A SEX-starved businessman was so hung up on his ex-girlfriend after she dumped him that he paid $18,000 to recreate her as a life-sized sex doll.

The 50-year-old man put together a collection of photos of his ex and told Italian adult toymaker Diego Bortolin: "I want it just like her but with bigger boobs", Italy's Il Messaggero newspaper said.

Mr Bortolin, who hasn't named the man, creates extremely realistic sex dolls at the factory behind his shop, named "Temptations" in English, in Treviso, Italy.

"She was a smiling blonde girl but he wanted bigger boobs and a curvier backside," Mr Bortolin said. "Our normal dolls are very realistic and everything works just like the real thing.

Mr Bortolin said he usually charges around $US5000 for the dolls, but that this particular project was more expensive "because we had to replicate everything, right down to the shape of her nails and teeth".

The doll weighs 58kg and is about 1.6m tall. Mr Bortolin said the doll is fully flexible and can take on any movement or position a human can.

"She is now the perfect girlfriend as far as I can see," Mr Bortolin said.

Originally published as Man replaces ex with look-alike sex doll