Unboxing Gynoid GT-165/86 with Jì xiāng head (纪香) aka Model 7

Hi,

let's talk a bit about the ordering process.

Convincing the company to make a review sample took a couple of months. Back in 2018 it was out of the question, but later it was considered and it became a real possibility in April 2019. So I took the opportunity and ordered a review sample for a four-figure amount, so the costs for this sample are similar to a Doll Sweet DS-167 Evo.

Payment options offered at first were limited to bank transfer in RMB to a bank account at the China Construction Bank in Dongguan, but later a Paypal payment option was added. Since Paypal shaves off a percentage of the transaction for fees, a bank transfer can be the better option – if the fees are deducted from the bill. For transactions in the range of a couple of thousand dollars, the Paypal fees are always excessive; it's typically something between $200 und $250, depending on geographic distance and currency conversion. So I asked for a invoice for bank transfer in RMB, but the amounts were more or less identical with the Paypal invoice. So I made the payment with Paypal.

The payment went through smoothly on May 3rd. Not all Southern Chinese manufacturers have operational Paypal accounts, so it was a good start.

Terms on the invoice for delivery were: "Fifteen working days after pa[y]ment received", so the scheduled completion date should be in the 21st calendar week starting with May 20th.

Sandro

Hi,

according to the terms for delivery on the invoice, the doll should have been completed during the 21st calendar week. That would have been last week.

No doll was completed last week, and no word from Gynoid Tech.

However, I did not really expect that a medium to upper range silicone doll could be completed within the given timeframe. Even highly professional and experienced factories like EX Doll need longer.

Though, I would clearly prefer realistic estimates for the lead time, even if something like "four weeks" or "six weeks" does sound less inviting as the promised "14 working days".

Another little discord is the weight. The repeatedly confirmed total weight for the doll is 34 kg plus/minus a variance of 3 kg, so the body weight should be between 31 and 37 kg.
So I was a bit shocked that the freight costs are calculated for a (package) weight of 61,4 kg.

Let's say that the cardboard box, lots of padding and accessories add about 10 kg. That would result in a total package weight of not more than ~47 kg max and leave a difference of almost 15 kg.

The explanation give by Gynoid was: The freight costs are not calculated based on the physical weight, but on the volumetric weight.
That is quite possible, but it leaves an unpleasant uncertainty about what exactly to expect.

Other than that, nothing noteworthy happend since payment cleared on May 3rd (total waiting time so far: 3.5 weeks).

Sandro

Hi,

got an email from Gynoid Tech: "[…] doll production is comes to an end, shipment will come around 3 June, will send you photos or videos before shipment […]".

Tension rises…

Sandro

Hi,

*drumroll* Ji Xiang has been completed!

Yesterday I got two short factory videos how she looks like but no photos, so I made a couple of screen captures.

Face:

Upper body:

Lower body:

Feet:

This picture clearly shows that this doll has no bolts for standing. In my order I just wrote "standing option", so this is interesting. I asked about it and got the reply:

[…] a harder silicone instead of bolts has been added to doll's feet, so GYNOID Dolls can stand […]

Wow, this is really interesting… for years I have been nagging silicone manufacturers to seriously start to use the benefits of silicone - e.g. to blend silicones with different firmness and finally to allow the dolls to stand on their own feet. It seems the doll industry needed a newcomer to make this desideratum a reality.

Range of movements and posability:

(Please note in the upper right of above picture - "erection prohibited". I am curious if I will get a box with this label ;-= )

She looks impressive. Judging from the video, the jointed fingers work quite alright.

So what we have here is a doll with two massive innovations – standing without bolts, and jointed fingers.

I think this Unboxing review will be super exciting…!

Sandro

https://twitter.com/DollStudioEU/status/1136662244979355649

Hi,

Jì xiāng finally arrived!

After the first peek I can tell that this will be a rather long and very complicated unboxing review.

On the positive side, most parts of this doll actually look exactly like on the promotion photos. Exactly in any meaning of the word. The picture above is completely unedited, just like she came out of her box. The level of details is completely unmatched by any other Chinese doll maker we know so far; there is a subtle body makeup, skin texture and hinted veins. The little dot on the left is not a breadcrumb, it's an intentional mole. She has a couple of them across her body. The realism is absolutely breathtaking.

Also, she has the first eye mechanism I have ever seen on any doll that really works as it should, her eyes are just brilliant. And the hinged fingers also work as advertised.

So what we have here is a doll with several aestethic and engineering details totally unchallenged by any other brand, worldwide, from any price range up to 10k.

But there are also a couple of things I can not phrase in a positive way. For example, packaging is an unpleasant déjà vu with the way TPE dolls were packaged half a decade ago. This is totally unsuitable for a doll in the price range of four grands.

Last but not least, dolls like this might cause some controversy in the sex doll community. Yes, Jì xiāng has a vagina, so technically she qualifies as sex doll; but she does neither have an anal cavity nor an oral cavity. So those of you who want to know if she can do anal or oral or nasal or aural probably do not need to read further – she simply does not have cavities for that.

This Unboxing review will span across several weeks, and it will include an endoscope inspection of the (one) body cavity.

This is the rough outline of topics I am going to cover in this review, not necessarily in this order:

• Shipping & Packaging,
• Padding & Wrapping,
• Configuration,
• Documentation & usage instructions,
• Accessories and Scope of supply,
• Head(s),
• Neck connector and skeleton,
• Silicone blend, skin surface and skin tone,
• Body shape and lady parts.
• Head-to-body proportions.
• Body cavities,
• Hybrid doll potential.

Regarding the total waiting time from order confirmation til delivery: The doll has been ordered end of April 2019; I got factory confirmation photos at the beginning of June 2019; and finally, the doll was delivered end of June 2019. So the total waiting time was about two months. That's not bad for a silicone doll with high end ambitions.

And once again a footnote for ethical reasons. As it has been established recently in quality magazines, revievers disclose if they have received a free sample or other benefits for the review. In the spirit of this transparency I am disclosing that – as always – my samples are paid orders. In this case I received a discount similar to the vendor margin, so this sample is one of the most expensive dolls I have ever purchased.

Sandro

1) Shipping & Packaging.

Jì Xiāng traveled with UPS. She departed from China on June 13th and arrived about a week later in Germany; including delivery, her journey took less than two weeks.

For packaging, a – almost – neutral cardboard box is used. 'Almost' neutral because the top says in bold letters:

Putting an "ERECTION PROHIBITED" label onto the shipping box for a sex doll is like hitting the bullseye. It gave us a good laugh when the driver delivered the box. Someone deserves a medal for this label.

Of course, the box came on a hand truck with the short side up. Rough handling like this often results in scratches and dents. Not different in this case.

Seeing a cardboard box with lots of scratches brings up unpleasant memories. Half a decade ago, most TPE dolls were shipped in thin cardboard boxes like this. And frequently, they looked similarily battered.

Nowadays, even cheap TPE dolls are packaged substantially better; please see here for the current packaging used by Jinsan factory. Doll Sweet uses much thicker cardboard boxes and a sleeping bag for padding. And Sino-doll has even invented an virtually indestructible packaging method; please see here for the current packaging used by Sino-doll. All this packaging methods are more elaborate and safer.

A doll with a 4k price tag simply must not be shipped like this. Never ever.

My recommendation for Gynoid Tech is to reinforce packaging and padding as soon as possible. Otherwise severe shipping damages will occur. Maybe not with every international shipment, but with a frequency similar to the shipping damage quota of TPE dolls half a decade ago.

Sandro

2) Padding & Wrapping.

When opening the box, the unpleasent memories continued. For padding, some styrofoam blocks are used, very similar to the padding used for TPE doll shipments half a decade ago.

From looking at the way the doll is packaged and the inside is padded it's easy to deduce that Gynoid Tech is a company with very little experience in international shipping. A lot of mistakes are coming back where others have learnt their (expensive) lesson in the past years.

First, the doll can move in the box, potentially putting strain on the skeletal joints, the neck and the soles of the feet. This is unneccessary and can be easily avoided.

Second, inside the box, a metal tool is floating around freely:

Other manufacturers have made similar mistakes before, and I have seen lots of dolls with dents and scratches, caused by metal hang tools, eye bolts, metal combs, loose M16 grubs and the like. It can be easily avoided by putting these metal parts into a small bag or by taping it into a foam brick enclosure.

Thirds, the head is not even protected by a bag:

…and the neck connector keeps poking into the padding:

This is not the protection I expect for a $4000+ doll:

On the inner sides of the cardboard box, you can see residue from oil leakage. This occurs when the doll isn't wrapped in a plastic bag and directly touches the cardboard:

The problem with this oil (or whatever it really is) leakage is not that it doesn't look pretty; the problem is that it weakens the cardboard and dissolves the glue on the adhesive tape that keeps the box in one piece.

Neither the delicate hands nor the feet are extra padded:

So in a nutshell, padding is as bad as it gets. Padding like this was not sufficient to protect a $1000 TPE doll back in 2014, and most certainly it is not good enough to protect a $4000+ silicone doll in 2019. Especially not after basically every cheaper doll is better padded.

The good thing with bad packaging and padding is that it is very easy to change.

It just requires some attention.

Every shipment starting with end of June could – and should – be better packaged and padded than the doll I got. It would be negligently if Gynoid Tech would not improve that ASAP.

Sandro

Addendum, June 29th, 2019: Gynoid Tech claims that packaging and padding of the dolls looks like so ex factory:

Cardboard box, wrapped in plastic foil:

Padding inside, with cleanly sorted foam bricks and not totally chaotic like I got my doll:

So with some likelyhood, someone tampered with the shipment I got. This is not really surprising in international shipping as there are several steps involved where shipping agents or government authorities are known to open, inspect or even repackage shipments. However, what's puzzling for me is that there was no indication for a customs inspection. These shipments are usually re-sealed with special tape, stating who opened the package on which authority.

The bottomline is that, according to Gynoid Tech, packaging and padding should look better than what I got.

(continued in next post)

3) Manual / Documentation / Instructions.

Opposed to many other silicone doll makers, the Gynoid doll comes with printed instructions. It's only a leaflet, but it's written in English and includes some helpful pointers about cleaning and the permitted range of movements.

The sheer existence of some usage instructions is a good thing.

It shows that Gynoid Tech cares about their customers.

They do not want that their customers break the doll 24 hours after arrival because they don't know how to use the joints.

That's really good.

Things that are not self-evident should be explained.

But even good things need to be improved sometimes.

• In this case, the usage instructions do not explain how the head is properly attached to the neck connector.
• According to the section "Legs movement", the legs must not be moved more than 70 degrees forward and not more than 30 degrees backward. That would mean that the skeleton is not designed for sitting since this requires a forward angle of at least 90 degrees. So the doll is not permitted to sit due to skeleton limitations?
• Also it's a bit confusing that the first page of the leaflet says: "Aritificial Human". Sure, that was the brand the company used before. I know that. But do all customers know the company history of RZRZN?

However, there is a (small) two-paged manual. That a lot better than nothing.

It would be only worse than nothing at all if the usage instructions were outdated or wrong.

Considering the explanations about the permitted range of movements for the legs, I am not sure if I want to trust this manual.

The doll I got can sit on a chair, and I explicitely ordered a doll which can be seated. So there are some indications that the included usage instructions are nor up to date.

So my advice is to take everything you read with a grain of salt.

Here is a full facsimile of the usage instructions:

What I am missing is a serial number. Maybe I haven't found it yet, but that's something I'd expect in any upper-range doll.

Sandro

(continued in next post)

4) First impressions.

Let's continue to get this girl out of her cardboard coffin…

At first the smell. There is not much smell, only a faint odor like rubber. You probably won't notice anything until you move very close to the doll.

Simply no comparison with current TPE blends – there is much less chemical smell.

And then there is the oil leakage issue. Actually, there is some oil leakage (or whatever that might be what leaks out of silicone dolls). The oil leakage is as well visible on the inside of the cardboard box as noticable when you touch the doll. Maybe a little bit more than on Sino-doll's SI-152/D from last month, maybe similar with Doll Sweet's DS-167 Evo from 2018.

Even though there is some leakage, it's no comparison with current TPE blends; they are much greasier.

If you are sensitive against chemical smell and greasy skin surfaces, all of the aforementioned silicone dolls – Gynoid Tech, Doll Sweet, Sino-doll – are worth a closer look.

When lifting the doll out of her box, one of her recognition marks shows up, the bangle around the upper arm. It is made of plastic, but it looks nice. The bangle has the 'Gynoid' logo imprinted, so unless you cover it up or remove it, your doll will always advertise for her maker.

Also, among the first impressions: This doll is not a flyweight. I will put her on a scale later, but I think she is quite a bit heavier than Doll Sweet's DS-167 Evo. From specifications, her weight should be close to the DS's weight, on the lower end of 30-ish kgs. I might be wrong, but she feels more like on the uper end of 30-ish kgs. But it's hot over here, already 32°C at 10 a.m., so maybe it's just the temperature that makes weights appear heavier… we'll see.

The neck connector did not survive shipping unharmed (see next post for further details).

This doll came dressed in underwear. That's classy. Most dolls are shipped in the raw because the manufacturers are worried about wrinkles, indentations or even stains from the cheap factory outfits. And they save the time required to put clothing onto a plastic doll. Gynoid Tech seems to feel different about the doll and about their clothing. Justifiably. It simply looks better, less than a lump of synthetic flesh, more like an artificial humanoid.

I like this underwear. First, the underwear fits like a glove; second, it is not a cheap throw-away outfit but real women's clothing; and third, the underwear looks elegant and classy. I am pretty sure that I will keep this underwear. If memory serves right, I have never kept the factory outfits for my dolls before, I always binned them or gave them away. So there is a little shift in valuation.

After recovering from the first shock about the bad packaging and the distorted neck connector, my first impressions got a more positive drift. Unlinke packaging and padding, the doll itself does not give me the impresion of a doll maker who does not care. Quite the opposite.

It seems, this doll might provide a 'rollercoaster of emotions' experience…

Sandro

(continued in next post)

5) Neck connector.

As mentioned in the first impressions, inferior packing and padding resulted in a less than perfect neck connector.

It was distorted and had poked as well through the protective fabric as through the styrofoam padding.

A couple of years ago, lots of TPE dolls were shipped like this. Often, their necks were damaged. If this doll had a gooseneck, it would be probably broken. Luckily, a hinged neck can endure a lot more maltreatment than gooseneck.

Since the neck is already distorted, we can take a peek around the side:

The white substance is elastic and looks like silicone foam. So this doll has probably a silicone foam core. That's a bit unusual as PU foam is cheaper and weights less.

With the neck as the doll arrived, the best I can get is a gap like this:

Obviously I am not happy with this, so I checked with the factory if I could force the connector back into correct alignment without causing additional damage.

According the factory, I could use some force to get the connector straight; so I used a wooden hammer and got it 'fixed' like so:

According to Gynoid Tech, the metal plate should be on the same level like the silicone, but I don't know how to accomplish this without dissasembling the whole doll.

As final result, I get a very small gap between neck and head on both sides:

Much better than before and I think it will do.

Regarding the connector itself, it is yet another proprietary variant which tries to combine a thread with a spigot. Honestly, I am not a big fan of these types. Even a vanilla M16 thread is easier to use as it can be quickly replaced with something like Indigo's Magnetic M16 Connector.

The process of attaching the head is not very pretty and I'd rather not repeat it more often than necessary.

First you push the head part of the connector onto the spigot that pokes out of the neck…

…and then start to rotate the head, similar to a common M16 thread:

You feel when the connector locks into the thread. Keep rotating the head and take care about this part of the neck:

Continue to rotate the head and try to gently pull the silicone from the neck part to the side. If there is no gap visible anymore, push the silicone from the neck part toward the head.

Since there is only one head for Gynoid Tech's Model 7 anyway, I will probably not remove the head often.

Seeing the neck part distorted like shown above is disturbing.

I am not sure yet if Gynoid's neck connector has advantages over Doll Sweet's spigot type, but as far as usability is concerned, Doll Sweet's approach is way more convenient and easy to use.

Some detail pictures of the neck connector, neck part:

The threaded part of the connector is M8 (metric, 8mm). I will discuss the hybrid doll potential later.

A detail picture of the neck connector, head part:

And by the way, on the bottom of the head, Gynoid has imprinted their logo:

However, what I am missing is a serial number. I can not find any, and I think any doll in this price range deserves a serial number.

Sandro

(continued in next post)