pitfaltina's Full Review: Littlest Pet Shop Guinea Pig and Box 213
The Easter Bunny hopped to our house this year and left a giant basket full of tiny toys, including several new Littlest Pet Shop animals. The Easter Bunny is WAY cooler than Santa, because he removed all the Littlest Pet Shop toys from the packaging before he stuck them in the basket. Santa just wraps 'em up in the packaging, curse him.
For parents out there who are not familiar with the nightmare of liberating LPS toys from the package, let me tell you, it's NOT easy. First you have to tear the plastic clamshell off the cardboard backing. Then you have to pull the INNER plastic clamshell out of the outer plastic clamshell. Then you have to somehow get a grip on impossibly tiny clear rubber bands that secure the pets to the inner clamshell. Once you have managed to grab one, you have to either unwind it from the pet (if you have, say, three extra hands this works well) or you have to cut them off with scissors. Finally, any tiny accessories are not only held in place with those stupid rubber bands, but they are also taped down with the stickiest, ickiest cellophane tape on the market. If you buy a bunch of these for your kid, be prepared to spend an hour freeing them from the sadistic packaging!
Okay, so the Easter Bunny (AKA Mom since Dad is too much of a chicken to unpackage and assemble any toy!) freed this animal ahead of time, so when my dear daughter ripped open the Easter basket (at 5:30 AM, of course!) she could jump right into play.
The set consists of the MOST adorable long-hair guinea pig, a carrying case, a water bottle and holder, and "newspaper" to line the case. The guinea pig, who has been cleverly named "Piggy", (sigh, she WILL NOT take my name suggestions!) has a bobblehead and a magnet in his left front paw. Parents, do not worry, we have yet to lose a magnet from a Littlest Pet Shop toy! The guinea pig is off-white and has rusty brown cheeks, ears, nose, and rump. The guinea pig is identical to the one from the Biggest Littlest Pet Shop in everything except color, so unless your child has a real collector mentality, you might want to skip this toy!
The water bottle is made of clear pink plastic and rests inside a clear pink plastic holder. We know from experience that the water bottle is flimsy, easily breakable, and does not stand well on a carpeted surface. It will stand on a flat surface but easily tips over if bumped.
The biggest disappointment with this toy is that the carrying case is made out of very thin, flimsy cardboard. Think of the kind of box you use to wrap shirts for presents. Yes, this carrying case is THAT cheap! Stupid Mom thought that it would be a plastic case like all the other LPS toys, so imagine my surprise when I opened the impossible packaging and found cardboard! It is cute and has pretty printing, but it is terribly easy to squash, wrinkle, and rip. In fact, my daughter managed to mangle it within ten minutes of getting it, by accidentally stepping on it. I tried to resurrect it but it was beyond repair. What a toy...ten minutes from receiving to disposing. What WERE you thinking, Hasbro?
The set includes shredded paper "newspaper" that can be placed at the bottom of the carrying case (assuming yours lasts longer than ours did!) to catch that messy guinea pig poop. The "newspaper" almost lasted a whole day before it was scattered all over the house and vacuumed up in disgust.
My daughter loves the guinea pig. He fits through the hamster tube on the Little Lovin' Pet Playhouse just fine and he loves to take a spin on the hamster wheels. The magnet in his paw holds him down on a sled, opens a food bowl, and helps him to slide on the Twirlaround Treehouse. So, is this toy worth the $4.00 I paid? Yes, for the guinea pig, but the carrying case and "newspaper" were so worthless and cheap that they didn't last as long as the holiday for which they were a gift. What a disappointment, and what a departure from Hasbro's usual high quality!
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 4.00 Type of Toy: Playscene
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
Adorable guinea pig figure with bobblin head comes with a carrier, bedding and a water bottle for lots of pet-lovin fun on the run!, Recommended age g...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.