Happy New Year! It’s officially 2026, but rather than a bang, the new year started on an empty lot, with no bang bus in sight. Perhaps, name-brands were celebrating or taking it easy after a long year because mainly smaller brands showed up this week. I thought about taking a break too, but even when there’s nothing, there’s always something. Therefore, let’s not fall behind, and keep the doll train rolling. Without further ado, let’s quickly breeze through an incredibly mixed bag on news.
Irontech Doll
First, Irontech shared new photos of their Oriental Series 153E Yuna (ROS Max). Keeping their Asian series going, they gave her a blushy and realistic makeover. For some reason, they love using this body, which I find a bit too thick for the Oriental Series.
Speaking of Irontech, Woodyex (a brilliant photographer behind many Doll Senior photos) shared a set of Irontech’s 158T Kitty. Lovely Japanese-inspired photos with some nice posing.
Erovenus
Checking back in on Erovenus, they have 3 new heads on various torsos. These heads, in particular, really resemble Irontech and Real Lady’s style.
XT Doll
One of the more active brands this week, XT Doll released 2 new heads, starting with their latest Girlfriend Series head #1, Lulu. Compared to Ami last week, I don’t know how to feel about this one; I think the eye color is throwing me off. While she doesn’t look bad, the eyes make her seem a bit unnatural or generic.
Outside of the Fantasy Girlfriend series, they also released a new head called Joy on their recent 153I body. Much like Katie (who debuted on this body), she has a cuteish, dollish – almost animeish – style. Like Alita: Battle Angel in an alternate Japanese universe. Her under eyelids are a bit weird though which I can’t unsee.
Fanreal
Fanreal shared new photos of their 168F Kelly (ROS). Kind of more of the same, but she’s never had a hairstyle like this before. She wasted no time stripping down in this classroom.
MMX Doll
Maybe one day MMX will release their Christmas photos, but until then, they shared more photos of their 165cm Mengsha. These aren’t edited so they’re a pretty good representation of how she looks, though still well-posed and photographed.
FUDOLL
FUDOLL teased their first-ever anime head. Interesting to see every brand’s slightly different take on anime. Unfortunately, the pale or washed-out colors here somewhat saps the life out of her. Maybe that’s more of a photography issue since the style itself isn’t too bad.
They also shared some early Chinese New Year photos featuring various dolls. Now that Christmas is over, CNY is likely the next big photo theme coming up.
They also shared more photos of their recent torso with Sally head this time. It’s kind of trippy how they make it look like she’s floating.
Jiusheng
Jiusheng teased an upcoming tattoo option for their silicone dolls. For a limited time, they have an event in China, where the tattoos are hand-painted by professional tattoo artists for free. They claim the tattoos will never fade.
Softness Video
Climax Doll
Continuing to push their ULW (Ultra Lightweight) series, Climax Doll released 2 new silicone heads: Morgan and Jenna. Shown on various ULW torsos, their designs are getting noticeably better in my opinion.
Also, here’s a new set with the existing head, Tasha.
Aibei
Speaking of returning series, Aibei’s silicone Luxe series introduced a new head called Grace (ROS). With heavy makeup, she has a pretty and dollish look that’s pleasant to look at.
Top Fire Doll
Meanwhile, Top Fire Doll released a new head called Bella. Continuing their luxury/high-end photography, she has an old-fashioned, but alluring aesthetic.
Yearndoll
Yearndoll teased an upcoming silicone 156E body. From the close-up photos, it appears to have Real Skin Texture, though they only mentioned makeup/body paint. They said by default, it’s 32 kg (70.5 lbs), but with weight-reduction, they can lower it to 25 kg (55 lbs).
They also released a new anime doll (which I won’t show due to risky height), but it continues suggesting that anime dolls aren’t heavily scrutinized. Though, some other brands like Mozu Doll have been even more cautious lately (by stopping production and shipping of all dolls under 150cm as of yesterday) – so still lots of conflicting preventative measures.
Sexye
While scouring for news, I stumbled upon a new head from Sexye called Shi Ya. This is a very old brand that TDF members used to order from Aliexpress, so I’m surprised to see them still alive. Currently, Sexye is heavily pushing their new “color series/system” which sounds like an integrated or external AI chatbot.
SGD Studio
SGD Studio teased that their next figure will be none other than Fatal Fury/KOF’s Mai Shiranui. Another iconic character, though Mai feels really overdone lately.. With every brand pursuing the exact same characters, from Tifa to Mai, it’s getting a bit repetitive (even if the character choice is good). I want to see her in her iconic stance and outfit though.
Dream Star
Speaking of Mai Shiranui, Dream Star just released one as well (though I can’t tell if it’s actually new or not; they just mentioned new makeup). This is different from the other figure brand, Minova. The face seems a bit plain, but they nailed her curvy figure.
No Brand
Last but not least, 2026 kicked off with a new “AI robotic head” – this time, from a random, unbranded factory. Well, I say “robotic” loosely since this head doesn’t actually move or anything. However, it does have an AI chatbot built-in (with speakers) – and it’s possibly the first non-anime head with “Electronic Eyes” (the little screens that play eye animations). The face is decent, though the TPE body looks very simple. Funny to see vendors call these “AI sexbots” – which in some ways, they’re not wrong, but I hope a brand brings real meaning to this term in 2026.
Video 1
Video 2
Head port and speakers
Conclusion
That wraps up a cold and chilly New Year without much to see. Brands have seemingly been taking it easy for a while now, and with CNY is coming up (in about a month), the breaks never end. Despite not much news, there were clear trends of Asian dolls and anime, with foreshadowing of more weight-reduction and AI/robotics to come. If there are unbranded AI heads popping up, it’s only a matter of time before name-brands actually release theirs. Maybe next week, name-brands will release their (hopefully) piling storm of updates. Until next time!
Thoughts on a quiet New Year with mostly smaller brands? Comment below!
Apparently the latest SGD figure won’t feature any adult orientated material, which according to some twitter commenters who contacted the company, means not even any nipples or details down below. They said it was due to an industry crackdown. Its a massive shame if true as I would have loved to get more of these figures. The company isn’t very transparent and didn’t even mention this on the site, so I imagine they’re going to have a lot of unhappy customers once they ship.
Do you know anything further about this? I haven’t heard any news of a crackdown of adult figures.
I saw this and it’ll be in my next news post. They do vaguely mention it on their website listing but it’s unclear whether there’s truly no nipples and genitals or if they’re just protecting themselves on paper. Need to see the figures nude to know for sure.
I think it is related to the crackdowns (but as mentioned before, it’s mostly preventative actions). The reason I think it’s related is because their listing says something like “not for people under 18” which was one of the new disclaimer guidelines on Chinese marketplace websites. The only thing I heard about figures is inspectors visited some factories and told them not to make the packaging sexually explicit. I didn’t hear much else but I think it’s mostly preventative (it’s basically safer to do it this way, but as mentioned before, need to see the figure naked to know for sure).
Ahh thanks, I just saw your article about the small dolls, so it is making more sense now. I really hope it works itself out as these are obviously scaled down adults and are more figures than dolls. I think they should get rid of the sexual function they added for the 002 model, as the silicone is too hard for the hole to be used as intended anyway. It just adds more risk, with no benefit and ends up gaping when posing the doll without clothing.
I look forward to reading your next post about it.
The new FUDOLL anime head looks much better than other recent offerings from other brands, but it still just can’t quite measure up to EB (it’s far closer, though). Still much better than IB’s latest heads.
The new Morgan torso from CLM looks incredibly sexy. They really nailed her face.
Wild that Yearndoll can get that body down to 55LBs with weight reduction. The industry is slowly making progress…
I think the MMX photoshoot wins the week for me. It’s so refreshing to see more natural, unedited photos. Mengsha looks so real!
Any news on XT’s “new soft silicone” used for fantasy girlfriend and whether it’s actually new?
That 153 ITD looks stunning. If only they had the jiggle and wiggle in the breast area like SLE 3.0 or IDOdoll or MMXdoll… That’s my wish! How you been Steven? There’s a blizzard here where I live 😛 pretty thicc snowstorm… the wife is now working from home and I… well… I am always home lol.
I’m doing well, but I just caught a cold recently so that kind of sucks lol. Stay safe!
Get well soon homie!
The option with mini-screens in the eyes is interesting, but I wonder what will happen if such a screen fails))
Maybe they can be replaced with new screens or regular eyes. Would definitely suck if they failed after paying extra for them.
Quiet indeed.
And i agree: Enough of Tifa and Mai, there are MANY other hot gamingcharacters to choose from.
Its not only the “fake” blue eyes, XT needs to improve their head designs. XT is top tier in body tech. features but their heads are not and its the main reason why i did not choose XT for my first doll. Huge fan of their 163 Ultra body though
Yeah, I was going through XT’s catalog a while back and I noticed none of their heads really stand out. They all have a similar, cute-ish big-eyed look that I think won’t appeal to many people. Kind of sad since as you said, they have innovative tech and good weight reduction.
Also how many more Tifas, Mais, and Chun Li’s before we get some new characters? 😆
I’m really surprised we don’t have an actual Meru doll from anyone. And no the perverted version of doll’s castle doesn’t count 🤣. Where’s the witcher females? The overwatch females are quite popular too.
Do you mean the one from Climax Doll? I think they have the closest one.
Gotta give credit to Game Lady since they’ve done the most game characters so far, including Witcher and Overwatch (D.va) characters. But despite more “1/3 scale” game characters lately, it seems most full-sized brands are still avoiding copyrighted stuff. It seems gaming dolls never quite took off in the doll industry despite Game Lady’s virality.
It’s not full scale, but MRL offers a Meru minidoll that is an official collaboration with Meru’s artist. She looks incredibly faithful to her key art (though her usability is still TBD)…I do know a bunch of people who bought her simply because they are huge Meru fans.
One nice thing about MRL is that their minidolls actually have long channels. Probably the only minidoll brand that actually does.
Yes, i saw the the MRL one and stopping myself only in the hope that one day, sooner than later, we’re gonna see the same but on a 140-160 body. I’m sure some people would buy one too.