By now, you’ve probably heard or read about the drama between Doll Forever (featuring Mizuwali, Piper Doll, & Irokebijin) and their original factory. Arguably the most interesting drama in the sex doll industry since “The Doll Forum (TDF) Bans Certain Piper Dolls,” controversy seems to follow Mizuwali wherever he goes. If you followed my blog, I’ve been trying to piece together this puzzle for a while now. But now, the most complete image of the drama is finally ready. So, gather around the fireplace fellow doll enthusiasts as this random blogger attempted to get to the bottom of a broken lovehole.
Here’s how it all began:
The Present
On July 19, 2024, Mizuwali made an unexpected announcement on Love Doll Network (a doll forum), stating that Irokebijin and Piper Doll have temporarily suspended all TPE doll orders. According to Mizuwali, the factory owner stole his designs, created his own brand, and sabotaged Mizuwali’s products in the process. Therefore, Piper Doll and Irokebijin moved to a new factory, and will remake all their TPE molds.
Exhibit A
If you were wondering if you received one of the sabotaged dolls, you probably didn’t. Mizuwali shared photos of them for the first time, and they’re mangled up beyond recognition – to the point where they don’t even look TPE anymore. According to Mizuwali, he asked them many times to improve their raw materials and packaging, but they refused. They also refused to compensate him so he knew it was time to leave.
In his announcement, Mizuwali doesn’t name, but hints that the offending brand greatly resembles Irokebijin. Shortly (and coincidentally) after his post, Butterfly Doll voluntarily unmasked themselves as the unnamed “culprit.” Releasing several Irokebijin and Piper Doll models under their own brand, it was clear who was behind this newly-surfaced drama. They also revealed to be the factory that produces Doll Forever in November 2023.
Exhibit B
Shortly after Mizuwali’s announcement, Butterfly Doll released many existing Irokebijin and Piper Doll models under their own brand. This includes a catalog containing every Piper Doll ever made.
However, Butterfly Doll denied that they stole anything. As the factory behind Doll Forever, they claimed that they developed everything on their own since the beginning (including the seamless neck design, molds, skeletons, and Platinum TPE). Additionally, they said that they’ve never received any “development, production, or mold production fees,” and that Doll Forever paraded as a factory, taking credit for their work.
From what I gathered, this is partially true, but not in the way it sounds. The factory owner and Mizuwali never had a formal business relationship. They were two friends (or acquaintances) who wanted to build something together. (You will hear about this later) Therefore, there wasn’t a “I pay you to make something.” Rather, if one side needed help or money, the other side would provide it in an informal (helping each other out) type of way. They both wanted the factory to succeed.
Mizuwali did acknowledge that the factory owner sculpted and developed some dolls in the early stages (under his supervision). But in terms of payment, Mizuwali provided them money whenever they needed it. (Note: Mizuwali sent me private conversations with proof of this, but for privacy reasons, I won’t share them here)
The Legal Aspect
Because the word “stole” is thrown around a lot, let’s wrap up the legal aspect of it. According to Protecting Your Molds and Tooling When Manufacturing Overseas from Harris Sliwoski, the original contracts must clearly state that Doll Forever owns the molds and IP-related to the molds. However after hearing both sides, it’s clear that this isn’t the case. As you’ll see later on, the factory was formed between two friends, and it doesn’t sound like there was even a contract at all. Although, there’s probably some kind of agreement somewhere, it most likely doesn’t include what Harris Sliwoski mentioned.
Therefore, legally in China, the factory not only owns the molds, but essentially everything related to the molds. But due to the ambiguous nature, neither side would win anything in court. Ultimately, this isn’t a legal story, meaning that both sides will coexist. Therefore, it’s up to you as the reader to choose who to support.
But while the legal aspect is set in stone, the moral side of it isn’t. To understand who has the moral high ground, we have to go back in time – about 10 years – before Doll Forever or the factory ever existed. After much silence, Mizuwali revealed to me how it all started, and shared a rare glimpse of his early career.
Note: Instead of using the original factory owner’s real name, I’ll call him “Dragonfly.”
How it All Started
Long before Doll Forever ever existed, Mizuwali was slowly making a name for himself in the sex doll industry. After gaining some fame, many factories hired him to supervise their R&D department, including Jinsan (WM). Meanwhile, Dragonfly worked at a mannequin factory (HF) as a sculptor, and as a side hustle, he also sculpted many of Jinsan’s early designs. That’s where the two of them met. While supervising Dragonfly’s work, the two of them became close colleagues.
Later (while Mizuwali worked at SM Doll), Dragonfly wanted to open his own factory, and tried to get Mizuwali onboard. By then, Dragonfly had partnered with his old employer HF, and was producing dolls at their factory. He had developed a successful “material formula,” and after much convincing, Mizuwali (moved by his sincerity) decided to join him. They were quite successful with many orders, but after some time, Dragonfly had conflicts with HF, and left to pursue his own factory. However, he didn’t have the money to create a factory, so with many unfulfilled orders – including a large deal Mizuwali just made in Japan – Mizuwali decided to finance the new factory.
“At the time I had already taken orders from a Japanese customer called <private>, so I had to support his decision while he didn’t actually have any money to finance his ambition. So I gave him money to purchase the equipments needed and paid the new factory’s overhead for many months. I didn’t ask to become a shareholder, I didn’t ask him to pay me back either, I just told him to do his job well and kept in mind what I had done for this factory,” Mizuwali said.
Once things were settled, Mizuwali pursued his own ambition: Piper Doll. Under his supervision, Mizuwali admits that Dragonfly did help with the sculpturing in the early stages. However, after some success, Dragonfly supposedly became content and lost motivation in creating new designs. This forced Mizuwali to take charge and finish the later R&D work. Luckily, Mizuwali met with Level D’s boss in Japan (a long-established doll maker) who advised him to learn 3D model design. Mizuwali began his training, mastered the craft, and took over all 3D modeling tasks beginning with the Piper Doll Ariel, Akira, and Jessica, to the DH168 2019 series, and so on.
Exhibit C
A small intermission in the story with proof Mizuwali sent me of his first 3d designs. This includes Akira, Jessica, and Ariel dating back to 2018. To be fair, Dragonfly sent me a photo of his 100cm Iris sculpt and seamless-neck skeleton. As explained in the story, Dragonfly did the sculpting and development for the early dolls (under Mizuwali’s supervision), and then Mizuwali learned 3d design for Ariel, Akira, Jessica, and onwards.
The Story Continued
During the pandemic, Mizuwali worked on the 3D modeling for his Irokebijin dolls, and later even taught it to Dragonfly (sharing some of his templates to learn from). Once Irokebijin gained traction, Mizuwali admited that he didn’t pay Dragonfly for any mold creations because at that time, the factory needed his designs just to survive. However, Doll Forever also did all the sales and photography, including R&D and never asked for fees from them either. Not to mention that they paid for all the factory equipment. As mentioned before, they had a very mutual and informal partnership.
After the pandemic, sex doll sales greatly declined industry-wide. In 2023, Dragonfly informed Mizuwali that he was creating his own brand, to which Mizuwali agreed. According to Mizuwali, Dragonfly became too dependent on him, so he wanted to let him create his own brand to see things from Doll Forever’s perspective (i.e. the sales, customer interactions, etc). However, what Mizuwali didn’t realize was that Dragonfly’s new brand, Butterfly Doll, would “feast” on the templates he provided (the Irokebijin models). Not only did Mizuwali give him the templates, but trained him in 3D design and modeling as well. In the end, they took and modified the templates as their own.
Sometime in March or April 2024, Mizuwali confronted Dragonfly, but Dragonfly denied that he stole any designs, and insisted that Mizuwali continue producing new dolls at their factory. After Mizuwali declined, he began to notice severely defective dolls. With a damaged reputation and wallet, Mizuwali asked for compensation, which they declined (so Mizuwali believes it was intentional). In retaliation, Mizuwali decided to pull out from the factory, and that’s when Butterfly Doll took ownership of all the models, and we reach the present day.
From the Heart
That was quite a story, and filled in most of the missing puzzle pieces. And although I shared Mizuwali’s story in my own words, I want you to hear it in his as well. You may read the story, but you won’t feel the weight of the words. Therefore, let me share something powerful and heartfelt that he said, straight from the source. In balance, I’ll share one from Dragonfly as well.
Mizuwali began his email (to me) with 3 reasons why he didn’t speak up sooner. First, he was busy on a business trip (didn’t have the time or energy) and thought the truth would naturally reveal itself (but it didn’t). Second, he wanted me to find the truth on my own and see it through my own eyes (but there were too many missing pieces). Here’s his third reason for not speaking up sooner:
Mizuwali:
“The third reason is I was deeply hurt by this betrayal and going over the whole event again was too much of a burden for me emotionally, which I was not even sure if I was ready for. The traitors are my former friends and former protégés, we used to be really tight, the betrayal was too heartbreaking and dramatic. In China we have an old saying called “Family scandals should not be made public”, that’s a rule I live by and it caused me to hold everything in and not to speak about it. I tried to give them a chance to make amends, sadly, they did just the opposite and it forced me to break silence and let the world know exactly what truly transpired. Once the truth is made public, they’ll never have a second chance.
I’ve built great connections with my peers in the doll industry throughout the years, they all knew about this and supported me tremendously, they’ve already unified and decided to boycott the traitors and their products. Without their support, I wouldn’t have known which factory was counterfeiting our products (Piper silicone 100cm Ariel) in no time. Without their support, I wouldn’t have factories lining up to take over the production of our products. A major portion of the vendors, especially the ones in China, choose to stand with us as well, they knew what had happened, they knew how, out of nothing, I turned the factory that betrayed me into what it is today.”
From the Heart 2
You can feel the passion in the words. Something that a summary can’t invoke. I felt it too on the other side. To be fair, these are two different kinds of quotes, but they both come from the heart and embody my conversations with both sides.
Dragonfly:
“The success of Piper Doll and Doll Forever is based on my design, which provides beautiful head shapes and unparalleled body, and the development of platinum TPE, which provides high-quality dolls. We personally handle every process of the doll. All component designs should strive to showcase the superior performance of the doll… Without my designs and products, these two brands would probably not be well-known to everyone at present. Before opening this doll factory, I had been focused on helping other factories develop and design dolls. At least in China, all doll peers knew about this and there have never been any disputes… Perhaps Doll4Ever has been striving to maximize profits for dolls in recent years… We need to be responsible to customers, rather than blaming the factory for all the problems. In the early stage, Doll4Ever smeared our product quality as poor, but our product has been sold for five or six years. It is precisely because our products have superior quality and are recognized by customers that Piper Doll has succeeded. So, his contradictory statements are ridiculous..
Therefore, I particularly emphasize the concept of factories here because some brands, once successful, pursue profit value, find cheaper products, and then falsely accuse us of poor product quality, pushing themselves away completely…
The truth is not deception or slander. All evaluations should be judged by our customers. Customers are God, we are not God, and everything is up to them. We must accept good and bad, and should not exert pressure, guide public opinion, or deceive customers. As you said, let everyone judge this farce. Customers can make rational judgments.”
Conclusion
After rewriting this post many times, I believe that this is the clearest picture thus far. Mizuwali’s story fills in many of the holes, and the “inner circle” in the doll industry (of brands and manufacturers) seems to know all this. Of course, it comes from Mizuwali’s perspective, and Dragonfly likely sees things differently.
In the end, we can more-or-less conclude 2 things. One, within the Chinese legal system, neither side is really right or wrong so this isn’t a legal story. Both sides will continue to coexist. Ironically, Mizuwali said that after cultivating them for 8 years, he is certain that they don’t have what it takes to survive (and become successful). Meanwhile, Dragonfly claimed that he’s the main reason for Doll Forever’s success. An interesting paradox that only time will tell which side truly prevails.
Second, I presented what I believe is the full story (told in Mizuwali’s words but considers both sides). It’s up to you who you want to support. In my opinion, I believe that most people (at least in the West) will side with Mizuwali and Doll Forever, simply because they’re seen as the original designers. It is true that the factory helped make things happen, but after hearing Mizuwali’s story, he played an undeniably large role in the factory’s success. Without his early financial contributions, the factory may never have even existed.
In my opinion, I think that Butterfly Doll will struggle in the current market, but can become successful if they leave Doll Forever’s shadow and find their own identity. Once they start making new and original dolls with the seamless-necks and Platinum TPE that customers love, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Until then, I believe they’re on a rocky path trying to push out products that have existed for years under another brand.
As for Doll Forever, they definitely got the short end of the stick. Butterfly Doll at least has the factory and molds, while Doll Forever has to start all over from scratch. While we can’t know everything that happened behind-the-scenes, this does sound like a tragic betrayal of sorts – “biting the hand that feeds you.” I guess only time will tell which brand comes out on top.
What are your thoughts on the Doll Forever and Butterfly Doll conflict? Comment below!
I want old Eirian coming back to piper doll , serioulsy. best head EVER.
I think Butterfly Doll will sink soon if they don’t start producing their own and original designs. I’ve contacted them as a potential customer and they didn’t even reply.
I agree. One of the things I originally wrote was that without Doll Forever, they lack in promotion, sales, and customer service (which was expected). They were two sides of a coin, and now one side is missing.
Thank you for writing this entirely and presenting the situation. I feel sad for Mizuwali, he’s really deeply hurt…
Finally, I rewrote the post. It’s very wordy, but I tried to present it as fairly and interesting as possible. What are your thoughts? 🤔
I understand why Doll Forever said Mizuwali is “nostalgic [of the past]” now and didn’t want to talk about it.
He also just sent me photos of him supervising and working at the factory in the early days, to prove that what he said is true. Because they contain many faces, I haven’t decided whether to show it yet.
Mizuwali left me with one final heartfelt quote, “This incident also taught me a lot and made me understand the ugliness of human nature better. I think maybe I will fade away after completing my final mission. It is not difficult for me to create, but what is even more difficult is Face humanity.”
Update: Forget about my last comment. This isn’t the end.. In fact, I’m going to completely scrap and re-write this entire post in a few days. Mizuwali finally shared the full story with me, and I think it’s best to re-write the whole thing instead of having these confusing, fragmented chapters.
I just added Chapter 6 and revised the epilogue/final thoughts again.. This is most likely the final version of the post.
As “The Eternal Struggle” suggests, this will probably go on for another 100 chapters unless I end it here. Originally, neither side named each other and simply moved on, until I wrote about it and stirred things up.. Then I got caught in the middle like their mediator or messenger (which was my fault), and spent 2-3 weeks following and writing about this drama.
I have to finish what I started so I shared both sides as fairly as I can, and gave my final opinion. Throughout this, I’ve angered both sides (including some doll owners) for being unbiased (and not blindly following one side). But for those of you who removed your blindfolds, I hope you gained a new perspective on all this.
In the end, despite a story full of holes and gaps, it presented a rather vivid picture of how the doll industry works. Ambiguous agreements, unclear ownership, company drama, and cutthroat practices. So make your own conclusions. My position shifted around multiple times, but in the end as a clueless Westerner looking in, I ultimately remained neutral because no one really knows what happened behind closed doors (not to mention the difference in Chinese laws and culture).
Ah yes, my favorite scene from LOTR where Aragorn sneaks into a silicone doll factory and takes pictures of a trashcan.
I had bought a tpe piper from a vendor i wont name and my piper was one of these sabotaged pipers. She is as durable as tissue paper and gets abrasions and tears just by handling her with microfiber gloves. Seems like my vendor and D4E/Piper isnt going to take accountability or is taking a month or more to even do anything even tho Mizuwali stated piper dolls were sabotaged with low grade lesser tpe which mine fits that bill and i had bought mine at that time this was going on.
Bit of a half-related question, but I saw that Mizuwali now uses their own STPE.
What about Butterfly Doll? Do you know what kind of TPE they use? It got me curious if they were using STPE, but I would guess not if Mizuwali himself just started using it.
Butterfly Doll uses the original Platinum TPE (but the blend changed over time, specifically for Irokebijin, so I don’t know if it’s Piper’s TPE or Irokebijin’s TPE).
Doll Forever’s S-TPE is their new factory’s TPE. A few days ago, someone claimed that Doll Forever moved to Jinsan, and that it’s WM’s S-TPE (he owns both TPE Piper dolls and S-TPE WM dolls). However, I haven’t confirmed this yet.
By the way, that brings up an interesting point.. Whether they moved to Jinsan or not is actually an important piece of the story. I heard rumors a long time ago (maybe a year ago) that they were moving to Jinsan, but never saw any proof to it. If it’s actually true, it fills in some gaps, and explains when and why some things happened.
Thanks for the reply.
Indeed, the timing of the introduction of the S-TPE is almost *too* convenient. But in the end, as outsiders, we can only speculate.
If someone owned both a doll with WM’s new S-TPE and a S-TPE doll just introduced by Mizuwali, we’d be able to make some comparisons, but I guess it’s too early for that… yet !
Honestly always excited to read your articles (I wish someday we can go magazine or something lol).
This was a very well written and thought out report and I like how you didn’t pick sideman as you said show both sides of the story since Ngl, I was on dolls4ever side alittle bit more but I knew that it wasn’t just straight up “factory stole the designs to start their own conpany” and that there was more to the story.
Glad we got an honest update. Keep it up!
Thanks for the kind words. When I started this, I was of course on Mizuwali’s side. But after Butterfly Doll contacted me about the strong accusations, I realized I was too reckless with my words. Despite being a random blogger, I had a responsibility to fact-check, get both sides of the story, and to be as unbiased and fair as possible. After learning a lot about both sides and how factory-brand relationships work in China, I ultimately decided to be neutral.
From a Western perspective, Mizuwali and Doll Forever have ownership and are in the right. But from a Chinese legal perspective, it can go either way. Even morally from a Western perspective, after everything Butterfly Doll (the factory) told and showed me insinuating that they developed everything from scratch (without payment) and were simply “used” by Doll Forever, it’s hard to say who’s right or wrong.
HOWEVER, I hoped that this was the end. I mean, I already wrote the epilogue, and keeping up with this drama (as responsibly as possible) is too time-consuming. But unfortunately, the drama is still ongoing. I was told that something is going to happen (TBA) that will shift the balance. And when or if that happens, I’ll probably delete the epilogue because I won’t be neutral anymore. This is so much more complicated than it seems..
Honestly, I kinda wish I never got involved in this, and even wanted to delete everything that I wrote..
Eeks! This is weird now as I just had my Piperdoll for my youtube channel… I am kinda torn…
No need to feel weird about it. This shouldn’t affect customers; it’s just some internal company drama.
I’ve loved every Piper/D4E doll I’ve owned, so I’m on Team Mizuwali. From what I hear, he’s the main designer for these dolls, so if you want similar dolls, then he’s the one who’s gonna supply more, not the ones passing off someone else’s design as their own.
Who ever sells cheaper is the winner in my eyes.
Drama aside, from a consumer point of view, the claim that the factory used worse quality materials for piperdolls is worrisome, and a shame that one can’t talk about piperdolls freely on TDF to see if this is true.
Maybe some vendor can confirm if they have had more customer complaints about piperdolls lately
That’s probably the most nefarious act in the story. However, without a clear timeline, it’s hard to pinpoint when it happened. It doesn’t make sense that they would sabotage products that they produce and make money from. Maybe quality just naturally declined over time? Butterfly Doll didn’t appear until Nov 2023.
If Doll Forever can give more info or prove that claim, I would more-likely side with Doll Forever. (They didn’t mention it in my emails with them)
I think “thedollchannel” can answer that since he does sell new and used piperdolls before the fiasco/drama.
I had bought my piper like 2 or 3 months ago, she is as durable as tissue paper which isnt how a piper doll should be. She tears and gets abrasions from basic handling with microfiber gloves. This is evident that she was made with this lesser tpe. I also have a D4E doll and she is a tank and i have handled her far more and she has zero damage and i handle her the same way is my piper iris. Every piper owner i talked to says my piper should not be doing that and that they are similar to D4E tpe. I also have a 1+ year old Irokebijin 90cm tpe and she is still like new with no damage. I know what im doing when it comes to caring for my dolls since i have 11.
Sure sounds like a lot of Drama but maybe it’s all for the better… maybe Butterfly Doll will finally make those needed changes that Piper Doll couldn’t be bothered with. Piper Silicone tears way too easily and the Foam-Core inside makes the Dolls stiff and hard. But maybe we will finally see PiperButter girls that are soft AND durable… please consider giving us an option to order your taller Dolls without Foam-Core… thank you very much! 😛
Someone else also mentioned that maybe this drama will wake up Piper Doll from their long slumber. Both sides seem motivated to improve and release new dolls.
Also this is only for their TPE dolls. Piper silicone dolls are made in a different factory and unaffected by this.
By the way, I’m staying far away from anymore doll drama. 😂
Please DONT do that. Lol. You do excellent reporting. You’re one of the few who I can rely on for unbiased opinions in this industry. And when there are thousands of dollars involved, that’s exactly why you are invaluable. Plus, who doesn’t like a little spice in their rice? Keep it up.
Haha thanks. I tried to be as fair and unbiased as possible, but I’m also meddling in things that can hurt companies’ reputations. :/ I try to avoid stuff like that..
The biggest issue is that I don’t know everything that happened behind-the-scenes. I’m presenting a story and picture with holes and gaps in it, but as accurately as possible (leaving out parts that I can’t prove, and mainly just stating what both sides said). Ultimately, both sides are unhappy with me, but maybe that proves that I’m being fair. 😂