LUV Dolls by Far Out Toys

Life has been even more hectic than usual for me these last few weeks, so my productivity has declined further.  Sorry.  I blame it mostly on the fact that I have eight foster animals in the house right now (yes, eight), and four of them are kittens with underdeveloped brains who make a huge mess and have to be hand-fed.  They're really cute though.  

I've been stealing moments in between my work and feeding kittens to investigate a new brand of fashion doll.  This brand has been on my mind since an anonymous reader mentioned it in the comments section of the Unicorn Academy review.  That was way back in June, which I find slightly hard to wrap my head around.  It feels like last week.

The new brand is called LUV (which reminds me of LIV!) and has been around for about a half a year.  These nine-inch dolls are made by Far Out Toys, which is the company responsible for the Glo-Up Girls.  I couldn't think of any other dolls that this company has produced, so I poked around on their website for a little while.  Apparently there are also a few surprise doll brands, like Squadz Place and Love, Diana under the Far Out Toys umbrella.  The Love, Diana dolls look pretty cute and come in little ice cream cone packages, but I absolutely cannot add anything else to my review queue right now!  So I'll try my best to stay focused on the LUV girls.  Here's Brooke:  

L.U.V. doll, Brooke, by Far Out Toys, $29.97.

There are currently four dolls in the LUV line, in addition to a few outfit packs.  As far as I can tell, the products are only available at Walmart, which is weird.  Usually Amazon has everything.

The dolls cost $29.97 each, which is steep for a fashion play doll.  I expect something a bit special for that price, like great articulation or high-quality outfits.  We'll see if that's the case here.

The four characters are Brooke:

Londynn (autocorrect hates this name):

Harper:

And Autumn:

After looking at these promotional photos, my favorites were Brooke and Harper, so I decided to buy those two.  Londynn and Autumn's outfits didn't appeal to me, and Autumn's face looks odd--although it's possible that the placement of the head scarf is what's bothering me.

Each girl has an extra outfit pack that retails for $12.97:

I didn't buy any of these because I'd already spent over $60 on the two dolls.  But if I'd decided to purchase an outfit, it probably would have been Brooke's, since the shapes are interesting and I'd like to get a closer look at all of the different elements.

What surprised me most when the dolls arrived at my house is how sophisticated and elegant the packaging is.  Brooke came in a clear plastic box that's designed to look like the cover of a magazine:

That's excellent presentation.

All-plastic packaging is irritating from an environmental perspective, but I have to admit that it looks great in this case.  In fact, I had a better first impression of the box than I did of Brooke herself, who looked disheveled compared to her surroundings--or maybe just overwhelmed by her complicated outfit.

I like how even the sides of the box are clear, so you can peek in and examine the doll and backdrop from different angles:

The right side of the box has some phrases that resemble magazine article teasers:

And the left side has "LUV" in big letters, which is an acronym that stands for "Limitless, Unique, Vibrant:"

Hm.  I don't know about the acronym.  I mean, obviously the developers needed something that was cute and catchy, but these words don't fit together in my head.  Unique and vibrant are adjectives that could describe an outfit, person, or style.  But limitless?  That doesn't fit with the other words.  A person, style, or outfit can't be limitless.

It looks like there's more of an explanation on the back, so I'll withhold judgement:

There's also a lot of glare on the back, coming from all of that plastic, so I decided to remove the backdrop from the outer box.  This was super easy to do:

Now we can get a better look at all of the information on the back:

Each word in the LUV acronym has a little explanation:

Endless possibilities for what?  And what, exactly, should I do with style and grace?

I'm not sure the explanations help me.  But I probably can't do any better.  I might choose a different adjective for the "L," like luminous.

Also, not to be pointlessly nitpicky, but those little descriptions feel a bit random.  I wish each phrase was directed more clearly at the reader, like: Limitless: don't let anyone limit your potential, Unique: you are one of a kind, Vibrant: approach everything with style and grace.  Small edits = big difference.

There's also a little description of Brooke's personality, which is pretty bland:

She's the creative one who loves fashion.  Her style is rocker chic, which is not the immediate impression I got from looking at her in the box.

At the bottom of the backdrop, there's a colorful illustration of all four girls.  I think this is really appealing:

There's an enlarged version of Brooke's portrait on the right hand side of the box:

Her eyes match her jewelry!

Underneath Brooke's (spiked!) sandaled feet, there's a small Far Out Toys logo and a choking hazard warning:

Brooke was attached to the backdrop with an assortment of plastic ties and bands.  This included two plastic ties in her head, which were a pain to access.  Once Brooke was free, I was able to get a better look at her backdrop:

It's a light-filled modern room with several fashion mannequins.  I was intrigued by the different styles of clothing on display.  Some of the pieces are fairly mainstream, but this caped suit dress in the front is interesting...

...but not super original, apparently:

Hiding in the base of the backdrop, in a way that I might easily have missed, there was a black plastic stand in three pieces:

The stand was easy to assemble and has a waist grip:

There's a piece of black cardboard glued to the base of the stand with Brooke's name written in white:

I feel like the name label cheapens the overall look of the stand.  I might try to remove it at some point.

Fortunately, Brooke doesn't always need a stand.  She can balance reasonably well on her own, with a bit of manipulation:

She comes with a molded pink purse that has spikes around the edges.  The purse doesn't open, and doesn't look very comfortable to carry, either!

Good for self defense, I guess.

Brooke looks short in the torso, or perhaps it's just that her clothing has a lot of flared elements near the waist.  She also looks a bit flat in profile:

Her hair is shiny jet black and falls in large, lopsided curls down her back:

That looks messy.

Brushing the hair only made it messier:

Yikes.

The hair fiber feels fantastic, though.  Like high-quality nylon.  I just wish that it wasn't so unruly and lopsided.

The rooting is decent, but there are a few areas where it's easy to expose the scalp:

Here's a better view:

One explanation for the lopsided curls might be that a small section of hair from the left side of Brooke's face is braided and tied back with a small golden heart barrette:

I'll probably have to do a boil wash at some point, to fix all of that asymmetry are curl, but not right now.

I tied all of Brooke's hair back into a ponytail so that I could get a better look at her face:

There's nothing very distinct or unique about this face.  I feel like I've seen it before, but it's pleasant, friendly, and pretty.  I like that the head is a reasonable size, and while the eyes and mouth are enlarged, they're not huge.  The forehead is broad and the chin and nose are small--like a reverse pear.

There's not a lot of detail in Brooke's orange-brown irises, but the paint is even and the pixelation is very small, so it's hard to see from a distance:

I wish that the eye color was a darker brown and not so orange.  I think that would give Brooke a warmer, more realistic expression.

There's no molded eye socket, so the whole eye area looks (is) flat.  There's a lot of pressure on the makeup to imply some kind of depth around the eyes, and Brooke's light, monochromatic purple eyeshadow is not up to the task:

For the most part the face paint is well-applied, but my doll has a defect in the left side of her lower lip, where the paint has either rubbed off or was not applied evenly:

Brooke is wearing mis-matched gold vinyl earrings.  On her right, she has a spiked hoop:

And on her left, there's a spiked hoop with something like a safety pin attached to it:

The earrings are removable:

Brooke really likes spikes, I guess.

In addition to her earrings and barrette, Brooke's outfit is adorned with several pieces of gold vinyl jewelry, including a large necklace and belt:

There's a lot going on here.

She also has a bracelet-like hand decoration:

I've seen bracelets that link to rings, and maybe have some chains or something that run across the back of the hand, but this looks cumbersome.  How does Brooke do anything with that hand?

The bracelet can't even be removed without taking off the entire hand:

The hand itself is nice, with painted pink nails:

The most overpowering element of Brooke's ensemble is her bright purple pleather jacket.  It has gold zippers lining the edges and chest pockets, a studded collar, and a pleated waist with a flared back:

The stitching and detail on this jacket are really great.

It's beautifully tailored, and easy to put on and take off--provided that Brooke's hands are removed.

That's a really nice piece of clothing for a nine-inch doll.

The construction looks sturdy, but the inside is not as neat as the outside, and the bottom edge is not finished.  However, the pleated tail of the jacket has a black lining adhered to it, which looks better than the white backing on the pleather:

Underneath the jacket, Brooke is wearing a camisole top, the delicateness of which is obscured by all of the clunky vinyl accessories:

That belt is especially bad.

The camisole is made out of a silky purple print, and has grey lace lining the top and bottom edges:

It closes in the back with velcro:

Which you could see, if it weren't for that big belt.

Let's get the vinyl stuff out of the way.

First, here's the belt:

The belt closes in back with a peg and hole, and has several molded hearts and some dangling decorations.  This seems somewhat random when compared to Brooke's other accessories.  A simple spiked belt might have worked better, or no belt at all.

The necklace has a beaded chain that's painted black, and a gold section with a heart pendant:

Again, maybe a spiked choker would have been more in line with the purse and earrings.

These accessories look great in the box art:

But they can't be done delicately enough in vinyl to retain that subtle beauty.

I think Brooke looks better without the clutter of all of those vinyl items:

I'll even go so far as to say that she looks better without the bulky jacket, too, even though I think the jacket is interesting and very well made.

Rather than blaming any one item for the cluttered look of this outfit, maybe I should simply say that a bit of editing would have helped here.  For instance, if the pants didn't have that asymmetric skirt at the top, then the jacket might not have looked so cumbersome.  Or if the jacket had been cropped, then perhaps the pants could get away with their unconventional shape.

Here's the camisole on its own:

It's simple, but decently-made.  The attachment of the spaghetti straps looks like a weak point, and I see that the seam edges on the right side were stitched down in opposite directions, which will prevent the top from laying completely flat against Brooke's body:

Small critiques.

Without the camisole, it's easier to see the shape of the pinstripe pants, with their thick waistband and attached asymmetrical skirt.  It's a very unique design:

Or maybe not so unique:

A big difference between Brooke's pants and the lookalikes that I found online are that in the small scale of doll clothes, fabric doesn't have enough weight to hang and drape very well.  So that little skirt flares out like a tutu.  If it hung down straight, like the human clothing does, it might make the outfit look less cluttered.

Here are the pants on their own:

I really like the pinstripe print.  It looks like wool from a distance and is very classy.

The pants have a small velcro seam at the back, so they're easy to take off and put back on again.

And the print almost lines up along the back seam.

The legs are slightly flared and have simple hemmed edges at the bottom:

The narrowness of the knee area on these pants means that they don't slide on or off if Brooke is wearing her shoes.  

The shoes are golden stiletto heel sandals with spikes running down the front.  They're pretty great:

Clawdeen Wolf would totally wear those.

To accommodate the shoes, Brooke has fashion heel feet:

With pink nail polish!

At first I assumed this meant that she wouldn't be able to stand on her own, so I suspended her by a string for her full-body shot:

Brooke has a plastic torso with vinyl limbs and an impressive fourteen points of articulation.

Her torso looks pretty short, but it might just be that her legs are relatively long:

She has a Far Out Toys mark on her lower back with a 2024 copyright date:

Brooke's neck joint allows her head to tip back and forth a good amount, but she can't look up or down very much:

She can also turn her head from side to side without her chin tipping up, which I appreciate:

Her shoulders are rotating hinges that allow her arms to lift up and away from her body to about ninety degrees:

Her arms also spin around:

Her elbows and wrists are rotating hinges that can bend to about ninety degrees:

This arm articulation allows Brooke to touch her mouth and rest her hand on her hip:

She can strike a lot of natural, relaxed poses with her arms:

And some dramatic ones, too!

Brooke has a single torso joint that tips her upper body back and forth a little:

There's only a tiny bit of rotation in this joint, though.

The hips are ball and socket joints that allow Brooke to slide into partial side-to-side splits:

And if she rotates her knees upwards, she can do nearly-perfect splits:

This position allows you to see (somewhat crudely--sorry) the ball and socket joints:

Brooke can also do full front-to-back splits:

Her knees are rotating hinges that can bend slightly past ninety degrees:

And the lower legs can rotate in and out:

This allows Brooke to kneel on one knee:

Or on two, although her balance is poor in this position:

Ouch, my back!

She can also sit in a chair really well, which I always appreciate:

Ahh.  This is better.

And she can lounge on the floor photogenically:

And even sit cross-legged...sort of:

Hey!  This is better than most dolls.

Her ankles are yet another set of rotating hinges, with a pretty good range of motion:

In fact, her feet can flex so much that they look almost flat, which made me think perhaps she could balance on her own after all:

And sure enough!  She can:

Although not very well.

Nothing to see here.

Still, Brooke has excellent articulation, and is able to strike a ton of poses:

Especially with the help of the stand.

At nine inches tall, Brooke is shorter than a standard Barbie doll.  I'm in the process of trying to find a replacement model for Lena, and this week Petra agreed to step in and try out for the job.  She's not as focused as Lena, though:

Signature Looks Barbie (left) and LUV doll Brooke (right).

Brooke is more similar in size to a FailFix doll:

Failfix doll (left) and LUV doll Brooke (right)

Although the torso difference is large enough that these two can't reliably share clothing:

Brooke in a FailFix outfit.

Brooke is also similar in height to a Rainbow Junior High doll like Krystal:

Rainbow Junior High doll (left) and LUV Brooke doll, (right).

Brooke can wear Krystal's outfit and shoes.  They're big on her, but everything looks good:

LUV Brooke wearing a Rainbow High Junior outfit.

I wanted to compare Brooke to a G3 Monster High doll, too, because although Monster High dolls are more than nine inches tall, they tend to be quite skinny.  And, indeed, while Clawdeen's hips are similar in size to Brooke's, her shoulders are narrower:

G3 Monster High doll (left) and LUV doll Brooke (right).

These two can share clothing better than I expected!

LUV Brooke wearing G3 Monster High clothing.

And because both girls like purple, their outfits compliment one another, too.

G3 Clawdeen wearing LUV doll clothing.

I feel like this jacket was meant for Clawdeen!

G3 Clawdeen wearing LUV doll clothing.

Last of all, because I found out about LUV dolls thanks to a question about their similarity to the Unicorn Academy girls, I wanted to look at that comparison, too:

Unicorn Academy doll (left) and LUV doll Brooke (right).

These two are very similar, and can share clothing well.  Here's Brooke in Sophia's uniform:

LUV Brooke wearing Unicorn Academy clothing.

And Sophia's coloring looks really great with Brooke's outfit!

Her hair matches the camisole.

Here she is with the jacket, which just barely fits over her hands:

Unicorn Academy Sophia wearing LUV doll clothing.

Is it me, or does everybody else look better in Brooke's outfit than she does?

Anyway, with size comparisons out of the way, I put Brooke back into her own clothing and tried out the stand.  It doesn't fit very well under that long jacket:

So it has to go over the jacket, which is fine, but I always prefer it if the stand can be concealed as much as possible.  

Another issue is that the waist grip pushes the jacket closed so that the cami is almost completely hidden:

Also, notice that the grip is at the very top of the stand; there's no more room for it to slide up, and it can very easily slide right off:

I took a few portraits of Brooke without the stand:

She's quite photogenic, but her hair always looks messy and uneven.

I love how elegantly she can sit in a chair, even when she's fully-clothed:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with Brooke.  She has excellent articulation and great-feeling hair, and I like several of her outfit elements.  I could do without all of the vinyl accessories, and I wish that the shapes of the jacket and pants were more complimentary to each other and to Brooke's body type.  Brooke's face is pretty, versatile, and friendly--and a bit generic.  Her head size is nice, but I have a few issues with the eye region: her eye color is odd, and the eye socket area feels very two-dimensional.

I was eager to see how another character from this line would compare to Brooke.

The other girl who appealed to me in the promotional photos is Harper.  I think her face looks very sweet, and her hair looks pretty.  The dress looked better in the promotional photos, though:

Here's the backdrop without the glare of the plastic box:

I love that Harper has her own backdrop scene!  And the descriptive phrases on the front of the box are different, too.

The backdrop has the same layout as what we saw with Brooke: a short description of the character, a large portrait of the character, and a smaller illustration of all four girls:

Harper is the compassionate and caring member of the group, and her style is vintage-inspired:

Harper's portrait is really pretty.  I love how the dress looks here.  It's elegant and modern, with some romantic, vintage-like elements:

After I detached Harper from the backdrop, I took a closer look at the scene:

It looks like the hallway of a design school or something, with some color swatches on the wall and a desk with sketches.

Here's Harper:

Her dress looked messy right out of the box, with misbehaving sleeves and a wrinkled skirt with an uneven hem.  The huge polka dots are stiff and shiny and give the skirt a cheap feel.  It's nowhere near as delicate and flowing as the illustration on the box.

Here she is from the back:

Ugh. That skirt is all over the place.

Harper's long brown hair is very pretty.  It's also straighter and more sleek than Brooke's hair, so it's easier to control:

Her face is different from Brooke's, too, and I like it more:

I wasn't sure why her earrings were plastered to her head like that, though.  It looks bizarre.

Turns out there was a vinyl band holding her earrings together in back--presumably to keep them from falling out.

With the band removed, the earrings look a bit more natural:

Each earring has a large heart loop and a smaller dangling heart:

But let's get back to Harper's face for a minute.  I like it better than Brooke's face because the eyes are smaller, and they have two-toned shading around them.  This gives some implied depth:

I also think Harper's head shape is different, so her forehead isn't as large and her eyes are set closer together.

Her yellow eye color is not my favorite, but I like the dark eyebrows with little hairs drawn in at the edges:

A little gloss over the eyes might help a bit, but overall I'm happy with Harper's face and makeup.

Her outfit, like Brooke's, is decorated with several gold vinyl accessories and looks crowded in some places:

Why the need for a corset and a belt?

She has a crown-shaped bracelet on her left wrist that won't come off unless the hand is removed:

And she has a necklace and belt, both with heart accents:

So many hearts.

The dress is separate from the loose-fitting black corset piece:

I really like the top part of the dress, with the satin and mesh contrast.  The details are good here, too, like the tiny hemmed collar, the princess-seamed bodice, and the flared mesh sleeves.  But the skirt area feels cheap with those heavy polka dots, and the unfinished, uneven edges:

The construction looks good, although the areas where the mesh is sewn to fabric might be weak spots:

Under her dress, Harper is wearing black boots with laces in front and a molded heart design on one side:

As with Brooke, I feel like less is more with this ensemble.  I prefer the dress on its own, without the vinyl accessories and without the ill-fitting black corset:

That collar could be smaller, so that it didn't overlap the bodice, but I understand the constraints of making clothes for a nine-inch doll.

Here are a few quick portraits of Harper:

Her hair and face are really beautiful.  

I might have to invest in new clothing for her.  The dress in her extra outfit set looks simple, but pretty:

For now, her original outfit will be fine:

I wanted to do a quick skin tone comparison between Harper and Brooke, but as I posed them side-by-side, I noticed something unexpected: they do not have the same body!

You're taller than me, Brooke!

It's subtle, so I didn't even notice the differences when I was handling them separately.  But Harper is slightly shorter than Brooke, with narrower shoulders and thicker legs.  I think Harper's lower torso is narrower, too.

On the one hand, I love, love, love this!  It's very impressive to me when a doll company takes the time to make different head and body molds for each character.  Three cheers for that.  But the problem is that suddenly I had a very good reason for wanting to see all four LUV characters side-by-side.  I mean, what if they all have different bodies?  Was it worth another $60 to find out?

You know me, I had to find out.  So I scraped the bottom of my bank account and went back to Walmart for Autumn and Londynn.  I'll look at them as quickly as possible.

First, here's Autumn:

Autumn is a disaster has a complicated outfit.

Autumn is described as warm, friendly, and free-spirited.  She has a bohemian style that's always ahead of the latest trends:

She's so ahead of the trends that she's behind.

Here's the full-body portrait of Autumn, where it looks like she's trying to wear everything in her closet all at once:

Pick and choose, Autumn.  Pick and choose.

I love the style of the LUV box art, so not liking Autumn's box art portrait was not a good omen.

And, indeed, the doll really didn't appeal to me on first inspection.  Her eyes are even larger and more vacant than Brooke's, and that headband is doing her no favors:

But I love that she has yet another unique backdrop!  This is the storefront of a clothing boutique:

A cute backdrop can't save a doll, though.  So let's see what Autumn is really like.

Here she is out of the box:

That outfit gives me a headache.

Her outfit is extremely busy, with several different prints and a few pieces of vinyl jewelry.  Instead of a vinyl belt around her waist, she's wearing a purse across her body.

Her neck and chest areas are especially cluttered.  She has a spiked choker that makes her neck completely disappear.  And her dress has two highly-contrasting fabrics near the neck, with a black shirt underneath that appears to have netting on one side:

Fashion overload.

The skirt of her dress looks cool to me, though:

It's a parachute-style fabric, with a large working pocket and a ruffle that looks cinch-able (it isn't actually cinch-able):

Here's Autumn from the back, where her curly blonde hair covers the outfit's messier elements:

Her hair is quite curly, so it looks messier than the other girls' hair, but the fiber still feels nice and soft.

I was desperate to get that headband off:

Phew.

I think Autumn looks better without the headband.  She has a broad forehead, a square chin, and very large eyes, but her loose curls balance those strong features a bit:

Just a bit.

Most of Autumn's outfit is all one piece:

This is a shame, because I was hoping that the cool parachute skirt could be used separately.

Underneath the dress, Autumn is wearing a black knit bodysuit with netting on the right side:

It feels like maybe Autumn borrowed this and the spiked necklace from Brooke's closet?

Anyway, the net parts of the bodysuit look a bit ragged, especially at the neck:

The last element of Autumn's outfit is a pair of buckled gladiator boots:

Nice boots.

This style of boot was popular in the 1960's, I think, which fits with Autumn's vintage aesthetic.

The holes in these boots can be tricky to navigate, though.  I frequently got Autumn's toes stuck in the holes as I was trying to push the boots on:

The only way I could think of to de-clutter Autumn's outfit was to remove all of the vinyl accessories and take off the black bodysuit:

Maybe a little better?

Unfortunately, the fit of the dress is way too loose without the extra layer:

This is not okay.

I was looking for ways to re-use the headband somehow, but the butterfly print on that fabric is different from the one on the dress, so it just adds another layer of unnecessary chaos:

I love butterflies, but...

Anyway, here's Autumn back in her outfit, with the headband used as a ponytail decoration:

My biggest complaint with Autumn is her dress.  It makes no sense to me.  Perhaps if the elements were separate, so they could be mixed and matched, it would work better?  For instance, I'd love to see how the butterfly bodice would look with the parachute skirt, without the poofy blue sleeve and bow in front.  Or even just removing the bow in front might help a lot; the skirt would be more visible and the butterfly print wouldn't be so overshadowed.

The thought of getting that bow out of the way nagged at me until I finally broke down and cut it off:

Thanks for ruining my dress, Emily.

The belt was sewn on very well, which is a testament to the durability of these clothes, but that meant that taking it off left behind some holes:

Okay, so that was a mistake.  But I can use the headband as a belt and try to embrace the trio of mismatched prints:

Embrace the chaos, Emily.

I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed with Autumn.  Her outfit is confusing, her curly hair is a mess, and her big-eyed face does not appeal to me.  I really like the style of the skirt on her dress, and I love her articulation, but that's about it.

The last doll we have to look at is Londynn:

Even in her box, I could tell that Londynn is taller than the other three dolls.

Londynn is the adventurous and outgoing member of the group.  The description of her fashion style is vague, though.  It simply says: "she loves to show off her unique and individual style."

As usual, the illustration of Londynn is very nice:

How did she bend her left leg that way, though?

As I mentioned before, her outfit doesn't really appeal to me.  The neon pink ruffle on the shirt and the printed bubble shorts feel outdated.  They remind me of the turn of the century, or maybe the 80s.

But Londynn has her own backdrop, which looks like the carpeted entrance to a modern building where a fashion event is about to take place:

Bryant Park?

London's thigh-high boots are good for balance, and she can stand on her own well:

And her face is gorgeous.  The promotional photos (and my photos) don't do it justice:

She has the same plague of vinyl accessories as the other dolls, unfortunately.

All outfit elements look good from the back, except for the boots, which require a very long slit in order to work:

Londynn easily has the prettiest face of the bunch.  Once again, I feel like the eye color is too light--almost supernatural, but I love her full, dark lips and the hint of silver in her eyeshadow:

These close-ups make her skin tone look lighter than it is, but they show the face paint better:

Her lips are beautiful, and she has smoky eyeshadow that gives some needed depth to her eyes:

I was also impressed to see that Londynn's jacket is separate from the underlaying ruffled blouse:

And the jacket is wonderful!  It's made out of a chiffon-like material that's very delicate.  And all of the little tailoring details are exquisite.  I especially like the gathering on the sleeves and the knitted cuffs:

And I don't hate the pink ruffled blouse as much when I see it by itself.  It's vibrant and fun:

The ruffle adds dramatic flare, while also keeping the sheer netted blouse from revealing all of Londynn's chest.

Pretty and practical.

And I even like the shorts up-close.  They have the same wide waistband and working pockets as Autumn's parachute skirt:

I kind of wish that the decorative cord ties on the legs were pink to match the blouse, but it's fine.

I'll quickly show you Londynn's vinyl accessories, in case there's anyone who wants to see them:

More hearts.

My favorite pieces are the cute and inconspicuous heart hoop earrings:

I wanted to see how Londynn looked in a more toned-down outfit, so I replaced her pink blouse with Autumn's black bodysuit:

And do you know what?  I actually don't like this as much as the pink blouse.  A lot of the fun is gone.  So maybe I had an unfair first reaction to Londynn's original outfit.

Still, I think Brooke's ensemble is a better fit for Londynn.  She looks more sophisticated, and the outfit pieces suit her tall frame better than they do Brooke's short torso:

It's great that despite their differences in body types, these girls can share clothing.  That was a very clever design move.

The last thing I did with Londynn was to take her ponytails down.  Her hair fiber feels great, and the hair is full and looks good, although the rooted part causes a bit of asymmetry:

She also looks good with all of her hair pulled back into a single ponytail:

I'm very glad that I decided to take a closer look at all four of these girls, if only because it means that I now have Londynn in my collection.  Her face and jacket are gorgeous, and I appreciate her shorts and blouse more than I thought I would.  And I didn't even mention her awesome thigh-high boots, which are nicely molded and work well with the shorts.  The shoes in this line are pretty great overall.

However, the purpose of buying all four dolls was to see if they have different body types...which they do!  Here's everybody arranged by height:

LUV dolls by height from left: Londynn, Brooke, Harper, and Autumn.

The diversity is great.  It's hard for me to tell if all of the body parts are unique, or if there are some shared pieces.  For example, it looks like Londynn and Harper share a torso, and Londynn and Brooke have the same leg length and shape.  Autumn and Brooke both have short torsos and wider legs, but Autumn's legs look bigger than Harper's to me, which could just be a trick of the light.

And of course they all have different skin tones and head shapes.  What fun!  Londynn and Harper are my favorite dolls, but Londynn and Brooke have my favorite outfit pieces.  So there's a lot to enjoy here, especially if you're able to purchase a few of the dolls.  I bet the clothing packs are nice to have, too, and I'd love to have a different outfit for Harper.

And again, even the two extremes in body type, Londynn and Autumn, can share clothing.  Although Londynn refused to wear Autumn's dress and her outfit is not a great look for Autumn:

Autumn wearing Londynn's outfit.

Because Autumn has larger legs than Londynn, the slit in the back of the boots is much more pronounced:

Yeah, that's not good.

I'll end the review by going back to Brooke, since she's the featured doll today.  I wanted her final portraits to look as good as possible, so I gave her hair a quick boil wash.  This helped a lot, and now I feel like the hair looks almost as good as it feels:

Not lopsided anymore!

Here's the boiled hair from the back:

I started by dressing Brook only in her cami top and trousers.  This is my favorite look for her, especially now that her hair is more under control:

I added some of the jewelry back, but it's too bulky--especially that belt:

The jacket might make the outfit look cluttered, but it's a really great piece of clothing:

It brings out more of the rocker chic part of Brooke's style:

This is a lovely little doll who is a blast to pose and play with.

Bottom line?  I'm grateful to that anonymous comment back in June, because otherwise I might never have decided to purchase a LUV doll.  I enjoyed learning more about this brand, and don't even have many regrets about buying all four dolls, despite their $30 price.  The one inkling of regret that I have is from buying Autumn.  It was valuable to see what body style she has, but otherwise I find her much less appealing than the other characters.

Overall, three things stand out to me about this line: articulation, diversity, and some great clothing pieces.  First let's talk about the articulation.  All 14 joints look good and move well.  While not quite Made to Move caliber, these dolls have excellent articulation, and can even balance on their own--with or without shoes.  I like the proportions in the bodies, too, and the fact that the heads aren't enormous.  The one tiny articulation compliant I can muster is that the heads don't look up and down very much.  The second thing that stands out about the LUV dolls is their diversity.  It's great when a small doll line like this includes multiple skin tones and ethnicities, but to have four different body types is truly impressive.  What's more, the differences in size don't seem to inhibit outfit sharing.  All of these girls have a unique head shape and face mold, too.  Some of the faces are really lovely, while others (Autumn) are not as appealing to me.  The third thing that I really appreciate about these dolls is the intricacy and creativity of their outfits.  The clothing is highly detailed and well-tailored, and also attractive, with a few exceptions (Autumn).  The fabric choices are really interesting, too, with everything from a wool-like pinstripe pant to a sporty chiffon jacket.  Brooke's pants and jacket, the parachute skirt of Autumn's dress, and Londynn's jacket are all pieces that made me smile in appreciation when I first saw them in real life.  I would be pretty excited to see more characters and fashion packs from this line.

The biggest down side to this brand is that the outfits are all cluttered.  The abundance of vinyl jewelry has a lot to do with this, but in several cases the fabric pieces feel overwhelming, too.  For instance, Brooke, who has a short waist, is not flattered by all of the frills in her waist and hip region.  The combination of a flared jacket and a skirted pant is a lot.  I also think Harper's dress could do without the loose-fitting corset, although hers is the least cluttered look.  Londynn's outfit seemed unnecessarily busy to me at first, but once I removed the vinyl pieces, I grew to appreciate the sense of fun in this ensemble.  Autumn's dress is the worst offender in terms of over-cluttering.  I struggle to make sense of the mix of shapes and fabrics.  Even without the vinyl elements, and even after I ripped off the sash, I'm still left scratching my head.  It's possible that these dolls are intended for young kids who are just starting to appreciate fashion.  That audience might be more excited about having a lot of clothing pieces and accessories to play around with, rather than being fixated on cohesion or a polished final look.

I guess another thing that's missing for me with these dolls is any sense of who they are.  They're a diverse group of friends who all seem to like fashion at some level, but that's eye-rollingly generic.  So much effort and care went into the design of these dolls, I'm surprised that there was no attempt to give them any kind of backstory or personality.  I mean, they need their own sitcom or something.  That said, perhaps the blank slate was intentional--to give kids the chance to invent their own stories.

Whoever the LUV girls are, I'm very happy to see a new fashion doll release that isn't part of the Mattel/MGA arms race--especially a diverse, well-articulated group of dolls with great hair, different body types, and creative, well-made clothing.  It's hard to ask for more.