[Firebase + Angular] using $$defaults on FirebaseArray to reference other data

I have a number of factories that need to reference data in other
firebase locations. For example, an 'item' referencing the name of the box
the item is in.

On the item record I have the boxId and I have in the past setup a custom
object that the firebase array used and overrode the $$added, $$updated
calls to reference the customer ItemObject which had its own decorator
functions to retrieve the referenced data.

I have recently been exploring the $$defaults feature as an alternate
approach. Having to setup a custom object each time and manage $$added,
$$updated as well as the construction of the custom object itself is quite
an overhead. The $$defaults makes it very simple to add static data and
from what i can see I can also use this to add functions to the object.
However, I can't seem to work out a way to then use this to extract data
from other firebase locations to decorate the object with further
properties.

Is the $$defaults a good thing to use for this or am I wasting my time
looking at this?

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