If you haven’t heard of Hatchimals by now, then you seriously must have been hiding under a rock for the last 2 years. Hatchimals were last years MUST HAVE Christmas toy from Spinmaster, selling out pretty much everywhere, leaving many parents panicking and Father Christmas even writing IOUs to children across the UK. Whilst the initial hype has died down a little, Hatchimals are still as popular as ever, and the trend for hatching these loveable creatures does not appear to be going anywhere soon, particularly with Hatchimals CollEGGtibles launching earlier in the year.
We were recently asked if we wanted to review a Hatchimals Glittering Garden – one of two new exciting Glitter varieties of the Hatchimal, featuring sparkly eggs, and characters with sparkles in their fur. Erin had an original Hatchimal for Christmas, and as such was familiar with the concept, but being that little bit older now, I was keen to see her reaction!
About the Product
Each sparkling Glittering Garden Egg contains one of two interactive Hatchimals with twinkling wings and soft, shimmering fur. Hatchimals can’t hatch on their own, and need a nurturing and loving touch to encourage them to peck their way out. Love and care for it inside the egg by rubbing, tilting and petting your Hatchimal, and its eyes will light up – with cute sounds will tell you how he’s feeling! Once you’ve played with the egg enough, you will see rainbow eyes – and that means it’s time to hatch!
Once your Hatchimal has pecked his way out, you then get to raise your glittering Hatchimal through 3 stages, from baby to toddler, to kid, teaching it to walk, dance and play games. It will even repeat what you say in its own voice!
Our Experience
Erin was really keen to open her Glittering Garden Hatchimal, asking two or three times a day until I eventually caved and agreed to let her open it one rainy afternoon. Having gone to bed with the promise of “tomorrow”, the first thing that came out of her mouth this morning was “Can we open the Hatchimal?”
We popped open the packaging to reveal the giant pink and purple sparkly flecked egg! There are a couple of turnscrews at the bottom of the egg which need to be removed in order to activate the hatching process – and a parent has to do this, but they are fairly easy to remove, after which, the egg springs to life with some noises and lights.
Referring to the instructions, the Hatchimal needs to be loved and nurtured in order to begin hatching. Depending on the colour of the Hatchimals eyes, you can see how he is feeling and as such, move, tap and tilt the egg in different ways to improve his mood. Having had a Hatchimal before, we did find that the eyes were a little less clear on this sparkly egg than the one we had opened previously, so our nurturing was a little bit more random than focused on what he was requesting!
The hatching process started after around 10 minutes of nurturing, with a little tune playing and the tap tap noises starting from the inside. Erin was really excited as the Hatchimal’s beak started to peck at the egg from the inside, with pieces of the shell starting to break away.
The Hatchimal spins around inside the egg, breaking at the surface with his beak, his glowing eyes shining through the shell as he does so.
About 15 minutes later, our Hatchimal was nearly out, with just the odd bit off egg holding on the lid – these final pieces were really easy to break away, and then we were able to lift him out!
Erin has enjoyed playing with the Hatchimal inside – a purple penguala with silver strands in his fur, and she started to talk and interact with him. The Hatchimal is interactive, in that the more you play with him, the more he learns, and Erin is really enjoying getting to know him. He is now walking and dancing, and repeats back when Erin talks! I was a little concerned that she would pay no attention to it at all after the hatching process, but I have actually been proven wrong – she goes back to it on a regular basis and enjoys it when he moves and sings.
Like with most toys of this nature, Erin’s favourite part of the Hatchimal probably was the hatching process, and for £65, I do feel this is quite a high price for something that she may not play with for a substantial period of time. That said, the Hatchimal is a learning toy (in a similar way to the Furby was for me back in the day!), and so the more she interacts with him, the more entertaining he will become.
Overall, a really fun toy, but one I would save for a special birthday gift or main present at Christmas rather than a everyday purchase!
You can learn more about Hatchimals and the full range of products available on the Spinmaster website.
Hatchimals glittering garden are available to purchase at the entertainer.
*Disclosure – we were sent a Hatchimals Glittering Garden free of charge in exchange for our review, however all thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains Affiliate links*
What an exciting toy, but so expensive!
#HumpDayLinky
Very cute! My boy is absolutely fanatic about surprise eggs at the moment, this is similar – but more of a present idea. #humpdaylinky
Oh lord have mercy the Hatchimal. I wrote about these little creatures on Blunt Moms not too long ago.
#humpdayllinky
My daughter is crazing me for a hatchimal, I kind of refused to buy one at christmas because they seem expensive, but your little one certainly seems to be enjoying it. x #humpdaylinky x
My daughter wanted one of these for Christmas last year. They were sold out every year. She ended up using her gift card in February of this year to buy one. I just have to say. It is definitely worth the money. We bought another one for her this year. If you compare the Furby which is $100. This is a better toy in my personal opinion. There is also a Fur Real tiger that sells for $130 that only growls. You can pick one of these up at Costco for under $50.