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Vice Blog

STUFFED TOYS FOR BIG BOYS

We're sure you all remember the VBS episode we did about people fucking dolls in Tokyo. It was great, but we're a little worried that we may have perpetuated the belief that doll play is just for advanced Japanese perverts and bearded tourists. Dave Hockey from Kentville, Nova Scotia is here to help us discourage that perception. Dave is a friendly filmmaker, husband, and father of two who enjoys quality time with his wife, gathering firewood, and collecting life-sized dolls in which he dips his dingus. We were tipped off about Mr. Hockey by our fellow Vice staff in Romania when he made the news over there for taking a doll on vacation instead of his wife. We wasted no time tracking him down. When we finally got him on video chat he introduced us to his harem and talked about his film The Doll Chronicles while speaking about subjects as diverse as porn stars, doll rape, and cavemen fucking trees. He seems to have life pretty figured out, and with 20 dolls to choose from, we're certain that Mr. Hockey is going to score.

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Vice: First and foremost, how many dolls do you have?
Dave Hockey: There are a lot of different types of dolls out there. I have Bianca, the famous one from the movie Lars and the Real Girl. They used three dolls for the production and the other two are owned by the director and Ryan Gosling. Then there's Jessica Drake 001, the very first Jessica Drake doll out of the factory. I've also been in personal contact with the real adult film star Jessica Drake and she is very anxious to help support my documentary. There's Samantha who is a "Teddy Babe," which means she's stuffed, not silicone. Teddy Babes are very cuddly. Samantha was one of my first two dolls. I went out to Vegas in hopes of getting some footage for my documentary, and I was having so much fun carrying her around all day with her arms wrapped around my neck. I got so much unexpected attention from female porn stars.

That's probably the best thing I've ever heard in my life, but please, keep going.
Well not only that, but all sorts of girls stopped me being like "can we have our picture taken with the dolls?" It made for a lot of conversation. I even made a shirt that said "Teddy Babe-Magnet."

Why not, right?
Do you want to know how to get men to really appreciate what it's like to be a woman? Get them to buy one of these dolls and have them look after it.

Like in high school health class when they simulate a baby using an egg to scare kids away from premarital sex?
I guess. It's not like having a girlfriend and it's not just a sex toy. People want to display them but it's like having a quadriplegic who can't talk. You have to do everything for it.

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That seems like a lot of work.
Yeah, it is a lot of work. Do you wear nylons?

Yep, most human women do.
Just getting a set of nylons on these things is hard. I also get high heels custom made by a man I met on a doll forum. One time when I ordered a doll it came anatomically incorrect, which was annoying.

Anatomically incorrect?
She didn't even have any eyes.

Come on, that's bullshit. You can't hang out with a girl with no eyes.
Yeah well I'm not going to complain. I've met some very nice blind people.

So when is your documentary coming out?
We're trying to commission it right now. The trailers are out there, but it may only air next fall. If we don't get a broadcaster we're going to hit the festival circuit to get it out. When I started this it was never my intention to do it on a monetary basis, it was more a get-my-feet-wet thing to establish myself by making a documentary in a very competitive market. It's turning out a lot better then I expected.

I can tell by your extensive collection of dolls.
Well the dolls are really secondary to the social experience of it all. I've always been sort of a human rights activist so this isn't about discrimination toward people having sex with dolls, it's more about what leads to people wanting to use dolls to begin with.

So do you have sex with your dolls?
I've tried them out.

Why not, I guess. Girls use dildos.
Exactly. Sex toys are sex toys. And sex toys are very popular. Dolls weren't really anything that turned me on initially, it just seems like a logical progression. The oldest sex toy in the history of mankind is the hand. I bet cave men even looked for a tree with a hole in it and hoped there wasn't anything inside.

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The original glory hole. Back to my earlier question, how many dolls do you have in total? Counting the Teddy Babes and ones that I don't use for sexual purposes, I have 20 dolls.

What did that cost?
You're probably looking at around $24,000, but they're a tax write-off for me because I claim them as props. Luckily the government isn't hanging out in my bedroom to see if I'm using them.

Do your dolls have personalities?
Well I'm a fantasy gamer. I'm into roll playing games like Dungeons & Dragons so I'm used to fabricated personalities. I'm also a creative person. My doll Jenny has a strong personality because of the documentary. Nina, one of my Teddy Babes is a bit of the jealous type. Jessica Drake is a porn star. Bianca has a personality because I play her on my doll forum. She has her own account and is a side owner.

So a doll owns part of your forum?
Yes, basically. I mean, if she could be on the school board in Lars and the Real Girl she certainly can help out with my forum. She's a quiet personality and I'm the loud side. Sometimes I blow someone a kiss and forget that it's not Bianca, it's me! It's just roll playing though. It's like acting. I don't have a multiple personality disorder as the forum sometimes suggests.

What about your wife? Is she one hundred percent cool with all of this?
I wouldn't say one hundred percent. She sometimes finds the dolls a little bit creepy, but they aren't affecting our marriage in any way. She doesn't mind the Teddy Babes. When you put one on each side of you it's like insulation in the winter. She helps me buy clothes for them, but the general rule is "the dolls stay downstairs." It may even be a positive influence on our marriage because I appreciate what it's like to be a woman since I have to take care of the dolls. You can learn a lot really, they're good trainers and I respect them. There are all sorts of inanimate objects in life that we control, but put a face on it, and all of a sudden there are people out there with tunnel vision who assume that anyone who owns a doll thinks it's real and tries to have a real relationship with it. People seem to be preconditioned to be judgmental, and that shouldn't be. Only 50 percent of doll owners use the dolls primarily for sex. I also find that the people I meet within this culture are more caring and giving than most people I meet anywhere else. Even if I didn't own a doll I'd stay within this culture because I've made some really great friends.

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You mentioned to me in your first email that you had a glimpse into what it was like to be raped when someone violated one of your dolls, care to explain? I would never compare it to the rape of a real woman, but what happened was a partner of mine picked up my doll, Jenny, with a gentleman from my forum named "Keith Alan." Keith didn't like me very much me, due to my involvement in the community so he was a bit hostile. My partner gave Keith permission to try MY doll even though he knew Keith and I were at odds with each other. Later on I went on to the forum to moderate and I got an IM from Keith saying "I fucked Jenny." I was like, whoa.

Yeah, that's your girl!
Well let's just put it this way, if someone defecated on my car seat I would have been just as pissed. It was my doll and I felt violated. What's less cool is that someone had sex with my doll and didn't tell me about it and with all the diseases floating around out there, I should know. Usually we enter a process called re-virgination, which is cleaning the doll after it's been used, and I don't know if that was done. Until this day I haven't gotten an apology from Keith Alan.

Fuck that guy.
Pretty much.

How did you get into dolls in the first place? I guess I just saw a link online, "Stuffed Toys for Big Boys," and it intrigued me. Then I see all these men in the media surrounded by gorgeous women, like Hugh Hefner, while I'm working on documentaries talking about combating bowel cancer with flax. I figured since I normally work alone it would be OK to have some personalities around, and when I looked at them they made me smile.

Any final thoughts? What's wrong with a man collecting dolls? People shouldn't look at it and automatically think it's just a sex toy. You don't look at a knife and automatically think it's a murder weapon. People have sex with a lot worse things than something that looks like a woman.

VANESSA HANDFORD