Throwback Thursday review: Only Hearts Club Olivia Hope

Hey y'all, it's National Pig Day!  I wish I had a pig doll to share with y'all, but I don't.  I love pigs.  Anyway, it's been an interesting week here at the Moon House, and at the library.  I've had to deal with some inept old man who wants to buy and fly a small plane but has to have help manipulating the computer...and by "help" I mean that I'm doing the typing, clicking, and searching while he's browsing through a magazine and insisting that I try this, try that, search one more page...Lord have mercy.  Also, as y'all may or may not remember, Malden got hit by a fairly stout tornado last Saturday, the worst one since an F4 hit the air base back in 1981, and everyone has wanted to talk about that.  Most of my patrons lucked out in terms of damage, and all of them have been upbeat about the cleanup, reporting hard workers and good attitudes all around.  Relief efforts began immediately after the storm despite relatively little warning, and it only took sixteen hours for officials to figure out totals.  Sixty-six buildings and mobile homes were damaged or destroyed and the price tag came out to around two million dollars.  Four people were injured badly enough to be briefly hospitalized, but thank God, no one in Malden got killed.  The rating is listed as an EF2, higher than I thought it would be and lower than First Uncle thought it would be (source can be found HERE).  As bad is the tornado was it could have been much, much worse, and I'm thankful to the good Lord above that no one got killed here in town.  Unfortunately Malden wasn't the only town to get hit; there were about six tornadoes in all.  Here's a picture of one of them, taken at Keiser, Arkansas.  Matthews, Missouri got the same treatment that Malden did, possibly at the hands of the same tornado that hit here, and I'm sorry to say that one fatality was reported down in Clay County, Arkansas.  An EF1 tornado threw a man's trailer with the man still inside and he was fatally injured.  KAIT was just getting word of someone trapped in a mobile home when the power went out here, and I assume that they were referring to the gent who died.  I'm sorry that one man died, but I'm certainly glad that no one else did.  Prayers for the decedent's family and for those without homes will be greatly appreciated.  That just proves that it doesn't have to be a big tornado to hurt or kill you, so if you're fortunate enough to get a warning, take it seriously.

Now that THAT is out of the way, on to the review.  A post by Teresa Brown prompted this post today; Teresa got a nice load of doll clothes and two of the outfits were Only Hearts Club outfits.  Miss Teresa asked about them and I sent her a link to Miss Emily's awesome post about this line.  Since I'm a complete and utter copycat I thought "Why not review the Only Hearts Club doll that I've got?"  Here's my doll, Olivia Hope.

In the time that it took me to throw this review together Tam highlighted several of these dolls in her blog, and her posts provide a good view of the diversity of this line.  The Only Hearts Club was designed by Joanne Callander and apparently distributed by Tonner (thank you Barb the Evil Genius for enlightening me there).  They hung out on store shelves for a few years, though I never saw them until I started doing the thrift store thing on a regular basis.  This line of small cloth dolls had rooted hair, hard vinyl heads and internal armature that allows for posing.  There were eight young girls with various hobbies and racial makeup, plus eight younger siblings (one for each girl), clothes, small storybooks, and pets like dogs and horses.  It was a cute line, but I haven't been able to find the website so I suspect the line has been discontinued.  I found my Olivia Hope at a Tuesday Morning (a haven for discontinued stuff), nestled in with her friend Briana Joy and a few outfits.  I would've bought the whole shelf if I could've, LOL.  Unsurprisingly I couldn't afford the whole shelf so I settled for Olivia Hope, one extra outfit, and a cute accessory set with PUPPIES!!!  Everyone loves puppies!  I'll start with a not-so-brief description of the background, though.  The Only Hearts Club is the aforementioned group of eight girls, though most of the sources I've found imply that there were originally only six.  How they came to be called the Only Hearts Club is mentioned in the storybook that came with the puppy accessory set.  The outfit set came with a small booklet that names the characters along with pets, siblings (if any), and hobbies.
        *Anna Sophia is the chef of the bunch and loves to cook and bake.  She is listed as creative, eager, and curious.  Her dog is apparently a mutt and is inexplicably named Bubulina.  I love a good mutt, and I figure there's a good reason for such a strange name.  Anna appears to be an only child.
        *Briana Joy is bright, energetic, and competitive, and since no doll line is complete without a danged athlete she got saddled with that hobby.  The Briana doll that I saw at Tuesday Morning (and unfortunately didn't get) was wearing soccer garb, so I can dig that.  Her dog is a dachshund named Longfellow, a name that suggests a possible fondness for poetry as well.  Briana also appears to be an only child.
        *Hannah Faith appears to be Oriental and is my favorite of the bunch.  She's another athlete, with her sports of choice being gymnastics and figure skating.  Hannah came with a cat instead of a dog, a white cat named Lulu.  Her younger sister is Chelsea.
        *Karina Grace is the singer and dancer of the bunch and appears to be fond of ballet.  She is listed as ambitious, dedicated, and confident.  Her dog is a Dalmatian named Dotcom.  Again, a clever name.  Through process of elimination, I assume that Melody is Karina's younger sister.
        *Kayla Rae is a little fashionista, because having a fashionista in a doll line is mandatory just like having an athlete is.  She is also very artistic, being fond of drawing and painting.  Like Hannah, Kayla came with a cat instead of a dog, a ginger tabby named Spanky.  Her little sister is Sydney.
        *Lily Rose is a caring, gentle outdoorsy type.  Her dog (spoiler alert) is a terrier named Cupcake and her sister is Jessica.
        *Olivia Hope is brave, patient, and loves riding horses.  Her dog is some sort of yellow breed and is named Sniff.  Her little sister is Kristy.
        *Taylor Angelique is an intelligent, quick-witted animal lover who likes volunteering at animal shelters.  Her dog is a beagle named Patches.  I suspect that Trevor may be Taylor's little brother, since they have matching horse-riding outfits.  Trevor is the only boy in the mix.

I gather that Hannah and Kayla may have been introduced shortly before this line was discontinued, as there are far fewer owner pics online and their secondary market prices are high.  Now that that's out of the way, Olivia is nine inches tall, about the same height as Kohaku-chan on Licca-chan's old body, and shorter than Rosa Lee Linden, my little Southern belle.

She's a good size to babysit for the Quints since their cousins aren't around to do the job.  Her arms are long enough to accommodate two Quints (Daisy and Forrest in this case).  This picture was extremely hard to take, by the way; one doll or another ended up being too dark or washed out.  I think this one strikes a semi-good medium, though.

Playline dolls this size usually have rooted hair, and Olivia is no exception.  Her thigh-length hair is red-brown and crimped all over.

Aside from the crimping Olivia's hair has no particular style.  It's parted on the right and sports delicate bangs.

The rooting around the face is thick, with the plugs closely spaced.  Also check out Olivia's ears, which are sizable. 

Rooting on the back and sides of the head is a little more pell-mell, with big gaps between the rows.  The scalp is painted brown.

Restyling is probably out except for a basic ponytail, but overall this is pretty good hair.  Olivia's hair is appropriate for her target age group to play with, but it's also the perfect length to tangle.  It brushes out easily, but treat this hair with respect nonetheless.

Underneath the hair, Olivia has a hard vinyl head with a tiny but well-executed face.

I halfway wish now that I'd grabbed Briana Joy too, as she has/had sculpted dimples.  These dolls' heads are amazing, though; Olivia's whole noggin is maybe an inch and a half across, and yet the makers managed to cram a ton of detail onto this face.  Her eyes are inset and are an interesting color.  In the above picture they appear green, but in other lights they can look gray or light brown.  They're a teensy bit crossed, which can be forgiven considering the size of the eyes and the heads they're supposed to fit into. 

She has reddish-brown multi-stroke eyebrows and some lines painted in that I assume are to simulate eyelid creases, and painted tear ducts.  I always like seeing little details like that on a small face.  Olivia has no eyelashes though.  In her defense, that might have been a pretty tall order to paint or root extremely fine lines around such small eyes, so the omission of this detail was probably a smart move.

Inset eyes do mean that these dolls can have bad positions and Olivia is no exception, though I found this out purely by chance.  In preparation for a series of posts that I've since scrapped, I took a picture of one of my Fashionistas.  This is #57 "Tropi-Cutie," whom I've nicknamed "Jova."

My intention was to review all of the Fashionistas I've got, but they're all just Barbie in different skin tones and clothing styles, so I shelved that idea.  Anyway, when I'm putting together a blog I often take wide-angle pictures and then crop out any extraneous crap that might have been caught in the background.  So it was with Jova's closeup.  Here's what it looked like uncropped, complete with other dolls in the background and my thumb in the lower left corner.

LOL, see Olivia in the background?  I never dreamed that I'd catch Olivia looking corpse-like, and it gave me a hearty chuckle when I did.  See my point, though?  These Only Hearts Club dolls are capable of looking creepy...but one has to either be deliberately trying for such a shot or accidentally catch it like I did.

Tangent over, let's look at the rest of the face.  All of these dolls have broad, slightly flat noses, and some of them have a ton of delicately painted freckles (Lily Rose is a good example of this), but Olivia is merely blushed, like she's spent a little too long in the sun.  Her mouth is a glossy rose shade with painted teeth.  Her lower jaw appears to be a little lopsided.

Olivia's profile is very pretty, though from some angles she appears to have an overbite.

Overall though these faces are super-nice.  There's not a lot of room to work with paint, and yet there are little details that another company would've just left out.  I don't run into too many dolls this size that have tear ducts or multi-stroke eyebrows!

Regarding the bodies, these Only Hearts Club dolls have bodies that one does not often see, not on a doll this size at least.  They are stuffed cloth with a wire armature inside, not terribly unlike Mattel's long-defunct Hot Looks dolls.  There is very little detail stitched in.

Okay, take that back.  Olivia does have a stitched bellybutton...

...and some shaping in her calves...

...and some stitched lines for toes.

Other than that there's not much to say about this body.  It's soft and highly flexible, good for cuddling and for bending.  Olivia can do a lot of moves that none of my other dolls can pull off...

...including moves that no one ever WANTED their doll to pull off!  Olivia can be a chicken girl if I want her to be!

Chicken Little told ya that the sky is fallin'!  LOL, to my delight, Olivia's neck is even wired.  She can turn her head, and she can also tip it in any direction.

Attached to the ends of the cloth arms are vinyl hands.  These are made out of the same hard vinyl as the head and have some nice molded details.

The later dolls also had vinyl feet, but my Olivia is an earlier job and thus her feet are cloth like the rest of her body.

I haven't had any trouble getting shoes on those stubby cloth feet, but I still prefer the idea of vinyl feet.  As an aside, some of these bits of clothing fasten with Velcro, and I'm not sure if this body will snag, but better safe than sorry.  If one of y'all finds or owns any Only Hearts Club dolls, be careful with that Velcro.  Also, BIG WARNING:  one of Tam's dolls' hands popped off during the course of the review (that particular review is HERE).  I don't know how prevalent that is among these dolls, but be extremely careful, and don't keep these dolls around kids or pets that like to put things in their mouths!  Hands can also change color over time, so keep a close eye on that vinyl!  If these bodies do get too beat-up it's possible to rebody these Only Hearts heads onto Obitsu bodies, but hopefully Olivia and I will never need that information.

Oh yes, since Olivia's body is stuffed, what else would she have but a tag sticking out of her back?  It's not a terribly distracting tag, but it makes it loud and clear what line this doll came from.

It also announces that the wire inside is plastic-coated.  This was likely some form of safety measure, but it also means that if wires corrode there's a decreased risk of discolored dolly parts.

Now to clothes.  These dolls have/had fun clothes in the form of sleepwear, fantasy-style costumes, and casual garb like what I've got.

The outfit on the left is Olivia's stock outfit so I'm going to start there.  It consists of a pink blouse and blue jeans, plus shoes that don't match the rest of the outfit.  The blouse is a petal pink long-sleeved number with a single silver rhinestone in the center of the chest. 

I've seen and worn many a bejeweled top, but I've never seen one with just a single stone and no other sort of embellishment, no paint or other stones or anything like that.  This single stone shows no sign of coming off or anything of that sort, but I wish there were a couple more...or a few more in the shape of a star or a heart.  That would've been cute.  Oh well, all of the Only Hearts Club tops are fairly simple, and Olivia's sleeves do have some nice gathers at the shoulders that make this blouse a little more special.

The back closes with Velcro, which is a little problematic as it catches on Olivia's fabric body.  This type of fabric stands up to such problems better than the stockinette used on the older My Twinn bodies, but I still advise caution when dressing or undressing these dolls lest they become irreparably snagged.

At first glance Olivia's blue jeans look simple like her shirt does, but there are a few details that make these stand out.  The cute little multicolored rhinestones at the waist are fairly obvious.

Only the front has these for reasons that should be obvious for anyone who has tried to sit in embellished blue jeans.  Strangely, none of the stones are clear like the stone on the shirt is.  There's red, green, and blue, but no clear ones.  The jeans do have a nicely stitched fake fly though.

The other detail may be more tricky to see, particularly when the jeans are not being worn.  Each leg has five horizontal slashes cut in the fabric, from shin to just above the knee.  The holes are raveled some, like holes in real jeans inevitably end up.

The bottoms of these jeans are not hemmed but rather fringed, like so.

I think these jeans are supposed to be capri length since they don't extend over the ankles or the shoes, but oddly enough they don't rise very high on Olivia's waist either.  No matter how high I pull these pants up her belly always shows.

Olivia's shoes don't match a stitch of what she's wearing, interestingly.  They're butter yellow sneakers with orange and blue trim.

They look white in the pictures, but IRL they're pale yellow.  Look at the details, too!  There are individual little stitches molded in, and treads with little hearts on the heels.

I've seen plenty of doll shoes in my lifetime, but these are some of the best.  It's rare to see this kind of detail on a doll's shoe, especially a toy doll's shoe.

The other little outfit is a bizarrely stylish sweatsuit set, a very far cry from the ones I had to wear when I was Olivia Hope's age.  This set came with a navy blue jacket, which none of my sets ever had, a pink tank top, pink bell-bottomed sweatpants, a cute patchwork bag, and more shoes.

I'm just going to skim the other outfit since it's put together similarly to the first one.  This one is more like something I could picture a kid Olivia's age in.  Her stock outfit is okay, but it looks just a tiny bit mature for a ten or eleven-year-old.  I think the refusal of those jeans to pull up further contributes to that, as it makes the whole outfit look revealing.  Anyway, I like the athletic outfit better, though it probably would've been more appropriate for Briana Joy.  The jacket ties closed in the front with a real little drawstring, but for some reason it ties at the bottom rather than the top.

The tie at the bottom is merely awkward, and it isn't the biggest problem with this jacket.  In all fairness this problem isn't solely with the jacket; Olivia's hair is so long that I have to put the jacket on over it, like this.

I love long hair on dolls, but when it comes to redressing I wish these dolls had come with more varied styles and lengths.  Shorter hair would've been less fun to play with, but it would've fit under this jacket more neatly.  Otherwise it's a great little jacket, one that I could visualize a tweenage girl wearing...or an older girl like me...OR a younger girl.  This outfit is ageless.

The little purse that comes with this getup actually opens, though it can't hold but very tiny items.  The handles double as drawstrings and have a little bit of stretch.  Thus Olivia can carry this purse on her arm...

...or on her shoulders like a small backpack.  I had a purse like that myself once and they're handy!

There is a slight problem with wearing this purse like a backpack, though.  It's very lightweight, and it likes to pop up like a tiny superhero's cape.

She wishes she could fly like Superman!  LOL, anyway, the shoes that go with this sweatsuit are...definitely not athletic in style.  Nor do they really match a stitch that Olivia is wearing.

They're just as detailed as Olivia's stock shoes though, with creases and stitches and hearts on the soles.  The soles of these shoes even show a little "wear," like they've been well-used.

Given the usage of pink in both sets, these can be mixed and matched around somewhat, always a good thing when a doll has a limited wardrobe.  There were other outfits available for these dolls, but I don't have any of it right now and I'm trying once and for all to break the habit of unnecessary spending, particularly with my heating bills being what they are!

According to this source, Licca-chan can wear Only Hearts Club clothes...but I'm hesitant to try this idea out because my Licca-chan has a new body with new measurements.  I can still try Licca's old body because Kohaku is using it now, and there's also my factory Blythe doll Jaylin, who has a body similar to Licca's Kohaku's and can wear Licca clothes.  So Only Hearts Club dolls could potentially share clothes with Blythe, Licca-chan, and small-bodied Azone figures (the ones labeled "S," NOT the ones labeled "XS").

Indeed they are similar in size...

...and indeed this worked out fairly well.  Kohaku and Jaylin can both wear Olivia's clothes, though the sweatpants did have to stretch a little in order to fit over Jaylin's hips.  In a similar manner, Olivia's top has to stretch a little to accommodate Kohaku's chest, but not to the point of damaging the material.  Kohaku was able to cram her feet into Olivia's shoes with little fuss...

...but Jaylin's feet proved to be too small.

As for Olivia, she can wear Kohaku's Licca-sized dress (minus the shoes), but I'm not in love with the way it fits.  The details on the dress are scaled for a doll with a slightly larger head like Licca's.  Oddly, I love the way Jaylin's current outfit looks on Olivia, even though it too is a bit big in scale.

Okay, maybe Olivia can do with a smaller top, but those jeans are great.  She can even slide her feet into Jaylin's green boots, something that I was not expecting.  Hats are best avoided though, for reasons that should be fairly obvious.  Just for a laugh I put Jaylin's frog hat on Olivia, and it looks like a muppet has gone rogue.

Since Kohaku can wear Only Hearts Club clothes with ease this probably means that my Liccarize doll Mami can too, since they have similar bodies.  Alas, Mami is very hard to undress and redress, so she will stay a magical girl for the foreseeable future.

As for Licca 2.0 (my joking nickname for her), her new body is thicker and taller than her old one, so I assume Only Hearts Club clothes will be a tight squeeze.  I'm going to try it anyway, just to be sure.  Here's how they all compare visually.

Results came out a little mixed.  The tracksuit stretches a lot so Licca can wear it over her more curvaceous body, but she was unable to pull up Olivia's stock jeans (they have ZERO stretch).  Olivia's red T-strap shoes fit Licca's new feet, but they fit so tightly that I didn't bother with the yellow sneakers.

While Licca failed at wearing blue jeans, Olivia helped herself to Licca's strawberry dress.  The scale is still a little off and Olivia's plush arms don't look great, but this dress looks better than the other one did.

Well, I'm satisfied with clothes.  Olivia can wear Licca-chan clothes as long as the owner isn't bothered by a copious amount of bare skin-fabric showing, or by the trim on Licca's clothes being a bit too big for Olivia's features.  Likewise, dolls with the Licca-chan and Blythe bodies can wear Only Hearts Club clothes.  Small-sized Azone bodies can only wear stretchy Only Hearts Club outfits.  Barb the Evil Genius also tells me that Pullip dolls with 3 and 4 bodies can wear Only Hearts Club clothes, as can J-Dolls and Barbie's sister Stacie.  This is fabulous news because Stacie clothes are at a premium; Mattel doesn't seem too interested in making new threads for Barbie's sisters like they used to.  Makies can also wear some of these clothes...<sniffle, sniffle> I NEVER GOT TO BUY MY MAKIE!!!

Ahem, where was I?  In addition to clothes there were pets available, in the form of tiny stuffed animals.  Some of the pets came with dolls and some were available separately.  Usually the pets in question were your traditional stuff like dogs and cats, but there were also horses available.  I don't have a horse, but I do have two dogs for Olivia to play with.

The light brown one on the left came with Olivia.  His name and breed were not listed on Olivia's box, but after some digging online I learned that his name is Sniff.  The same source makes a guess at Sniff's breed, listing him as a golden retriever, but he could just as easily be a yellow lab or a mutt.  The brown and white dog is (spoiler alert) a little terrier puppy named Cupcake, and came as part of the playset, which came with the bed and rope toy.  The dogs are tiny stuffed animals that would make superb props for my ball-jointed dolls, and they're sewn from the same slightly fuzzy knitted material that Olivia's body is made of.

As with Olivia, Sniff and Cupcake are impeccably sewn, with no foibles anywhere.  They do have huge tags though, just like Olivia does.

Their eyes, mouths, and noses are embroidered with black thread...

...and their ears and tails are made of two strips of this fabric glued together.

Take that back:  Cupcake's ears appear to be more robustly constructed, maybe out of more than two layers?  I can't really tell.

These glued strips are bad about separating and thus giving these animals bifurcated tails, but repairing that is easy.  Just stick the layers back together with tacky glue or something similar.

Regarding size, these puppies are on the same scale, but it's obvious that one breed is bigger than the other.

Cupcake has a large head in proportion to her body, so she does frequent face plants.

The bed is one of those circular jobs, similar to the one I got for my cats (they refuse to use it) and big enough to accommodate one dog.  Sniff is a little too big, but since when has being too big for a bed stopped a dog from crashing there?

The interior is more of that fleecy stuff that the dogs and Olivia's body are made out of, and the exterior is a red plaid woven material.  The rim is finished with a band of navy blue fabric.

When I first got this set I thought the little rope toy was sewn to the bed, but it too is a separate piece.

It's made out of some sort of cord and makes a very convincing rope toy, but neither the dogs nor Olivia can grasp it.  That would've been cute if they could have.

Lastly, there's this book.
 
This book centers around Taylor Angelique and a decision she has to make.  Lily Rose's beloved dog has gone over the Rainbow Bridge, and Taylor has found an adorable puppy at the local shelter.  Taylor adopts the dog, but is she is conflicted over whether to keep the dog for herself or give her to Lily...thus why I made note of several spoilers above.  The story is a little sappy for someone my age, but some little kid might enjoy it.

So...should I have left Olivia Hope at Tuesday Morning?

BAD
*Maybe a little too much hair?  It's pretty, but it's awkwardly long.
*Eyes can be poorly set, though my doll dodged that bullet
*Body is made of fabric and can thus snag, tear, or get dirty if mistreated
*Can't wear a wide range of shoes
*Hands might discolor and/or pop off
*Small parts; not suitable for very small children

GOOD
*Hair, while long, is good hair if properly cared for; it's soft, shiny, and doesn't spontaneously tangle
*Face is very well painted.  Lily Rose is a better example of the skill with which these dolls were painted, but Olivia holds her own with her simple paint job.
*Inset eyes!  Inset eyes can be problematic sometimes, but I'm always pleased to see a play doll that has them.
*Body is soft and flexible, good for a cuddle session AND a play session
*Clothes are age-appropriate and well-made
*Can share clothes with Blythe and Licca-chan, but beware of off-scale prints.
*The puppy set provides some extra play factor and is also well-made
*The little book that came with the puppy set has the potential to teach a life lesson.

I'm not the least bit sorry that I grabbed Olivia Hope, and I wish now that I'd grabbed Briana Joy as well due to her dimples and her exuberant red-brown curls.  Miss Olivia is a fun doll to have, even though I'm way out of the intended age bracket.  She fits in well with smaller "little girl" dolls like Licca, to the point that they can share clothes provided that Licca hasn't been rebodied with something larger than an extra-small Azone body (my doll has a small).  I'll have to dig for extra shoes though, since the only shoes that fit Olivia are her own and those green Blythe boots (the store that sold the boots apparently has closed).  I'd also recommend tying the hair back before playing extensively with this doll or her compadres, as it's long and fine and might tangle if subjected to heavy playtime.  Briana Joy has short hair, but she's the only one of the bunch that does.  The other problems are just odds and ends that come with toys.  Don't pull too hard on the hands (lest they pop off) and go easy on the body (lest it snag).  Otherwise these are good little dolls.  I'm very pleased with Olivia Hope and her accessories, and to the rest of y'all I say if you find one of these hanging out at Tuesday Morning, grab her.  ESPECIALLY if the character you see is Kayla Rae or Hannah Faith.  They're hard to find.

As a last little tidbit, Joanne Callander apparently still makes dolls and they're very pretty.  They're different from the Only Hearts Club, but not super-different.  Fidget retains the Only Hearts aesthetic in her face, as do her other tiny resin dolls.  Oops, I mean resin and porcelain; some of these dolls are porcelain, and because porcelain is apparently harder to work with the porcelain dolls are more expensive.  Saphron (one of the porcelain dolls) is my favorite, and wouldn't you know she's way above my price range...for now, anyway.  I'll just add her to my dream team and save up for her; a special little doll like that is well worth her price.  Y'all smash that link and take a gander at Saphron, by the way.  She bears a passing resemblance to Olivia Hope and I adore her.

Happy National Pig Day,
RagingMoon1987