Re: Show Kateryna and Vera Some Love! My Zelex 170 and 172 Review and Photos
Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 1:10 am
Any news on the arrival of Vera? I'm curious as to how the heads of the two new dolls feel.
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Adventurer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:53 am Chapter 7: A Touch of Vera - some thoughts on this newfangled SLE material
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Vera, my 172 SLE has been with me for only a few days but I'm already quite impressed by her. So today's review update will continue with a few preliminary observations about the SLE material. The TL;DR is that SLE silicone seems like a very nice choice of materials for a quite wide range of activities, especially for the price.
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SLE as a material is quite easy on the senses. It's soft of course, roughly comparable to ultra-soft silicones from at least one manufacturer that I'm familiar with, but it seems to come with far fewer compromises than other silicone blends. Naturally, my experience with silicone being what it is, I'd recommend deferring to the opinion of those with more exposure to silicone dolls if you have your concerns.
In my (limited) experience and from what I gather poking around this forum, softer silicone also typically means far less durable silicone. It seems to be one of the major points of compromise or balance points in doll technology these days. Some blends seem to get this balance within a sensible range, choosing durability over touch or touch over durability but all within reason. Other manufacturers fail to achieve a decent balance in this regard.
One super silicone soft doll I owned was so fragile that it was prone to splitting under its own weight. She was a gorgeous doll, and I miss her for many reasons, but the truth is I spent far more time repairing her than playing, photographing, or anything else. She was just that fragile.
This particular doll also needed constant powdering because she'd develop an unrealistic sheen about every 20 minutes or so because she was so incredibly oily. These sorts of makeup and powder interruptions get pretty frustrating when you're in the middle of an extended photo session, but oiliness seems to be a byproduct of softness in so many cases.
Vera does not significantly suffer from either of these issues. So far, she's proven to be far more resistant to splitting than my other super soft silicone doll. She's sustained no damage from either intimate play or posing or... well... um... dropping.
I clumsily dropped Vera and Kateryna simultaneously during a photoshoot today. They lost balance while standing, tumbled face-first into a piece of furniture, and then flopped on the ground with tremendous force. I was mortified, thinking they'd both be split, marred, have wrecked hands, and so on. Thankfully the damage was minimal on both girls. Vera suffered a crease in her forehead and a finger poke. I was most concerned about her forehead of course. Thankfully, I found that some vigorous stretching and massaging of the area caused the dent to almost entirely recede. The SLE bounded back into place exceptionally well and earned some points for durability in this particular "drop test." Of course, these observations are based on a short-term perspective and from my own mishaps, so perhaps I will need to revisit this aspect in the future. Longevity certainly matters and there's only one test that will ultimately prove value in this area; time.
Vera's overall feel is quite good. To the touch, SLE is a very satisfying level of softness. It's not as soft as most TPE blends although it is certainly far softer than some, including Zelex's TPE blend. SLE is a fairly squishy material but offers some decent resistance to squeezing. Honestly not extremely different in feel from Kateryna's blend, perhaps a few degrees softer, but Zelex's traditional silicone blend needs some credit in this category as well.
As far as my personal opinion goes, I think there is such a thing as a too-soft doll. Super soft dolls may be great for sex, assuming they can withstand it, but they don't feel particularly realistic around the rest of the body. I tend to appreciate firmer torsos, extremities, and even heads, all to a point of course, because having a variety of densities enhances so much of the experience.
Between the two, Kateryna (a 170c) has a better feel around areas where you'd want less softness (e.g. the extremities) while Vera feels a bit nicer around the squishy bits. Frankly, Vera's ass is the best and most realistic I've felt on any doll ever. Her breasts are soft, but not appreciably softer than Kateryna's, but Vera's arms, hands, feet, etc. are a bit too soft to feel real and are perhaps overly squishy. It's a trade-off. I imagine most buyers will be more interested in softness in the bits most relevant to sexual play, and Vera emphatically checks that box.
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The 172 SLE also does vary firmness generally quite well across the body. The ribs are quite firm, the hands and feet are at least a little harder, her head feels great, thighs are somewhat hard but feel a bit like tensed muscle. Overall, it feels like Vera's engineers were quite cognizant of the importance of not simply producing a blob of jiggle loosely attached to a metal frame. Instead, they used a variety of techniques and materials beneath the surface to produce a much more realistic effect, which in my view far surpasses the body feel of most if not all TPE dolls.
One suggestion I'll throw out there is to extend the range of the harder silicone blend that makes up the hands to further up the arm so that the forearms especially have a denser feel. It's a tiny nitpicky thing, but it could work, maybe.
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As for SLE's oil content, I did have to apply powder to Vera shortly after opening the box. Since that one application, I have not had to repeat that to tamp down her sheen since then. If I had to guess, powdering is probably an optional part of a weekly or bi-weekly maintenance schedule if you want to maintain a matte look to the skin of and SLE doll. Overall, I'd say that's a major positive development in soft silicone materials.
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Staining too seems about as rare as other silicones I've experienced, but it's too early for me to tell.
What's truly mind-boggling here is the price of this material. Zelex's prices are good across the board if you find the right vendor, but at significantly under 2k, this material is a steal. Stronger, more durable, and has a better overall feel than TPE for just a smidge more than TPE costs. There might be a case to make for TPE dolls that you're going to take out, fuck vigorously, and then put back in the closet, but if you're interested in a bit more than that, say you want better skin detail, more options for dress up, or even a more realistic feel overall, then SLE seems to be the way to go.
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Soon(ish) I'd like to go into greater depth comparing the SLE blend to Zelex's traditional silicone because I think there's a fair amount to say about that, but this post has already grown beyond my original intent so that will have to wait.
Thanks for sticking with this review so far. I hope you're enjoying reading it as much as I'm enjoying putting it together! Please let me know if there's any aspect of either of these two dolls you're curious about and would like me to comment on!