Liberation 63: L.U.V. Doll Brooke

L.U.V. is a new doll line being sold exclusively at Walmart. Based on the packaging, I believe the official name is L.U.V (Limitless Unique Vibrant), but on the Walmart website they are billed as ‘LUV Premium Fashion Doll’. I’m not sure how premium they are, but they are $30 for each of the four available dolls (and $13 for each fashion pack), so they’re definitely pricey. They’re billed as being 10 inch dolls, but even with the hair they aren’t quite 9.5 inches tall. That magenta jacket really caught my eye though, so I went ahead and picked up Brooke and her official fashion pack.

I had trouble finding a doll body to compare, because Brooke has a high defined waist and a very short upper torso. She’s also very thin, which left dolls such as Rainbow High and LOL Surprise OMG and Tweens out. Eventually I pulled out my Volks Dollfie Plus Reiwa doll- she’s the first face up I ever did so please excuse the quality. Reiwa’s legs and head are very similar but her torso is significantly longer. Brooke’s hips are a little wider.

This first thing I noticed looking at the body is that quality control was apparently out to lunch when this girl came off the line. The post for her right leg was positioned a little low, and the one from her left leg is so low it leaves a huge gap. No swimsuits for this girl! The posability is decent, with 90 degree elbows and knees. She has great rotation at the shoulders, wrists, and hips. She also has rotating ankles and a swivel waist under the bust. Given the price point, I would have liked to see better posability, but this does the job. She has both fingernail and toenail polish.

Brooke has a lovely face, with a dramatically pointed chin and a small, perky nose. Her face paint is simple and clean. She has thick browns brows with the slightest bit of detailing. Her eyes are a warm orange brown. Her makeup is a simple strip of lavender, with black liner in a slight cats eye and upper and lower painted lashes. Her lipstick is a bright pink and matches her nail polish, and she also has nice pink blushing. Her hair is excellent- a thick black with a bit of a wave and an extremely silky texture. She has a gold heart ‘barrette’ in her hair- it doesn’t actually have a fastening mechanism, it’s more like a decorative bobby pin. It came sewn in place and clearly would never stay in place if you removed the stiches.

Brooke’s outfit is a strange mix of styles. First, the good- that magenta jacket is OUTSTANDING. It’s a nice thick pleather with a great texture. The chunky (at this scale) zipper at the front and on the shoulder pocket give it a slight punky look. The bottom half of the jacket is nicely pleated and has thick black fabric interfacing, which looks stunning on. Her top is a thin polyester camisole in pale purple with a darker purple fishnet print and gray lace trim at the top and bottom. One shoulder strap is considerably longer than the other and tended to slip off. Her pants are confusing. The fabric is a reasonably thick black knit with gray pinstripes, which totally screams office wear. However, the wide legged trousers have a weird draping portion- it’s too long to be a skirt on one side, and ends in an odd angled bit on the other side. The finishing touch are the gold gladiator sandals, with black stiletto heels and thick platform soles. When it’s all together it works despite itself, but I can’t help but feel a nicer blouse and skipping the skirt thing would have worked much better.

Okay, on the accessories side: I’m always excited any time a play line doll comes with a stand, and Brooke’s is a nice one. An adjustable height waist gripper in black, the base has the L.U.V logo on the top and a molded nameplate that has ‘♡♡ Brooke ♡♡’ printed in white. There are molded heart studs all the way around the rest of the stand. The molded gold belt has two layers of chains, with various hearts, including the L.U.V. logo, beads and a plus dangling. She has one studded gold hoop earring and one with a smaller studded hoop intertwined with a safety pin. Her single piece necklace has a choker layer of black beads and then a slightly longer gold chain with a plus shaped pendant with a small heart in the center. She has a strange combination bracelet-finger ornament- the molded gold studded bangle is attached to a large L.U.V. logo knuckle duster. You have to take the hand off to remove this, and it’s still a little tricky due to the bits that attach it to the bracelet. The finishing piece is a molded baby pink purse with lots of details. The purse doesn’t actually open, but the ‘flap’ has a quilted design, which is ‘closed’ by a gold L.U.V. icon. Along the bottom front, there are molded flat studs. The narrow edge of the purse is edged with gold spike studs, and there’s a gold handle shaped like the top half of a heart. The handle shape actually works great at letting her get a secure grip on the purse.

I decided to go ahead and get a fashion pack, since I loved the bright green color of Brooke’s extra outfit. I like this outfit better than her default outfit. Her top has a black mesh base crisscrossed by black pleather strips, with giant puff chiffon sleeves is a moss green with a black snakeskin-like pattern. Her angled skirt is more pleather, this time in lime green, with straps, studs, and tiering details. Again, the pleather is backed with a thick black interfacing. Her belt is a slightly more intense green than the the skirt, with black dash patterning and a gold heart buckle. The outfit is finished off with black high heeled pumps with ankle straps and a lime green soul. She accessorizes with a black studded bangle (again, you have to remove her hand to get this on and off) and a lime green heart shaped purse with black detailing of ribbons and hearts.

Still, I had to try and find some other gear to fit her. It was harder than I expected. First, I tried swapping outfits between her and Reiwa. Her miniskirt fit well, but her top was hugely loose on her upper torso and hung far to low on her chest. I used the stand to hold it in place for the photo, but you can see how it bags on her. Reiwa’s high tops didn’t fit, exactly, but they were tall enough that I could make them work well enough for display. On the other side, Brooke’s pants fit Reiwa perfectly! The top is more of a crop length on Reiwa, and the jacket didn’t work at all because her arms are so much longer. Reiwa’s feet are much smaller, but have a good enough ankle joint I could rest them in the shoes for the photo but wouldn’t hold the shoes on for real.

I did remember that the Hairdorables Hairmazing dolls were super thin, so I tried Noah’s blouse. It did fit well. Noah also has legs that come up to Brooke’s shoulder, so the pants didn’t work at all. The shoes didn’t fit either. I added her original gold sandals and Reiwa’s skirt and it was passable, but not great.

Finally, I went back to my old friends, the Lollipop Girls. This cowl neck dress ended above the knees on them, but on Brooke it ends at mid-calf and looks very elegant. Her feet are much smaller than those dolls, but the boots are made of a stretchy fabric that clung enough to get an excellent fit. Unfortunately, her awesome original jacket clashed with the pink trim on the dress, but I loved the final result- the dress looks classy, and the boots give a hint of attitude.

Overall, I thought both the doll and the outfit were fun but overpriced- especially given the quality control issues on the doll and top. That said, they’re cute and the different scale makes them stand out in my collection. If you like the look of them or fall in love with an outfit, definitely go for it- but be aware that the redressing possibilities are going to be limited and that there might be hidden issues you can’t see with the doll or outfit until you’ve taken her out.

Scorecard
Face: B+
Body: C
Hair: A
Fabric: A
Style: A-
Execution: D-
Accessories: B+
Fashion Pack: A
Overall: B