Lucky Doggy by Orange Toys

I was so excited earlier this winter when I discovered the Woof & Co. plush dogs at Walmart.  I felt like they were unique and adorable newcomers to the doll market and I gave them a mostly glowing review.  My only complaints were that they have cheap (and sometimes unattractive) clothing, and no head articulation.  And there were a few irritating manufacturing defects as well.  But overall, I was really impressed that Sunny Days Entertainment had come up with such a cool toy.

But, as it often happens, one of you shed a whole new light on the situation.  I got an anonymous comment that the Woof & Co. dogs are basically knockoffs of the European Lucky Doggy line by Orange Toys.  I absolutely hate that I featured the copycats (dupe dogs?) before I even knew about the originals.  Sheesh.  So, as soon as I learned about Lucky Doggy, I rushed over to my trusted European doll source, Dolls and Dolls, and ordered a few of these plush pooches for review:

Lucky Doggy Yoyo by Orange Toys, ~$45.

The Lucky Doggy brand has been around since 2018, but I've never seen them sold in stores in the United States.  Perhaps Build A Bear, which has been around since 1997, effectively filled that niche in this country.

It's not particularly easy to find Lucky Doggy toys for sale anywhere else in the world, either, frankly.  I was only able to find two or three online shops that carry a good selection of the new-in-box dogs.  There are a few offerings on eBay as well, which might have been the more frugal option for me.  But I love to support Dolls and Dolls, and they have an excellent inventory.

The dogs I bought were on sale for €39.38, which is about $45.  That's $15 more than the Woof & Co. dogs.  The normal retail price ranges from about €42-49 (~$48-56) depending on the specific dog.  

From what I can tell, there are 7 different dog designs, some of which have both male and female versions.  There's Mimi, who looks like a white Pomeranian or Maltese:

Mimi.

Technically, all of the dogs' names start with Lucky, so this is actually Lucky Mimi, but I'm going to leave the Lucky part off for simplicity.

There's also a Yorkie who's called Yoyo as a female and Andy as a male:

Andy.

There's a black Chihuahua (?) named Carmen (or Buzz as a boy):

Carmen.

Maybe this dog is a miniature pinscher and not a Chihuahua?  Her coloring is right for that breed:

There's also a brown Chihuahua-like dog called Kiki (or Alex as a boy): 

Kiki.

And there's a white Chihuahua, too.  She doesn't appear to have a male counterpart, but is called Pearl in some outfits and Lili in others:

Pearl.

Fendy looks like a poodle or a golden doodle or something like that:

Fendy.

Fendy has a male equivalent named Sammy.

All of these characters come in several different outfits, and I suspect the mix of options changes from year to year.  So once you've chosen which dog you like best, you still have to sift through all of the clothing options for that character and decide which one is your favorite.  It's a lot of work, I tell you!

And as if all that weren't enough, there's actually one other dog that I found online at a delightful little shop called Tadpoles and Tiddlers.  Tiddlers are little fish, btw.  She's marketed as a French bulldog, and based on some internet detective work, her name is Betsy (with a male counterpart called Maxx).  Betsy must be discontinued because she's very hard to find online and no longer appears in the Orange Toys catalogue:

Lucky Doggy Betsy.

This girl makes me laugh.  Those ears!  They're more like mouse ears than bulldog ears.  And I'm not sure how common grey (or lilac) Frenchies are, but they do exist:

Anyway, I really like Yoyo the Yorkie, especially because I featured the Yorkie character in my Woof & Co. review.  So she's the first dog I bought.

Yoyo came in high-quality Tiffany blue cardboard box with a plastic sleeve:

Lucky Doggy packaging.

The design of the Woof & Co. boxes is very similar, right down to the band of cardboard on the lower half of the box.  The band keeps everything in place and displays the brand name:

Woof & Co. packaging.

Underneath the band of cardboard on Yoyo's box, there's a sticker advertising the dog's articulation.  There's also some text describing a free fashion wardrobe that is "already inside the box:"

Interesting!

The sides of the box are decorated with cute little cartoons of the different dogs:

The cartoons help a little with breed identification.  For instance, the white dog that I assumed was a Pomeranian looks a lot more like a Maltese in the picture:

That's a Maltese haircut.

And this is definitely a Chihuahua:

All of my Chihuahuas enjoy day drinking and beachside cafés.

This also looks like a Chihuahua, but I'm not sure which Lucky Doggy character it's supposed to be:

Not Betsy, that's for sure.

And this doesn't look like any of the characters, either.  In fact, it might be a fox:

Lucky Foxxy.

There's no cartoon version of Yoyo, which is too bad.

I took the plastic sleeve off Yoyo's box so that I could get a glare-free picture.  Despite a lot of head room, she comes with her legs squished up in an uncomfortable-looking way:

Her box isn't small, though.  It's about an inch taller than the Woof & Co. boxes:

Woof & Co. (left) and Lucky Doggy (right).

As you can see, the Lucky Doggy box is also thicker around the edges, wider, and overall more substantial.  The Woof & Co. boxes are nice, but the Lucky Doggy boxes are nicer.

The back of Yoyo's box has some silver metallic text:

Here's a closer look at the text:

It says: Hello, I'm Lucky Doggy!  Perhaps, I'm the luckiest dog in the world!  I bring joy, good luck to all my friends and can even create little miracles.  Just my appearance can turn an ordinary day into a real holiday.  If you dream about something just hug me tightly before falling asleep and I'll do my best to make your dream come true!  A little Lucky Doggy always brings big luck, strong friendship and a great mood!

Little miracles?  That's setting the bar very high for a plush toy.

Also, "just my appearance can turn an ordinary day into a real holiday" is vain, even for a Yorkie.  I think maybe they mean that the presence of a Lucky Doggy can turn an ordinary day into a holiday?  That's a bold statement, too, but not untrue.  Yoyo made me pretty happy even before I took her out of the box.

Above the paragraph of text, there's the Lucky Doggy logo and a bone-shaped piece of plastic that can be turned:

It holds Yoyo's plastic neck grip in place.

The bottom of the box has a lot of fine print, but I always find this kind of thing interesting when I'm looking at a new brand:

Yoyo's name is on a small white sticker on the right side, and this is the only place where her name appears.  There's also an address and phone number from Latvia, so I gather Orange Toys is a Latvian company.  That's cool.

At this point I got curious about Orange Toys in general and did some more poking around on their website.  The first thing I learned is that they have an online shop, so I could have purchased my Lucky Doggies directly from them.  They have a different inventory than Dolls and Dolls, which might be helpful to anyone who's shopping for a specific character.

There are also many more toys from this company that I covet.  Like Johann the horse, for example:

And some gorgeous fabric dolls called Sweet Sisters:

Love at first sight.

This little redhead is already on the way from Latvia to New Jersey, so you can expect to see her on the blog at some point--perhaps with a few of her friends.

I'll occasionally get comments about how this blog is an enabler for doll shopping, which I totally get.  And I feel bad about it, because doll collecting is addictive enough without my help.  But the thing I want you to understand is that I enable myself as much as I enable anyone else!  It's so bad.  For one reason or another, every freaking review that I write leads to another dolls purchase, lol.  I'm hopeless!

Anyway, the top of the box isn't too interesting, but it has a QR code for Orange Toys (so you can start shopping right now if you want) and some features of the product:

I'm not sure what "together for charity" means in this context.  I'm not aware of any direct charitable contribution with this toy.

Yoyo was extremely easy to get out of the box.  Her neck was gripped by a plastic piece, but that's it. There were no plastic ties, rubber bands, or anything else.  Once I'd removed her, I could begin to see how the wardrobe was going to work: there are perforated cardboard pieces stored up against the backdrop:

There were two thick, sturdy pieces of cardboard behind Yoyo, and each had several shapes to punch out.  I assembled all of the pieces and got this very charming clothing rack!  

It has a picture of a fancy-looking dog on each side:

And there are holes for five hangers.  The set only comes with four hangers, but that's okay:

I wouldn't call this a wardrobe, necessarily, but it's an excellent accessory.

Here's Yoyo out of her box:

She's absolutely adorable, but does not balance well on her own.  She has to lean forward at the waist, and even then I struggle to keep her from toppling backwards.

Steady there, Yoyo.

One of the things I really like about the Woof & Co. dogs is that they balance well on their own--even without shoes.  Yoyo doesn't even come with shoes, so this is as good as it gets.

Here she is from the back, where you can see her thick, plume-like tail:

I absolutely love Yoyo's face.  She has beautiful plush blonde fur that's tipped with black, and the fur is neatly parted around her eyes and nose so that all of her features are visible:

Much like Woof & Co. Finley, a section of Yoyo's fur is pulled up and into a ponytail at the top of her head.  The ponytail is decorated with a pink tulle bow:

The tip of Yoyo's nose has much shorter fur than the rest of her head, so it's possible to see her mouth:

Here's a better look at her little embroidered smile:

Yoyo's eyes are fixed and open, with dark brown irises and huge black pupils.  The tip of her nose is made out of molded black plastic:

Let's take a moment to compare Yoyo's face to Finley's face:

Woof & Co. Finley and Lucky Doggy Yoyo.

It's like night and day.  What strikes me is that Yoyo is more polished than Finley.  Her color palette is soft and beautiful, and her features are symmetrical and straight.  The quality of her facial fur is also better.

Up close, you can see that Finley's eyes are buggy and wonky, and the stitching in the hair along her nose is lopsided and messy:

Woof & Co. Finley and Lucky Doggy Yoyo.

I like how Finley's smile is visible from the front, even though that anatomy is less realistic for a dog.

I like Finley, but it's clear that Yoyo is the real deal.

I removed Yoyo's tulle bow, which is fastened to a plastic clip:

Yoyo's hair bow.

This clip is so much easier to use than Finley's elastic bow:

Here's Finley's bow as a reminder:

Finley's hair bow.

It's made out of cheap-o stiff fabric with an elastic that's hard to loop around the hair.

Yoyo's ponytail is tied in place with thread, so it stays put even without the bow:

Yoyo's outfit is a dropped waist dress with a dark grey jersey knit bodice and a peach tulle skirt:

The tulle skirt has only two thin layers, so the blue embroidery on Yoyo's belly shows through:

The dress opens all of the way down in back and is very easy to get on and off.  The hardest part is that the velcro can get stuck in Yoyo's fur:

The front of the dress is decorated with a large peach gauze flower surrounded by two smaller flowers and a ribbon bow:

Here's the back side of the dress, where hopefully you can see that all of the edges are reinforced:

Underneath her dress, Yoyo's body is made out of the same kind of fabric that's on her nose.  The tan color matches her longer fur nicely:

The Lucky Doggy logo is embroidered onto the left side of her tummy with bright turquoise thread:

The Woof & Co. dogs have the logo embroidered on their bottoms, and I slightly prefer that location.

Yoyo has a long fluffy tail, and a big tag hanging down from her bottom seam:

These dogs all have bean bag filling in their bottoms, which is probably why they topple over backwards so easily.  But the weighting feels nice and makes sitting positions stable.

Finley didn't have any head movement to speak of, but Yoyo can look up:

And down:

She can also twist her head a little bit to either side, which is great:

She has a segmented armature running the full length of her arms, so she can lift them up:

And also bend them at any location to help her touch her nose or rest a paw on her hip:

Her legs also have a full armature, so she can do the splits with ease:

And she can sit securely on the ground:

I didn't even need to take Yoyo's body apart to know what kind of armature she has, because the segments are easily palpable through her skinny legs.  In fact, it would have been nice if she'd had a bit more stuffing in those legs to pad the hard armature.

Overall, though, Yoyo has excellent articulation--especially for a stuffed animal:

Here's Yoyo next to Finley so that you can see how their bodies compare:

Finley is slightly shorter than Yoyo, but has thicker legs and no pellets in her bottom.

No junk in that trunk.

Finley can wear Yoyo's dress:

And Yoyo can squeeze into Finley's outfit, including her shoes.  However, that skirt is really hard to use because the waistband doesn't have an opening seam:

And the bow looks silly.

Yoyo's outfit is much better than Finley's, but those sneakers are great because they help Yoyo balance.  I wish Yoyo had come with her own shoes.

The nice thing is, unlike the Woof & Co. brand, there are separate outfit packs for Lucky Doggy.  I bought one of these for Yoyo, and specifically chose an outfit that includes shoes:

Lucky Doggy winter fashion, ~$28.

This outfit typically sells for €23.95, or $28 USD.  That's about the same price as a whole Woof & Co. dog!  I found it on sale for $20, which was nice.

The outfit is modeled by the lovely Mimi on the front of the box:

The back of the box has small photos of four other Lucky Doggy outfits:

There's a sports jacket with a pleated skirt that reminds me a bit of Finley's outfit:

There's a sporty sweatshirt and frayed jeans that look nice on Fendy:

Yoyo is modeling a long blue coat with a star shirt underneath:

And Fendy is back with a green corduroy dress that I think looks great on her:

None of those outfit have shoes, which is too bad.  The nice thing is that the outfits without shoes tend to cost less than those with shoes.  Most of the sets pictured above retail for €19.95 or about $23.

The set I chose includes a dress, coat, boots and hair bow.  The coat, dress, and bow came attached to a blue cardboard backdrop:

The coat is the star of the show.  It's wonderfully soft and plush, with working pockets in the front and a velcro closure:

The coat is fully lined: in pink satin on the back panel, and in pink fur on the sides and collar:

The dress is made out of grey ribbed knit. It's sleeveless with an a-line shape:

The construction on this dress is great, with reinforced edges on every seam:

The pink bow is made out of the same fuzzy fabric as the coat:

And the boots are dusty pink imitation leather with a brighter pink elastic section along each side:

Even with the elastic, these boots are difficult to squeeze on over Yoyo's wide feet:

The boots don't seem like they were made for the shape of the Lucky Doggy foot, but they work--mostly because Yoyo's feet are so compressible.

The boots reminded me of American Girl footwear, so I tried them on Georgie:

They fit her really well:

Despite their tight fit, the boots help Yoyo balance on her own.  They don't work quite as well as the Woof & Co. sneakers, but they're better than nothing.  Here's Yoyo with the dress, bow, and boots of her new winter outfit:

And here's the coat added in:

I like how the back of the coat has a little vent that accommodates Yoyo's tail:

She looks all ready for winter now, which is a good thing because it's starting to get very cold and snowy here in New Jersey:

I bought this coat set thinking that it might compliment the dress that Yoyo came with, but the shades of pink don't quite match:

Eep!  I'm clashing!

But Yoyo can close the coat and hide most of the mismatched colors.

Nothing to see here.

The clothing rack works well to keep Yoyo's expanding wardrobe organized:

Looks like I have space for two more outfits...

When I first saw Yoyo's new pink coat, I immediately thought of my pink-haired Paola Reina doll, Cleo:

Lucky Doggy coat on Las Amigas Cleo.

Unfortunately, the coat is too big for Cleo.  But it fits 14-inch dolls like my American Girl Gwynn:

Lucky Doggy outfit on American Girl Gwynn Tan.

I think the grey dress looks nice with Gwynn's coloring:

Lucky Doggy dress on American Girl Gwynn Tan.

I think Yoyo and her outfit pack are both wonderful, so of course I didn't stop there.  My rationale was that when I was looking at the Woof & Co. crew, I reviewed three different dogs.  So in order to be fair, I need to have at least one more Lucky Doggy in this review.  Right?  Makes perfect sense to me.

For my second Doggy, I chose Fendy, the huggable-looking poodle character:

Did you get me a new friend?

Not only was Yoyo excited about the idea of a friend, but Woof & Co. Willow was happy to have another poodle in the house!

We poodles have to stick together.

Fendy also came packaged with her legs squished at the bottom of the box and plenty of space above her head:

Here she is out of the box:

I chose this particular version of Fendy because I love her jacket.  It's made out of light brown mock suede and has a sherpa lining.

Here's Fendy from the back:

This dog has even more trouble standing on her own than Yoyo.  She has to tip her upper body way forward in order to avoid falling:

But her face is adorable!  I love her caramel colored fur; it's every bit as soft as it looks:

She comes with a brown bow, but her fur is so short that it's hard to keep the bow in place.

Probably because of the texture of her fur, Fendy does not have an embroidered mouth:

Her outfit consists of the sherpa jacket, leopard print pants, a brown tank top, and a brown bow:

The jacket is fantastic.  It opens with a metal zipper and the interior is fully lined:

The construction is flawless, with sturdy-looking seams and a nice design:

The zipper angles up towards the left shoulder of the jacket, so when it's zipped all of the way up, the jacket twists to one side:

The zipper is meant to stay partially unzipped, exposing the sherpa lining around the collar:

The pocket on the side of the jacket is only decorative.

Underneath the jacket, Fendy is wearing a dark brown tank top that matches her leopard print pants:

The tank top opens down the back with velcro, and the pants have a velcro fly in front:

The pants are stitched with a separate panel in back to accommodate Fendy's large bean bag bottom:

Fendy's body is made out of a completely different fabric than her head:

Shaved poodle.

Her body is similar to Yoyo's, but is a slightly paler color:

I find the difference in body fabric more jarring with Fendy than it is with Yoyo.  I wish Fendy's entire body was made out of the same soft fur that's on her head.  She'd be so cuddly!  At the very least, I wish the color match between her body and head was better.

I suspect that all of the bodies are made out of similar fabric so that the clothing can be shared between all characters.

Speaking of clothing, I also purchased Fendy an extra outfit:

This is the green corduroy dress that I was admiring before.  The set comes with the dress, a long sleeved shirt, a headband, and a purse:

The outfit doesn't include shoes, so I had to steal Yoyo's pink boots, which match the headband and the purse pretty well:

I don't tend to get very excited about purses, but this one is in the shape of a bunny head, complete with big, pink-lined ears!

Here's a closer look:

Yoyo also looks good in this outfit:

I did a bit of mixing and matching with the clothing at this point, which was very fun.  The clothes are all easy to use, so I was able to do a lot of outfit changes in a short amount of time.

Here's Fendy with the fuzzy pink coat and grey dress:

And here's Yoyo pairing the brown tank top and bow with the green corduroy dress:

Fendy stole some Woof & Co. sneakers so that she could model her sherpa jacket over the grey dress:

And Yoyo took the sherpa jacket and paired it with the corduroy dress:

So many of the combinations look good!

These dogs are so cute, and all of the clothing is attractive and well made.  They are a delightful pair to play with, and I can't possibly pick a favorite:

I put both girls back into their original outfits to wrap things up:

Lucky Doggy Yoyo (left) and Fendy (right).

Before I end the review, I should probably do a quick comparison between Fendy and Willow, since they're both poodles:

Woof & Co. Willow (left) and Lucky Doggy Fendy (right).

Willow is my favorite of the Woof & Co. dogs.  I like her colorful outfit and fuzzy grey fur.  But when I see her next to Fendy, she seems less cute.  Her eyes look a bit crazy in comparison to Fendy's soft eyes.  I also adore Fendy's mouthless fuzzy face.  She has a sweet, innocent look about her.  I just want to give her a hug and tell her everything's going to be okay.

One thing that I like better about Willow is that her body fur matches her head nicely.  I wish more care had been taken to keep Fendy's body cohesive:

Here's a reminder of what Fendy's body looks like:

Fortunately, most of the time the bodies are covered with clothing, and Fendy's outfit is superior to Willow's.  But Willow has that fabulous pom-pom hat that looks super cute.  So I let Fendy borrow it for a while:

Do you think Willow will mind?

I think Fendy's outfit should have come with a hat!  It really suits her:

I wish I had matching mittens!

Here's one last picture of Fendy and Yoyo:

Bottom line?  I'm so grateful to the person who left an anonymous comment about Lucky Doggy.  If it hadn't been for you, I might never have learned about the wonderful dogs who inspired the Woof & Co. brand.  Thank you.

Pretty much everything about Lucky Doggy is better than Woof & Co.  The faces are more carefully made, the fur is more luxurious, the bodies have more heft, the head articulation is better, the clothing is gorgeous, and I found no issues with quality control.  I'm particularly impressed by the sweet faces on these dogs.  Both Yoyo and Fendy have fairly realistic dog heads, with just the right amount of anthropomorphic charm.  They're both extremely lovable and cuddly.  The outfit options for this brand are also extensive, and I really like the aesthetic of the clothing.  All of the pieces I bought are beautifully made and attractive.  There was a bit of clashing with some of the pinks, but most pieces mixed and matched well.  The packaging is also great.  The boxes are sturdy and recyclable, and there's the added bonus of a working clothes rack that I know will get good use around here.

There are a few little things that Woof & Co. does better.  First of all, the Woof & Co. dogs balance really well on their own, and the Lucky Doggies struggle to stand up.  Shoes help the Lucky Doggy girls a lot, but very few of the outfits actually come with shoes.  The shoes I got for Yoyo don't even seem like they were made for her; they fit American Girl dolls better.  In contrast, all of the Woof & Co. characters have shoes...and they fit perfectly.  Woof & Co. is also good at matching the body fur to the head fur.  Yoyo's body coloring is cohesive, but the difference between Fendy's head and body is too obvious.  Last of all, the Woof & Co. animals are more affordable.  At full price, the Lucky Doggy characters cost about $15 more, and that's not including shipping and import fees.  So Woof & Co. has a solid place in the market, offering a cheaper (but still not cheap!) alternative to the original.

In a perfect world, I would have reviewed Lucky Doggy first, without the comparison to Woof & Co. looming in the back of my mind.  It seems more fair to compare Woof & Co. to the Lucky Doggy standard rather than the other way around.  But I doubt it would have changed much about my assessment.  The only thing I'm missing in this review is the sense of novelty I felt when I saw the Woof & Co. dogs for the first time.  The Lucky Doggy concept feels repetitive at this point, but of course they're the ones who are being copied.

Despite the order of my reviews, the Lucky Doggy brand made a bigger impression on me.  Yoyo and Fendy will likely stick around in my collection for a long time, perhaps expanding their wardrobes and friend circles.  Meanwhile, the Woof & Co. crew have gradually been making their way to the Goodwill..."accidentally" leaving behind some sneakers and a hat.  Both brands have charming products to offer, with a lot of similarities.  But there's no doubt that Lucky Doggy did it first, and Lucky Doggy does it best.