I got an 11.5 inch Hong Kong Lilli recently (I’d love an actual Bild Lilli in that size one day but the prices are crazy). The Hong Kong Lilli’s were actually cast from the original Bild Lilli molds, after the original manufacturer sold the molds to a toy factory in Hong Kong (which they did after selling the rights to Bild Lilli to Mattel after a lawsuit against Mattel). The Hong Kong Lilli’s were made of thinner lighter plastic, and usually had a much more slap dash assembly with a lot of messy glue and face paint.
I’m not done with the restoration of this doll yet, it’s been very difficult and I’m trying to stay motivated so I thought I’d post what I’ve done so far.
This poor doll has definitely seen some things in the last 60 years:
After scrubbing and scraping off as much old glue as I could, I restrung the doll (Bild Lilli was strung on elastic, and the Hong Kong Lilli’s are assembled the same way) and opened up the head to get rid of the old glue and broken hair. It was gross.
I then removed the old paint, and did a repaint where I tried to capture the actual Lilli-ness of the sculpt:
I now need to add new hair and reattach the head cap, which sounds simple but has been a pain so far. Hopefully my next update will be once this has been completed.