Present Pets Toys REVIEW – The Interactive Puppy that can unbox itself!

Ad – Present Pets toys gifted for review

Have you heard of Present Pets toys yet? – the new surprise interactive pet? The Present Pets toys have been a big hit in Christmas 2020 and is predicted to be a big hit for months to come! 

My girls (aged 4 and 7) absolutely LOVE interactive pets and Spin Master have released some fantastic ones in the past including of course the first ever self hatching toy – Hatchimals (of which the girls have had a few different varieties). Much of the appeal with these interactive pets is of course the surprise reveal or ‘unboxing’ where the character inside magically works their way out of their shell, box, or outer casing. Interactive toys are Spin Master’s specialty, and in the past we have loved many of their creations including Luvabella and Hatchimals WOW.

New this October, Spin Master have gone and done it again with their brand new toy release for 2020 – Present Pets. The Present Pets is a surprise interactive plush pet that quite literally unboxes itself! With one of four different puppy characters (in two different theme boxes) to collect, children wont know which one is inside until they, quite literally, push their way out of their box! The first variety of Present Pet Puppies are the Glitter Pups, Casey and Cocoa which come in tan and black colours and the second variety, Fancy Pups Present Pets Rose Gold which are white and beige and named Princess and Kweenie. The Present Pets Rose Gold Fancy Pups have floppy ears, one of which is pink – all are incredibly cute! Read on for our full Present Pets review.

What to Expect from the Present Pets Toy

Present Pets are inspired by a time gone by when puppies were gifted in a bow topped box (just like in Lady and the Tramp). Just like Lady desperately tried to lift the lid off her box by herself, these surprise interactive pups will nudge and push against the cardboard box in order to lift up the lid, separate the sides and BURST their way out out of their packaging!

Predicted to be a top 10 must have toy for Christmas 2020 (which lets face it, needed SOMETHING fun to happen), we were lucky enough to be able to complete a Present Pets Review with Spin Master prior to their 1st October release date and the girls were quite literally bouncing off the walls! (I have to admit I was too).

I can also state, for the record, that never have I felt SOOOO much pressure documenting the footage and photographs for a toy review on Real Mum Reviews EVER before! For our Present Pets review we literally get one attempt with unboxing footage and kids move so blimmin’ fast! Hopefully the pics and our full unboxing video below will give you a good idea of Present Pets and what to expect!

Live Present Pets Unboxing Video

The best way to fully appreciate the magic of a Present Pets toy is to watch our live Present Pets unboxing video below. Here we showcase not only the live unboxing process but also visual demonstrations of each of the different interactive modes.

How does the Present Pets Unboxing work?

The girls were so excited when they learned we were doing a Present Pets review. The unboxing process for Present Pets really is VERY impressive, as the puppy actually does unbox itself from the packaging without assistance (the concept isn’t just clever marketing spiel!)

Here’s how the Present Pets unboxing works:

Step 1 – To open the outer packaging of the Present Pets toy, children must first pull out the flap and peel around the perforated cardboard zip, which splits apart the two halves of the outer layer and enables them to lift off the top and bottom of the present. Neve bless her thought that was the full extent of big reveal at first (she’s clearly easily pleased!) and immediately started asking which one we had! 🙂 Little did she know that the best was yet to come!

Step 2 – Pull on the gift tag on the box.

Once the outer layer is lifted away a small Instructions pack drops out and it is recommended that you read these first to know what to do next.

The second step is to pull on the gift tag. This is impossible to miss as it is clearly marked with the word PULL!). As the tag is pulled away from the Present Pets box, it triggers the automatic unboxing process. You can then sit back and watch in awe as your Present Pet unboxes from the packaging to reveal which puppy is hidden inside!

Step 3 – Watch as your Present Pet Unboxing Begins

As soon as the tag is removed your Present Pets toy puppy springs to life and you can hear the audible barks and yelps from inside the box as well as movements that physically move the box from side to side.. The Present Pet puppy then starts to poke and prod at the cardboard packaging, poking away 3 perforated paw prints to create holes in the box and reveal a little glimpse of what your puppy looks like! The girls were really excited at this point, loving being able see a little bit of the puppy’s fur  through these ‘windows’ in the box.

The most impressive part of the Present Pets unboxing is when not only do the paw prints get poked away by the Present Pet but the sides of the box start to be ripped away too, before the two sides split apart completely and drop open on their own to reveal the interactive Present Pet puppy sitting happily inside. The Present Pet puppy plays a happy little song as the final unboxing moments take place.

After unboxing, the outer packaging can be discarded / recycled – most of it is cardboard, but there are some small plastic bits which can be separated out for recycling.

You can watch our live Present Pets Unboxing video above, but the girls were so excited, with Neve exclaiming OH MY GOSH!!!! as their puppy, Cocoa, sprang to life.

First Impressions of our Present Pet

Once the Present Pets box had burst open, the girls first set their sights on Cocoa, our adorable pup sitting inside. She has a large fabric shimmery ombre bow attached to her right ear, sparkly blue expressive eyes (with a heart shaped patch of fur over her right eye) and a cheeky sticking out tongue. She is wearing a removable collar with her name on and has super soft plush fur.

After her unboxing, the Present Pet puppy is barking and already making lots of fun interactive sounds, but before play, she needs to be removed from her fixed point on the base of the box.

The Present Pets pup is held in place on the base of the box by two small bone fastenings at her feet, which need to be twisted to move them into the unlock position, after which your Pup can be pulled away.

The girls were super impressed with Cocoa before she had even performed ANY of her special interactive features and Neve couldn’t wait to pull her up for an affectionate cuddle!

What do the Present Pets do once open?

The Present Pets instructions are pretty overwhelming, and I have to be honest, I really wish that toy manufacturers would use nice bright colour leaflets with good pictures or photos to make life a little bit easier for us parents! Instead, the instructions for Present Pets are quite a daunting black and white photocopy which obviously comes in lots of different languages. Despite there being a quick start guide with illustrations, it still felt a bit tricky to understand some of the elements of the interactive play.

After lots of trial and error however, we have now successfully got to grips with all the play modes – there are a number of interactive options for playing with your present pet which create different modes of play.

1. Cuddle Mode

The first mode is Cuddle Mode. To start cuddle mode you simply have to stroke, pat, or touch the back of your Present Pet’s head. Erin loved pulling Cocoa in for a cuddle and tapping the back of her head. She responds almost instantly, making lots of happy affectionate little sounds and slurping / licking noises, just like she was licking your face!! After some extended play, we found the Cocoa responds best when her head is patted firmly in a stroke like action rather than a pat or tap. Her head moves backwards and forwards as you do so and we got lots of slurping lick sounds and even a noise that sounded a little bit like ‘i love you’ (I wuv wu!)

2. Excited Mode

Excited mode was Neve’s favourite part of the Present Pets interactive features. To trigger excited mode you simply tickle, touch or tap the Present Pets pup on her tummy. Here she lets out of happy little yelps, licks, laughter and excited barks as her legs flick rapidly backwards and forwards, just like a child does when they are tickled!

3. Trick mode

Present Pets toys also have a trick mode, whereby your interactive puppy can perform a variety of different moves, actions and songs / noises. To trigger the trick mode, you need to press on the back button and tap the head. This took a little bit of practice but when we found the right technique, we found that Cocoa tended to move around the table top and sing/dance,  as well as making a few other random animal noises which Erin found really funny!

4. Bark Back Mode 

For Bark Back mode you simply press the button on his back (a quick / rapid press) and the puppy will start listening to you (voice recognition). When you bark or speak to the puppy, it will respond to you and imitate you in barks. After 3 exchanges of listening and responding, the puppy will return back to standard play (autonomous mode). She made some lovely little sounds when Erin spoke to her, and you can see examples on our video above.

5. Game mode

Mode 5 was by far the most confusing with Present Pets as I found the instructions for this part a bit unclear (it refers to option 1 and 2 and an autonomous mode, but it wasn’t immediately clear what this was). The visual pictures also weren’t particularly helpful as for modes four and five, the images looked pretty much the same!

The important thing to note here is that some of the sounds are confirming whether you got it right, and are NOT part of the sound for you to copy – this caused a bit of confusion with us at first.

After some practice, we did figure it out – so here’s some Present Pets Troubleshooting for Game Mode:

Press and hold the back button and a chime sound will play to confirm you have entered game mode. There are two rounds in game mode and if you want to skip to Round 2 you can quickly press the back button again. Otherwise just wait and listen out for the first barks to begin.

In Round 1 – Your Present Pets Puppy will bark a certain number of times and your child needs to copy back – if you get it correct, she will do a little “de de duhhhhhh” sound which means you have passed. If you get it wrong (bark too little or too many times, he will make a frustrated grrrr noise. There are 3 stages to round 1 and each time your child has to copy back a particular number of barks.

Get them right three times and you will get the puppy’s happy dance and song, but get them wrong and you will hear a ‘wah wah wahhhhhhh” sound (like a failing noise from a game show).

At first we thought the ‘correct noise’ was her barking again and so Erin ended up barking over her, but once we realised our mistake Erin and Neve really enjoyed this. My video footage shows this a bit clearer, so please do check this out if you want to see it in action.

Once you have completed Round 1, Round 2 will start automatically – this time it’s about the rhythm or tune of the barks instead. The puppy will start by barking a short rhythm and waiting for you to copy it by barking back the same rhythm. Again, there are 3 stages and they progress in difficulty. After a short initial rhythm the puppy then barks a medium length rhythm and waits for you to copy again. Finally the puppy barks a long rhythm and if you are able to copy it correctly the game is won! As with Round one, he makes a happy sound if you get it right, a growl if you get it wrong, and a happy dance when you complete the round.

You can quit the Game mode by pressing the back button again.

I will be honest, at times it did feel like they were both girls and our Present Pet were just making lots of noise and I am not sure how quickly the novelty of game mode would wear off, but both my girls were happy regardless!

Other useful information

The Present Pets puppies have a sleep mode where they go into a hibernation if they haven’t been played with for a period of time – this presumably helps reserve battery life which is always a positive!

Present Pets toys can make over 100 sounds and actions – we have had ours almost a week now and are still discovering new reactions.

Present Pets Volume Control – Parents will be pleased to know that Present Pets do come with an off button (thank you toy gods!) – you can simply slide the button on his left paw into the off position and the noises and movements will stop. There is however only one volume setting and no present pets volume control as such. In my opinion it is a touch on the loud side, particularly if your children are early risers!

Present Pets toys require 6 AAA batteries (batteries are included) and these can be changed by unscrewing the paw prints on her feet (3 batteries in each paw).

Present Pets toys retail at £59.99 and are available from Smyths toys from 1st October 2020 – they are recommended for ages 5 and above and we think they will go FAST!!!

Our Overall Present Pets Review

What we loved about the Present Pets toys:

• Present Pets toys have a really fun unboxing process – the Present Pet Pups really DO unbox themselves by poking and prodding their way out of the cardboard, and need absolutely NO assistance from children other than pulling the tag to trigger and start off the process. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in a toy before, and whilst the actual unboxing element it is over relatively quickly (less than 5 minutes), there is plenty of fun still to be had when the puppy has been revealed.
• Unlike some of Spin Master’s other surprise reveal toys such as Hatchimals, there is much less plastic waste – with just a plastic bottom lining tray, bow on the top and some small clips. The rest is cardboard. This is a real positive, as the majority of the packaging can easily be recycled.
• The interactive pets themselves are super cute, and the novelty didn’t wear off as soon as they were out of the box! The girls (Neve in particular) have played with her lots since.
• For parents who may need to keep things quiet when working from home or may get bored of the barking – there is the welcome addition of an off button!! 🙂
• Batteries ARE included, so is ready to play with quite literally straight out of the box (no scrambling around for AAA’s on Christmas Day!)

How could Present Pets toys be improved?

• As is often the case, some of the instructions for Present Pets are a little overwhelming and I wish there was just a simple colour sheet which outlined each mode and what it did. There is a quick start guide in the instruction leaflet but even the sight of all that text is enough to put any parent off, particularly when you have an excited child raring to go! At the time of writing this Present Pets review there were no online videos showcasing how it worked and as such, I felt i couldn’t fully understand how the game mode worked without lots of practice. I assume more videos (including mine) will emerge to make it easier for you guys so hopefully that will help!
• As a parent and I appreciate this comment is a little bizarre, I found the fact it looked like he had an anus a little bit strange – the kids didn’t even notice, but this almost makes it looks as if he poops – when its actually just how he is initially attached to the box! It’s quite amusing, but granted, this is me being a tad on the juvenile side.
• Whilst the girls LOVED the cuddle mode, excited mode and trick mode, they haven’t played with the game mode as much, as once you’ve done that a few times it can be fairly consistent. Erin at the age of 7 didn’t find it very challenging and as such rarely got it wrong. Neve however, who is just under the recommended age at 4, did find this more of a difficult task.
• A few people have asked me since my review was published whether Present Pets toys only come in the puppy variety. At the moment, yes there are only four different puppies available, but it may be that future waves of Present Pets feature other animals like Cats and Rabbits – that would be pretty cool too!

Thanks to Spin Master for coordinating this Present Pets review, he’s the closest thing they’re going to get to a real puppy for a while!

*Disclosure – we were sent a Present Pet for this Present Pets review, however as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own*