WELLINGTON: The release of National Party "action figures" ahead of the 2008 election has prompted accusations that the idea - and the figures themselves - were reworked from a discarded Labour Party order.

"I know for a fact that Helen Clark had ordered 10,000 dolls depicting her and each of her caucus members prior to the last election," a disgruntled parliamentary worker divulged to Spinner. "These are those same dolls."

The Labour Party Pledge Dolls, as they were known prior to the 2005 election, featured figurines in the likeness of Helen Clark, Steve Maharey, Ruth Dyson, Chris Carter, Michael Cullen and other members of the Labour Caucus. The order was placed with Thai plastic dolls maker Happy Sunrise Plastics in Bangkok but was, however, cancelled shortly after Labour's "Pledge Card" fiasco brought about speculation that Labour had spent excessive amounts of taxpayer funds on their election campaign.

Happy Sunrise Plastics marketing spokesperson Liu Leo said that the dolls were, "Same same, but different." She confirmed there had been an order bound for New Zealand some years ago but that these were not the same dolls, providing Spinner with samples from each of the orders.

Spinner remains convinced that the orders are completely different. The National dolls mostly have blue ties, while the Labour dolls are painted in red colours.

Others are not so convinced. Spinner presented a Helen Clark doll alongside a John Key doll to the National leader's own mother, asking her to tell us which one was the image of her son. After some deliberation, Mrs Key finally raised the correct doll. "I could only tell by the nice smile," she said. "Johnny has such a lovely smile."

In a test of under-fives, only ten percent picked the correct Michael Cullen doll over the strangely marketed 'Gerry Brownlee on a crash diet' doll.