I fell in love with these dolls a few years ago, they reminded me of a cross between Blythe dolls with the big heads and the characters from Charlie Brown.
There is not a lot of information on these dolls so what I have here is as much as I could find and scratch together from lots of sources.
Heroic Rendezvous (HR) was Trademarked in 2003. It is a retail shop based in Hong Kong. There were shops opened in Singapore as well, but I believe they have all closed now.
HR merchandise range from colourful and fashionable T-shirts, jeans, pouches and bags, stationary, stickers, accessories, night-wear garments, eye ware, jewellery and dolls.
The designer behind HR is Vanessa Chan. A very talented artist who illustrates the pictures on all the clothing and accessories.
Here’s a brief description abut her taken from the press release:
While designing, writing and drawing are hobbies of Vanessa Chan, these are also a form of livelihood for her. Her belief, that pictures accompanying words convey a deeper meaning, led her to fully immerse herself in the fashion design industry since 1998. A woman of few words, she expresses her thoughts and inspirations in the graphics seen in her works.
Her previous works have been seen in Hong Kong and Taiwan’s publications. Apart from designing clothes for her brand Heroic Rendezvous, she has a range of accessories, posters and has worked with many Hong Kong, Mainland and Taiwan celebrities like Andy Lau, Joey Yung, TWINS, Jay Chou and many others.
With the launch of their doll collection a new doll collecting craze started. There is a Girl called Nette and a boy called Bobby. They come in an array of attractive hair colours and custom designed Heroic Rendezvous doll clothing. The dolls come with soft hair that allows you to be creative and style them as often as desired. The head turns and the arms and legs are jointed with elastic. This helps them be very posable.
The clothes on these dolls are mostly removable with either velcro or press studs. The T-shirts however are not removable unless you cut them off. The must be put on the dolls before the heads are attached. You have two options, you can cut the t-shirt straight down the back, neaten of the edges and possible add some attachment like velcro. OR you can leave the t-shirt on and work around it. I made some very cute pinafores the fit over the t-shirt and look super cute.
Hair:
HR dolls come with lovely thick hair. It is styled either curly or straight, long or in a bob style. It is easy to style and I have washed and straightened a couple of my dolls hair. But I think this has made their hair a little more full looking.
(Note: please only straighten at your own risk, I have done this on many dolls and some dolls it does not work and melts the hair, so you need to be very careful.)
Clothes:
I have found that some blythe clothes fit these dolls, but they need to be loose fitting or on the larger side of Blythe clothes as the HR dolls bodies are wider than Blythes. Knitted clothes fit really well as there is more stretch and can allow for the wider torso.
I have made some clothes for the HR dolls and you can find my Etsy shop here: www.etsy.com/au/shop/IHeartBlythes
Shoes:
The shoes the HR dolls come with are made from a hard plastic. They are either Mary-janes or loafers and can be a tight fit over their little white socks. The size shoe I like best on them are YOSD size. I have found some very cute boots on eBay.
Possible Faults:
The only downfall is neck of these dolls are quite weak and can snap. This is due to the head being large and heavy and the neck being weak and small. This has happened to one of my dolls and fortunately I did have a spare doll that the body was not fully pushed into the head at the neck, so I could swap it into the head with the broken neck. It did however take me a while to pry out the broken neck from the head cavity.
I don’t recommend this option as the neck is very securely pushed into the head and not meant to be removed. I have seen someone else use some sort of screw mechanism and it worked well for her. My advice is to just be extra careful with the head when turning it and never push it up or down from the front or back of the head.
Price:
The price of these dolls can vary. I’m not sure how much they sold for originally but they can be purchased from $50 – $100 USD depending on condition and if they are NIB (New in box).
Where to buy:
I have bought my HR dolls all from dolly selling pages on Facebook. They do occasionally come up on eBay, but I find it best to stork dolly selling groups.
https://www.facebook.com/hr.doll/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dollyadoption.group/
I believe these dolls are not being made anymore so they are hard to find and are quiet rare. But if you keep looking and are patient Im sure you will find one, I did!
Useful Links:
For more photos of an Heroic Rendezvous Shop check out this blog:
http://miyako-mylife.blogsp; ot.com.au/2010/12/managed-to-snap-some-pics-of-heroic.html
My Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/au/shop/IHeartBlythes