They seem so lifelike and the details are amazing – how do they make them?
It’s definitely no simple process; the time and effort that goes into these dolls make the thousands of dollars they cost completely worth it. Matt McMullen, the creator of the Real Doll gives a peek inside the intimate world of sex dolls…
The RealDoll is designed to recreate the appearance, texture, and weight of the human female and male form. Their primary function is to serve as sex partners. This activity can be accompanied by certain preparations such as dressing them up in different types of clothing, changing wigs or makeup, and even adjusting body temperature by use of electric blankets or baths.
Early prototypes were made from solid latex with an interior skeleton, but construction of the outer material was later switched to silicone. In June 2009, Abyss Creations switched from tin cure silicone to platinum silicone, which resulted in dolls that are less prone to tears and compression marks than older RealDolls.[1]
The current incarnation of the female RealDoll product was introduced in 1996.[2] In 2003, Abyss introduced the “Face-X” system, allowing any face to be interchangeable with any body. Multiple faces can then be attached one at a time to a single doll by the owner. As of 2011, there are nine female bodies and 16 female faces in the first product line. In 2009 the RealDoll 2 was introduced, which feature removable inserts for the mouth and vagina and faces that attach by magnets instead of Velcro. The line started with two female bodies and three female faces and currently (2013) offers ten faces and three bodies. Another female body is in development.[3]
“Charlie”, the first male RealDoll, was retired in 2008[4] and replaced with two body types and three head types. “Shemale” dolls may also be purchased from the company, although these must be custom ordered. Abyss also sells silicone toys such as female torso products and dildos among other offerings.
For a time, the company also offered customizations such as robotic hip actuators, finger skeletons (instead of the usual finger wires) and computer controlled speech feedback, but these expensive options are no longer available.
RealDolls are shipped to nearly every country in the world, with the majority in the United States. The three largest international markets are Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Since mid-2010 over 4000 dolls have been created and shipped.
Not very surprisingly, there is a scientific term for this phenomena. Agalmatophilia (from the Greek agalma ‘statue’, and -philia φιλία = love) is a paraphilia involving sexual attraction to a statue, doll,mannequin or other similar figurative object. The attraction may include a desire for actual sexual contact with the object, a fantasy of having sexual (or non-sexual) encounters with an animate or inanimate instance of the preferred object, the act of watching encounters between such objects, or sexual pleasure gained from thoughts of being transformed or transforming another into the preferred object. Agalmatophilia may also encompass Pygmalionism (from the myth of Pygmalion), which denotes love for an object of one’s own creation.
Sources:
http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/real-doll-factory.jpg
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/5999809-lg.jpg
http://www.neuronu.ro/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mcmullen-says-it-was-then-that-he-realized-that-was-the-direction-to-go-and-so-he-went-with-it-and-there-you-go-the-first-real-doll-was-born.jpg.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealDoll
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agalmatophilia