Fleur clone dolls

Every succesfull doll will get a cheap clone lookalike sooner or later...this is an unwritten rule in doll history. The doll, which was most often cloned in the world, is of course Barbie, because she was always the most succesfull fashion doll of all. It seems ironic, that the first Barbie ever made, the first Ponytail Barbie, was a clone doll herself! She was a lookalike of a german fashion doll called Bild Lilli, which was sold in Germany in the 50s and 60s.

But this post is not about Barbie. This post is of course about Fleur and about clone dolls inspired by Fleur doll or Fleur doll fashions.... or the other way around. I have found some interesting goodies, so follow me into the rabbit hole of clone dolls!

In Holland, the home country of Fleur, the dutch company Edor released a very similar doll to Fleur called Madeliefje. It is not known, when exactly the first Madeliefje doll was released, but I strongly suppose it was in the early 1980.

The first facemold of Madeliefje is an exact copy of Ski Star Fleur, who was released probably in 1980. The only difference between Madeliefje and Ski Star Fleur is, that Fleur has stick in spike lashes and peachy lips while Madeliefje has real rooted hair lashes, two additional painted lashes at the outer corner of her eyes and she came with a variaty of lipsstick colours, such as peach, orange, or light pink.

The first Madeliefje dolls were released on a very similar body to the 70s Fleur (see here an overview of the Fleur doll bodies) and later also on Barbie like bodies with thin arms and legs that were marked Madeliefje at the back.

The box of the early Madeliefje was pink or reddish with daisy flowers at the bottom (Maliefje is dutch for daisy, another hint to Fleur which is french for flower).

The back of the box shows....Fleur dolls (!) wearing Madeliefje fashions.

In socialist Poland in the 80s western items could only be bought in special stores called Pewex. Pewex was selling goods like chocolate, cigarettes, electronics and toys like Barbie, Lego and .... Fleur. The items were luxury goods, very expensive and people had to pay with US Dollar. Most people could not afford them.

But of course fashion dolls were highly desirable, so a polish company called Ottock designed a cheap fashion doll with the name Liza, which was very affordable and available in nearly every toy store and kiosk in Poland.

It is undeniable, that the first Liza-head is molded directly after Fleur. If you remove the (hilarious) facepaint, the mold looks exactly like Fleur. 

Her body was unlike Fleur made of cheap hollow hart plastic with very thin legs and arms, typical for cheap clone dolls of that era.

The first Liza dolls with the Fleur mold were made with crazy white hair and a really sloppy haindpainted face. They didn't do her any favour with the facepaint and most of the dolls looked truly hilarious. Liza has no stick in eyelashes like Fleur, only three painted on very long lashes. Later Lizas were also availbale with other haircolours.

In the late 80s Liza got a new facemold with an open mouth which looked even worse and was probably supposed to mimick the Superstar Barbies.

The fashions were made of cheap fabric and didn't really fit her. I haven't seen any direct cloning of Fleur's fashions.

I have found these photos in a non-active polish doll forum. I tried to join to ask for permission, but no answer of the admins yet. So I couldn't contact the forum members. If these are your photos, please contact me and I will give you full credit. If you wish me to take them down, of course I will. 

We know that Fleur made it over the iron curtain in the times of the cold war and some eastern European countries were able to sell her in limited quantities. As you just read, she was cloned in Poland as Liza so it's no surprise, that other eastern European countries also got a Fleur clone doll. Her name was Barbora and she reminds me a lot of Liza by Otwock. I don't know which company poduced and sold her, but her similarity to Liza makes me believe, that she may be made in the same factory, at least her head. Barbora was available in a couple of eastern European countries that were part of the UDSSR back than, like Russia, Litau, and Ukraine.

Barbora was sold in an orange simple box. Her head is a direct clone of Fleur, exactly like Liza, her facepaint however seems to be handmade and differs a lot from doll to doll, some dolls have small eyes (smaller than the molded eyes) with lashes, some dolls have big eyes with eyeliner. Her lips could be red, orange or pink. She had no stick in lashes. She was available in many haircolours. Her body, made of cheap hollow plastic, looks very similar to the standart Fleur body of the 80s, unlike Liza.

I cannot tell anyhing about her wardrobe or her history, so if you know anything about this doll, please contact me at allaboutfleur@gmx.de

In the 60s, the south african toy company SAD (South African Doll Industry Ptd.) released a fashion doll called Debbie, that looked exactly like Tammy by Ideal or the very early Sindy dolls by Pedigree, that were licensed to use the Tammy mold.  A collector from South Africa was very kind and allowed me to share with you a Debbie doll cataloque. It must be from the 60s or early 70s, but I don't know the exact year. It is also unknown, if SAD had a license from Peridgree or Ideal to produce Debbie or if she was a clone. But the slogan "the doll you love to dress" is the same used for Tammy and Sindy and also the fashions made for Debbie looked exactly like Sindy's.

In the late 70s or early 80s Debbie's appearance changed drastically. Also the company's name, that released Debbie dolls in South Africa, changed from SAD to Prima.  Some collectors suspect, that Prima bought SAD or that SAD simply changed their company name into Prima.

The Debbie doll made by Prima in the late  70s/early 80s looks exactly like a 70s Fleur doll by Otto Simon. She has the same face, stick in lashes, same quality of hair in three haircolours (strawberry blonde, platinum blonde, brown) and the exact same body as the 70s Fleur.  Debbie has an E stamped on the back of her torso. Not all 70s Fleur dolls were marked, some also have an E marked, some are unmarked.  

The Fleur lookalike Debbie was sold in a white t-shirt with "Debbie" written on it, red trousers and a red bag. This otfit is the exact copy of Sindy Weekender from 1977, just that Sindy had her own name wrtten on her blouse. Debbie was sold in a red and yellow slim box. 

I was told by a very lovey lady from South Africa that another Debbie variant was sold in 1981/1982 in a Ballerina outfit that looks exactly like the outfit of Active Sindy from 1977 with the pink ballet shoes. She was even sold in a very similar box like Sindy also sitting in a split.

If Debbie is a clone, than a perfect one of exceptional good quality. Or was Fleur sold as Debbie in South Africa by Prima under the license of Otto Simon? But why was she wearing Sindy fashions? We know that Otto Simon and Pedigree didn't get along in the early 80s, after Pedigree withdraw the licence to produce Sindy dolls from Otto Simon in 1978. A Fleur doll in Sindy-fashions is a very strange pairing considering the history of the two companies..

 If you have any informations about Debbie, please contact me at allaboutfleur@gmx.de

My Fleur friend Angela was lucky to find this strange clone doll on Ebay. We don't know anything about this doll, no name, no original outfit and also not the year of release. If you have any informations, please contact me at allaboutfleur@gmx.de.

The headmold is exactly like 80s Fleur. She has short curly strawberry blode hair, stick in lashes and full red lips. Her body doesn't look like any doll we have seen before, see photos.

While browsing for clone dolls, I discovered this cute little doll. Her face reminded me a bit of Fleur with the round face, big blue eyes and small red lips with a slight smile. So I digged deeper.

Perle by Delavennat is a french clone doll and was distributed from 1981 to 1993. She was very succesfull in France and was the biggest Barbie competidor in the 80s.

She was sold in a variety of boxes with no true consistency.

Her body is very similar to a Barbie body. The early Perle dolls looked similar to Fleur as described above. Later dolls were made with an open mouth smile.

Perle is not a direct clone of the Fleur doll. However she borrowed some outfits and accessories of Fleur, that's why I think it is legit to include her here too.

The accessories pictured were probably produced in Hong Kong in the same factory and were bought from that factory by both,  Otto Simon and Delavennat.

The history of Tanya by Ceppirati, an italian clone doll of the 80s and 90s, is a bit complicated. Tanya was available with a variety of head molds, most dolls were direct clones of other clone dolls, such as Karina by Bush, Petra by Plasty/Lundby and Flower Princess by Creata. It is possible, that the heads were simply bought from the same factories.

The most similar facemold to Fleur would be the one resembling Creata's Flower Princess. 

She has a round face, big blue eyes and small red lips with a cute little smile. But this face is not the reason, why Tanya made it into this blog post. 

Tanya Bermuda not only shares the exact same name as Bermuda Fleur,  she is wearing the exact same outfit! She was even available in more colour combinations than Bermuda Fleur. Bermuda Fleur was available in three colour combinations, Tanya in six.

 If this Tanya dolls seems a bit familiar to you, it might be, because she wears a training suit that is similar to Aerobic Fleur and the headband is made of the same material like the visor of outfit #1228 for Fleur doll.

Flair... Flair? Sounds familar, right?  Exactly... Totsy may have been inspired by the design of Fleur's logo (even with the little flower) and changed Fleur into Flair to release a new doll. Flair was later called Ms Flair and was a cheap clone doll that looked very similar to other cheap clone dolls made in china.

The doll doesn't look at all like Fleur, also the wardrobe was not similar, it was more similar to Super Linna, another dutch fashion doll clone. 

Did they copy Fleur or is it just a coincidence? We don't know.

If you are german, you might think now: What? No way, Steffi Love didn't copy Fleur. And you are right. Steffi Love was a Barbie competidor starting in the 80s untill today (!!!). Neither her facemold, that she often shared with other cheap clone dolls, nor her wardrobe are directly inspired by Fleur. Her dolls were always closely inspired by Barbie dolls. So why did I add her here?

Because I have found this doll: Steffi Love Opera from mid to late 80s. The pink gown she is wearing looks very similar to an unreleased Fleur prototype gown shown on the back of the box of Sweet Dreams Fleur 1987. Coincidence? Same factory? Who knows!

Here we have an "egg or hen?" situation. Shillman (who did also Lovely Lindsey for Sears) is a doll company known for 70s dolls like Mini Mod and Maxi Mod. 

Shillman released an outfit in the early 80s for their Mini Mod doll that is the exact same outfit that Dungaree Fleur was wearing (released probably 1980 or 1983, we don't know for sure). The Lovely Lindseay doll made for Sears also comes with the exact same outfit. I don't believe that Shillmann copied Fleur here. The outfit was probably just bought from the same factory. 

Mini Mod and Fleur share also a very similar (not identical) luggage set. The luggage set from Shillman is probably from the 70s while Fleur's is from the 80s. So Otto Simon might have been inspired by Shillman here. Were they also inspired by Mini Mod for their Dungaree Fleur? Who knows....

I hope you enjoyed this article. It went much research work into it, but I'm sure I haven't found all the dolls or outfits, that are similar to Fleur. If you know of any more dolls, outfits or histories, please contact me via e-mail allaboutfleur@gmx.de!

And if you liked this article, leave a comment!