Real Doll offers a completely customizable girlfriend made out 100 pounds of silicone based on your personal preferences. With the advent of the newly ann ounced Roxxxy Robot girlfriend, Real Doll creator Matt McMullen sounds off on robot girlfriend technology and the future for Real Doll. 

How long has Real Doll been around and how is she different than a standard blow up doll or doll?

I started building the first Real Doll in about 1996 and I sold the first one in 1997. It was kind of an ongoing thing. As far as how it’s different from a blow up doll, I don’t even know where to start because they’re less alike than apples and potatoes. You know, a blow up doll is obviously filled with air, she doesn’t really pose, she doesn’t really look that realistic. She doesn’t really have any engineering going on, whereas Real Doll is engineered from the inside out with an articulated skeleton and anatomically correct joints so it can pose in any realistic human position.  And then the skin itself is multi layered, we have simulated fat made with a silicone gel and the skin itself is made from a firmer silicone. Everything is very engineered and has been an ongoing evolution since we started.

How does Real Doll differ from True Companion’s Roxxxy Robot and why is she better?

I think that what they were trying to do really is completely different than what we’ve been doing. We’ve always aspired to make our dolls look and feel as real as possible, hence the name Real Doll, not so much like “Hey, we’re going to build a robot.” Not that that’s an area we haven’t explored  and done research in, it’s just something that I’ve never really been comfortable releasing as a product mostly because of the aesthetics that have to be sacrificed when you start putting gears in a doll. It not only adds a tremendous amount of weight to an already heavy product, but you’re also working around a much larger framework of stuff so it’s hard to keep to keep the doll as beautiful as I would demand it would look.

So you’re saying that Real Doll is better because she’s prettier?

I wouldn’t say she’s better, I would say that they’re two entirely different products. Clearly the Roxxxy suffered from some lack of aesthetics but I don’t know that that’s necessarily something that can be rectified easily. I think that it needs a lot more work. And I didn’t get a chance to observe first hand what the Roxxxy does or doesn’t do, but I did get to look at it and see what it looks like. And sadly, any of the robotics that I’ve seen or even animatronic attempts to make a simulated companion have always had that look. You know, something’s missing with the appearance with the model itself. If that’s something because they didn’t have the right artist involved or is it that a lot of the hardware got in the way of what’s going on the outside to make it beautiful. I think it’s a combination of the two.

Do people generally want a robot gf that can talk? Do most people choose Real Doll instead of a real girlfriend because she doesn’t talk?

There are people out there that would like that. But you know, I’ve always focused on making dolls, not robots, and I am of the mindset that if you are at a point where you want a simulated silicone friend that will talk to you and carry on a conversation, and maybe even do your laundry and cook and have dinner with you, or at least pretend to have dinner with you, then to me it seems like you should be more in the world looking for a relationship with an actual person. Where do you draw the line and how far you are willing to go to build a simulated relationship when, you know, having a relationship is a part of being human.

Do you think that most people want a companion in a doll or do they just want to have sex with it?

I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with doll owners that assign fictitious personalities to their dolls. I mean, to me it’s very heartwarming that this doll is able to fill a void that this person has in their life. You know, there are people out there that are incapable of having relationships, or they just don’t want it. Perhaps they’re socially cut off by their own choice. There’s always going to be a human need for companionship and to me there’s nothing wrong with those individuals who want to have a pseudo robotic doll to have in their house and build a relationship with. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it and i would be the last person to judge.

How did you go about creating the Wicked Real Dolls?

It was a fairly lengthy and complicated processing that involved a lot of digital 3D scanning and physically molding a lot of their body parts to duplicate them. Also, working with a lot of photographic reference to bring the pieces together correctly. And the rest of it is similar to how we manufacture the other dolls.

Which doll is your highest seller?

It’s pretty much across the board and it’s hard for me to gauge because we do have a pretty large array of options. We have over 10 different bodies and 16 different faces that are completely interchangeable. And people often order extra eyes, different colors, extra wigs, different colors, different styles, and you know, I don’t think there’s any easy way to say “Oh, we always sell blonds with big boobs,” because that’s just not the case, given that everybody has different has different tastes and everyone creates their doll around those specific tastes.

If I want to incorporate whipped cream or a bubble bath, is the Real Doll down with that?

Yes, they can get wet although I don’t recommend completely submerging them above the neck because there are some things going on above the neck where water could get down into the body and possibly rust. But it’s perfectly fine below that point.

How do sales of the lady Real Doll compare to sales of the man Real Doll?

We sell a lot more female dolls than male. And most of our clients that buy any of our dolls, male or female, are men. We have sold a few male dolls to women but we’ve also sold females dolls to women. Some women buy them as a display item or to play dolls with. You know, some women like to put clothes on them, fix their hair, take pictures with them, stuff like that.

Why do you think sales of the female doll are higher than the male doll?

One aspect of it is that if you look at the differences between men and women and what stimulates them sexually. A woman is stimulated by a lot of mental and emotional stuff, and for lack of a better description, women have a better imagination than a man, in general. And for a woman, a vibrator is sufficient because the rest of the blanks and filled in her by fantasy. Whereas a man is much more visual and visually stimulated as well as tactically with touching and feeling. So the doll is the perfect stimulation for a male, whereas most women (in a sexual sense) don’t recquire 100 pounds of silicone in the shape of a man to get them aroused.

Is the future for Real Doll a robotic version?

Yes, there will be at some point. [I would like] some robotic components incorporated into the Real Doll, but at this time I don’t have any aspirations of automating an entire doll. I’m thinking about subtle touches that will bring the doll to life without losing the fact that it is a doll.