Licca-chan and Miki-chan by Takara

Ever since I first reviewed Lottie dolls last January, many of you have suggested that I take a look at Licca-chan, a beloved 8 inch Japanese fashion doll that has a lot in common with Lottie.  Licca-chan has been around for much, much longer than Lottie, though.  Licca was first manufactured by Takara in 1967.  By 2007, the company had sold over 53 million Licca dolls, and they continue to sell about 1 million dolls per year.  Takara merged with Tomy in 2006, and so now the Licca franchise is credited to Takara-Tomy.  Licca-chan is often compared to Barbie in terms of her longevity and overwhelming popularity.

It was difficult to choose a Licca-chan doll for review.  I knew I would not be able to make any sweeping statements about the doll line by looking at a single doll--any more than I could judge the entire Barbie empire by just reviewing Midge.  So, I chose a doll that I felt would make a good comparison to the Lottie dolls I own...and then I added in a little Miki-chan toddler, because I found her too cute to resist:

"Kindergarten Teacher" Licca-chan and "Kindergarten" Miki-chan.

My dolls arrived directly from Japan and Licca, in particular, came in a badly dented box.

The writing on the box is in Japanese, which is too bad because I'd love to know what all of the text says.  Instead of reading the box, I read a few websites to learn more about Licca (this site is older, but it's very interesting).

Licca-chan means "little Licca."  Licca-chan's full name is actually Licca Kayama.  She's meant to portray an 11-year-old girl who lives in Japan with her musician father and fashion designer mother.  Licca has a carefully constructed biography, including favorite books and hobbies that have changed over the years.  Licca-chan products are very family-oriented, with the frequent inclusion of Licca's parents, grandmother and siblings (Licca has twin 4-year old sisters and triplet infant siblings).

There are some fascinating urban legends surrounding Licca-chan.  One story warns that if Licca is thrown away, she'll return from the garbage dump to haunt her former owner.  The haunting seems to come in the form of freaky late-night phone calls where Licca reports her progress as she gets closer and closer to home.  This is a disturbing reference to the phone lines that Takara set up so that fans could talk to Licca "in person."  Don't read this story right before bed. 

Another tale involves the appearance of a possessed, creepy, three-legged Licca doll.  I read that there were actually some three-legged dolls made by mistake at one point early in Licca's production, but I haven't seen any pictures of these dolls, and find the whole thing pretty hard to believe.  Where would a third doll leg even attach?

The best thing I learned about Licca is that there was an adult, pregnant Licca doll made in 2001.  This doll sounds even more amazing than Happy Family Midge: she arrived with a large belly, some baby items, and a postcard that could be sent away to order the baby (here's a picture of the doll).  So, kids actually had to wait for the baby to arrive!  Oh, my goodness, I would flip for this toy.  Anyway, the baby would arrive in the mail a few weeks later (the babies were adorable...) accompanied by a key that could detach the pregnant belly and return Licca to her original proportions.  My new quest is to find this doll.  She sounds incredible.

Let's get back to my Kindergarten Teacher Licca doll.  At only 11 years old, Licca seems a bit young to teach kindergarten, but the Licca character has several other themed outfits and playsets that are suited to older girls--including dolls that are employees at sushi bars or burger joints.  There's even a Hatsune Miku vocaloid Licca doll and a Licca-chan bride.

Licca comes with a few accessories and is displayed against a fairly plain pink background:

She is attached to the background with two large wire ties:

All of her accessories are wrapped in their own tiny plastic bags:

Licca comes with white shoes, a checkered hair bow, and a teddy bear puppet:

The bear puppet is made out of yellow felt and has a blue cape with a white plastic bead clasp decoration:

The puppet is unstitched along the bottom edge so that it fits nicely over Licca's hand:

Licca's little gingham hair bow is attached to a clear rubber band:

Her shoes are very plain.  They are made out of white plastic and have a small band of pink across the toe:

Licca's feet are soft and rubbery, so the hard plastic shoes are easier to put on than I thought they would be:

Licca comes with a plastic band around her head to keep her bangs in place:

Here she is completely unwrapped:

Licca has very straight, layered golden brown hair.  She is wearing a bright blue pinafore dress with kawaii decorations and striped trim.  The bow in the back of her dress came out of the box a little deformed:

Licca has an anime style face with large, dark, side-glancing eyes and pink lips.  I love the shape and color of this doll's lips.  

Licca's eye details are unusual. She has large black pupils highlighted on one side with lilac.  She has three white reflective areas on each eye that look good...and one red dot.  The red dot gives her eyes a rich brown appearance, which I assume is the intention, but it can also make her eyes look like they're simply red, which I find odd.  Many (but not all) Licca dolls have these red dots.

The "red-eye" feature in my photo program can eliminate this red dot, and I think Licca looks better without it:

Underneath her bangs, Licca has thin, slightly raised brown eyebrows:

Licca has large holes in her ears, but this particular doll did not come with earrings:

Licca's hair is wonderfully soft and silky.  It feels great and is very easy to manage.  I wish the layers in my Licca's hair were not as severe, because the shorter areas make the hair difficult to style.

The rooting is dense and nicely done:

The only style I could manage with this hair was a simple ponytail--using the red bow that came with Licca.  The ponytail looks cute from the front...

...but the short hairs make it very, ah, broom-like in back:

Quidditch, anyone?

The reason I chose this particular Licca doll is partly because of the style and color of her hair (it resembles two of my Lottie dolls' hair) but mostly because of her outfit:

Licca can stand on her own if she's wearing shoes.

This doll's dress has two detachable kawaii decorations:

The decorations attach to the dress with large rectangles of velcro and can easily be removed and exchanged with one another.  

There's a smiling sun:

And a grumpy cloud:

The velcro is stitched to the felt decorations.  Glue might have been a better choice for attaching the velcro because the stitches disrupt the cute faces and look like they might put too much stress on the delicate edges of the felt.

As you might recall, my Lottieville Festival Lottie doll has a very similar outfit decoration:

Also attached with velcro.

Underneath the decorations, Licca's dress has heart-shaped velcro attachment sites.  These look good even without the felt shapes:

The dress is made out of a thick denim-style material and seems very well constructed.  It opens all of the way down the back and is easy to get on and off.

The bow in back is a bit of a disaster, though.  This is what it looks like after dressing and undressing the doll once: 

I think it must have come into contact with the strip of velcro along the back of the dress.  

The front of the dress has a real pocket, accented with a tiny pink satin bow.  This bow is in very good shape:

Licca is wearing plain high-waisted stretch cloth underpants:

Whew!  Only two legs.

Licca's body has eight points of articulation including internal knee joints and a swiveling waist.  I'm no expert, but she seems to have mature proportions for an 11-year-old girl.  Her shoulders are broad and she has a tiny waist with hips and a noticeable bust:

Her arms are made out of thin, hollow, hard plastic and have disappointingly little movement.  They are only jointed at the shoulder, and have no hinged movement, just simple rotation.

Yay.

This doll's arm articulation surprised me for two reasons.  First of all, Licca's promotional pictures clearly show her arms bending at the elbow:

Also, beastsbelle over at Never Grow Up has written an excellent review of another Licca-chan doll, and this doll has elbow articulation just like what is shown in the picture, above.  

My doll, however, does not bend at the elbows--believe me, I tried to bend the arms again and again (a little too enthusiastically, as we'll see in a bit).

Licca has tiny little dainty hands with all of the fingers fused together:

Her waist twists all of the way around, but does not move from side to side:

Her hip articulation allows for excellent front-to-back splits, but she doesn't have any side-to-side leg movement.

Licca's knee joints are internal, but they're not the click style joints that are found on the newest Disney Store dolls or on older Barbies.  Licca seems to have wire all throughout her legs, and the legs are made out of a rubbery material that bends easily.

She can sit nicely in a chair with these bendy legs:

In fact, this style of articulation is one of very few that allow a doll to sit in a chair with her legs crossed:

Licca's head was wobbly right out of the box.  I am not sure if this is typical, or if my doll is broken.  If I shake her gently, her head bobbles slightly from side to side.  However, her head can be moved around in many directions and will hold most poses well, so perhaps this is how the neck joint is supposed to behave.  I think Licca has great neck movement--whether it's intentional or not.

Here's an interesting feature that's difficult to show in a delicate way: Licca's lower torso is made out of a single piece of hard plastic that is folded over along a thin seam to create its three-dimensional, hollow shape:

Ok, so this is the part where I got overenthusiastic with the arm articulation.  I was so incredulous that my doll didn't bend at the elbow, I held her up to the light to try and see what was going on inside her arms.  Through the very thin plastic, I could see wires running most of the length of Licca's arms.  This convinced me that the arms must be capable of better movement.  So I yanked at one of them a little more...and broke it almost clean off at the shoulder:

Dang it.

The bright side of my stubbornness is that we can get a peek into this doll's body.  I didn't want to pull the arm all of the way off, but it's severed enough that you can see the wire that runs through one arm, and also catch a glimpse of the plastic anchoring mechanism that sits within the chest:

Why have a wire if the arms can't bend??

Because Licca-chan is often called the "Japanese Barbie," I wanted to compare my Licca to a Barbie doll.  Here she is next to Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse Midge.  There are significant differences in size and articulation with these two dolls:

Midge has much more realistic, adult facial features.  Licca's childlike, anime face doesn't fit her overly mature body quite as well.

For those who do not own a Barbie doll, here's Licca next to two other popular 12-inch dolls:

13 Wishes Clawdeen Wolf, Licca-chan, Disney Store Rapunzel 2013.

Licca has much more in common with Barbie's younger sister, Stacie.  These two dolls are about the same height, although Stacie's proportions are more typical of a young girl:

Licca and Stacie don't share clothes very well.  Licca's dress looks tent-like on Stacie, and Stacie's dress won't close in back over Licca's broad chest.

Here's Licca next to a few of my smaller dolls.  These three have strikingly different proportions:

La Dee Da, Licca-chan, Pinkie Cooper.

I also wanted to compare Licca to some of my other Asian fashion dolls:

Momoko (Japan), Juku Couture (Japan), Licca-chan (Japan), Kurhn (China).

Of these three dolls, the Kurhn has the most similar facial features to Licca, I think:

They're still quite different.

The Juku Couture doll, Hayley, is the most similar in terms of body size, although Hayley has much, much better articulation:

These two can't share clothes very well, either.  Hayley's shirt is too tight for Licca and Licca's dress is baggy on Hayley:

Finally, here's Licca next to the doll I have been most anxious to compare her to--Lottie Autumn Leaves:

Their bodies are not very similar--Lottie has a childlike body with hinged shoulder articulation.  Licca has more extensive neck movement.  Both dolls have rubbery legs with internal knee joints.

However, the faces bear a striking resemblance:

It took me some time to see past the similarities, but after a while I found some notable differences.  Both dolls have similar hairstyles and hair color, but Licca's hair is much silkier and smoother.  The dolls have almost identical eye reflection marks, but Lottie has more color in her eyes and she is missing the red dots.  I much prefer the shape and color of Licca's mouth and I also like her gradually sloping jawline better.  

Here's a more front-on view of Lottie so that you can see both faces clearly:

I like both Lottie and Licca's outfits.  They have a similar youthful charm.  Lottie's clothes seem to be higher quality in general, and she certainly has more pieces to her outfit.  In this picture she's wearing Lottieville Festival's blue and white striped tights with some pieces from her own outfit:

The felt decorations are interchangeable between dolls, which is fun:

Lottie makes a perfect younger sister for Licca:

Before I move on and show you Miki-chan, here are a few more of my favorite pictures of Licca:

Miki-chan is one Licca's four-year-old twin sisters.  She looks more like a toddler to me--maybe three at the most.  Miki's twin, Maki-chan has a huge grin on her face.  I bought Miki because she was being offered by the same person who sold me Licca...and her shipping was free.  I love both of the small sister dolls.

Miki-chan comes in a small, durable box that arrived in much better condition than Licca's box.

Miki is also attached to a thin cardboard insert with two strong wire ties.

This particular Miki comes wearing a simple sundress and a bright yellow hat.  She is accompanied by a separately-packaged pair of shoes:

The hat is lightly felted hard plastic and looks like a construction helmet to me.  Mine is warped along one side:

I don't like this hat.

The little shoes are soft vinyl and have tiny molded bows in the front:

Miki comes with a plastic band around her head to keep her bangs flat:

Miki's hair is similar to Licca's, with its golden blonde color and bangs.  Miki's hair is blunt-cut in back, though, and feels thicker and slightly coarser than her sister's silky locks.

Miki's bangs have several stray strands of hair that hang a little lower down towards her eyes:

Easily fixed--hand me the scissors!

This hair is not as densely rooted as Licca's hair, but it feels very thick.

Miki's eyes also have an anime style, but they are not painted exactly the same way as Licca's eyes.  Miki has mostly black eyes and eyelashes, but she has two grey half circles in each eye to suggest a colored iris.  She also has a band of turquoise eyeshadow above each eye:

Miki's light brown eyebrows are almost completely concealed by her bangs:

Miki has a tiny pink mouth that is formed into a delicate "o."

This facial expression reminds me of a real little toddler--trying to form new words or blowing bubbles and making silly noises.

Maybe whistling?

Miki has the cutest little teacup-handle ears hiding under her thick hair:

Miki's sundress is fairly simple, with an un-hemmed sailor collar and iron-on details:

Miki's torso is made out of hollow plastic.  Her arms, legs and head are flexible vinyl:

She has five points of simple articulation, with a head that can only rotate, not look up or down:

Here is Miki next to some of my other small dolls:

Only Hearts Club Jess, Barbie Chelsea, Miki-chan, Barbie Kelly, Ty Li'l Ones.

Miki is the most similar in size to Barbie's Kelly, the toddler precursor to Chelsea.  This particular Kelly doll can drink liquid and pee in a potty (hence the heart-shaped button on her tummy):

Miki and Kelly can share clothes pretty well.  They can even share shoes, which is great because I love Kelly's little pink jelly sandals:

Don't pee on my dress, ok?

Miki is significantly shorter than Licca-chan, and the two can't even reach to hold each other's hands:

Lottie is right in between the two sisters in terms of size:

Here are a few more picture of little Miki.  She doesn't have a huge posing arsenal, but I think she's incredibly sweet.

Whistle while you work...

Here are a few last pictures of Licca-chan and Miki-chan together:

Bottom line?  I absolutely love everything about the heads of these dolls.  Both Licca and Miki have fantastic hair that is shiny, smooth, and nicely rooted.  The hair colors are rich and natural.  Licca-chan has a wide-eyed, round face that is full of sweetness and perfect for her pre-teen age.  Miki-chan has a funny, unique little expression that makes me think of real toddlers and their antics.  

In my eyes, Licca's body type doesn't fit the youthfulness of her face.  This doll has a mature fashion doll body that would be more believable with a young adult's face.  In the case of Kindergarten Teacher Licca, the baggy pinafore dress completely conceals the body's curves, and gives the whole doll a consistent, childlike appearance.  I am not sure if my reaction to Licca's body is a cultural artifact or the sign of a real discrepancy.  In the United States, perhaps we are just accustomed to seeing mature, made-up faces on bodies with these proportions?

My other issue with Licca's body is that it has extremely limited arm articulation.  The thin plastic arms can only lift up and down and do not have hinged movement at the shoulders or any flexibility in the elbows whatsoever.  It's been a while since I have seen a fashion doll with arm articulation this poor.  However, it's clear that there are Licca doll variants that do have elbow articulation, courtesy of bendable vinyl arms and an internal wire armature.  Unfortunately, it's not simple to distinguish one body style from the other, and the promotional pictures do not seem to be reliably accurate.  I'm certain that I would prefer a Licca doll with bendable arms, even though wire armature is not my first choice for play doll articulation.

In contrast, Miki-chan's body design seems almost perfect for her size.  She has cute little toddler proportions--much like the older Barbie toddler, Kelly.  Miki also has decent articulation, and the bendable vinyl in her limbs gives her some nice extra movement.

Both dolls come in simple outfits that are solidly constructed out of soft, natural-feeling fabrics. The clothes are not quite as nice as Lottie doll clothes, but they are far superior to the Barbie clothes I have owned.

Licca's nickname of "Japanese Barbie" begs a comparison to Barbie dolls.  Licca's physical resemblance to the newer Lottie dolls warrants a comparison to that line, too.  I have never been a die-hard Barbie doll fan, and while I love certain individual Barbie dolls, I find Licca dolls more broadly appealing.  Barbie is a very mature, adult character with realistic features and a worldly personality.  I often imagine that Barbie is looking at me with a bit of (understandable) lofty scorn.  Lottie is a child, with appropriately themed outfits and innocent, stylized features.  I love Lottie, but I suspect that she appeals to a relatively narrow age range.  Licca-chan seems to sit comfortably in between these two dolls.  She is old enough to pull off some grown-up themes (kindergarten teacher, pop star, employee) and has the versatility to mature with the children who own her.  But Licca also has a youthful, angelic face with a wholesome, appealing warmth.  It is this face, in the end, that has rapidly made me a fan.  I understand why this doll is so popular.  I'd recommend her to a wide range of doll enthusiasts, but just to be safe, I'd qualify my recommendation with a warning to never throw a Licca-chan doll away.  It's not worth risking the curse.  Just, you know, send her to me instead.