better physical range than other materials.”
It was during a period of cross-pollination and technological advancement that TPE entered the adult toy market. In the late 1990s, the industry was getting away from latex, which was messy when being poured into molds. Sex toys were also being made of rubber materials that required softeners such as phthalates, which tend to be stinky due to “off gassing,” and current research has shown that rubber containing phthalates may have toxic aftereffects. Research has also suggested that exposure to phthalates has been associated with hormone disruption, so the majority of adult products companies have shifted over to the use of phthalate-free silicone and TPE, which also does not contain phthalates.
The amazing properties and feel of TPE easily translated into becoming the go-to material to duplicate the feel of a woman’s vagina, mouth and anus—not only from a visual standpoint on the outside, but also offering a realistic, comfortable cavity in which to thrust without discomfort. Male penises and butts have also been created using TPE for giving or receiving pleasure.
Not limited to realistic strokers, TPE is also becoming the go-to material for full-sized, realistic sex dolls formed around posable metal skeletons. And anyone who’s ever visited the annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo and the AVN Novelty Expo will know how popular sex dolls have become—with the 2020 AVN Show being no exception.
To explore many of the issues related to producing and selling sex dolls, we talked to two U.S. adult novelty manufacturing companies, Pipedream Products and XR Brands, which both offer several models of these dolls in different price ranges. And we also consulted with a pioneer in the field: Real Doll, a Southern California-based manufacturer. Real Doll has been credited with raising the bar even further by offering their customers the opportunity to customize all-silicone dolls to create the most realistic companion of their dreams.
But buying the dolls can sometime pose a problem for customers, who may not know what kind of doll they want or may want to get familiar with the touch and feel before ordering. To meet this need, Pipedream Products developed a first-of-its-kind, direct-to-consumer pipeline for its Ultimate Fantasy Dolls.
Longtime Pipedream Products creator Rob Phaneuf, who is now the director of the overall program for the PD Ultimate Fantasy Dolls, shared his depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for his company. “We’re working with our bricks-and-mortar retailers by offering them the UFDollivery program, which is how a customer can order one of our five dolls in a store and we drop ship the doll directly to the customer.”
Phaneuf continued, “We are the first mainstream adult company to offer a drop shipping option to the customer because, in our business, nobody’s done it like this before. The storefront retailers just have to buy one sample Ultimate Fantasy Doll purchased wholesale through their distributor and we do the rest to fulfill their order so the stores don’t need to stock the whole range of our dolls. We really want to have a doll in every store. Because of the nature and price of the dolls, they seem to require so much interaction, which the customer can experience in real life in a bricks-and-mortar store. The stores can sell them for anything they want; we get the order, then ship it to the customer. That way, the buyer can touch and feel the doll prior to making the investment for such a pricey pleasure partner.”
Phaneuf cited an example of how a customer bought an Ultimate Fantasy Doll in a store as an impulse purchase, which provided a challenge when needing to cart the doll companion home. He elaborated, “There was a customer who bought a doll in a store but had to travel 50 miles back to his home to get a bigger vehicle to bring it home. By offering the Dollivery drop shipping program, we just want to make it easier for the store to make the sale and the customer to be happy.”
In fact, Phaneuf makes himself available when customers have questions or want to know more about the Ultimate Fantasy Doll line. “Guys just like to talk to another guy about what they’re looking for, how to take care of their dolls, how to clean them, how to stand them upright and pose them, and, of course, how to have sex with them. They tend to open up talking to a guy about their desires and I’m always more than happy to help them with their questions and selections.”
Pipedream continues its march deeper into doll land with the Ultimate Fantasy Dolls line by offering five dolls after starting the line with just two: Carmen and Kitty. Phaneuf explained, “Our newest is doll is Mandy. She is the lightest weight because that’s always an issue with all the dolls: where is that sweet spot for the perfect-sized doll at the perfect price? What appeals to a majority of buyers to get as close a proportion to a real human as possible but keep them easy to move?” He continued, “Our first dolls were 5-foot-4 and weighed 85 pounds. Customers get a doll and then realize the weight of her and they always find that surprising. Our challenge is to create our Ultimate Fantasy Dolls to be as tall as they can be but be lighter weight. For example, Mandy is 72 pounds but our new gal, Mia, is 121 pounds, a thicker girl and she’s all solid weight. We create our dolls to appeal to a large audience or a first-time doll buyer and we’re building the brand according to customers’ requests.”
Pipedream is currently building an assortment of additional selections and the company is planning to offer a deeper range of ethnicities with other female attributes to increase the line. Phaneuf summed up, “We’re constantly exploring what we can do and that’s why Ultimate Fantasy Dolls are being treated as a whole separate business for us here at Pipedream.”
XR Brands President Rebecca Weinberg shared her insights about NextGen, her company’s full-sized-doll division.
“We’ve been offering our fully posable, TPE NextGen dolls for about a year now, which we created due to customer demand,” Weinberg explained. “We have our SexFlesh line of body parts products, but there was an interest for full-sized dolls so we thought it would be worth it for us to develop that line.” And develop they did. Offering different variations, XR has created a range of 21 fantasy dolls depending on what the customer wants. “The female dolls have different measurements and the male dolls have different features, including our more masculine Asher doll, with a more chiseled and defined body.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the male dolls outsell their female counterparts, which is something XR did not expect when it began selling the line. Weinberg expanded, “We do know that the majority of buyers are men but one cannot assume that all of the men are going to buy female dolls. We found this pretty interesting.”
Also included in the line is Terry, the transgender love doll who sports a vagina and what is basically a strapless strap-on removable dildo that fits inside her vaginal cavity and extends outside of her body where a real penis would be. “We’re the first to offer this type of doll to our customers and she’s proven to be quite popular, too.”
Most NextGen dolls are offered with three different wigs to change the personalities and looks of the dolls. Weinberg stated, “Customers are always saying how much they like the versatility these dolls offer them. They can fantasize about the same doll, but while providing different looks. It keeps our customers very happy with their dolls.”
Another distinctive difference is that the NextGen dolls are all presented in retail packaging, making them easy to show in traditional bricks-and-mortar stores. Retailers can buy the dolls through their wholesale distributors and display them in the store without having them touched and poked by curious customers, which usually poses a problem with such an expensive offering. “By having them shown this way in stores, customers can get a good idea of the dolls and even buy them and take them home without messing them up. The retailers really appreciate that,” Weinberg shared. “The retail box is also a great way to store them at home.”
Another doll that XR Brands offers is the branded Jesse Jane doll that was sculpted after the porn star herself. “We’re really proud of the whole line of Jesse Jane toys, including her namesake, full-sized doll,” Weinberg said. “We worked really hard to create her likeness and I think we succeeded quite well. The customers love her and Jesse loves the way she was made for everyone to enjoy. Our Jesse doll is selling really well.”
So who exactly is buying these dolls?
Several years ago, the British Broadcasting Corporation aired a one-hour documentary, Guys and Dolls (now on YouTube), featuring several men in the United Kingdom and United States detailing their passion for these “synthetic humans,” as many of them call their dolls. The documentary shows a compassionate and sincere view of these men, who come off as quite “normal.”
A gentleman in the film, Everard, expresses his affection for the dolls by sharing, “It’s better than going without any female company at all.” Another, Gordon, brought up some other concerns which most likely have crossed the minds of many men who enjoy using their dolls for sex. “When I had sex with a real woman, I’d have to think ‘Damn, I hope I don’t get her pregnant. I hope she doesn’t have any diseases.’” Obviously, a sex doll can provide relief from those concerns.
Ultimate Fantasy Dolls’ Phaneuf mused, “We’ve found most of our customers are a little older. Maybe they’ve either given up on women or experienced a death or end of a relationship, maybe they’re looking for companionship—and, well, in other words, they’re pretty normal guys.”
XR Brands’ Weinberg sees “a slightly younger demographic for our buyers. They might have thought about getting a doll and then they actually do. From what I can tell, we get a lot of first-time doll buyers, which is fine with us because they get to experience them without breaking the bank.”
While many companies offer realistic, full-sized sex dolls, the industry leader has always been the Real Doll, made popular in the 2007 mainstream film Lars and the Real Girl, starring Ryan Gosling in the title role. In the movie, he plays an introverted guy who meets a companion on the internet who turns out to be a Real Doll. He learns relationship skills with her when his therapist encourages his orbit of friends, family and coworkers to embrace his Real Doll as a real woman. What happens next is told delicately and compassionately.
Real Doll’s co-owner, Michael Wilson, shared his thoughts about how customers relate to their dolls. “People, in general, care about lots of inanimate objects in their lives. For example, we’re always randomly talking to our dogs and cats, knowing that they are not going to verbally respond. Now how is that any different than talking to a doll?” He chuckled, “We do stranger things with other non-communicative objects and that’s socially accepted.”
What makes the Real Doll so special? “The Real Doll company has been around for 22 years,” Wilson expressed. “Our founder, Matt McMullen, has always been a special-effects artist and initially wanted to create more realistic mannequins. They didn’t really start out as sex dolls but it quickly became apparent that that’s what a lot of guys wanted to use them for.” Wilson proudly stated that everyone working in the company is an artist and creator in their own right, with most of them coming from the special effects industry. “All of our dolls are individually made of custom-molded platinum silicone and they require special care and knowledge of the material in every step of manufacturing.”
Real Dolls are manufactured in Southern California and most are made to customers’ exact specifications. Offering about a dozen different categories of customization such as eye color, body shape, nipple color and shape, hair color, lip color and, interestingly enough, vagina shape and color, there is no combination the company cannot do. “We consider our dolls individual silicone sculptures since they are basically made for each customer. The only variations from this are the dolls in our Wicked line. We have seven of the most popular stars from Wicked Pictures and they are all molded from the actual stars themselves,” Wilson continued. “And yes, they’ll be at AEE in Vegas, along with some new releases that I can’t tell you about!”
It takes the artists at Real Doll forty hours from start to finish to create the doll of their customers’ dreams.
The most popular hair is not the typical blond but rather long brunette locks. The preferred nipples are smaller with a wider areola, and Real Doll can even create custom silicone nipples that will set you back $500. And yes, even the pubic hairstyle can be chosen, with no pubes or all pubes choices equaling each other in popularity. Another customizable option is “hand punched” pubic hair (and eyebrows), with each hair individually added to the area at the cost of $150 per square inch.
The dolls also feature such touches as a removable tongue that can be either in a straight, relaxed position or turned up as if the doll is licking her lips. The mouth core is, in fact, removable as well, which makes cleaning up a breeze after that oral satisfaction scene.
Other features are the aforementioned silicone vagina, which is a removable tube that rests in between the doll’s outer labia. The vagina can easily stretch when inside the doll, much like a real woman. The other feature is perhaps what sets the Real Doll apart from all others: each doll’s face has makeup individually applied by two professional make-up artists, Katelyn and Sara-Beth. Since the doll’s face is a separate unit from the rest of the body, these women apply exactly what the customer wants: heavy or light eye shadow, specific lip color, hand-applied eyebrow color, and several other touches that individualize each face. Also, customers can purchase additional faces and wigs, making their investment even more worthwhile given the versatility that can be created.
Of course, the advancement of artificial intelligence has been a focus for the company for several years. The Real Doll X division offers dolls that can blink, move their mouths, respond to penetration and provide other futuristic robotic feedback to the users’ whims and desires. And yes, there are customers for these unique and expensive dolls. Real Doll co-owner Wilson added, “We’re really excited about this area for growth in our company. All arrows are pointing to more sophisticated and technology-driven dolls to provide the ultimate sex doll experience.”
In doing research for this article, I obtained my own doll from one of the companies I profiled and I have her sitting in her own chair in my studio. I find myself talking to her sometimes in what is like a pleasant, one-way conversation. I catch myself as I am doing this, realizing that this is why so many men tend to buy these companions. I find that when I place a wig on her and it’s not quite right, I apologize to her and change it into a more realistic look for her. I gently brush her hair and realize that as an adult, I’m still playing with dolls and it feels good—and, in a way, comforting. I now understand why there will always be full-sized, realistic dolls on the market because, deep down, we will never really want to grow up and will forever need our special companion in life.
