Could it be the next hot, hot toy? Could it be destined for the annals of popular culture? I’m no Merlin, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the “Hug-A-Hero” doll experience a surge in popularity in the coming months.
If you have a loved one in the military you may have heard of these unique dolls. After all, they were the brainchild of a military wife who had three children at home missing their father who was deployed a half a world away.
Tricia Dyal says desperate times called for desperate measures. Two weeks after her husband was sent off on his second deployment two of their children were hospitalized and kept asking for Daddy.
Enter Dyal’s great aunt Mary Cole. The desperate mother turned to the family’s resident crafter and asked her to make two dolls of her husband. Aunt Mary came through and a couple days later the dolls were on their way to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where the Dyal kids were hospitalized. The dolls were a hit with the children and according to Dyal even the doctors commented on their benefits.
Fast forward a few months and Dyal is a familiar sight in the media. After her children were released from the hospital she enlisted the help of her friend and created Daddy Dolls Inc., which creates dolls devoted to helping ease the pain of those missing a loved one.
The “Hug-A-Hero” dolls come in two sizes a 12-inch version and a 17-inch version and range in price from $19 to $25. You can purchase them online by clicking here. Also, beginning next month, the dolls will be available at 40 different Army Air Force exchanges worldwide.
In addition to the “Hug-A-Hero” dolls, the company also makes pillows, pillow cases, dog tags and photo puzzles featuring the picture of a missing loved one (pets included).
Dyal says while the dolls are not meant to be a replacement for the missing loved one, they do give children a tangible object to hold until the person returns.
And good news for you parents considering adoption, the company recently started working with overseas adoption agencies so soon-to-be parents can have a doll of themselves sent to their future child.