Man who confesses to having no luck with
the ladies turns to his life-size doll for
companionship
Meet my silicone
girlfriend
LIKE REAL:
(Above) Jlayl, an anatomically correct doll made by
Chinese company Doll sweet.
(Left) High-end life-size dolls, like this one by US
company RealDoll, can cost over $10,000
Reports by NG JUN SEN
Terry is a single,
middle-aged Singaporean who holds a white-collar job.
He has tried dating a few times, but is admittedly
not too charming with the ladies. But Terry, who is in a senior
management position in a company he does not wish to name, is not
worried about finding love.
Every evening, he comes home from work, plops
himself on his living room sofa and turns on the television.
Beside him sits a buxom lady who has been waiting
for him the entire day.
Her name is Babe and she is in her "early
twenties".
Babe remains motionless as Terry caresses her hands
while talking about his day and how it went. She does not reply.
She cannot.
This is because Babe is made by Hitdoll, a Chinese
company which manufactures anatomically correct, life-sized
dolls.
"Babe is very real for me," Terry tells The New
Paper on Sunday.
"I can feel that she is mine and for me only. The
touch and feel is very much different from other women
outside."
Babe is made of silicone and has a metal skeleton
with movable joints.
Her body is modelled after real actresses and she
comes with custom-made silicone inserts for her, well, lady
bits.
She is made to the specifications Terry picked out
from an online catalogue. Babe is 1.68m tall and sports a D-cup
bra.
He bought her from Toy Orgasmic, the only
Singaporean reseller to import and distribute these adult dolls
here.
Its owner, Mr Jay Ng, says that he is "shocked" by
the number of enquiries he received when he first imported them
last October. He now has around 20 customers, some of whom are
regulars.
Not all customers form relationships with their
dolls but all of them are forking out big time - the dolls cost
from $3,000 to nearly $20,000.
Take 32-year-old Jeremy for instance. He bought a
doll made by US-based company RealDoll, for $16,000.
The bigger price tag gets him a doll with better
quality silicone and more customisation options. They are virtually
indistinguishable from actual people.
"The texture and touch are very real, almost as
real as a human except slightly colder. Relatively heavy too," says
Jeremy, who works in the service and maintenance industry.
In Terry's case, Babe cost him $6,500.
"(She's) definitely worth it," he says.
He first heard about these dolls years ago and had
harboured a desire to own one.
So when he found out that there was a seller here,
he leapt at the opportunity.
RIGHT TIME
Terry explains: "I always wanted to try it out, but nobody was
bringing it into Singapore then.
" I'm single and quite bad in relationships with
real women. So Babe came at the right time for me."
If he wants something different, no problem. He
simply pulls Babe's head off the socket and puts in the other head
that he bought.
Her name is Baby.
Says Terry: "Babe and Baby. There's no need for
special names when it's just the three of us."
Terry does not want to tell us his real name as he
fears mockery and embarrassment.
No one else knows about Babe and Baby.
Terry lives alone, so he has no qualms leaving her
on the sofa when he leaves for work.
He confesses to having developed feelings for them:
"It's definitely possible to fall in love and marry a doll. I have
a spiritual connection with her.
"A doll won't cheat or betray you. You can be the
true you in front of her and she will accept you for who you
are."
Made-to-order companions
He has been asked to make dolls modelled after Lady Gaga and
local actress Fiona Xie. One female customer even asked for a
replica of Mr Bean, a comedic character played by Sir Rowan
Atkinson.
Says Mr Jay Ng, 28, the sole purveyor of the
life-size dolls here: "The type of requests I get are truly
bizarre. But it can be done.
"You just need to provide photographs of the
person. Doll companies in China claim they can make a lifelike doll
of 80 per cent accuracy."
But do not expect to find any Fiona Xie dolls here
as no customers have followed through on such orders because of
their exorbitant cost.
"It's another $6,000 on top of the base cost of
more than $10,000," Mr Ng says.
He started his online adult toy shop Toy Orgasmic,
in June last year. He got the idea to import the dolls when
customers began asking about them:
"I have no idea why no other adult stores have done
it before. The demand is very great," he says.
Ever since he started offering them on his website
last October, he gets 10 emails asking about the dolls daily.
He carries three brands of dolls: RealDoll, Doll
Sweet and Hitdoll.
They differ in the type of silicone used, the
customisation options and, of course, the price.
"RealDoll is the most lifelike but also the most
expensive. Some Hitdoll models also come with in-built heaters so
that the doll has the right body temperature."
"There are also those with smaller bodies that look
like anime characters."
Buyers can mix-and-match a large variety of body
types to heads.
His most popular combination is a Doll Sweet model
paired with a head named jiaxin.
MALE DOLLS
He carries male dolls too, but they are not popular as there are
few variations to choose from.
It is legal to import these dolls as they are not
listed under the list of controlled and prohibited goods.
Each doll is delivered by Mr Ng to make sure that
no one, other than him, knows who the customer is.
He reveals that his clientele are mostly single, in
their late 20s to 40s, and "come from all walks of life".
He also knows of customers who are married with
children, but he refrains from asking them more details as it can
get awkward.
"Some just want to use them for photography
purposes. Some people want to fulfil their fantasies.
"There are some who also need the
companionship.
"It's normal and it's not my place to judge."
Dolls in real & reel
lives
Nov 2014
In a photography series titled Men and Dolls, Copenhagen-based
Benita Marcussen photographed men in long term relationships with
their dolls in a series of intimate photographs.
One of the men depicted lost his wife to cancer and
could not find another woman who would be interested in him. He
ended up buying a doll who looked similar to his late wife.
Oct 2014
Dating couple Dave Hockey and Shawna Bigelow spoke about their
intimate relationship with five dolls on UK television channel
ITV.
They spent more than £20,000 ($41,200) on the dolls
in their one year of courtship and regularly "invite" them into
their bedroom.
Oct 2007
A movie, Lars and the Real Girl (below), depicted the romantic
relationship between a reclusive man and his silicone doll
"Bianca".
Staring Ryan Gosling as the psychologically scarred
Lars, the film shows his family and his small-town community
treating Bianca as if she is real on the advice of his
psychiatrist.
People, The New Paper On Sunday, March 22 2015, Pg 4-5
