Unboxing Xycolo XC-163/A body style with ›Vala‹ head

Regarding the shipping procedure, this doll was shipped with SF Express and Fedex. This time, the shipment arrived in one part. If a shipping agent was involved is unknown.

Packaging. Similar to the XC-170 from January, the cardboard box with the doll was very similar to the boxes used for most other dolls: a neutral brown-grey box without logos printed on the outside.

Measurements for the shipped box are about 155 x 46 x 38 cm. Weight is 35,7 kg with the straps, without the straps about 0,5 kg less (~35,2 kg).

Except for the usual dents and scratches, the box did not indicate unusually rough handling or damages.

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On top of the box is a cardboard:

The walls of the box are reinforced with a (rather thin) layer of styrofoam. Below the cardboard there is also a layer of styrofoam:

Unlike the shipment from January, the doll's body does not rest in a styrofoam structure and is not protected from moving around in the box.

Below the styrofoam layer, there are some small styrofoam 'bricks'. The body is enclosed in strong bubble wrap…

… and a blue sleeping bag:

Unlike the shipment from January, the head side of the box is not reinforced with a plywood board.

Also, there is no plush blanket inside the box.

To summarize, the doll is protected sufficiently, but not exceptionally well like, for example, Sino-doll's molded padding.

As always, there is some room for enhancement. What I would like to see in this case is a bit more stability and more efforts to tighter lock the doll in place.

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Like (too) many other Chinese doll makers, Xycolo does not include usage instructions.

The lack of any printed documentation is a bit puzzling as in the January shipment, Xycolo supplied some instructions.

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Inside the box is a small carton and a little blue bag:

Inside the carton is the head, and inside the bag are the accessories.

The Scope of Supply is very similar to other Chinese silicone doll makers. The doll comes with

• a wig,
• a hang tool, and
• a set of (pretty) underwear.

If you ordered the insert variant, there also will be an insert. That's it.

The wig:

The outfit:

The neck hook:

The included accessories are similar to what you get from Doll Sweet or Gynoid Tech – the bare essentials, but nothing more, especially no material/skin tone samples and no silicone adhesive.

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Peeling a new doll out of her wrapping is always a special moment – and a moment where you get the first idea how close the doll is to what you had in mind.

That's how the Xycolo XC-163/C looks when uncovered from her sleeping bag:

As well the hands as the feet are additionally wrapped in some padding:

Smell. Similar to the January shipment, this doll has almost no noticable smell when taking her out of the box. Only in closest proximity to the skin surface a faint silicone smell is recognizable.

It's pretty clear that this silicone blend can be recommended for anybody who is sensitive to chemical smell.

Addendum: mi6c, the owner of this doll, mentioned that he noticed a faint but disturbing smell when he had the head in close proximity on his desk. He can not identify what the smell is, it is not common solvent like ethanol, propanol, or aceton. After cleaning the doll in the bathtub, he say that the smell persisted.

However, even if there is a faint smell, it is by far not comparable to a TPE doll which fills the whole room with her odor when unpacking her shipping box.

Oil leakage. There is very minimal oil leakage, much less than the oil leakage on other current silicone dolls from China. Even after handling the doll for a couple of hours I didn't feel the urge to wash my heands from 'grease'. I think no other current silicone blend has that little oil leakage; the closest is Doll Sweet blend from my 2018 Evo. I definitely do like the haptics.

The lack of oil leakage also suggests, that this silicone blend might not be very shiny. That would qualify her for photography, similarily like Doll Sweet's S-level makeup.

Softness. As the low weight suggests, the Xycolo dolls from the XCOS ('organic silicone') lineup have massive foam cores for weight reduction, so they are not tweaked for softness. The first impression confirms this. The synthetic flesh feels like firm muscle tissue. Generally, I like this, but if you are after a silicone doll with softness comparable to nowadays TPE dolls, Sino-doll or Maidlee Doll might be better choices for you. And in this case, the breasts are very firm, too. They feel as if they have exactly the same hardness as the surrounding silicone. Even for my taste, that is a little bit too much hardness. The last time I have encountered such hard breasts was in a Dreamdoll (2015) and in the first generation on Z-Onedolls (2016).

In comparison, a Doll Sweet DS-163 has a similarily petite body shape and small breasts. But the small DS breasts are quite soft and feel different from the rest of the body. I have no idea why Xycolo decided against gel implants and I consider this a potential deal breaker for many customers.

Last but not least, the weight. Compared to life-sized TPE dolls or the smaller 165 cm and 162 cm silicone dolls from Gynoid Tech and Sino-doll, the Xycolo's XC-163/C feels like a flyweight, very similar to Doll Sweet's petite DS-163 and clearly easily managable. Without having her put on a scale yet, I think this is one the most lightweight doll you can find in this size range.

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The first impressions are a bit subjective, so let's move to some hard facts, the accordance to specifications.

Body height.

Body height from heels to the top of the head is approximately 164 cm, so the specified hights specs are fully within range.

Breasts: ~81 cm (= like specified); under bust: ~68 cm (like specified); waist ~58 cm (like specified); hips ~87-88 cm (specified: 87 cm).

Measurements by mi6c.

So the current size specification for this doll match precisely.

Breast size and under bust circumference give a calculated cup size 70A [EU], so I will change the bodie's label to accomodate for that.

Body weight.

Since very few dolls from China match their specified weight, the actual question was: How much heavier would she be?

Here is the answer:

Without head:

24,8 kg without head (= within specified range)

With head attached:

27,2 kg with head attached (= deviation less than +5% which is excellent)

Head with stand:

Head without wig or stand:

The Vala head weights about 2,4 kg which makes it one of the heaviest silicone heads I have encountered so far. It is about 0,5 kg heavier than the Yinan head from January.

About 2 kg is a normal weight for a life-sized silicone head, a higher weight indicates either a very big head or a solid silicone design without a foam core (as seen in Happy Doll's silicone heads).

For a life-sized doll with about 163 cm body height, a real weight of around 27 kg is quite good and clearly an impressive accomplishment in weight reduction. A doll wich such a low weight is conveniently managable even for 'weak males' but not too lightweight (like an inflatable). So in regard to weight, Xycolo scores big time.

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The Vala head is, exactly like in the January shipment, packaged in a separate carton (see above).

Also, the face is seriously protected and comes with the same face shield as in the January shipment:

Also like in the January shipment, the head comes with a fully functional head stand:

These are some usefull goodies as these parts are re-usable. Collectors will have good use for the head stand, and in a virus pandemic, a face shiled might come in handy in everiday life.

Opposed to Gynoid Tech, Xycolo does everything imaginable to protect the head from injuries. It sits tight on the stand within the separate cardboard box, so it can neither roll around nor get in contact with other parts. This is the most thorough way to ship a separate head I have ever seen.

The head itself is made of a firm silicone, similar to Doll Sweet heads with S-level makeup or a Gynoid Tech head.

The face is stunning:

The facial makeup has a ton of details, including freckles. Visually, the facial makeup appears to be on par with Doll Sweet's S-level makeup or a Gynoid Tech head.

Similarity between the delivered head and it's depictions on promotion photos is clearly recognizable. There is definitely no guessing required if you got the right head. It looks just like on Xycolo's promotion photos.

The eyes are supposed to be movable, but they do not move easily. Since this is not my own head I haven't poked around, but in this regard Gynoid Tech's eye mechanism is by far superior.

The Vala head does not have an oral cavity, and obviously it can not be used for oral sex. Though, the lips are slightly open, and there are beautifully white upper teeth. The mouth looks alive and beautiful:

As well eyelashes as eyebrows are stitched as ordered.

The manufacturing quality of the head is flawless, and it appears to be of a significantly higher quality than the Yinan head from January.

Imho, the quality of this Vala head is outstanding: Fully on par with Doll Sweet's S-level makeup and mostly on a level with Gynoid Tech.

Though there is a little reservation: Xycolo heads do not have a spring-based eye mechanism. The eyeballs rest in half-shells, similar to heads by Orient Industry. The line of sight can be adjusted with a tool like an eraser pen, but it's by far not as precise and conventient like Gynoid Tech's outstanding eye mechanism. So again, there is some room for improvement.

It will be most interesting to see more heads from Xycolo for a broader comparison, but I expect that there will be an unusually high level of consistency. The face is one of Xycolo's strengths, as well as packaging as manufacturing quality is concerned.

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Let's take a look at the skeleton and the neck connector.

Compared with Doll Sweet, Xycolo has the connections reversed. The spigot part belongs to the head, and the slot part belongs to the body. I don't know if there are functional benefits of either approach. I might be just a matter of choice.

However, a noteweworthy detail is that all Xycolo dolls come with a serial number laser-engraved on the body side of the connector:

So finally there is – after Doll Sweet – the 2nd doll maker from China who actually uses serial numbers. Outstanding!

The neck connector itself works the other way around than most others: The spigot part sits in the head.

Head part of Xycolo's neck connector:

For whatever reason, the heads seems not to lock in when attached to the body. The result is that the head does not sit very firm on the body, respectively there is a little gap:

This definitely needs further investigation; maybe a harder push onto the head is required.

Addendum: According to mi6c, the connector works better after cleaning the inside which is filled with silicone/manufacturing residue.

Also noteworthy: The head does not have a serial number engraved.

Regarding the skeleton, it does what it is supposed to do. But it does not excel to the degree which would be suggested by the skillfull design.

When this XC-163/C way laying on her back, we slightly raised her legs. The hip joints did not have enough tightness to keep this pose. I guess other joints might be similarily semi-loose by default. Xycolo has already mentioned the possibility to request "tighter than more tight joints".

Only time will tell how long the joints can keep their posability. However, I am not entirely thrilled how the skeleton feels when handling the doll.

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Similar to the XC-170 from January, the XC-163's feet are beautifully sculpted, too:

The feet have an appealing shape with lots of details, and the toes are cleanly separated. Nice!

Also, the ankle joints can be bent and tilted in any way one would expect: Rotate sideways, bend for high heels and so on.

Since we already tried to make the XC-170 without standing option stand on her own feet, we did not repeat this experiment a second time. We assume that Xycolo's XC-163/C can similarily stand on her own feet, even if she is not specified for standing, as long as her feet are supported with shoes or boots.

However, that does not mean that we would recommend to let this doll stand for weeks or months. If this is a requirement, get the standing option.

Noteworthy for such experiments is that the XC-163's heels are among the softest parts of this doll. Actually, the heels feel softer than the belly, the butt, or the thighs. The reason for this is that there is no foam core in the foot, it's just solid silicone and the foot plate.

Considering reliable standing, the opposite would be desirable – the heels and the balls should be as firm as possible.

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Xycolo is the the second Chinese doll maker who offers hinged/jointed fingers. The approach from Gyoid Tech was quite impressive. So how good are Xycolo's articulated fingers?

Visually, the XC-163's hands are beautiful and appear strong. They are aesthetically appealing and look natural, though they might not qualify as petite.

Without using force, that is about how far the finger joints can bend:

Compared with Gynoid Tech's approach there are a couple of differences. On GT's GT-165, the finger bones are made of plastic; on the XC-163, metal is used. I am not sure if metal provides tangible benefits, at least I could not make out advantages of Xycolo's approach, rather the opposite.

Also, on the GT-165, all fingers are jointed; on the XC-163, the little finger is using wires. And, the pinky on the GT is functional, meaning: the joints are strong enough to bend the surrounding silicone. Overall, I'd tend to say that GT's jointed fingers are a little bit more advanced than Xycolos. However, it is possible that the metal joints are more durable – time will tell.

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