diff -r 068ccc02f5f2 -r a3ac46366b86 xmlclass/xmlclass.py
--- a/xmlclass/xmlclass.py	Fri Aug 10 15:58:40 2018 +0300
+++ b/xmlclass/xmlclass.py	Fri Aug 10 17:45:33 2018 +0300
@@ -1162,6 +1162,7 @@
             classmembers["get%s" % elmtname] = generateGetMethod(elmtname)
 
         classmembers["_init_"] = generateInitMethod(self, classinfos)
+        classmembers["_tmp_initial_"] = None
         classmembers["StructurePattern"] = GetStructurePattern(classinfos)
         classmembers["getElementAttributes"] = generateGetElementAttributes(self, classinfos)
         classmembers["getElementInfos"] = generateGetElementInfos(self, classinfos)
@@ -1581,6 +1582,10 @@
             if element["type"] != CHOICE:
                 initial = GetElementInitialValue(factory, element)
                 if initial is not None:
+                    # FIXME: this is looks like dirty hack to fix strange problem with initial[0]
+                    # changing its type after returning from _init_ method to lxml.etree._Element
+                    # As a result all methods generated by class factory are lost.
+                    object.__setattr__(self, "_tmp_initial_", initial)
                     map(self.append, initial)
     return initMethod