BEND me, shape me, hang me. This is the Saddam Hussein execution doll, writes Maurice Chittenden.

Barbie and Ken were never like this, but a company in the United States has demonstrated its gallows humour by rushing a commemorative toy into production.

The company, Herobuilders, has previously faced threats after producing a doll of Osama Bin Laden in a pink tutu.

The Saddam doll was launched just as the deposed Iraqi dictator went to his gruesome end. It is for sale on the internet at £12.95.

Emil Vicale, who runs the company in Connecticut, said: “We jumped the gun. The action figure comes complete with a ‘Dope on a Rope’ T-shirt and a fun noose.”

The 12in figure is the latest in a series of political dolls. All have been good sellers apart from a Tony Blair action man in combat fatigues. The company was stuck with 600 of them on its shelves.

Herobuilders has made more than 100 satirical dolls, including George Bush as a superhero; a power-dressed Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and one mocking Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, for accidentally shooting a friend while hunting.

In a world where toys can become us, it also offers to produce a figurine of anyone for £216. For no extra charge, the doll will have a chip inserted so it can talk with your voice.

As well as Saddam swinging on a noose, the firm’s latest range of political dolls includes one of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Let them eat yellow cake”, which misquotes Marie Antoinette with a reference to uranium ore.

Film of Saddam’s hanging captured on a mobile telephone and posted several times on YouTube has now been watched by more than 1m people. In Britain children have been found swapping pictures of the execution by phone with their friends.

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