Man, I really dropped the ball on keeping this updated didn't I?
I'm so sorry for that. I have bad episodes of exhaustion which leads to me not even opening boxes, let alone having the energy and motivation to take all the photos I need to.
I'm slowly getting through the backlog but it's gonna take a while.
so let's ease back into things with a look at Defa Lucy.
Who is Defa Lucy? Well, to be honest, i'm not entirely sure. She's a Chinese fashion doll that's been around for a while as a generic Barbie clone, but recently the company decided they were going to put more effort in. And so we have the current iteration of Defa Lucy, or "Brittany" as she's known in some parts of the world.
So to start, let's look at where Lucy started.
Quite the typical Barbie clone there. Her outfits don't look terrible, but the doll is clearly a cheap Barbie knockoff right?
But recently Shein and Taobao started to stock a new era of Lucy, with a whole new face and many of them with articulated bodies.
And these new dolls have been doing numbers on social media. People seem to be enjoying them so of course I was curious.
There are several lines with this new Lucy:
A budget line with standard body
They come in white or black and with multiple hair colours (some fantastical) and tropical themed outfits. There's 6 dolls in this line but I couldn't find a good stock image of all the dolls together.
They're £9:50 on Shein and would be comparable in both price point and design to the Mattel Fashionistas.
At a slightly higher $14 there's a wave of slim box dolls with articulated bodies in denim outfits.
There's no black doll in this wave but I admit, I was sorely tempted by the girl with the black bob.
At a similar price point you have the "y2k" series who also have articulated bodies.
this is the line i'll be looking at today, but before we do, let's just finish up the last few things Defa Lucy have available.
The more expensive £25 ish range is called "Street Style" according to Shein.
s
These are clearly heavily inspired by Barbie Extra, even down to the stupid little chibi pets.
I really like the girl in the orange fringed jacket though, her outfit rocks. But £26 was a bit rich for me.
These dolls have more complex outfits, a stupid pet, the same articulated body as the £14 dolls and apparently better hair quality.
Barbie has a whole line of wheelchair using dolls, well Defa Lucy has got you covered there too with this super funky sci-fi looking wheelchair that i'm not totally sure of the realism of.
The doll has a suitably sci fi looking outfit and very cool hair too.
These are £21
And their latest offering, Defa's take on the Barbie Extra Fly line.
She's £24:75
so ultimately the price point of these "clones" isn't much different to the official Mattel product.
But how do they actually shape up?
are they worth the money?
Let's finally get to the review.
As I mentioned, I opted for the "y2k" dolls because they were a really excellent price (both of mine were under £10 with vouchers) and I really liked the outfit on this particular girl. Also I always love me a short haired doll.
The postage took about 8 days from China and the dolls came in a plastic bag with no protection so their boxes were a little squished.
The box is attractive with a bright background, the generic "beauty" written on the side and "defa lucy" in a star with a little illustration of the doll.
The art style of these illustrations is very sketcy and stylised and I kinda like it, even if it doesn't really look like the doll at all.
The back has more of the illustration and features the other two dolls in the wave as well.
What's interesting is it shows elements that were clearly scrapped in the design process. This girl lost her stockings and her belt and her shoes and necklace are different colours.
What I found somewhat interesting is all the labels for export which detail things like safety info, as well as the dolls being CE registered meaning they meet the EU criteria for health, safety and environment. It means they fully intended to export these to foreign markets.
We also have a date of production. This doll was made on the 20th of August 2022, so she's been sitting in a warehouse for a couple of years huh?
I looked up Jieyang Defa and it looks like they make a lot of plastic crap.
They also make Bratz clones called Asary who look like this:
I'm amused.
Anyway,
I couldn't find much about Defa beyond they make a lot of clone dolls and similar toys.
It does look like they had a legal dispute with Mattel at one point though, I found court documents. Looks like Defa lost. This was 2021 and may explain the sudden complete change of design of Lucy/Brittany.
"the intervener submitted that the contested design lacked novelty and individual character in relation to the earlier designs Defa Doll and Barbie CEO Sculpture"
which I think means "Mattel said it wasn't distinct enough from their IP"
But I don't speak Lawyer.
"both designs show a doll’s head with an oval-shaped face, the same facial characteristics and proportions, very similar make-up and the same expression. Thus, in view of the wide degree of freedom enjoyed by the designer, the differences between the designs at issue are insufficiently pronounced to produce a different overall impression."
Oops? So yeah, looks like Defa stepped on Mattel's toes and got slapped.
But out of that came the new improved Lucy so I suppose we should thank Mattel for that right?
This was the disputed head and yeah... Mattel have a point.
The skirt is made of some sort of stiff material that reminds me of canvas bags. I believe Mattel have made stuff using whatever this is before as well. It holds shape well and in Lucy's case, the skirt is made up of three pieces. A waistband, a main piece and a faux panel. This gives it "texture" by giving us the illusion of layers. I always like that. Makes the clothing piece feel more real.
Her top is one piece with the stretchy top sewn to the mesh undershirt at the seams. The mesh part is really soft but it's also VERY fragile and there's no way in hell it'll survive more than about 5 minutes of play. I carefully undressed the doll and already the mesh was laddering. So yeah....
Nice idea but not very practical.
I do love the puff sleeves on it though. The tailoring is actually really nice.
Fine for display, not for play. The velcro closure isn't going to help matters. It snags the mesh.
Her necklace is a cute little daisy with little balls which I think are supposed to be beads. In her artwork this piece is coloured differently but for the price point the fact the flower and main piece are different colours is surprising enough. I can paint the details if I really want to.
her shoes are simple little white sneakers, though they have actually got molded sole detail which I always find delightful in doll shoes. They're very squishy which makes them a breeze to get on and off. Quite often hard doll shoes really hurt my hands so it was nice not to have to fight hard plastic there.
Her bag is a strange orangey diamond thing. It looks like it should open but I don't think it actually does, it was just molded in two parts. It looks awkward to actually use, but I feel like Mattel have a doll with a stupid diamond shaped bag somewhere too.... it's familiar.
Overall it's a decent outfit. Nothing astounding, I mean we aren't talking Rainbow High level of detail but we are also talking about a doll that only costs £10-15 rather than £35.
I'm happy enough with this quality for the price.
Lucy has an articulated body with elbow, wrist and knee articulation. It reminded me most of the old jointed Fashionista Barbies so I got Jules down to compare. Jules is a Sporty Fashionista Barbie from 2010.
The Barbie has an additional bust joint and a more cinched in waist with a wider chest but their proportions are pretty close.
Lucy has a better designed elbow joint. Neither are great, this is as far as they can actually bend their arms but Lucy has slightly more mobility because the elbow cuts off straight rather than curving down.
Both have about comparable knee movement, though the Mattel body has prettier joints than Lucy's obvious hinges.
Lucy can't spread her legs but she can pull them together and her lower knee rotates in the joint so she can sit quite nicely, as can the Barbie.
Lucy's body is lighter than Barbie's but not actually by much. Her legs feel very light and hollow but the rest of her feels fine. Her torso itself isn't that much hollower than Barbie's honestly.
While Barbie's limbs are all hard plastic, Lucy's limbs are rubbery. You can bend them with your fingers. This does sadly mean her parts are quite prone to warp. My girl has a distorted ankle which means she can't stand up straight, she'll always have to splay one leg outward because of the distorted foot. I can bend it back into position, but it won't stay that way. It slowly but surely re-bends. I might attempt to reset it with boiling water but at the same time, as a person with a messed up foot from birth, her gammy foot feels relatable lol.
One leg is also longer than the other and I am not sure why. It may be that the leg isn't seated quite as high in one hip socket or something? It made me think of Sindy and it made me laugh as a result. 60s Sindy dolls are really prone to one longer leg lol.
Her articulation isn't great but it's something. Her hips and knees have a surprising amount of rotation despite the hips being unable to splay outwards very far.
Her wrists bend a little which allows for some expressive hand poses which is fun.
She has completely flat feet which are disproportionately small. In fact, they appear to be Barbie sized but because they're not raised up on tippy toes they look less like trotters than Barbie's feet do. (I really hate Barbie's hoof feet okay?)
Her head can tilt and she can look up but she can't look down at all.
Her molded panties have tiny flowers on them.
Barbie can fit Lucy's clothing and vice versa, their bodies are clearly different but not enough to make sharing a problem.
Lucy's shoes even fit Barbie but of course, because these are heeled feet they look a bit silly.
however, that does suggest that flat footed Barbie shoes might fit Lucy and vice versa. I did try some from my stash and the flat Barbie shoes were slightly too big but would work fine depending on style or with socks/stockings underneath.
Curious.
YMMV on that one.
Lucy's hair is cut into a short bob with two little buns at the front and two longer braided sections. It's a rather random hair style but it works well enough.
it's a very pale blue and in sunlight the hair sometimes takes on a purplish sheen where the light hits it.
The fiber is very soft. People claim it's poly and it might be, I don't know. It doesn't feel quite as dense and plasticky as the poly Mattel have been using though.
If it IS poly, then it may not hold up to the passage of time which is a pity. Particularly as Lucy has a really hard head so rerooting her will be a pain in the arse. But she was a cheap doll so I won't be too upset if that happens. It's not like i'm paying £30+ for a doll that'll self destruct in a few years (I'm looking at YOU g3 Monster High)
I also got a second girl because why not? Again, she was silly cheap.
She's another "y2k" girl and i didn't like this one's outfit as much but I did like her hair.
Her art doesn't do a very good job conveying her design. Her hair looks black in the art, her hat is dark, her shorts are black and she has a choker. Her doll has none of these things.
Her box got badly squished in transit so wouldn't stand up for photos. This is the only one I managed without having to hold it.
Anyway, the doll!
She has gorgeous burgundy hair but I have to say, her outfit is a lot more "barbie extra" than I personally enjoy.
Her fringe was very badly cut with longer bits all over so I gave it a trim to fix it up a bit. it's quite thickly rooted so there's a couple of layers to take into account.
Her face looks to be the same as Lucy 1, same makeup and everything. Lucy 2 (two-cy?) looks to have more shimmery lips but i'm not sure if that's not just a batch difference or what.
Two-cy has pierced ears unlike Lucy. Her earrings are anchored into her head like old Barbie earrings were, I assume they have a little hook because tugging them wouldn't get them out. This is a good idea for a play doll because it stops the earrings getting lost and/or swallowed.
I'm not sure what her earrings are supposed to BE though. It looks like a rainbow with an er... barber's pole? a flump? A twizzler? What IS that?
They're completely different to the earrings in her artwork which look to be two abstract rectangles held together with one string. So I dunno.
She has a pink top with mesh sleeves and sparkly gems. The mesh on this top is less fragile than the other mesh top and the little stars and moons are cute, but the rhinestones look like they'll come off pretty easily. Kinda like the same embellishments on Rainbow High dolls seldom survive one redressing.
The top is nicely made but it's not my cup of tea. The pink, the sparkles, the cut of it, all adds up to create a garment that feels very "toy" rather than actual fashion. This top SCREAMS "i'm for a doll" and I really do prefer my doll clothes to look like miniature real clothes or at least feel like an attempt at such.
I can see older Barbies or Steffi Loves in this top.
It's not a bad top, it's just stylistically not working for me.
her shorts/skirt thing are one piece which is a pity because I had kinda hoped the belt and skirt were separate from the shorts. The skirt piece is only a half skirt, it doesn't go all the way to the back and the shorts are made of a cheap feeling material. I thought they'd be faux denim but they aren't. They honestly just feel very cheap and i'm actually happier with them concealed by the skirt thing. They don't look great without it.
It IS an odd garment though. I can't say it looks like anything I would have worn back in the 2000s. Sure we wore skirts over jeans, but that was over JEANS, not shorts. Those massive baggy jeans at that.
I can see myself using this piece though, if I can find a top that looks decent with it.It's silly but I kinda dig the silliness. It's about on par with modern Barbie clothes in terms of quality so it's fine. It's just not as fun as it could be.
but again, price point. These dolls are, remember, £10-15.
Her sneakers are the same as the previous doll but in pink this time.
She comes with a hat which after you cut off the plastic staple things from the packaging doesn't actually sit flush to her head anymore (typical for doll hats sadly) and a bag that I honestly feel has a strap that's a touch too short.
At least this bag looks like a bag though. Unlike the orange plumbob nonsense of the previous Lucy.
Her hair is very soft but quite prone to flyaways. It's a beautiful colour that I found quite hard to photograph. It's a lovely deep burgundy red. Pretty sure I used to have my hair dyed this colour in my late teens lol.
It doesn't have the density that poly usually has so i'm not totally convinced this is poly. I feel like it's more likely nylon. But I don't know for sure and i'm not an expert on doll hair. It definitely has more of a nylon sheen and the flyaway nature suggests it's not poly which is dense and has a different shine to it. At least, the monster high dolls I KNOW are poly definitely feel and look very different to this hair.
So HMMMM.
Two-cy's outfit had to go though. I was NOT feeling that outdated play top and I couldn't find anything that looked good with the shorts.
So I embraced the whole "y2k" thing with an ensemble of clothing that I assume is actually from that era anyway and definitely is something we wore back then.
flared jeans and a mesh top. Mesh tops were big back then lol.
Defa Lucy can be a little tricky to look quite correct in some Barbie stuff because she has a smaller bust and a narrower upper torso in general. It's not a huge difference, but it's enough that some things gape or don't sit correctly on her shoulders. Stuff from old Barbies is really hit and miss because that old body has SUCH a massively wide upper torso.Some of the things I tried just didn't quite fit right and were quite unflattering, making her torso look strangely shapeless or giving her far too much cleavage.
She can wear modern Barbie stuff decently, but sometimes the style is a bit... off for her shape.
Kinda like real human clothing I suppose.
sometimes a cut just doesn't work for you.
Overall though, i'm really pleased with these two. They have unusual faces that make them quite distinct (thank you Mattel for that lawsuit lol) and while they're clearly inspired by Mattel's offerings, they are managing the same level of quality (in some cases better quality.) for a fraction of the price.
Now of course, there's some concern about HOW they're getting the price down so low. Chinese manufacture has a bad reputation after all. But Mattel and all the big companies use Chinese factories as well which no doubt have just as iffy processes.
I do think it's unfair to call Defa Lucy a "barbie clone" now though. She was, oh heck she really was, but now she's distinct enough to be her own doll. More of a Steffi Love situation now. A distinctive alternative brand.
Now all this said, some of the Defa Lucy dolls are NOT cheap. Several of them are over £20 which is about on par with Mattel's prices.
Those dolls look to have more detailed and cohesive outfits than a lot of the Mattel stuff of the same price bracket (the Barbie Extra dolls often feel like their outfits were cobbled together from random pieces and i'm not a fan of that chaotic look) but i'm not convinced the quality of the actual individual bits is really much different.
Lucy also suffers from being only available on Shein here in the UK or Taobao if you use an agent. She does seem to be sold in the US in stores under the name Brittany though. But it's certainly going to really hamper her chances to become much more than a short lived curiosity outside America. Not many people are searching Shein for dolls, it predominantly sells clothes, you know, real human clothes.
And it's a pity really.
I kinda love how they're aping Mattel's Barbie lines in a way that means Mattel can't do jack shit about it. That pettiness makes me smile. I love me a bit of corporate pettiness. But it's also fascinating in how it distills down the essence of those lines so that it's recognizable as an emulation.
If they come down in price I might pick up a couple of the Extra style ones, but at the same time, the lack of diversity in face sculpt and makeup is a limiting factor in a desire to have more than a couple.
Still, I think it's interesting that Defa rose from the ashes after Mattel slapped them in a court and their resurrected Lucy has become so popular with people in doll circles. That must sting a bit for Mattel.
She could have been just another bland clone in a sea of clones. Instead she became something more.
Good for her.
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