Bunnies and guinea pigs and food bowls, Oh my!
Written: Sep 19 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Guinea pig! Too cute!
Cons: water bottle is flimsy
The Bottom Line: Worth it for the cuteness, water bottle needs work
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| pitfaltina's Full Review: Littlest Pet Shop - Pet Pairs: Bunny and Guinea Pi... |
My daughter absolutely adores the Littlest Pet Shop toys and always insists upon getting the "unique" pets. When you think about it, it makes lots of sense, because how many puppies and kitties does she need? But a guinea pig, now, there's something different!
So Santa Claus dropped this under the tree one Christmas with an enormous pile of other Littlest Pet Shop stuff and then took off in an undignified hurry. On Christmas morning, we found out why he left so quickly. He didn't want to be around when we tried to remove this toy from the packaging.
Hasbro seems to think that Littlest Pet Shop toys are highly "stealable". Since their isn't really a good word to describe it, I made up my own. So sue me! Anyway, Hasbro packages this set of Pet Pairs and all the other sets in the following manner:
1. Plastic shell over cardboard backing card
2. Plastic shell inside the plastic shell
3. Pets attached with multiple tiny, clear rubber bands through the inner plastic shell
4. Accessories attached with tiny, clear rubber bands AND cellophane tape to inner plastic shell
To liberate all the stuff, we needed an eyeglass screwdriver to lift the rubber bands and then we needed scissors to cut them, since they will NOT break. How annoying to have to do this for a $4 toy!
Once we freed the toys from the ridiculous packaging we were ready to play. My daughter instantly fell in love with the guinea pig, whom she christened "Chubby". The bunny, nicknamed "Hoppy" (how, uh, original!) is also a favorite pet.
"Chubby" is about 2 inches long and is rust brown with a white face and belly. He features a bobblehead and a magnet on his left paw, which can be used to activate all those fun LPS magnetic toys. "Hoppy" is an all-white bunny with a bobblehead and a magnet in her left paw. "Hoppy" is 3 inches tall and is IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean. Since the pet is white, it picks up smudges from everything imaginable and I have given up trying to get the bunny to be white again. It is now some unimaginable shade of grimy gray that is very unappealing. "Chubby" is holding up much better!
The pets come packaged with a few accessories. Included are a flower to place around the bunny's ear, a water bottle, and a food dish. The flower works just as described and usually doesn't get played with.
The water bottle was a big hit until it got broken. The water bottle is made of a brittle plastic and can be removed from the water bottle holder. The water bottle holder is made of the same plastic and is very thin. One day, Mommy was walking through the living room in the dark and heard a loud CRUNCH. Upon looking down, I realized I had stepped on the water bottle and I not only snapped the water bottle holder in half, I also managed to break off the drinking spout from the water bottle. My daughter refused to listen to my cries of "It wouldn't have gotten broken if you had put it away where it belonged!" and didn't speak to me for twenty whole minutes. Ahhh, twenty whole minutes of blessed silence!
Before the water bottle got broken, we discovered that it doesn't stand at all on carpeting, which is not cool as our entire house is carpeted. It does stand very well on a flat surface but will tip over if jostled slightly.
The food dish is very cute and usually gets borrowed and sent to the Turtle Colony, where all the reptilian pets hang out. The food dish is a simple plastic bowl with molded carrots and a lid that swings open. Getting the lid open is the fun part. There is a paw print at the front of the bowl that hides a magnet, and you must open the food bowl with one of the pets' magnetic paws. My daughter loves this feature and wishes Hasbro would include it in more LPS toys.
"Chubby" the guinea pig fits perfectly through the hamster tube of the Littlest Pet Shop Little Lovin' Pet Playhouse. He also works well with the various hamster wheels in the LPS line and the Happy Hamsters playset. Poor "Hoppy" can't do those things, but she can play in the Twirlaround Treehouse, something "Chubby" can't do because he is too fat. And what kind of message does THAT send, Hasbro?
All in all, this set is worth much more than the $4 we paid Santa Claus because my daughter plays with it constantly. I just wish the water bottle was made of sturdier plastic. Or maybe not, since I did get that twenty minutes of silence! For parents who are worried about the recent magnets-in-toys scare, I can tell you that not ONE of our Littlest Pets has ever had a magnet fall out, so you can rest easy.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3.99
Type of Toy: Playscene
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
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Epinions.com ID:
pitfaltina
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Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I'm a mommy first, a working woman second, and a craft fiend all the time!
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