Later, by Fab-Lu Ltd., also from "Bild" Lilli moulds, complete with the high heels and asterisk-shaped flower earrings moulded onto the doll. Some were brittle shiny plastic, others painted as were the first German Lilli dolls. These are likely the earlier sample issues although there exists prototype Hong Kong Lilli’s which are painted nearly exactly as the German “Bild” Lilli dolls were. The eyebrows vary a bit on these dolls. They would also continue the seven inch version as well which can be found unmarked, or marked with various “made in Hong Kong” markings. These were manufactured, amongst others apparently, by Chang-Pi Su Company, who marketed them as “Cherie” in a pale blue cardboard box with cellophane front. The same small version has been found in the same box, but red cardboard, marked “The Fashion Model” and “Made In The British Colony Of Hong Kong” with the original 88 cents price tag of the Sprouse-Reitz stores on the package. One known version is in a red and white striped strapless dress similar to Barbie doll’s “Cotton Casual”.

These dolls expressions, via mass-production of the painting of the face, would turn sometimes sour, with pursed lips and a definitely bored-to-death air. Her usually “bleached blonde” hair, the original option, would now be expanded upon. Whereas the original German Lilli model had on rare occasions tasteful in comparison henna red, jet black, and deep brownette or auburn-coloured hair, the Hong Kong versions were seen with a more shocking version of henna red, dyed-looking blue-black, and even a strange mousy brown shade of hair, the odd colour of old newspaper. One shade of blonde is that awful colour kinky brunette which turns, when it is cheaply dyed blonde, a brassy, greenish tone reminiscent of bad suburban dye jobs. Fabulous for collectors now, of course.

The once heavy, slightly orange painted, solid plastic fraulein would, in her mass-productions, sometimes become a little thinner, with a lighter plastic in a much whiter shade of “skin" when un-painted. She, like the attitude she projected, seemed brittle. Of course, the tiny Bild newspaper which came with the doll during her years in Germany and her comic feature that could be clipped each Sunday from the real newspaper were no longer available. “Das” is life, I guess.

Eventually, the comparitively endearing "Bild" Lilli would disappear off the market, perhaps to look for another job in the classified section of her own miniature Bild newspaper. Or change her “profession” as “star of the bar”. Or maybe she just changed her name to Barbie and immigrated to the United States, as inferred the aforementioned Internet article. Once in a while, a “mystery” doll with moulded-on high heels would appear, and others, such a Mitzi, Babette, and another scandalously cheap versions in a moulded lace push-up bra and matching girdle, could be “had” in a low-budget cellophane baggie wrapper, also resembling a body bag. "Bild" Lilli’s alias or not, these floozies would haunt the perimeter of the “World of Barbie" forever, as a bitter reminder of her Mattel-denied origins.

The so-called “Hong Kong” Lillis, previously scorned by collectors and originally incorrectly thought to be only “cheap” copies of German Lilli have been found in authentic Lilli costumes identical except for the snaps, Lilli’s snaps originally being peculiar-looking gripper snaps from Europe of the fifties, these are PYRM-marked and usually used by the Maar company for all their doll’s clothing and also later for the mid-sixties Gotz SASHA doll clothes. Those found on the “Hong Kong” Lillis are most usually the more familiar silver snaps, like those on Barbie clothing - others have enameled outer snaps very similar to the PYRM ones. These are much rarer to find, and usually only in Europe.

Besides the “classic “Bild” Lilli dolls, I have purchased quite a few “Hong Kong” Lilli’s in Germany and Austria. Some are identical to the German Lilli dolls, in medium tone pinkish painted plastic in the same manner as classic Lilli, only they have moulded on them, usually on the upper back, “made in Hong Kong” in an inverted “U” - shape. This leads me to think perhaps "Bild" Lilli, who is known to have been manufactured as late as 1961 in Germany with over 80 different outfits and dolls available that year, might have been continued to be manufactured in Hong Kong by Fab-Lu Ltd. (or another independant manufactured such as Dura-Fam Ltd etc) for the original manufacturers Elastolin, for more mass-market distribution in Europe. This is conjecture but highly possible. Upon seeing that a broader commercialization of the doll as a toy was not working for them, as they were a small company having legal disputes with Mattel Toys, perhaps the doll was sold or turned over to Fab-Lu Ltd, as well as Dura-Fam, Ltd and the others mentioned above, to market.

Maybe, as indicated by the original creator in a recent interview, Lilli was simply ripped off by unscrupulous toy makers of both the high and low end of the business. This is also very likely to be the case but the details have become obscured with time.