Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat? (Mar 2008)
typed for your pleasure on 13 March 2008, at 2.20 amSdtrk: ‘Ash on the trees (The sudden ebb of a diatribe)’ by Sunn O))) meets Nurse with wound
That’s right, another one already. But there’s a sackful of stuff to mention! Plus, there’s a synchronistic reason I’m posting this so soon after last month’s, which you’ll see at the end…
First, do you know German? Do you know a German, who coincidentally knows German? Tell them they should get to work and subtitle this videoclip that aired recently on the German documentary show, Polylux. Not just for your best friends Davecat and Sidore, but for all iDollators and curious parties. Yeah, altruism.
What, no tea for her?
RealDolls – wenn Männer Puppen lieben
The new dream women are called Melanie, Claudia or Annika. They are 1,65m largely, 50 Kilos heavily – and consist of silicone. Some men cannot live no more without it.
taken from this site
Someone ripped it to YouTube, but they only managed to get part of it, and YouTube pulled it a couple of hours later, due to copyright cockfighting. Not only does it feature Harald und Ramona above, who seem like a nice couple, but you get to see Deutsche iDollator Dollcaretaker spending time with his lovely ladies Annika and Melanie. Worth watching! But IT NEEDS ENGLISH SUBTITLES. I AM SERIOUS. Also, I need some way to get a copy of it. My demands are simple.
Now, for those of you who’ve been keeping up with Phoenix Studios Grande Masterplan, you’ll know that the March Boy Toy Doll is available. I can’t believe Miss Hyde scooped me on that. Clearly I’m losing my edge.
Does she taste minty, like a Shamrock shake? SOLD
Since the Dolls seem to be styled after what makes that particular month most memorable (December = Xmas, February = Valentine’s day, etc), I can’t wait to see Miss October. rrrRowr.
Also! According to a post by the good Technosexuals over at spurtBOT, they spotted an article from futurist and pro-Synthetik writer Richard Evans, wherein he interviews Hiroshi Ishiguro, the genius behind the Actroid series.
The professor is passionate about the duties of scientists and what they should achieve on behalf of the public, with public money – ‘we are here to continue research and to make a better world, not build and preserve our own small empires’. He is also a devoted father, and comes across as a complex character – pragmatic and direct. […] When questioned on funding, he explains that none of the lab’s money comes from the military, as Japan doesn’t have an army (only a self-defence force) – ‘so we are able to develop robots that help people, not hurt them’. It is perhaps telling that his favourite movie is Bicentennial Man, based on Isaac Asimov’s short story and starring Robin Williams. This tale of a robotic helper who wants to become human is key to Ishiguro’s vision of a future populated with robots that assist us and become useful members of society.
taken from this site
Also revealed in the interview is that David Hanson of Hanson Robotics will soon be joining forces with Ishiguro-san’s Osaka Labs, to work together on future projects. Pretty ace, I’d say…
While we’re on the topic of Synthetiks builders, whatever happened to Shunichi Mizuno? I remember seeing footage of his sexy Marilyn Monroe Gynoid on an episode of ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not!’ ages ago, and the man seems to have disappeared entirely from existence. The way things are with contemporary artificial human development, he’s missing out on all the fun!
Japan has come forth with another new Doll manufacturer: Fivestars Laboratory Inc. To be honest, they’re not really new, as I recall seeing their name on teh Internuts before, but their new product, the Dollche series of 1/1 scale ball-joint Dolls, is rather attention-getting.
She’s got good guitar-playing fingers
Their Type 910 model boasts 55 movable joints, and stands at 147 cm, with measurements of B.33 / W.20 / H.30. Hrrm, tiny. And despite all those measurements listed, they don’t say how much they weigh…
Even though the site has a fair amount of English (heh, ‘Engrish’), they don’t seem to offer their product for sale outside Japan. At which point, I suppose you’d get on the horn to your favourite deputy service, and start working out some arrangements…
You can view a rather Hideaki Anno-esque promotional film on Dollche’s YouTube page. Personally, they’re too small, and I find their features are a bit too Doll-like — which may seem a strange epithet coming from me, but I can’t say I’m too keen on the eyes, as they’re a wee bit too stylised for my tastes. However, this isn’t to say that I don’t like the Dollche series as an idea. But that’s a given, really. 1/1 scale ball-joint Dolls? That sort of concept hasn’t been in use since Hans Bellmer made his lasses!
And speaking of Bellmer, today would’ve been his 106th birthday! (Yes, I still have to write an extended post about the man, don’t remind me.) Here’s to one of the more famous iDollators in history! Thanks to his unique and somewhat pervy Surrealist vision, he’s gained a certain immortality
ADDENDUM (16 March): Ask and ye shall receive: an alert reader in Germany wrote up a translation to the Harald und Ramona segment mentioned above. Check it out in the Comments section!
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Machine intelligence, machine sexiness on September 25th, 2009
Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat? (Sept 05) on September 17th, 2005
March 13th, 2008 at 3.34 am
Hmm… I’m not sure about a 1:1 ball-jointed doll. I mean, the LITTLE ones ought to be ball-jointed, and only because they’re imitations of The Real Thing, and not reproductions. They look cute that way 🙂 Life-sized, for some reason… *shudder*
The Boy Toy dolls though… day-um :-O Funny, they don’t really look more real than RealDolls, but for some reason I’m REALLY attracted to them! What could it be… (*sets record for most uses of the word “real*” in a sentence*)
Ah, heck… I’ll have to study Miss March once more to see what it is… yum!
(Much later:) It just must be that McMullen Magic (TM)! Too bad that they’re all limited editions though (not that I could afford one).
Ah well, some day, some way…
PBS (wanting) & Lily (not wanting) & Eden (not caring) & Soony (not to be left out, and a MUCH cuter BJD than the 1:1 one)
March 13th, 2008 at 1.46 pm
Miss March is beautiful! If I had the money I would purchase her myself. Imagine the shoots I could do with her! Meow.
March 13th, 2008 at 9.02 pm
Wenn Manner Puppen Lieben=When Men love Dolls.
Does that help? Harold and Rommy. Harold is an occasional poster on the Doll Forum. He mentioned that he was being interviewed. I guess the show was released. Iche spreche kliene Deutch. If I had the whole clip, I could probably muddle through a translation.
Miss March is a cutie! Heck, all the Boy Toy dolls are! And the first pre-owned Boy Toy doll for sale is available. Poor guy bought it, but it just doesn’t do it for him. A Miss December I believe. If only the cash was at hand! 🙁
March 13th, 2008 at 9.14 pm
OK, I just watched the whole clip. Did I say that I spoke a little German? I meant I read a little German. They speak way too fast for me to keep up with! All I could get was a feel for the tone of the piece. Rather neutral presentation actualy.
March 16th, 2008 at 8.50 pm
PBS and girlies –
O, I dunno; a lifesize scale ball-jointed Doll I have no problem with. But then, where a lot of people found the Gynoids from ‘Ghost in the shell: Innocence’, which were obviously a nod to Hans Bellmer’s girls, to be unsettling, I was like *tongue-rolling noise* The Dollche’s eyes are just no good, in my opinion. And although I love short lasses, those Dolls are just too short. Soony’s even shorter than they are, but would you want to date her? The answer is no, as Lily and Eden would get jealous and vindictive. 🙂
And yeah Miss March definitely has plenty of that McMullen Magic™ to spare. Although I’m partial to Miss January. Brunettes, y’know. 🙂
Gina –
O, I’m liking the way you’re thinking. 🙂
Mahtek –
Wow, would that Boy Toy lass be Sophia, the redheaded Miss February? That’s a shame. 🙁 Gina and PB Shelley, start getting your bids in now. 😉
And I keep forgetting you kinda have to know eine kleine Deutsche, due to you working at Snyder’s of Hanover and all. 🙂
March 16th, 2008 at 8.53 pm
Also: We are in luck, people. Alert reader Pagan (an alert Pagan reader?) sent me an Email yesterday; as he’s German, he was kind enough to transcribe and translate the Polylux segment. Woo!
———————–
Narrator: Harald is Happy. For 5 years the 42 years old Engineer was single, but a few months ago a new woman stepped into his life. Ramona. But only she is no human, she is a RealDoll, a Doll.
Harald: I like it to just greet her, if she sits there on the sofa, and i touch her waist and i look at her. I am happy, and i’m having the feeling she is happy, and it has quite a bit of “falling in love”.
Narrator: Because Ramona can’t stand, Harald built a (wire) tackle into his sleeping room with which he lifts his beloved up. This way it is more easy for him to change her clothes, Ramona after all weights 50 kg. Ramona is not to be mistaken with an ordinary window mannequin. Her skin is made of ultra sensitive silicone. Her joints are movable, her skeleton is a complicated metal construction. Harald payed for Ramona almost 7000 Euro.
Harald: Between Ramona and me, long dialogues don’t take place. There are trivia: A “hello”, or a touch, just being there, perhaps a glance. I have sometimes the impression that she is following me with her eyes if i go through the room.
Narrator: Harald assembled his silicone dream wife via mouse clicks on the internet. Al dolls are custom made. Individual eye color and painted nails are available at a additional charge. The biggest supplier, Abyss Creations from California has sold approximately 4000 dolls worldwide. Real dolls are actually luxury love lolls with life like reverse engineered genitals. But for many men they became much more than sex toys. For the 25 year old Thomas from Tueringen Leonie and Annika mean everything. He loves to buy clothes, dessous and jewelry. He has real relationships with the dolls. He talks to them, reads them books, gives them massages and goes to bed with them. For Thomas it is a mutual relationship.
Thomas: I always have the feeling, if someone doesen’t like me that he is rejecting me, and because of the dolls reject me by no means, i have the feeling that they are giving me something back. Aehm, aehm a certain amount of love would come back.
Narrator: Thomas has heavy asthma, because of this he seldom leaves the house. He spends his days with his dolls in his flat. He has no friends anymore. It was always difficult with real women. To help Thomas out of his lonlyness his parents gave him money to order Melanie, his first girlfriend. 9000 Euro for a life “in pairs”.
Thomas: My mother had me, for a long time -gibberish- as my surroundings -gibberish- because of this my mother was extremely happy that i was so happy getting her. It even goes so far that my mother respects my feelings for the dolls that much that she even greets the dolls if she comes to visit me because she knows that it means something to me. Even Hollywood discovered the RealDoll phenomenon. In the movie “Lars an the real girl” the introverted outsider Lars presents his new girlfriend Bianca.
-Lars and the real girl footage-
Narrator: To get Lars out of his shell, his friends play along. Bianca becomes a fully integrated member to society. She works as mannequin and gets invited to parties. Harald feels similar to Lars from the movie. He also is often overtaxed by real humans. Because of this he prefers to retreat.
Harald: I find it exhausting to be together with other people, to talk to people, to listen to them, to go into them. And with Ramona, i don’t have these things. Compared to a living women she has the advantage that she doesn’t speak. I am the one who choses the subject, the thoughts.
Thomas: … aware of that the traits, feelings, thoughts i burden on them come from me. If i talk to my dolls, i finally talk to myself.
Narrator: A German manufacturer currently develops a doll that can breath, smile and see – the perfect girlfriend. Real women will find it more and more difficult to find a man. With Thomas they are even today already out of luck.
Thomas: If a woman would say: Either me or the dolls, I would always choose the dolls.
———————–
Apparently the show is aired on the German version of PBS, so the presentation lacks the sensationalist aspect of, say, Dr Phil. Imagine that!
Danke sehr again, Pagan! 🙂
March 17th, 2008 at 6.35 am
Thanks to Pagan (via The Davecat Express) for the translation. And no innocent parties were slighted or slandered! Imagine that :-O
Dr. Phil and/or Geraldo would be not proud, and that is a plus!
DC, I think I saw the GitS episode you mentioned; was it where they invaded the home with dozens of gynoids? It was a while back; maybe early on in The Laughing Man episodes? I didn’t realize it was Bellmer-ized; will have to watch it again to fully appreciate it 😉
Regards,
PBS et les femmes
March 17th, 2008 at 6.43 pm
Wait, “Narrator: A German manufacturer currently develops a doll that can breath, smile and see – the perfect girlfriend. Real women will find it more and more difficult to find a man. With Thomas they are even today already out of luck” ? German Doll?
Lastly, I know I said it to you in analog, but I think I really dig the ball-joint gal. If she were semi-transparent and internally lit…
March 17th, 2008 at 7.54 pm
PBS and sexpots –
I know! Objective, unbiased journalism?? Unpossible!! Well, in the States, yeah. :-\
And that wasn’t an episode of GitS, that was the second feature film, Innocence. Despite Wikipedia’s propensity for lies as truth at times, there’s a pretty good entry for it here.
Remember, the GitS continuity is as follows: there’s the two feature films, which are based on the two manga compilations, and there’s the two seasons of GitS: Stand alone complex, followed by the GitS: SAC feature film, Solid state society. GitS: SAC is an ‘alternate universe’ version of the series dealing with the same characters, but as a continuity unto itself, hence the ‘stand alone’. It’s anime, they do this shit all the time. 🙂
SafeT –
Yep; those German Dolls would be the First Androids series, designed by Michael Harriman. He was interviewed in ‘Eves de silicones’, the first documentary that the Missus and I did, back in 2001 — did I show that to you?
Anyway, there’s a wee writeup about Mr Harriman here. He’s been working on his Synthetiks for just under a decade, and he’s sold a few, but he’s a bit of a perfectionist, which prevents him from selling more. Round TDF, his lasses are rarer than hen’s teeth…
And you and your translucent Gynoids! So what you really want is Sonny from the film version of ‘I, robot’, right?
March 18th, 2008 at 7.53 am
Ah! Thanks for the wiki article for Innocence -I am now intrigued 🙂 Since my only exposure to date for Ghost in the Shell has been via Adult Swim and its (ugh) English dubbed broadcasts of the series, I limited my viewings to only a few episodes. I’ve always been impressed with it though, and it’s a series I consider owning hardcopies of. Someday 😉
I love the Opening Themes of both series too; great stuff! And the Major is too yummy (even with those neck ports and body-suit LOL) I’ll have to bear the chronology in mind when I go seeking out the episodes 😉 I don’t think I’ve heard the original Japanese language versions at all yet so am curious to hear them “for real”.
I wish I could remember the name of that “lovedoll-episode”; thought it might be Idolatry/IDOLATER but that would be too obvious LOL
Ta,
PBS and the synthetik kompanions
March 19th, 2008 at 1.52 pm
@ Davecat: I bet you do like the way I’m thinking! 😉
March 21st, 2008 at 12.50 pm
Okay, So its letting me post now. . .
I seem to have fallen for the boytoys! I totally adore them! Their so. . . I dunno!
Hyde-Chan x
March 23rd, 2008 at 10.45 pm
I didn’t watch the movie because I am an old Isaac Asimov fan AND I’ve grown tired of Will Smith.
But I have seen some clips, so I think Sonny is the robot antagonist, right? He does look pretty swell, but not sexually attractive to me on account of I’m straight.
March 24th, 2008 at 9.31 pm
PB & S –
I actually have the first ‘gig’, thanks to our friends INTERNET PIRATES, but I’ve not watched more than the first episode, and the one with the plot about the obsolete Gynoids with all the Jean-Luc Godard references. My friend aneamo has, I think, the whole series on DVD, so I have to see about borrowing it from him someday…
And mmm, neck ports. Yum. 🙂
Gina-chan –
*conspiratorial wink*
Hyde-chan –
Perhaps a Boy Toy Doll would be the Doll for you! That could be interesting. Start saving up, babe!
SafeT –
You’ve grown tired of Sir William of Smith? But… he’s the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air! And as he is royalty, he is to be treated with the respect he deserves, otherwise it’s the stocks for you, my son.
Sonny would be the Android antagonist, I suppose. I’ve not seen the film either, as I hate Will Smith as much as you do. Which would explain why I’ve been drawn and quartered, for offending His Fresh Majesty of the Kingdom of Bel-Air.
April 7th, 2008 at 12.37 pm
I never knew that there was a 1/1 scale BJD already out there, very interesting. I am really glad. I would say that the Dollche one most likely uses resin. If it will not be using strings, I would say it will use a metal skeleton which would probably be aluminum? Not sure really, but I can say that it would weigh somewhat more than a silicon one.
I feel hopeful. I guess Hikari’s future body will be taking this form in probably 5 years from now or maybe later, who knows. Personally, I dont like the Dollche one, but like I said, I am hopeful, hopeful that there will be more out there in the future; I dont like her eyes.
Thinking about it, it is hard to put into words but it is really interesting that even among people who are into these things, they have different tastes and degrees of… hmmm.
April 17th, 2008 at 1.35 pm
Hikaru –
Getting Hikari a Type 910 Dollche body would be a hell of an upgrade. 🙂 Hopefully Fivestars laboratory will go the route of Axis Japan or Orient industry and offer different interchangeable heads sporting various faces in the near-future.
You’re not alone; no-one I’ve spoken with likes those eyes. 😐 Keep trying, Fivestars!