SIX sex dolls are pictured in a garage lined up next to a motorcycle – varying in hair colour, height and clothes.

The person who shared the photo online, viewed 11,461 times, has titled the post “My Girls”.

The post reads: “I would like to introduce everyone to my girls: Rebecca, Kimberley, Mona, Monika, Alicia and Victoria. They’ve all been living with me for a while.”

This is the The Doll Forum (TDF) and The Sun has been given exclusive access to it.

It’s an online community of sex doll collectors who share images, and their experiences, of their hobby.

Threads include ‘cheating wife dolls’, ‘my first doll’, ‘looking for dolls with extremely fake looking breasts’ and ‘I married a witch’. There’s also a whole category on ‘male dolls’.

Founders say it has around 110,000 registered users, up from 10,000 in 2009.

User MrMike, who first became curious about sex dolls after seeing one at a stag do party in 1986, is one of them.

MrMike, from Calgary, Canada, stumbled across TDF having spent decades experimenting with other toys, and wanted to find affordable dolls.

At TDF, which he joined five months ago, he found thousands of other people who shared the same hobby and offered their guidance.

He splashed out $621 on a torso from adult store, Tantaly, earlier this year but he wanted to buy his first full-body doll.

MrMike, 60, who was married from 1997 to 2004 but is now single, then struck gold after finding a female TDF member who was prepared to give her own collection away for free.

Now he owns two and has set his sights on adding to his collection.

He told The Sun: “As far as sex dolls go, there is a big fantasy element as to why a man would want one. 

“Finally you can sleep with that hot blonde you had a crush on. At last you can pretend having sex with that woman you saw years ago at the dance club. 

“Maybe you had killer, mind blowing sex with someone that was a great memory and you want to relive it, over and over. 

“Or perhaps you miss your wife that died of cancer or was in an accident and died young.

“I detect on TDF there are thousands out there with some generalities on why they have a sex doll or dolls.”

The retired painting contractor says the production of sex dolls seems to be booming in China.

He added: “It appears it is a booming industry, just in the past several years, largely from China. 

“Culturally, in China due to overpopulation, by law a couple cannot have more than one child.

“If they do, they are heavily fined. In Japan and South Korea, the population is ageing and people aren’t having kids so the birth rate is dwindling dramatically due to the cost of living, relationship views of child rearing, secularism, introversion, the dating scene and the cost of relationships. 

“Something has to give as people aren’t going to stop having sex. Why can’t it be an outlet for fun?”

He added: “The Doll Forum is a treasure trove of information on sex dolls. It adds accountability, security and privacy.

“It reveals scammers and inferior products that are out there, touts reputable vendor sites that are legitimate and selling real branded dolls, not fake ones. It’s not just a hobby, fetish or sexual deviance but a way of life.”

The forum is also used to advertise and arrange events.

One of them is an event hosted by Sex Doll Queen, a manufacturer, who used the TDF to advertise a show in Toronto, where at least 10 dolls were on display.

MrMike says he’ll be going to a different version of the same event in Calgary in November.

He also responded to a thread on having sex with the dolls outside, posting: “I have had sex outside several times with a real woman and it’s just so fresh and new to the senses.

“Doing it with a doll though…it’s harder to escape if you get caught, so one must plan a little extra where they do it to avoid being caught.

“You have to have an escape plan. It’s great if you have a house with a yard.”

Statistics from the forum show that 20% of doll owners are married, with 46% buying dolls for the purposes of sex.

David Prescott, 71, has been running TDF since 2009 with his business partner, Carl Kharn, who is a founding member.

He quit his job in documentary production to run the forum full time, after first stumbling upon it while filming a shoot, and purchased a share.

Prescott is himself a fan of dolls and has collected them. He’s also experimented with using them with his wife.

He told The Sun: “My wife and I only tried one in bed. It was an elf with pointed ears. It was just something to try. 

“You can’t comment on anything if you don’t have first-hand experience. At one point I had seven or eight dolls, and I tried them all. 

“What we’re talking about is a masturbation toy, right? And a lot of the dolls don’t have any automation. But they are starting to get moving hips and different things, with robotic parts.

“I think it’s a reasonable substitute if you’re looking to satisfy your sexual needs and sex drive, and looking for something better than a hand toy.”

He added: “Back then, in 2009, we approached Bill (shareholder) and the next thing we know, we’ve essentially purchased it.

“Most of the staff got mad and left to start their own forum, and that has since closed. We then started a rebuild and had some loyal people there, and now we’re back up to 30 volunteers running the forum.

“When I started this out they didn’t have a lot of get-togethers, and I thought about holding some face-to-face meetings. I wanted to see the real community that was out there. But also it might help build our community.

“So we started some events down in Pennsylvania, and did that for seven years before Covid.

“Then in Britain, we held an event there. We had a good event, even a guy from Scotland came down. We have around 20 or 30 people there who were into the products.”

TDF also allows manufacturers to advertise dolls on the site, after users were asked if they’d prefer to pay for the forum or allow sellers on the site.

One of them is SEDOLL, who make their dolls at factories in Zhongshan and Guangdong, China.

It advertises its vast range of dolls and uses TDF as a tool to seek customer feedback.

The company regularly takes part in adult industry exhibitions, including the Guangzhou International Sex Expo.

A spokesperson for the company, Eurus, told The Sun: “We are continuously developing new models in line with customer needs and market feedback. 

“A recent example is the launch of our torso series, which will also be one of our key development focuses moving forward.

“SEDOLL has been active on TDF for about seven to eight years. TDF is a doll forum where people exchange information and share experiences — it is not a direct sales platform, so there are no official sales figures tied to TDF.”

Although in the minority, some users are displaying sex robots that feature futuristic technology and cost thousands of dollars.

One wrote on the forum: “I’m 25 and gave up on dating completely. Despite countless years and attempts approaching, I’m always ignored, given fake phone numbers or turned down.

“Why keep trying when they never want me back? I’m currently purchasing a Realoll, X Harmony, from someone and it will hopefully arrive sometime in the next month. I couldn’t be more excited.”

Harmony is currently being sold for $11,349.99 on Realdoll’s website offering choices on body shapes, skin colour and faces.