"My Real Baby," was an interactive baby doll Hasbro announced to arrive in stores in the fall of year 2000. The doll had capability to cry, coo and instantly respond to its owner with smiles and squealed with delight. Hasbro called the doll the "most technologically advanced baby doll" ever. The doll was from an exclusive alliance between iRobot Corporation (also known as IS Robotics, Inc.,) of Somerville, Mass., and Hasbro, Inc.

"My Real Baby" featured Natural Response Technology ™ and was the first interactive, animated doll that responded to a child's actions with realistic emotion-like responses.

The doll used animatronics (the type of technology used in Disney toys!) and Natural Response Technology. This was a process that iRobot developed over a period of six years prior to the introduction of "My Real Baby" in year of 2000. "My Real Baby" reacted instantly to the attention of a child with a full range of expressions and sounds. The doll also appeared to grow over time through speech development having a full menu of unpredictable reactions.

The doll's reactions and expressions that became increasingly active included:

• When a child first picks up the doll, its eyes open and she smiles and coos
• As the child continues to play with "My Real Baby," her face changes from a smile to a frown and back again
• She giggles and laughs when you tickle her feet or bounce her on your knee
• She will tell you when she needs to be burped, changed or fed
• She begins speaking simple baby words like "mama" and "yum-yum"
• She advances to short sentences like "I Love you, Mama" and "I want ba ba, Mama"
• As a child rocks her to sleep, when she is ready to sleep, she will say "night, night"

Hasbro and iRobot created "My Real Baby" to give young girls a highly interactive and stimulating play experience.

Although the doll was a remarkable creation, it was only produced for a very short period of time and then discontinued. This may be due in part by the fact that the doll did not get adequate commercial exposure. It is said that the majority of little girls never knew "My Real Baby" existed. The elections of 2000 supposedly got most of the attention. Toys are seldom introduced into the market twice. It seems "My Real Baby" appeared on the market at the wrong time and missed her chance. There were about 100,000 dolls produced and then Hasbro discontinued the doll.

Do you believe in haunted dolls? Well, I am not sure if I do or not. However, I purchased a Hasbro 1992 "Real Baby" (not a "My Real Baby from year 2000) and learned she had a little extra within her voice box.

This particular doll was marketed to only giggle and coo when you pressed her tummy button (I think). She does that quite well. In addition, she says: "rah-rah-rah-rah-up-up." This little phrase usually speaks at the sound of a sudden noise like the word "boo," or the sudden bark of a dog.

I purchased this little doll only because I thought she had a sweet, pretty face and nice, shiny platinum color hair. She was just a cute little doll in my opinion.

The seller told me she had a psychic reading done on the doll (of which I do not dispute, I believe this seller does exactly as she says) and it was believed the little doll was host to a very young spirit of a child unable to properly communicate. The little girl could have been under one year old in my opinion (if this is the case).

I contacted the Hasbro Company for more information about this 1992 "Real Baby" doll. They responded with: "Unfortunately, we do not have any information about this particular doll." I asked them exactly what the original function of the doll was.

The highly interactive doll of "My Real Baby" had not appeared until the year of 2000, and before that time, it is my understanding there was no other doll produced with progressive speech capability.

It remains a mystery as to why this one particular doll says this additional phrase. It sounds exactly like a little girl's voice and is distinctly different from tone of the giggles from the doll. The phrase appears to come from the same area as the giggle, however, the giggle usually is heard from pressing her tummy (as Hasbro most likely manufactured her) and the additional phrase is heard at the sound of a sudden noise.

It is also possible that someone along the way tampered with her voice box and added this extra phrase; however, even this does not appear to be the case upon examination of the doll.

I am left wondering.

I heard her "cry" a total of two times since her arrival. The cries occurred at times when the switch was off.

If you are interested in seeing my little Amy, I have several pictures on the web site and a more intimate summary of my experiences with her. She is not for sale. I really like her. I have bonded with her.

People say these "spirits" look for other souls to bond with. I am very glad the spirit who found me was a child-like spirit, sweet and innocent. Some of the other dolls I have been reading about can become a little scary with antics such as opening and closing doors and windows, turning the lights on and off, etc.

Follow the link in the resource box of this article to take a look at Amy. She has her own page on the web site.

© 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved