REVIEW – Hatchimals WOW – the Hatchimal you can rehatch!
#AD – items sent for review
The Hatchimals Family is growing – with the arrival of the NEW Hatchimals WOW Llalacorn!
We are big fans of Hatchimals in this house. From the early days when we first heard about the toys that needed nurturing in order to hatch from their very own egg, the girls have been pretty much hooked. We have since gone on to review a number of Hatchimals products, from Hatchimals Glittering Garden to HatchiBabies as well as Hatchimals CollEGGtibles and Hatchimals Pixies. The appeal of the “big reveal” hatching their characters had certainly not worn off yet, but I have often wondered what more they can possibly do with the brand.
Then I heard about the release of Hatchimals WOW – and quite literally WOW – I was pretty impressed by the concept even as a grown up! A hatchimal that not only grows and changes in size, but can be hatched over and over again, waking up in one of 10 different moods!! The hatching is by far the girls favourite part, so I felt that Hatchimals WOW would offer something a little different to what we had experienced before. Spinmaster very kindly sent us a Hatchimals WOW to review with the girls, and we were all pretty excited!
What is Hatchimals WOW? Â
Hatchimals WOW is the first ever rehatching Hatchimal, and inside features a character called a Llalacorn, which is a super soft, super cute creature – part unicorn, part Llama.
Nested inside a re-hatching egg, the Hatchimals WOW Llalacorn has a neck that can grow up to 32 inches tall and shrink down completely on its own, and comes in one of two colours – pink or purple. You don’t know which colour you’re going to get until the Hatchimals WOW hatches!
The Llalacorn expresses her emotions through movement, and everytime it hatches, wakes up in one of 10 different moods.
With over 250 sounds and reactions (YES TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY!) we couldnt wait to cuddle, tickle, feed and play with her and see what Hatchimals WOW had to offer.
Hatchimals WOW is recommended for ages 5 and above and requires 4AA batteries (included)
The girls were VERY excited when they first saw the giant egg and couldn’t wait to get started in hatching their Llalacorn!
The Hatchimals WOW Hatching Process
Unlike other Hatchimals products, Hatchimals WOW’s hatching process is quite unique – in that it can be done over and over again. Unlike other Hatchimals we have reviewed in the past, Hatchimals WOW has the ability to be placed back in the egg and hatch again, each time waking up in one of 10 different moods.
To hatch the Hatchimals WOW egg, firstly you remove the outer packaging, unscrewing the twist locks at the base of the box and pulling the egg out, leaving the inner plastic ribbon aorund the centre of the egg. Don’t forget there is also the Llalacorn’s confetti fruit accessory inside one of the corners of the box – you will need this later!
The first thing I would say here is that I would recommend you watch the Hatchimals online video instructions first – the leaflet in the pack is extremely detailed (and in multiple languages) and not very user friendly at all. When you have two excited children in front of you desperate to start unpacking the Hatchimals WOW, I have to admit I was a bit worried they would do something wrong. The instructions are not easy to follow on the fly, so it is ideal to have a rough idea what to expect before you start.
As with other Hatchimals products, the Llalacorn can’t hatch without your help. Her eye colour will tell you how she is feeling. You can play with your Hatchimals WOW Llalacorn whilst she is still in the egg in three different ways including tapping on the egg, tilting and rocking the egg and cuddling. If you cuddle her for a long time her eyes will turn white and fall asleep.
When you see the eyes of your Hatchimals WOW turn rainbow colour she is ready to hatch, at which point you should put the egg upright and take off the ribbon This only took around 3 or 4 minutes in our case (but can vary from one Hatchimals WOW egg to the next).
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the hatching process as both the girls and I were used to the cracking experience from previous Hatchimals products. If I am totally honest I was a little bit underwhelmed, as essentially the Llalacorn just extends his neck and pushes the base of the egg up in one complete piece, which you then manually remove to reveal the character (and it’s colour) below. When it hatches, it also sings a Hatchy Baby song. Whilst I personally didn’t find it as exciting, the girls faces said otherwise, with both of them being pretty amazed when the Hatchimals WOW Llalacorn extended her neck and popped out of her egg.
The Llalacorn character inside is very cute. The Llalacorn we revealed was the purple one and she has a pretty face, glowing eyes and a soft fluffy body, Neve was pretty keen to take her out the egg, bringing her in for a little cuddle before we started to play.
Hatchimals WOW GamesÂ
As mentioned above, the Hatchimals WOW Llalacorn has over 250 sounds and reactions, and there is no right or wrong way to play. The Llalacorn responds to touch on her tummy, feet and forehead and back of the head. The online videos demonstrate a number of fun games you can play with your Hatchimals WOW including Chase the Fruit, recording your voice, hypnotising your Hatchimal and tapping her to grow and POP. This is where we did experience a few challenges.
We very quickly discovered, that in order for the Hatchimals WOW to work correctly, it needs to be on a flat surface such as a table (and not the floor) but even then we did experience a few challenges during game play.
Our Hatchimals WOW did react to the girls touch, and they enjoyed tickling her on the tummy and listening to her giggle. If we rubbed her tummy we did see that her neck grew up and came down again in response. However, some of the games didn’t work as we expected, or at least not consistently and definitely not in the way the videos portrayed.Â
When touching her toes the Llalacorn is supposed to pump up and grow before “popping” like a balloon and deflating down to her usual height. Whilst we did manage to get her to do this on a couple of occasions (and the height she grew to was really impressive when it worked!), many times she did not respond, and I was never able to successfully capture this on video.
The Llalacorn is also supposed to “chase the fruit”, growing up as she reached for her strawberry, and coming back down as you move it lower. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to achieve this with our Hatchimals WOW either.
The voice recording element is fun, and the girls enjoyed recording their own messages and then playing them back everytime we touched her foot. It’s also great that the recording can be played more than once, as many toys have a one time only repeat.
The eyes on our Hatchimals WOW have stopped glowing or changing colour, so I am not entirely sure ours is working correctly. Other reviews I have seen show the eyes glowing bright and have easily demonstrated all the games and activities. We have changed the batteries, and this has sadly made no impact.
Unfortunately for us the Hatchimals WOW didnt quite live up to our expectations, but based on other reviews I think we have just been a little unlucky this time around.
*We were sent a Hatchimals WOW free of charge for the purpose of this review however as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own*
