On April 17th, we visited this year’s Shanghai Adult Expo (API EXPO) to see the latest developments in the doll industry.
Many people might wonder:
Were there any standout dolls this year?
To be honest, there was nothing radically new or groundbreaking.
Instead, most of what we saw was more about refinements and gradual improvements rather than big new changes.
We visited all the brands and filmed most of the products, while focusing more on a few key ones.
Let’s go through what we saw.
Below is the written version.
Tantaly
Tantaly is a well-known brand specializing in torso dolls, and they showcased a wide variety of different torso designs at the expo.
Overall, the products all felt quite good.
Among them, two models stood out in particular: Britney and Monica, because of their very soft and smooth texture.
SHEDOLL
The second brand we looked at was SHEDOLL.
They’ve become quite popular in recent years, mainly for their 2.5D-style cute designs.
At this expo, they showcased a wider variety of dolls.
Among them, what stood out to us were these dolls — a fuller body type, a male doll, and a body with a fully loose skeleton.
Let’s start with this fuller body.
If you compare it with the more cute-style bodies next to it, the difference is quite noticeable.The overall proportions feel more mature and fuller in shape.
Her body curves feel very natural and have a sexy look.In terms of touch, it feels soft and smooth.
Now let’s take a look at this male doll. It also follows a 2.5D style, looks quite handsome, and the overall details are done nicely.In my opinion, it could work well for something like a Sephiroth-style cosplay.
Lastly, this is the body with a fully loose skeleton. It uses ultra-soft silicone, so it feels very soft overall, especially in the chest area.With the loose skeleton, the body feels more relaxed. When you move the arms, the body moves along more naturally, which in some ways feels more realistic.
Besides these dolls, another thing worth paying attention to is the improvement in feel. Compared to what we saw at previous expos, the dolls this time feel better and more realistic.
It’ll be interesting to see how SHEDOLL continues to develop in the future.
TOP-CYDOLL
The next brand is TOP-CYDOLL. They are a well-known doll manufacturer. From a distance, these dolls look almost like supermodels, with very well-balanced proportions.
And when you get closer, you start to notice more of the finer details.
At this point, there are three things worth paying attention to about TOP-CYDOLL at this expo.
First, their painting techniques are very impressive — even better than what we saw at previous expos, which makes the dolls look more realistic.
Especially this one, which looks very close to a real person.
Second, I feel like the touch has improved, and the current dolls feel softer.
Finally, TOP-CYDOLL also showcased two dolls with highly mechanical-looking joints. Personally, I don’t find them out of place — they actually feel quite well integrated, and they gave me a lot of ideas.
For example, since they already look so realistic, if more robotic features were added in the future, could they get even closer to a real person?
And if the mechanical joints were designed in a modular way, would it be possible to make different parts detachable?
Overall, it’s definitely an interesting direction.
WM Doll
WM Doll is a brand with extensive industry experience. They showcased a wide variety of dolls this time, including robot dolls, anime-style dolls, and their newly released ultra-lightweight dolls.
For the robot dolls, they don’t look very different from what we’ve seen at previous expos. That said, they have mentioned before that they’re working on full-body movable versions, including ones that can even dance. So this is still a direction they’re actively developing.
Next, let’s take a look at the ultra-lightweight series. Here we have both the TPE version and the ultra-lightweight silicone version of the same doll. You can check the video below to see the differences between the two versions.
Visually, the ultra-lightweight silicone version shows quite good paintwork compared to the TPE version. In terms of feel, it is a bit firmer than standard silicone dolls,(and also slightly firmer than the TPE version).
That said, it’s still quite impressive that a BBW-type doll can be brought down to around 33kg (about 29kg for the body alone).
It will be interesting to see how WM Doll continues to develop in the future.
Junteng(Sigafun & Real Lady Doll)
Junteng showcased dolls from Sigafun and Real Lady Doll this time.
These dolls actually gave us a bit of a surprise — the feel is really quite good, and compared to what they showed at previous expos, the touch feels more realistic overall.
Let’s take a closer look and get a feel for these dolls and torsos.
Some Torso Models：
Sigafun Doll：
Real Lady Doll：
We also spoke with their staff, and they mentioned that they’ve been continuously improving and refining their products to provide a better experience.
ElsaBabe
ElsaBabe’s booth once again showcased a large number of dolls, all in an anime style.
In terms of feel, these dolls have a texture that’s somewhat similar to jelly — soft and slightly bouncy.
In addition to the standard dolls, they also displayed dolls with electronic eyes. And it has to be said, the electronic eyes fit the anime style quite well.
Climax Doll
This time, Climax Doll mainly showcased dolls from their ULW series.
The detailing on them is actually quite good, but what stood out the most is their feel — it’s really impressive.Finding a brand that can balance low weight and softness like this is still quite rare.
In addition, Climax Doll also showcased several torsos, and the feel of these torsos is also very good.
If you’re looking for high-value torsos or silicone dolls, Climax Doll’s ULW series is worth considering.
Other Brand
---------------Kiradols---------------
Kiradols is a brand new doll company. “Kira” means “sparkle” in Japanese, and “dol” is a combination of “idol” and “doll.” The founder’s vision is to create dolls that shine, like idols.
Kiradols mainly focuses on anime-style dolls. At this expo, they set up their booth in a magical girl theme, which creates a strong sense of immersion.
Unlike other anime-style doll brands, both the head and body of Kiradols dolls are made with relatively soft silicone, giving them a very soft and smooth feel.
In addition, Kiradols supports the ROS (Real Oral Structure) feature. Dolls equipped with ROS allow the mouth to be adjusted to a certain degree, enabling more expressive facial presentation.
---------------CST Doll---------------
CST Doll is a long-established doll brand. At this expo, they showcased several standard dolls as well as two robot dolls. These robot dolls, in my opinion, have a similar structure to those from WM Doll.
---------------AGRE---------------
AGRE also seems to be a relatively new brand that focuses on anime-style dolls. The heads of AGRE dolls are made with a hard-shell material, while the bodies are made of TPE.
---------------AZM Doll---------------
AZM Doll is a doll brand with extensive production experience. At this expo, AZM Doll showcased a variety of dolls. The feel and paintwork of these dolls are fairly good.
---------------SoulGrow---------------
SoulGrow is a newly emerging doll brand. At this expo, they showcased a doll developed in collaboration with an AV actress.
---------------OEM Factory---------------
A certain OEM factory specializes in TPE and silicone manufacturing. At this expo, they showcased several torsos. I think the detailing and overall feel of these torsos are quite good.
