Toy company makes request after altered images – which hide suspects’ identities in line with state law – go viral

A southern California police department has been handcuffed by Lego after the toy company asked the agency to stop adding Lego heads to cover the faces of suspects in images it shares on social media.

The Murrieta police department has been using Lego heads and emojis to cover people’s faces in posts on social sites since at least early 2023. But the altered photos went viral last week after the department posted a statement about its policy, prompting several news articles and, later, the request from Lego.

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Andrew Murphy is planning a long game with overseas deals. But, he says, the government needs to play ball too

We have checked out the three-metre-high T Rex in the lobby and eyed the giant Squishmallow bean bag in the corner of his office. Now Andrew Murphy is waving around a Fuggler, a soft furry toy with hideous teeth, button eyes that he believes will help The Entertainer in its quest for world domination.

Murphy, who spent 30 years at John Lewis, joined the family-owned toy retailer as chief executive last October, stepping in to assist Gary Grant , who founded the business with his wife Catherine in 1981 and remains a very lively presence as non-executive chairman.

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We’ve played with miniature humans for thousands of years – so why are they so often creepy? From ivory Roman dolls to wax antiques, here are some of the most unnerving

Dolls make perfect sense as toys – a small human, for small humans to play with – and they have been around for ever, unsurprisingly. We had miniature play people way before anyone invented trains, Pokémon or all the other kids’ stuff (OK, maybe we always had slime). A small soapstone human figure was found in a 4,500 year-old Siberian child’s tomb, and there are ancient Greek dolls , while ancient Egypt had “paddle” (flat) dolls then, later, absolutely horrible Roman-era rag dolls . Most times and regions seem to have them: there are Inuit dolls from 1000BC; dolls are explicitly described as playthings in Japan in the 11th-century Tale of Genji .

But if they are so universal, why are they also so upsetting? There’s a name for the fear of dolls – pediophobia – and no wonder. I mean, tell me dolls don’t make you feel funny on some level and I’ll assume you’re a bit funny yourself. The easiest possible shorthand to identify someone as a wrong ’un on screen or in print is to make them a doll collector; dolls are a perennial horror movie trope, from The Great Gabbo (a 1929 ventriloquist’s dummy) to M3gan .

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As doll’s fame hits a new high, Design Museum will explore the impact her changing appearance has had

You don’t have to be a devotee of popular culture to have noticed the omnipresence of brand Barbie over the past year.

The release of the Greta Gerwig’s cinematic portrayal of the world’s most famous doll has seen Barbie inserted into debates far beyond the realms of showbiz, from geopolitical border disputes to debates on the state of feminism.

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Bricks with studs corresponding to braille numbers and letters will be available to buy from September

Lego is to begin selling bricks coded with braille to help blind and partially sighted children learn to read the touch-based alphabet.

The Danish toymaker has been providing the specialist bricks, which were tested and developed in partnership with blind organisations around the world, free of charge to a selection of schools and services catering for vision-impaired children since 2020 .

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Undaunted by her American cousin’s big screen debut, the UK doll is coming out of retirement for a new generation of fans

We might be living in a Barbie world at the moment – but the doll that once represented the American Dream might need to watch her back. The great British answer to the most famous fashion doll of all time could be about to make a comeback.

Next weekend sees the 13th annual Dollycon held in Lincoln, where Sindy fans will gather to celebrate their hobby. Just four years younger than her glamorous American counterpart, Sindy still holds a place in the hearts of millions of British women who were girls in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

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