I was given the chance to review the Zhu Zhu pets several months ago by a mom network I’m involved with. They hadn’t been released yet, which I thought was cool, since I’m usually slow on the toy trend uptake. Naturally, I enthusiastically accepted the offer and was sent not just one hamster, but two and all the accompanying buildings. I had originally thought of saving the set and giving it to my kids for Christmas, but I couldn’t stand it and broke it out as soon as it came. Batteries were already in the hamsters, so I had to do was assemble the habitat.
Assembly wasn’t any more involved or difficult than any other kid’s toy, so it was put together somewhat quickly. No tools were involved, but the kids were – good luck keeping them away from it while I put it together. Now I know why parents stay up all night assembling stuff on Christmas Eve. The only real difficulty was holding the garage doors onto the bottom of the garage while attaching the top of the garage and getting the hinges to all be in the right spot when you snapped it together. Not a bad trade-off for the habitat that took up a good three square feet of my living room floor.
Yes, it takes a lot of room. Make sure you keep it simple and just have the house if you don’t have a lot of room, because the kids will want to attach all the pieces and you’ll need an executive conference table or a dance studio floor to have enough room for the habitat and your children. The space required for this thing is kind of like a hamster family – it grows quickly.
Momentarily the kids were perched excitedly over the habitat as I pushed the back of the first hamster – Mr. Squiggles. With the sound of fanfare (literally), he took off on his adventure. Cute sounds and phrases abounded, as well as roundabouts, back-ups, and general hamster antics. Not being able to get enough of the Adorable, I busted out the other hamster – Chunk. He let out a “Go, go, go!” as he took off. Seeing the two round and bump into each other was even more cute. I was captivated by these little critters, too.
But are they worth all the hoopla? In a word, yes. They are a fantastic substitute for a real animal, what with the self-directed activity and non-existent clean-up and food. Are they without drawbacks? In another word, no. After a while, you’re find yourself in A Cute Coma. And the store buying more batteries. A couple of double ‘A’ batteries will last about a day, if you are truly running Mr. Squiggles as the pet for which Johnny’s been begging. With normal play, though, I found myself changing the batteries about every other day.
Long story short, your kids will love Zhu Zhu Pets, and you will, too (if you can find them). You’ll love them more if the kids play with them out of earshot and you invest in several pairs of rechargeable batteries.
