It’s not just Baby Yoda plush toys and “Inspirational” Barbies anymore.
Toy giant Mattel is now honoring workers on the front lines of the coronavirus fight, by releasing a special series of action figures modeled after the first responders who are valiantly putting their lives at risk to save others from the disease. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that at leas t9,200 US healthcare professionals had been infected with COVID-19 during the nationwide epidemic.
“#ThankYouHeroes is designed to immortalize and honor health-care and everyday heroes,” says Chuck Scothon, senior vice president of Mattel subsidiary Fisher-Price in a statement.
The brand’s new collectible line features a range of emergency worker figurines, including EMTs, nurses and doctors who come complete with scrubs and stethoscopes. They also pay homage to the heroic delivery drivers who are sacrificing their own quarantines to transport essential items to the millions of US citizens sheltering in place amid lockdown.
Those for whom one hero isn’t enough can even buy the “special five-character Little People” set that comes with a doctor, nurse, EMT, delivery driver and grocery store worker.
However emergency worker-tributing toys aren’t a cheap way to cash in on a crisis. The collection’s proceeds will benefit #FirstRespondersFirst, a campaign created to support first responder health-care workers.
“It will be wonderful to see this new Fisher-Price collection not only bring joy to children,” says Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, one of the organizations behind the #FirstRespondersFirst initiative. “But give parents and caregivers a new way to honor health-care first responders and everyday heroes and their families.”
The #ThankYouHeroes will be available to preorderon the sitefor $20 starting Wednesday through May 31, 2020 — although customers might not receive the collectibles until December 31, 2020, per the release.
If that wasn’t enough, Mattel has pledged to produce 500,000 face shields for health-care workers in order to help curb the rampant supply shortages plaguing US hospitals.