Have you noticed that there is a booming market for Uncanny Valley baby dolls?
If you gave this to your 5 year old to play with, she would never, ever have her own children. Because-- aayyayaayyaaa!
This one comes pre-drooled. Uncanny, I tells ya!
This one’s a cheat. It’s not a human baby.
Have you seen any good ones?
The two human baby dolls look … dead. Like dead babies. WTF?
These are called reborns and they aren’t for kids. They are for weird middle age women (from what I can tell). And they are very, very creepy. Google “reborn baby dolls”.
The remind me of the dolls the students carry around, presumably in home ec.
I always scares the shit out of me to walk into a room to work on something filled with the scattered corpses of dead babies.
How much do those dolls sell for? I see potential for a most excellent Halloween scene.
Creepy. Even more creepy, this Wiki before/after image: File:Donna-Lee-Emmaline-comparison.jpg - Wikipedia
(I’m sorry.)
I’m reminded of a Beatles album cover.
Is that what whoever’s making these things originally intended, though? I saw a TV show about women who treat such dolls as if they were real children a few years ago. It wasn’t until just a few weeks ago I ever saw one “in the wild.” A lady in the grocery store had two in her cart. My first thought was that those babies were really tiny to be holding their own heads up. As she chattered away at them asking which flavor whatever they wanted I realized they were synthetic people.
Can anyone explain the baby orangutan in a way that will make sense to me?
Perhaps more true than you realize. The Wiki article says they are sometimes used to “replace” infants that have died.
One word: Zira.
What, you mean this one? 
I’m trying to peel off the top layer of my monitor.
I’m not getting this album cover with your link, CPI but I think that may be the one you meant, yes?
I recently saw an A&E? TLC? show about strange collections and there was a woman who had a whole house full of dolls-- plus a husband and daughter. When a new doll came it was it’s ‘birthday’ and the whole family had to celebrate right along with crazy momma.
Totally forgot about that show until I read miss elizabeth’s post.
I had a similar prank idea, but the doll was too expensive. They run from $200 and up. Sometimes WAY up.
A friend of mine is completely afraid of dolls and gets insanely creeped out by them. We watched a documentary about these reborns (and the strange women who have them) and he was dying. At the time, his wife was pregnant, and we thought it would be awesome to get the doctor in on a prank where, after the baby was born and taken to the back to be weighed, it was replaced by one of these dolls, and then handed to him. Unfortunately, the dolls all cost more than we were willing to spend at the time (although, now I regret that…), and it never happened. Anyway, if you;re willing to shell out the cash, i think they present many great prank opportunities.
I’ve never understood the attraction of these dolls. Then again, I’ve never wanted even a real one of my own. Add to that they remind me of memento mori photos… blech.
MichaelEmouse– A couple of my friends are child psychology/family living teachers (home ec. has gone the way of the dodo in most schools), and would probably loan one out to a friend. Ironically, you’d have to promise your first born child because they cost a few hundred bucks, are prone to break downs, and in short supply most of the time.
Also, they don’t move, just make noise. At least regular toy babies come in drinking/peeing varieties.
I saw that British show about the Real Girl dolls–you know, the lifelike, hugely expensive sex companions? For 30 seconds I thought, “Hmmm, maybe I should get a lifelike replica of, say, Errol Flynn or Hugh Jackman,” and then I realized the line between that and having the corpse of your murder victim lying around is very thin.
I remember reading a couple years ago about a woman who had left one of these in a carseat in while she went in to do her shopping, and was angry when she came back to emergency personnel and a broken window.
I knit/crochet newborn hats and blankets used as photography props. I wanted one of those reborn dolls to use as a mannequin until I found out (1) how much they cost, and (2) that you have to assemble, paint, buy eyeballs, insert hair, blah blah blah. They’re just creeeepy.
I don’t think they’re that bad in the pictures. Uncanny valley more kicks in when you see them not moving.
I thought the OP’s first link was a live kid sleeping. Looks quite real. The second one looks more dead than sleeping.
[anecdote]
The woman next door is a slightly odd SuperMom in her late 40s. Her bio kids are now about 16, 18, and 20, and all doing pretty well. 1 average, 2 winners, no l00zers. For years I’ve thought SuperMom is gonna have a post-partum depressive crisis when the last kid leaves the house. Either that or run off from her husband & live the rest of her life as a wild free spirit, happy at last.
For her most recent birthday her kids got her the orang doll at the 3rd of the OP’s links. Which she proudly carried around for a few days & showed to all the neighbors. She was doing it jokingly, but somehow the delivery was off-key. Like she was making a joke to convince herself it was really a joke, but she didn’t believe herself that she was really joking.
I’m glad to report I haven’t seen the thing since. So she may have dodged that bullet. For now.
All in all, it didn’t improve my estimation of her stability.
[/anecdote]
