Featuring: Hearts 4 Hearts Shola

Shola dreams of th future. It was rather chilly when I shot these photos on Friday. Why winter must linger so long I know not. Moving to the US has taught me this much: though the winter is very pretty, I am much more comfortable in the summer.

I've reviewed a Hearts 4 Hearts girl previously, so if you would like to, you can read about that here: http://jongdoll.blogspot.com/2014/01/hearts-4-hearts-doll-review-tipi-by.html 

A cute profile, no? Shola of Hearts 4 Hearts is the first Muslima doll I've seen mass produced to be available to the American market. I am aware that some similar dolls are available in Asia, and I know that Barbie produces Hindu dolls for the Indian market (also Dhoom3 dolls), none of which I have managed to find on eBay. I love Hearts 4 Hearts for bringing these to the doll market. I have a Laotian girl and Shola is from Afghanistan, I know that as soon as the Nepalese girl is released I'll be ordering her. Once upon a time my family and I went to Nepal and we somehow accidentally ended up on this 24 kilometer hike through the mountains and over rivers and it was gorgeous and when we got to one of the towns they were playing beautiful music, but the hike was insane and when we got to the end near where we were staying my mother I think passed out because of dehydration so yeah.... Nepal is cool it has lots of goats. I like goats.

What stunning eyes. Her lips are really cute, too. It helps if one braids her hair  to keep flyaways from escaping.

I spoiled Tipi a little. I bought the pajama set that was created for her. It was too adorable to pass up.

Shola' dress is nice, though falls flat compared to the promotional images, and ought to be a bit longer to cover more of her legs, or come with pants to wear beneath. Shola did come with underwear, whereas my Tipi did not.

In observance of Hijab, Shola wears a headscarf which is fastened by velcro to make things easier for those who do not normally wrap headscarves.

Perhaps it is not easy to tell, but her scarf is incredibly prone to snags. The fact that the wind blew her into a brick wall didn't really help things.

Shola's cute flats and Tipi's new slippers. The slippers came very bent in the packaging, but have relaxed since being set free from their plastic prison.

Shoe detail. Oh, I found out on Friday that I didn't break my camera! I just accidentally hit some weird manual settings buttons.

Shola' dress is of nice quality and the edges are serged.

Tipi's pajamas are not serged, but are still of very sturdy quality.

Tipi's hair is good fun to play with. I'm no hairdresser, but this braided topknot looks cute on her, I think.

Shola's hair is actually more of a brunette color than Tipi's, though this is the only time you'll ever see it. Like Tipi's, it is beautifully soft.

They're good friends. I'm psyched to add more to my crew. Based on ToyFair 2014 images which show new packaging for *all* dolls, I think the first wave of dolls is going to be re-released, which means I may be getting several. Nobody tell my mother! ><

Yui wanted to show off her mix-matched Dollb kicks. (http://dollb.etsy.com)

-R

Hearts 4 Hearts Doll Review: "Tipi" by Playmates Toys

I'm a little behind the times in my doll blogging. Yui was created recently, after my order in November, but her original sculpt was created in 2010. Coincidentally, the doll in this review as well as in the review to follow were created in 2010, and both are discontinued these days. Anyways, I've just begun my little doll family, so I've been reaching into the past (via eBay) to find some MIB/NRFB dolls that are no longer quite on the market. A word to the wise- if you're going to go searching on eBay, compare all costs. This is a wonderful doll, but not worth $100. I got lucky with Tipi. Shipping aside, I paid her original price, because the lady from whom I purchased her had initially bought the doll as a present for her adopted daughter who then decided she was too old for dolls (which is a leeetle ironic, as at 17 years old I am probably older than her daughter).

H4H girls were created on the premise of telling stories of girls around the world, of all sorts of ethnicities in order to raise donations for kids in need. As the company website states, "Every Hearts For Hearts Girls^® doll is inspired by real girls from real places around the world. Each doll has her own story to tell, with ideas about how to make life better for her family, community, country, and the world around her. When you buy a doll, a dollar of the purchase price is donated to programs that support children in that doll's region." A dollar from the sale of each doll (approximately 5% of he price) is donated to help kids in need. After reading Nethilia's guest post on Emily's blog, I knew I would eventually own at least one of these girls. Dispite Shola's few flaws (her outfit is much nicer in her promotional images than on the actual doll, and the dress is not quite the appropriate length for a Muslima), such a unique doll will be an awesome addition to my doll family. Further investigation into the H4H line uncovered an earlier set of girls, one of whom I liked above the others. Her name is Tipi, and she is from Laos, in SE Asia, just a stone's toss from my Singypore, so I brought her home first.

The eBay seller created her own box out of a hot-glued-together old Home Depot box, which I figured the recycler in Emily would appreciate.

The box in which Tipi arrived is similar to those of the other dolls in the series. The front cover (with a promotional image of the doll) opens to a view of the doll, secured behind a plastic window, so one can pick a good doll before actually paying for it. Unlike many of the other dolls, Tipi is almost identical in doll form to her promotional images.

Yui didn't approve of the lack of her face in the group shot, so she jumped in.

Tipi came with a short book talking about her life in Laos, and how she enjoys storytelling and writing, especially for her classmates. 

She also came with a very small bracelet which a child can wear to show their support for H4H girls, and girls in LEDCs, a hair comb (never to be used, as I have been informed plastic brushes and combs wreak havoc on doll hair), and adorable little flippy-flops. Tipi wears a bracelet inspired by the string bracelets typical in Lao on her left hand, and on her right she has three extra hairbands. Her unboxing wasn't as easy as Yui's, but it wasn't terrible. Opening it was a little weird. I haven't opened a toy's box in 6 years or so, and when I smelled the vinyl, it smelled like childhood. ><

Though her head is unproportionally large (something with which I personally have no issue, though some people do not like), her body is very slim and she is taller than I was expecting, standing at an approximate 14".

Her hair was banded in three places and sewed to her shirt in one. It doesn't measure up to Yui's wig, but considering that the cost of Yui's wig is almost equal to that of the entire Tipi doll with extras, it's understandable. Tipi's hair is quite soft, rooted a bit thinly towards the back,

She's cord-strung with five points of articulation, and though she doesn't pose in too many different positions, she photographs adorably.

Success!

Tipi tells her Korean Elven friend what Laos is like.

There's a little spot on her forehead near the hairline that I've not tried to clean off yet. Her face is lovely and serene. Her eyebrows are drawn in a cute way, her lips are a nice neutral color, and her her eyes are a lovely brown. I've seen brown-eyed H4H girls whose eyes, when exposed to sunlight for an extensive period of time, turn purple. I don't know why, however I have heard that Playmates has replaced dolls defective in this maner. If my Tipi's eyes turn purple, I'll probably not do anything about it.

For the price, I think Tipi is a fairly rugged little doll. The clothes are better made than some other playdoll clothes, and I think the doll would stand the test of time and child's play pretty well.

Yui was a fan of the flip flop concept, until she actually tried them on.

Whats dis I'm sittin on hmm?

In conclusion:

Quality: Good quality for a playdoll.

Price: $25 original retail. The second wave of these dolls are still on Amazon close to their original price, and totally worth it.

Collectability: Nope. Playdoll. But eBay sellers seem to think she is. -.-

Cuddleability: Heck yeah. She's all vinyl, not squishy or soft, but a kid could hug her and tote her about and probably bring her wherever they go without totally destroying her.

She's a cute addition to the family. Expect to see Shola some time in the future.
I'm going to go ahead and apologize for the awkwardness of blog posts to come. I'm trying to figure out how to format these posts, I've not exactly got a working computer at the moment, and yesterday I think I messed up my camera *woop.* ;_;