U Hugs dolls have been a massive hit in our house with both Lara and Holly. We were sent two to review but I will admit that when browsing Toys R Us for birthday present ideas last weekend, I was tempted to add to the girls collection. U Hugs dolls from Flair are brightly coloured, stylised dolls which feature lots of little removable pins for clothes, accessories and styling so that you can mix and match them, chop and change them and change them until your heart's content. And my, oh my, Lara changes her U Hugs around a lot.
U Hugs are designed for children from about 6-10 years old and I think Lara (nearly 7) is just about the perfect age to appreciate them. She likes the bold style and less girly colours but is still drawn in by the need to dress, tweak and create her own styles for these dolls.
The U Hugs dolls come in their own presentation pack with about 12 different pins such as jewellery, hair accessories, clothes, eyes, lips etc. Their arms, shoes and even their body are also pins. Each pin (more of a plug) is easy to rotate out of place and push back in again. It took Lara a little while to get the hang of it and she needed help at first but now she knows how to twist them in and out herself and only asked for help with the cloak/shawl type things which do require quite a bit of dexterity to line everything up into place.
I think U Hugs probably do work best when you have a couple that you can mix and match. Each box gives an idea of shapes and pieces you can change to totally change the doll's character - they even recommend new names. Lara and Holly both like the idea that you can move hair and eyes from one coloured doll to another. Given the care and attention that Lara takes choosing the next combination of clothes and accessories, I think I may have a little fashionista on my hands.
I recommend keeping the box of your U-Hugs doll to keep all the pins in, some of them are hard to find once they've been put to one side. If you are looking for a very sneaky place to store them - some of the dolls have a little cavity inside and even a patch on the body can be popped out and swapped for another one to cover over the little secrets stored inside.
I think U Hugs are a very clever set of dolls that appeal to girls who think they are "too old" for traditional dollies! Find out more about the U Hugs characters on their Youtube channel.
