pitfaltina's Full Review: Hasbro Littlest Pet Shop Portable Pets Chinchilla ...
My daughter is a devout collector of the "unique" pets in the Littlest Pet Shop line, as you can tell if you've read my other reviews. No puppies and kitties for her, she wants the cool stuff! As soon as I found out Hasbro was making a chinchilla, I knew we had to get it. We used to own a real chinchilla and my daughter was very upset when it died, so here was an opportunity to get her a chinchilla of her very own that wouldn't die. Good plan, right?
Well, it would have been a good plan if we could FIND it. Hasbro, for some nefarious purpose, delights in making the "unique" pets in very limited quantities. All those people who sell on auction websites run out and grab all the hard-to-find pets so they can sell them at three times the cost, which makes it very hard for the average mom to get her hands on the pets and makes for some very disappointed kids. I am not a mom who will spend inordinate amounts of money on a toy just to get it. I am a die-hard bargain hunter, so rather than pay some toy scalper, I decided I was going to be patient and wait until I found it.
I hate Hasbro. It took me ELEVEN MONTHS to stumble across this toy in the toy store. That is so ridiculous, and so unnecessary. Hasbro, quit fooling around and make some toys!
Anyway, on to the toy itself! The set consists of a hutch and base, the chinchilla, and a water bottle that clips onto the side of the hutch. The chinchilla stands just under two inches high and features a bobblehead and a magnet under its front paws. The chinchilla is pearl gray with a white belly, just like our real chinchilla was. (Rest in peace, Furrball!) The chinchilla has a long bushy tail that curves up almost to the top of its head, which makes it hard for my daughter to put the chinchilla in many of her Littlest Pet Shop accessories. Any toy that has a seat usually requires a pet with a smaller tushie. Not to worry, though. My daughter decided that her chinchilla, whom she named "Jumpy" since chinchillas like to hop, was an excellent skateboarder, and "Jumpy" can sit on the skateboard just fine.
The hutch is made of flexible pink plastic "bars" with a hard pink plastic top that has a carrying handle. A plastic tag that says "LPS" dangles off the handle for no reason that I can discern. The hutch fits securely over the base. The base is green and is decorated with pink painted hearts and flowers. The inside of the base is tan and is covered with molded plastic "litter".
The water bottle is dark blue clear plastic and features a clip so you can attach it to the side of the hutch. That clip needs to be made bigger. My daughter struggled for fifteen minutes to attach it and Mom ended up putting it on. The clip is so tight that Mom's fingers were hurting after five minutes spent jamming down on the top of the bottle in an impossibly small space to attach it. Once you finally get it attached, don't even think about trying to remove it. For one thing, you pretty much can't remove it, and for another, who wants to go through that hassle to reattach it?!
The chinchilla instantly became my daughter's favorite pet in her vast collection. No other pet is played with as much. In fact, "Jumpy" is usually to be found in the cup holder on my daughter's car seat every time we leave the house. "Jumpy" also holds dominion over the balcony of the Biggest Littlest Pet Shop. This toy was definitely worth the $4.00 we paid for it considering how well it has held up and how loved it is. Was it worth the wait of nearly a year? That I don't know about. I'd rather have been able to stroll into Walmart and buy it the day we knew it existed. Shame on you, Hasbro!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 4.00 Type of Toy: Playscene
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
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