Sorry, Spidey: Pandemic makes docs, nurses our heroes
Mike Snider
Health care workers and other essential personnel on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic are considered heroes. Now Mattel is making it official with a new line of action figures and toys.
The Barbie and Hot Wheels toy maker has a new roster of #ThankYouHeroes Fisher-Price action figures and Little People figurines starring doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, grocery workers and delivery drivers. The toys, available for preorder now through May 31 at www. mattel.com/en-us/playroom-thankyouheroes, are expected to ship to consumers by year’s end.
The 16 action figures ($20 each) of doctors, nurses, EMTs and delivery drivers come in various genders and skin colors. In addition to the action figures, Fisher-Price is also offering a special five-character Little People set (also $20) of a doctor, nurse, EMT, grocery store worker and delivery driver.
The net proceeds ($15) from each sale will go to #FirstRespondersFirst, an effort to support health care first responders started last month by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, wellness group Thrive Global and the CAA Foundation.
“Mattel’s iconic brands and products speak to something deep within us,” said Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington in a statement. The Huffington Post founder left the media company in 2016 to start Thrive Global. “So it’s wonderful to see this new Fisher-Price collection not only bringing joy to children, but giving parents and caregivers a new way to honor healthcare first responders and everyday heroes and their families.”
These new Fisher-Price toys are part of what Mattel calls its new “Play It Forward” toy initiative to support communities in times of need. Mattel also has donated cloth masks to medical personnel and is now producing 500,000 face shields to donate.
Mattel is promoting the toys now to give consumers “who want to give back” an option and will send them directly to homes after they are produced, said Chuck Scothon, senior vice president of Fisher-Price and Mattel’s global head of infant and preschool. For now, these figures and are not planned to be available in stores, he says.
Fisher-Price and Mattel created the toy line to “honor and support those who are coming forth and fighting, from health care (workers) to the everyday heroes,” Scothon said. “What better way to do that than to actually create toys that really provide both consumers an ability to say ‘Thank you,’ immortalize those heroes on the front line, and raise money to give back and make an even bigger impact?”