ZhuZhu Pets Fashion Runway and Outfits - Review

My daughter has already started writing out her wish list in preparation for Christmas. I know, I know, it's still September, but a girl can still dream, right? Plus, her early lists give me a chance stay ahead with holiday gift buying. I've always thought it would be nice to have all the gifts purchased before the December rush. Unfortunately, I've never actually been that organized.

Looking back at last year's lists, one of my daughter's only requests for Santa was a ZhuZhu pet. (She always prepares two separate lists -- one for Santa and one for the rest of us.) Santa came through and left a black and white ZhuZhu pet in her stocking. She's played with her pet on and off throughout the year. Thanks to MomSelect and ZhuZhu Pets, recently her ZhuZhu play has increased quite a bit. We received a large package containing ZhuZhu pet fashion related products for review.

My daughter's favorite fashion product out of the products provided for review is the Wedding Dress Stylin' Outfit. The dress clips easily onto any ZhuZhu pet. The outfit also includes a flower-accented headband veil. Toys"R"Us currently has all the fashion outfits on sale for $4.99 each. Since my daughter acquired the dress, several of our ZhuZhu pets have exchanged vows and touched noses (that's how ZhuZhu pets give kisses, according to my daughter.)


I took a close-up picture of the bottom of the ZhuZhu pet to show you how an outfit clips securely to the bottom of the ZhuZhu pet. I'm impressed how this design ensures that the outfits do not impede the pet's movement and keeps the fabric away from the wheels.

We also received the Zhu Zhu Pets Fashion Playset - Fashion Runway. The Fashion Runway gives fancy diva ZhuZhu pets a chance to model their stylish outfits and pose for the paparazzi. The playset can either be used as a stand-alone accessory or it can be connected to other playsets to build a larger area for ZhuZhu pets to play.

The Fashion Playset comes unassembled and includes the following parts:
- a circular lighted stage (on/off switch on the bottom controls the colorful, blinking lights - 3 AAA batteries are included)
- runaway ramp with paparazzi, archway, y-intersection and u-connectors
- 1 stylish outfit with headpiece accessory (ZhuZhu pet not included)



Like in many of the habitat playsets, stimuli grooves in the ramp cause a response when the pet travels over the bumps. My kids love all the funky music the ZhuZhu pets play when they run over the ramp. The paparazzi images on the sides also swing outward when a ZhuZhu pet crosses the ramp and the stage lights start flashing. Because of the angle of the ramp, some of our ZhuZhu pets (especially those with a new battery) jump over the grooves and won't play any music. Also, the edges on the circular, lighted stage aren't quite high enough and instead of traveling around, fully powered ZhuZhu pets will hop the side and get stuck on the edge. In our experience however, ZhuZhu pets with partially drained batteries work just fine on this playset. Despite the slight design issues, both my kids think it's a blast letting their pets strut their stuff on the flashy runway.

Besides the fashion products, Cepia LLC (the creators of ZhuZhu pets) has expanded the ZhuZhu pet line to include ZhuZhu Puppies and ZhuZhu Babies. Guess what's on my daughter's list for Santa this year? -- a ZhuZhu puppy, of course! (Once again, I'm just glad she's not asking for a real animal!)

Many thanks to MomSelect and ZhuZhu Pets for providing a new ZhuZhu Pet, ZhuZhu Pets Runway and Outfit for my family to review. Learn about the latest Zhu-niverse developments at the following ZhuZhu Pets sites: Twitter, Facebook or on YouTube.