The Doll Book of the(Last!) Month Club: Dancing Dilemma

   I am finally here with last month's Doll Book of the Month! The book this time around is Dancing Dilemma. 

It's one of the books in the Only Hearts Club dolls' book series. It's dated 2005! Ack! Were those dolls THAT long ago?! 

  There were a few Only Hearts Club books.

    These books are mainly there to support the dolls. They're the type of books that were spat out to go with the product, and not much care was taken to make them actually good. There isn't even an author listed anywhere in or on the book. The preface page to the book spells out the theme of the doll idea.

Nice idea, but this whole spiel is then repeated word for word in the first page of the book. Did we really need it twice in a row? Does it sound like I'm getting aggravated with this book already? Not exactly aggravated, but let's say that already I'm not a fan. 

  The book is very simply written. We read about Karina flipping her blonde hair, but we really don't know anything else about her except that she likes dancing and belongs to the Only Hearts Club. She doesn't seem to have anything else in her personality. We also don't get descriptions of anybody else. I think we're just supposed to identify them by what doll they are. We should know what they all look like, right? Karina Grace decides to be nice and help a new girl in her ballet class who is having trouble. Then she gets jealous when her teacher singles out the new girl in class instead of her. She really loses it when said girl decides to audition for the role of Clara in the dance school's production of The Nutcracker, that famous ballet about a weird uncle who gives a girl a creepy nutcracker and life size mice dance all over the stage, that every city in the United States does every Christmas season. Karina even tells her that the judges are hard on people, and that the local school athletes come to watch the rehearsals and make fun of the girls auditioning. She then thinks it over and decides to 'fess up about her lies and help her new friend prepare for the audition. She 'thought with her heart and did the right thing'. Good lesson, just told in a not very exciting or interesting way.

  So do these books have any other qualities that make them worthwhile? Well... I'm reminded of the Barbie and Friends Book Club books Emma used to love when she was a kid. (I'll have to review one of those sometime.) Those books were better written, but I don't think the poor writers got credit in those books either. But one thing that really drew Emma to those books was the photo illustrations.

The photos of dolls doing all sorts of things were well done. The costumes were detailed, and not always just regular Barbie clothes the public could buy. (A little frustrating, I'm sure, but the clothes often made the pictures so much more realistic and interesting.) The backgrounds were sometimes photo trickery, but often were nicely done realistic sets, with lots of details to make them seem more like a real place. 

  But the Only Hearts Club books? Hmm. Well, the dolls all wear clothing available either on a doll, or as an individual fashion. That's one thing that could be considered a positive, I suppose. Kids won't get as frustrated. The sets? Okay. I know there wasn't as much money backing The Only Hearts Club as there was backing Barbie. Mattel was never going to let Barbie look shabby. But I could have done better with these pictures! (To see some of my Only Hearts Club doll photos click 'Only Hearts Club dolls' on the sidebar.) For one thing, I know it is sometimes hard to pose the Only Hearts dolls without making them look awkward, because of the cloth covered, wire filled posable legs and arms. The head has to be properly tilted too. But come on people!

Karina gets distracted and falls in ballet class.

  This picture just looks weird. The head on the girl in the middle is tilted weirdly, and Karina looks like she enjoyed her fall. I also have a problem  with their sets. I know, as I said, they didn't have Mattel money, but I could scrape together a better set at home. That floor doesn't even go all the way to the edge of the picture. I can see where the top of the setting ends. And check out that wall. It only goes so far as a white wall, and then it's made of writing paper!

See what I'm saying?

 You know. The kind kids use when they first start learning how to write. And they reuse that wall as the wall for Karina's bedroom, and the writing paper is even more obvious in that picture.

Notice the chair. It seems to be the prototype for the chair actually sold for the Only Hearts Club dolls. You can see mine in some of my posts, including this one and this one.

 Okay, so the book is very simply written and the pictures are maybe a bit disappointing. but do I think the kids who liked the dolls would have enjoyed it? Yes. Probably. It's always fun seeing your dolls in a book. (My kids enjoyed seeing their dolls of themselves in that movie I made for them, and I'm sure that movie wasn't as well made as this book. It was hilarious though. I am hilarious...)

  So that's the book for September. I will have a book post ready to go before we leave and it will go up while I'm gone. As for the trip, I will be hobbling off to Iceland with Ken later this month. We are also going to Scotland, where we have tickets to see Michael Palin! I have been a Monty Python fan since I was about 14. I have followed everything the members have done over the years. This will make three of them I have seen live. From there we visit a friend of mine I haven't seen since 1986. (The last time I tried to visit her, but she had to work, so we only talked on the phone.) After that we go to Ken's home town and visit with two of his sisters. We have about a week with them. While we're there we are going to visit a couple of Ken's friends, who we saw the last time we were over, and my friend Jenny, who I last saw in 1986. I'm very excited about that. We go see a concert by one of Ken's favourites, Gilbert O'Sullivan. (Anybody remember him? "Alone Again Naturally"?) Then we're off to visit Ken's other sister, and eventually we meet up with Emma and Ivy to check out Nottingham, and visit cousins Ken hasn't seen in decades, and visit the prison where Ken was born. (His mother wasn't an inmate! His father was a prison instructor who taught shoe making to the prisoners!) Then we have a few days in London with the girls for Ivy's birthday. After that another few days with Ken's sisters, a big family get together, and a couple of days with my friend Cheryl, who we saw the last time we were over. Then it's off to visit a friend in Germany, a friend in Belgium, and we get to see Bruges. We also might get to see a friend in Strasburg, France. We end the trip with a couple of days in Paris. It's probably our last trip over, so we've tried to fit in everything and everybody we might have wanted to see. Unfortunately the trains in England just went on strike and are going to be very unpredictable  while we are there!

  I don't know what I'm going to do about the leg, except suffer. I still haven't located a new doctor, since mine moved away. Nobody seems to be taking new patients and I'm running out of time before the trip. I've been trying Icy Hot on it but I don't think it's having any affect. I think the only thing that makes a difference is staying off my feet, and, in fact, off my butt too. Laying on my right side seems to be the only pain free position, and sometimes not even that. It has to be a nerve in my back, causing a leg muscle  to tighten. 

  I have a post coming up about the big load of dolls I got at the toy show Saturday, and dolls that you will be able to get your hands on that were in it!  We'll see that in a couple of days. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #307: Trevor

    Today's doll is another of Ivy's little ones. He's this little guy.

He's Trevor.

Trevor is one of the Only Hearts Club little siblings.

Even though he's a boy, his tag bears the Only Hearts Club slogan,"Real cool girls...just like you."

He's Taylor Angelique's little brother. You can see my post on Taylor Angelique HERE.

 

He's 4 inches tall, so he fit right in with Ivy's Kelly obsession.

The little brothers and sisters had 'built in' clothing,that could not be removed. In spite of that, clothes were sold for them. They had to wear the clothes on top of their built in clothes, which sometimes looked a little weird.

Even the shoes are 'built in'.

 

He came with his teddy bear.

 Trevor was the only boy in the line,little or regular size. There was another Trevor who came with Taylor Angelique,with both dressed in Western outfits,including cowboy hats,and there was Prince Trevor. You can see my post on mine HERE.
The Only Hearts Club dolls were designed by Joanne Callander. They have realistic inset eyes.

  The work on Ivy's room continues. I'm hoping to get some paint on the furniture tomorrow.
  That's the doll for today. Tomorrow we're going for a bigger doll than the last three. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #296: Prince Trevor

  I spent part of the day yesterday helping the Neighbours from Hell trim a tree...of mine. They've been strangely friendly of late, but I'm trying to go with it,while still being wary. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop, as the saying goes. As friendly as they have been,they still insist on controlling even the air space over their property,and they asked me the other day if it was ok if they trimmed back our mulberry tree,as it was, in their words about 3 feet, and in reality about 12 feet, from their house. I said yes,as we were going to trim it but had no method of cutting anything that tall. So yesterday they hauled out two different ladders and a tiny chainsaw on a telelscoping pole (Never seen anything like it.),and trimmed back the branches that were bothering them, and a couple that were bothering me, plus a bunch of dead branches. True to form though, give them an inch and they take a mile. They trimmed back way more than the foot my side of the fence I said they could,even with me saying, "Don't go any farther." and "That's ok.". In any case, it got done, and no matter how much they cut, it will grow back. I figured it wasn't worth the trouble since it will grow back, so I let it go.
   I nearly forgot what doll I had planned for today! I don't know how I could, when I have been doing the Only Hearts Club dolls for the past week. I'm going to claim 'getting old' again. I use that a lot these days. So anyway,it's this little fellow here.

He's Prince Trevor from the Li'l Kids Fairy and Unicorn series.

Trevor was the only male character ever produced for the Only Hearts line.

This is the back of Trevor's box.

There were other dolls in this line,all the Li'l sister dolls as fairy princesses with wings,also on unicorns.

Trevor has the same inset eyes as all the Only hearts dolls, and dimples.
 

I think he's trying to use his Jedi powers here.

 Ivy has the original Trevor,released as part of the Li'l Kids line of Only Hearts dolls. She can't find him,but that Trevor came in a blue denim outfit,made as part of his body and not removable, as with all the Li'l Kids dolls.

Apparently Prince Trevor has the blue denim clothes on under his removable prince costume.

You can see his blue clothes under his Prince costume.

 Those aren't even pants. They're just leggings.

Like all the Li'l Kids, Trevor's shoes don't come off either.

His orange unicorn has a sparkly mane.

I'm assuming the unicorn has the same wire armature as the other Only Hearts dolls and horses.

I think there was only one other Trevor produced, part of the Horse and Pony Club line, dressed as a cowboy.

I've had this guy sitting on my cupboard on the landing for quite a while now, but I've never opened him. That cupboard seems to be home to a lot of my unopened dolls.
  Ok. We're done with the Only Hearts Club dolls now. Tomorrow we'll see what else we've got. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #295: Olivia Hope and the Original Taylor Angelique

  This past week we've been looking at the Only Hearts Club dolls. I figured I'd finish the week out with the last two original girls. So today we're looking at these.

They're Taylor Angelique and Olivia Hope.
 

The Only Hearts Club dolls were sculpted by Joanne Callander. Joanne has a page where you can see her beautiful and ethereal resin ball jointed dolls,and even buy one. Some of them resemble the Only Hearts girls quite a lot. You can go to Joanne's page HERE.
We saw Princess Taylor Angelique the other day,but this blonde is the first Taylor Angelique. The brown haired girl is Olivia Hope. The little red haired girl is Melody, who we saw yesterday.

Taylor is wearing Briana Joy's original shirt.

She has dimples and loosely crimped hair.

Olivia Hope is wearing Karina Grace's shirt.

Olivia Hope has a different face sculpt from Taylor Angelique and more tightly crimped hair.

Even the horse is from Only Hearts. He has the same wire armature as the dolls, so his legs,and even his neck, can be posed.

I have a couple of the horse riding outfits, but this guy doesn't have a saddle anyway.

 I have to apologize for the blurriness of these pictures, but I was losing the light fast. it got a bit dark for not using flash.

There is one more Only Hearts doll I want to show you. Check back tomorrow to see what doll that is.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #294:Shrunken Saturday: Melody

This week's Shrunken Saturday doll is following our theme this week of the Only Hearts Club dolls. The doll today is Melody.

She's an Only Hearts Li'l Kids doll.

She's 4" tall.

She's the little sister of Lily Rose,who we saw yesterday.

The Li'l Kids also have inset eyes.

 

They also have the same bendy bodies as the full size Only Hearts Club dolls.

The difference is that the Li'l Kids dolls have permanent clothing that is part of their bodies.

Shoes included.

So while additional clothing sets were sold for the Li'l Kids, they always had their original clothes on underneath. That looked a little weird sometimes,as with short sleeved shirts or dresses.

Tomorrow we'll conclude this series on Only Hearts Club dolls.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #293: Lily Rose and Karina Grace

  We've been looking at Only Hearts Club dolls for the last few days. Today we're looking at my favourite,Lily Rose,and her friend Karina Grace.

Lily Rose is the red head.

And of course, Karina Grace is the blonde.

Strangely,I nearly named Ivy,my red haired daughter, 'Lily',and her middle name is Rose.

Ivy doesn't have nearly this many freckles.

Lily Rose  and Karina Grace both came in an outfit, but I got these two sets of Only Hearts pajamas,because my obsession with doll pajamas is second only to my obsession with doll coats.

While I was attempting to get her to stay in this pose she did actually slide down the banister!

The odd thing about Only Hearts dolls is that the boxed dolls came in outfits that were also available as boxed outfits. If your doll didn't come in the outfit you wanted, you wouldn't necessarily have had to buy another doll to get the outfit. That's rare these days.

There were dolls that came in the pajama sets,including these two sometimes. But these girls came in outfits.

One of the reasons all of my Only Hearts Club dolls came dressed in their standard outfits is that I got my original 6 OHC dolls as part of a store display.

It was this one,minus Hanna Faith,top,far right,and Kayla Rae,bottom,far left. All the dolls came in the clothes they are wearing here,except I swear I didn't get the green shirt with the heart on it.

They were all attached to their chair and a base.You may have seen the chair before,as I use it for posts sometimes.

As you cans see,it works for dolls of various sizes.

 I had seen the display piece at Target and one day I stopped in at a Goodwill I never stop at, in the campus area of Columbus, and there it was, along with a horse stable and a couple of horses. I paid $7 for the clump of 6 dolls on a chair.

I definitely have those blue pants though.

Both of these girls have the original 'nub' feet:just bits of their leg turned up. Later dolls had plastic feet.

Like these, belonging to a later Lily Rose.

Lily Rose has a face full of freckles,but they are pretty realistic.

In thinking this over after looking at a lot of Only Hearts dolls the past week,maybe Lily Rose isn't my favourite. She has red hair and freckles, but she has a big square jaw.

Karina Grace has a much better face.
 

 It's surprising how different they can look from different angles.Look at the difference in the next two pictures.

It's almost like she smiled.


 

  I'm always amazed that there is such detail in their tiny little faces.

The staircase came from my favourite Goodwill.

I'm hoping to work it into my 1/6 scale dollhouse. It'll need more steps though, because even though the banister is the right height,the steps are pretty far apart.

In trying to pose Karina Grace I snapped her hand off! Luckily it went back on,but it will never be the same.

Yes,that hand right there. It went back on, but it seems like it could be a choking hazard for kids. Maybe it only happens now that they are older and maybe getting brittle. I know  a lot of the hands have changed colour,like Briana Joy's hands, which I showed you yesterday. Maybe the change also involves them becoming brittle.

  Tomorrow is Shrunken Saturday,and I'll be showing you a couple of much smaller dolls from the Only Hearts line.

See you then.