Hands On: WowWee Alive Panda Cub
October 6th, 2008
Kids love stuffed animals. Some adults too. In fact, many kids and older geeks have beds full of stuffed animals. It used to be that the closest you could come to owning a robotic animal was to buy one of those stuffed toys that would walk a few steps, bark, then power down. They weren’t cute, they weren’t lovable and you put them aside for good after like fifteen minutes.
The new WowWee Alive series will have kids hugging and sleeping and petting them for a good long time. I had a chance recently to get some hands on time with WowWee’s Panda Cub so I knew I would need a kid to see exactly how cool it was. So I employed said kid and shoved it into his little arms. I wasn’t sure if it would get better treatment then a regular stuffed animal or not. Long story short, it’s a hit with the kids. As I watched them playing with it and saw their amazed eyes alight at the fact that the Panda actually responds to them, I also was won over. The kids would not give it back and again, long story short, I was beat up by children and it made me cry at one point. I called my mom but she wouldn’t help. Basically, kids love it and you will never see it again.
There are four animals in the Alive Cubs series: a lion, a panda, a tiger, and a polar bear. All are great for ages 3 and up and have features like animated facial expressions and sounds of the animal. They’ll respond to being pet thanks to sensors in their heads and backs. When you turn them over, they purr of go to sleep and snore.
In the box you get a green stretchy be-jeweled collar, an adoption certificate, and a user manual. Four AA batteries are already installed in the belly. They ship in “Try Me” mode, so just switch him over to “Normal” mode so that he can properly interact with you or your kid. And it can be switched off if you need to.
To summarize, kids and adults will love them. Once you give it to a child, don’t expect to be able to pry it from their hugging arms. I can see why WowWee has a winner on their hands with this series now that I’ve had a chance to have a look. And for a price of $59, you really can’t go wrong. You get a lot of toy for the price. These animals are starting to get very realistic in movement. So I’m sure WowWee’s future animals will continue to impress.
