Sing-a-ma-jigs Are Just Too Cute

Overview

The Sing-a-ma-jigs are a quirky, off-beat toy designed to bring smiles and to make you laugh. When you press their bellies, they sing. As they sing, they open their mouths (too cute, made of scrunchies). Scrunchies wide open, you can see little teeth and a pink tongue. This is what makes them irresistible. Their plush bodies and funky shirts are just gravy. See for yourself . . .

An Open Scrunchy Exposes a Cute Tongue and Tiny Teeth

The Sing-a-ma-jigs come in four colors, each with a different song:

• Red sings “Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone”
• Blue sings “When the Saints Go Marching In”
• Pink sings “Skip to My Loo”
• Yellow sings “Home on the Range”

We played with the red, blue, and pink creatures.

The Creatures With Which We Played

Play Time

There’s no power button on the Sing-a-ma-jigs. They are ready to sing whenever you press their bellies. If you don’t make them sing, they will automatically shut down after about 12 seconds of being idle. To let you know they are going into power saving mode, they will say “Bye Bye” or “See You Later” depending on the toy you have.

The Sing-a-ma-jig creatures have three modes that you can switch among by squeezing a creature’s left arm. When you toggle to speaking mode, you will be greeted with a little, “Aaaah!” letting you know that the Sing-a-ma-jig is ready to talk. Pressing the creature’s tummy in this mode produces cooing sounds like baby chatter.

Press the arm until you hear “Song,” when you want to hear the Sing-a-ma-jig’s personal song. You control the tempo of the music by squeezing the belly faster or slower.

The default mode mode is harmonize. If you are toggling through the modes, you will hear a single tone letting you know that it’s time to sing along. Pressing the creatures belly in this mode will give you a tone that will sustain as long as you squeeze, up to about 3 seconds. Every time you press its belly, the Sing-a-ma-jig sings another tone in its range.

The video below shows the red Sing-a-ma-jig cycle through these modes.

Harmonize mode is especially fun when you play with more than one creature because they actually do harmonize with each other. Here’s an example of this extreme cuteness.

Maintenance

The Sing-a-ma-jigs come with two AAA batteries. When it’s time to replace them, there is a compartment in the back of the creature.  Simply unfasten the creature’s shirt, and open the Velcro compartment in the plush covering, and you will find the screw that holds the battery compartment closed.

Access to Batteries (2 AAA, included)

I should note that it can be a bit tricky to get a screw driver into the compartment because, while the opening is big enough, there’s not a lot of give in the plush fabric. However, this keeps small children from being able to access the batteries, which is good for safety. And, since the Sing-a-ma-jigs are for ages 3 and up, this is an important consideration.

The Screw Is Really Tucked In There

Tester Response

The best way to give an idea of the tester response is to provide some quotations.

Tester 1 — “Oh, they are SOOOO cute! Can I keep it?”

Tester 2 — “Look! They have teeth!”

Tester 3 — “Can I sleep with her? She’s so soft and cute and cuddly!”

There’s not much more to say. The testers absolutely LOVED these toys.

In a Nutshell

These plush toys are adorable and very cute. They were a hit with testers, and are priced well for the market. We give the Sing-a-ma-jigs

5 out of 5 stars

Loopz in Box - The New "Simon?"

Overview

Loopz™ challenges players to remember a pattern of lights and sounds or to follow the leader by putting their hands through four semi-circular rings, or “loopz,” and activating sensors.  Players can compete against each other or play alone.  And, as play continues, the games become more challenging.  An internal counter tracks time, accuracy, and completed levels.  Geared for ages 7+, Loopz™ retails for $29.99.

Out of the Box

Loopz™ comes with the light unit, two circular stands and a set of instructions.

Loopz - What You Get

Getting the game out of the box required scissors and minor detective skills to find all the tape, but it only took a minute or two. After that, the setup was minor. Basically, you snap the stabilizing disks onto the base of the tower (yes, they cover the battery door, but they pop right back off when you need to change the batteries), remove the pull tab from the slot on the back of the unit, and then you’re ready to play.

Stabilizer Disks Easily Pop On and Off

I should mention that the box states the need for four AA batteries since the included batteries are “for demonstration purposes only.”  That said, the included batteries lasted through several testing sessions with no problems. I did, however, replace the batteries, slipping in some fresh alkaline AA’s, to see whether it would change the performance.  It did seem that Loopz™ was a bit more responsive when it had fresh batteries in it, but the sound quality didn’t change regardless of whether the “demo” batteries or my own were in the player.  Take home message: use the demo batteries up and then switch.  Don’t feel like you need to change them out as soon as you get the machine.

A word about the sound quality: it’s not great. It’s easy to hear instructions and tones, but when a whole song is playing the speaker gets grainy. Basically, if you treat this like a game and not a home mixing studio, the sound quality is adequate does not affect play.

So . . .

Let’s Play!

There are (at least) seven different ways to play with Loopz™.

To exercise your memory skills:

• Repeat the Beat where you repeat the sequence that Loopz™ gives you, building speed and complexity as you go, a la Simon of old.
• Versus allows two players to take turns building and then repeating a sequence to see who can go the longest without making mistakes. The first player to make three errors loses.
• Musicology where you build songs by repeating sequences that Loopz™ gives you. If you can successfully repeat five sequences, you win, and Loopz™ will play all of the sequences layered on top of each other, creating a song. (This is where I noticed the sound quality most, but my testers still danced.)

If you’d rather challenge your reflexes:

• Reflex Master wants to see how many lights you can “tag” before time runs out. This game can accommodate up to four players, so bring on the competition!
• Rhythm and Flow requires you to keep a song going by keeping up with the lights as the speed increases.

Say you’re feeling creative and don’t want to play by too many rules:

• Music Studio allows you to play Loopz™ like an instrument composing your own electronic tune.  Once you pick the sound, you pick the pitch and the beat by waving your hands through the loops.
• Freestyle DJ provides 10 tracks and you provide the mix, complete with screeches and the all important “yeah!” Don’t worry, your friends will let you know when you’re ready to go pro.

Each game was fun and, dare I say, addictive if you tend to be a perfectionist. (I’ve been known to fall into that category.) Here’s a little taste of a couple games for your viewing pleasure:

One thing to note, you need to completely cover the sensor in each loop in order for Loopz™ to respond. You can see a couple of places in the video where the sensor didn’t register my hand because I was reaching and didn’t have my angle correct or I had my fingers spread out too far.  Just so you know, it’s a lot easier to cover the sensor when you are not trying to film and play at the same time.

Tester Response

What can I say, my testers loved this.  It was fun, engaging and challenging. I had people from 8 to 47 years play with Loopz, and everyone had a great time.

In a Nutshell

Fun for one to four players, Loopz™ is a hit.  The price and age range are right on, and our testers gave it a thumbs up.  We give it:

5 out of 5 stars

Loopz Memory Game

Loopz™ challenges players to remember a pattern of lights and sounds or follow the leader by putting their hands through four semi-circular rings, or “loopz.”  Players can compete against each other or play alone.  And, as play continues, the games become more challenging.  Fortunately, Loopz™ has it’s own internal counter to track time and completed levels.  For ages 7+, Loopz™ is available June 2010 for $29.99.

Here’s how to enter:

1) Take a screenshot of your hybrid
2) Give your hybrid a name
3) Write a story to describe why it’s awesome

Submit your work to the contest page, and see if your hybrid gets selected. You can follow the action at the Xtractaurs Flickr feed.

FAMPs Starter Kit

So, What Exactly IS FAMPs?

New on the market, FAMPs encourages kids to “show your e-motions online.” In my opinion, it’s kind of a cross between Webkins and Facebook with all the innocence and parental controls you’d want for a 6-12 girl mixed in with age appropriate social networking.  All that and there are cute little personality “charms” that kids can collect.  (It must be something about the giant head that makes these figurines so adorable.)

Drew, the FAMPs Creative Charm

The idea is that you set up a profile that can connect with other FAMPs users. Using this profile, kids can create and send cards and e-mails to their friends, share pictures, and play games both online and using the software that comes with the toy. When you open the software, the background look and feel will change depending on which charm is in your Emote Ring (more on this later). Swap out the charm, and the look of the desktop changes to reflect the feeling, attitude, mood, or personality that you want to project (creative, happy, sad, bored, lazy, scared, love, silly, sleepy, hyper, shy or sassy).

Out of the Box

The Emote Ring Plugs Into a USB Port

FAMPs Software With Default Background (no charm)

You can start by just placing Drew in the Emote Ring and watching the desktop change to a creative backdrop. One of my testers exclaimed,”it’s like magic!” She was right, and it really is cool. I even had one tester who easily spent five minutes putting the charm in the ring and taking her out just to see the desktop change.

Drew Hanging in the Emote Ring

Just look for yourself . . .

The Onscreen Effects of Drew Hanging in the Emote Ring

Parental Controls

This is a great place to discuss the parental controls. During setup, parents can enter an e-mail address and password that allows them to enable or disable card sending or e-mail. Additionally, a parent password is required to send or receive a friend request, so parents can check and control with whom their children are associating online.

Parent control in action . . .

When your child tries to invite a friend . . .

. . . a parent password is required to submit the request.

The parent controls make FAMPs a safe place for children to play.

Games and Other Fun Things to Do

Once you’re all set up, it’s time to play! Each charm comes complete with it’s own game that can be played offline.  Or, you can go online and play a Boggle-like word creator or a bubble-pop with faces. Both are fun, and you can match your scores with other FAMPS users.

FAMPS Games Included With the Software (Note: the other games unlock if you have the corresponding charm.)

If you’re not in the mood for games, you can send a note, create an e-card, or upload pictures.  You can also browse the pictures that your friends have uploaded. My favorite activity was creating my own avatar:

Create Your Own Avitar Using FAMPs Designer

But, no matter what you choose, it’s easy to get hooked and spend some serious play time having fun in this safe, user-friendly environment.

All-In-All

FAMPs is an age-appropriate, safe bridge between Webkins and Facebook. Plus, it’s creative and just plain fun! The starter kit runs $17 and additional figures, believe me, you’ll want several, come in between $7-10. For those prices, we love the value and strongly recommend the FAMPs system.

Rating -  5 out of 5 stars – Editor’s Choice

Getting Started with Xtractaurs

To get started with Xtractaurs, you need the T-Rex with extractor gun kit. This kit retails for $20, subsequent dinosaurs are $9, but not necessary to start playing (if you just want a test drive; Mattel offers a free 3-day trial of the online service). Of course it’s more fun to have multiple dinos – there’s more to do online and the more the merrier for offline play too. In fact, the nice bonus for offline play is that the heads and tails come off the dinosaurs and can be swapped, take a look at our T-Rex and Ceratops cross-breeds.

Once you open the starter kit, install the software from the included CD. This more or less installs the needed drivers to make the DNA extractor gun work. You’ll go online and create an account, then extract the DNA from your dinosaurs. During this process the tip of the DNA extractor is inserted into your dinosaurs to essentially unlock the dinosaurs and related features in the online world. The DNA gun is engaging while in use, it lights up during the process; kids had fun with the magic of sucking the DNA from the dino and getting it online. Unfortunately the DNA gun serves no other purpose and will probably be relegated to a drawer until you buy another Xtractaur.

The online experience is all Flash-based and runs in a web-browser. We prefer the browser-based experience over installed software, as kids can login to their account from any computer to play the games. The only problems we had were getting the flash movies to load. It appears from the outside that when the servers are busy, the flash movies can hang up, making the online gaming a little bumpy. I’m sure Mattel is monitoring this however and will continue to improve the online infrastructure.

Using Xtractaurs

Some of the most fun is the initial setup of your dinosaur hybrid. Kids can in fact make many and save them, creating different combinations of their “Base DNA,” which are dinosaurs that you’ve bought, with DNA from other dinosaurs. The system gives you another dino to work with, and kids can earn DNA by winning battles and playing adventure games. In our review we had the T-Rex from the starter kit and the Ceratops. We combined those two with DNA from a provided third dinosaur to get started. Once you’ve amassed DNA from the battles, there are probably hundreds of thousands of unique hybrid combinations kids can create.

Hybrid creation screen

Once you’ve saved and named your first hybrid dinosaur, you’re ready for battle. Kids are presented with a world map, where the evil Megavores have run wild. They’ll need to battle both lesser skilled minions and tougher bosses that come in easy, medium and hard levels. With each battle comes points for winning, and special DNA bonuses appear from time to time which can be added to their hybrids.

Xtractaurs battle

During each battle, your hybrid design will dictate the types of attacks that are available. An Xtractaur with a Ceratops head won’t have a bite attack for instance, but he will have head bash. Certain combinations of DNA will also unlock power-ups that will help kids in battle.

Hybrid pen

Aside from the battle games, each Xtractaur unlocks an arcade-like adventure game. Kids can also play five mini-games that can earn them health bonuses in battle. There’s also a gallery of Xtractaur hybrids that have been created by others on the system, and a few other nuggets like “collectible cards” that have profiles and fun facts about the dinosaurs in the game.

There’s a surprising amount to do online. Even if you only bought the starter kit, kids who are into dinosaurs will spend hours online customizing their hybrids, battling and so on. We’re very impressed with the depth of the experience. It’s also pretty easy for kids to handle. We had six-year-olds having a great time on their own, though the intended audience of 8+ will probably get a little more out of the game by being able to read the stories and instructional materials.

Bottom Line

Our complaints list with Xtractuars is outnumbered by compliments at least 10 to 1. Okay, so you can’t swap out the legs on the dinosaur toys and the DNA extractor gun is kind of pointless after you’ve started. However, the online experience is fantastic, and will keep kids engaged for hours. The battle games are fun, and not graphic, so kids can smash dinosaurs, without the needless gore.  As an added plus, they get well-built dinosaurs for offline play too, which is fun. This is by far the best meshing of online and offline play we’ve seen, and think any dinosaur loving child will be thrilled with the Xtractaur experience.

Rating – 5 out of 5 Stars – Editor’s Choice

UCreate Music

Out of the Box

Mattel has created an electronic mixing soundboard for the 8+ crowd. The UCreate Music allows young DJs to layer backbeats, riffs, licks and runs along with mp3 samples to create a unique composition all their own (and, yes, these music terms are defined in the user manual for those of us who don’t automatically know what they are).

Aspiring DJs can build their compositions starting with three different options of Backbeats, riffs, licks, and runs, linking them together in whatever way creates the sound they want.  They can then further refine their compositions by adding effects and filters. An internal microphone allows children to add a voice or sound recording which they can then mix into their musical masterpiece.  As if that’s not enough, the whole system can be linked to a computer and kids can add samples from their own mp3s or other files from the UCreate Music web site.

Testing . . . 1 . . . 2 . . . 3

I let several “kids” age 7 to 40 play with the UCreate Music. The unanimous verdict was definitely positive.  In fact, one young tester walked around the house all day for two days playing his compositions everywhere he went. The constant dance beat nearly drove his mom nuts, but rest assured, the UCreate Music does accept headphones (not included).

Just by turning the UCreate Music on and pressing buttons, my testers were able to create fun and exciting dance tunes. It was easy to experiment with the different sounds and distortions, but the favorite feature was the internal microphone. The kids would record a phrase, incorporate it into their songs, and then speed it up or slow it down, all the while laughing hysterically. One thing to note is that the storage capacity of the UCreate Music isn’t huge, but it is enough to record a 2 minute and 30 second song.  Here’s an example of what you can do – UCreate Music Sample.

Along with the hardware, Mattel includes software with the machine to link to their web site where young DJs can download software that contains additional sounds and upload their music files. And, if that sounds confusing, it is. It took some figuring for me to finally get the Music Mixer software installed, and when I did, I didn’t find it to be at all user friendly. In fact, you can’t create a song using the software, though this is not readily apparent when you look at the interface. Not to mention, there are even some buttons that don’t have any content. Frankly, no 8-year-old I know would do anything more than press the buttons that do have content, listen to the sound options, and upload their masterpieces so that they can clear the memory on the UCreate Music, freeing space for a new composition.

UCreate Music Mixer Software

In my opinion, kids would be better off skipping the software content altogether for anything other than uploading their creations.

In a Nutshell

After watching testers and using the UCreate Music myself, I can safely say that, while anyone can have fun with this toy, a true music-lover could use the UCreate Music to its full potential. There are levels of complexity that your average 8 year-old would not be able to use, but that does give kids room to grow with UCreate Music, which is nice. Our main complaint is the desktop software is confusing and not kid-friendly. That said, it was a lot of fun to just mess around with the music and create our own Dance Party USA. And while it’s targeted to the 8+ crowd, even little kids can have fun mashing the buttons to “create” music. With an MSRP around $30, it’s priced well for the entertainment and creative outlet it provides.

Rating – 4 out of 5 stars

Getting Started with Splatster

Splatster is made up of two pieces, a base station and wireless “paint brush.” The base requires four AA batteries and connects to the TV input with two standard cords, one for video and one for audio. The controller runs on three AAA batteries and connects to the base station via wireless.

The only tricky part with the setup is the base station needs to centered in front of the TV and it’s recommended to be placed below the screen. We were okay with this requirement in the playroom in which we tested, but it might not be ideal for everyone. The purple receiver on the base swivels up and down though, so you can better target the reception.

Kids need to be in a 4-5 foot range from the base station for best performance. Even so, we noticed the accuracy of the pointer wasn’t the best. I guess we’re a little spoiled at this point with consoles like the Wii. It’s not a big problem if the kids stay in one spot, but several times we found kids getting excited and losing focus on where they were supposed to stand for good operation of the system.

Using Splatster

Splatster has a dozen activities that are arranged on a home page. The activities can be broken down into three categories:

• Spin Art – kids can put 10 different paint colors on a canvass, then spin to create fun art without the mess!
• Splat Art Studios – within each studio kids can work free form with a brush, or leverage clip art, stencils and other drawing tools.
• Splat Arcade Games – in these Coney Island style games, kids use the paintbrush to target their objective in five increasingly difficult levels.

The kids that tested Splatster surprisingly liked all three core elements. I say surprisingly because often times when these games try to do too much, half the content is garbage while the other half is okay. Fisher Price has done really well to give variety, without making it feel redundant.

For instance, with the Art Studio, kids can use the same platform to do a lot of different things, from filling the page with hot dogs to wiggling the wand to splat a glob of ink on the canvas. The same goes for the games, while they all work in a similar fashion, Fisher made the games different enough so they feel unique.

By far the best part of Splatster though, is the fact that kids can save their work. I can’t underscore this feature enough. With every other TV game we’ve ever seen or reviewed, it’s a black hole. You do your activity and the experience is over after you turn off the device. With Splatster parents can connect a USB drive to save the images their kids create. Kids can press a button on the base to save their work. Each file is roughly half a megabyte, so a 1GB drive will take them ages to fill up. To close the loop parents can help their kids print out the artwork – we have several spin art and hot dog pictures adorning our wall at the moment.

Bottom Line

We wish the brush was a little more sensitive, but that’s a minor gripe considering the rest of the value the system provides. With a retail of $49.99, there’s enough gameplay for Splatster to justify the price, especially given the ability to save and print out the artwork. We’ve found the Splatster to be a great self-guided activity for kids, with only the youngest in the 3-8 year-old target needing much help.

Editor’s Rating – 4.5 out of 5 Stars – Editor’s Choice

Getting Started

Out of the box the Barbie nail printer is pretty intuitive, if you’ve ever set up a regular paper printer for the first time, this is about the same routine. Be careful while unpacking though, there are little cut outs in both ends of the Styrofoam packaging that hold the ink cartridge and other parts you need. We actually thought things were missing until we investigated further.

The printer comes with an easy to follow getting started booklet. We installed the software on a Vista PC with no problems and were up and running within a few minutes. The only trick is that you should calibrate the camera on the printer, there’s a little card that comes with it for this purpose. Unfortunately it’s a really a two person job. If you don’t have an extra set of hands, just skip the calibration – I tried doing it on my own while pressing the mouse buttons and ended up with a mis-aligned camera.

One other note, when launching the software we were greeted with an “Internet connection not found” error. We do have an Internet connection though, so the error message is a little odd. We’re guessing that Mattel will eventually have more nail patterns for download and the bugs just aren’t quite worked out yet. Closing the error box lets you move on.

Using Barbie Nails

Let’s be honest, girls love painting their nails, but aside from a few home remedies, we’re largely forced to express ourselves with a single color. What Barbie Nails does, is give kids (and parents if they want) hundreds of different patterns that can be modified to their liking. And as noted above, if you want to totally do your own thing, that’s fine too, there’s a way to upload photos of your own to the system – so if you want your dog painted on your fingers, no problem!

To use the printer, first you must take a picture of the nail, which essentially serves as a canvass where you can manipulate the pattern or image you’re going to print. The images can be resized, colors can be changed and even the orientation can be flipped both vertically and horizontally. After that work is done, you’re ready to print. Insert the target finger, align with the on-screen image, and print.

The printing is actually very fast and you don’t feel a thing. I was expecting to feel pressure, but there was none. The most important thing is to stay still, we had trouble with very young kids being too wiggly. As a result we saw blurred pumpkins and ghosts on their nails. But generally, if you sit still, the images come out better than we expected. The sitting still part is where it’s best to have a friend to do this with. Of course we expect girls to collaborate with each other with this printer, but more than that, if one person can work the computer while the other person sits still, the results will be much better.

The other thing that is important is to follow the nail polish instructions. You should do a base coat (white included) and then use a special bonding coat for the ink, before covering with top coat. You can print straight on the nail, but it doesn’t stay on very long, less than a day with frequent hand washing. This isn’t the worst idea though while you’re getting the hang of the printer, there is some trial and error involved on figuring out the best way to cover the nail, without printing all over your finger.

With that trial and error and the fact that a party of girls might go through a hundred nails in a night, you might worry about the cost to buy new ink and supplies for the printer. The ink cartridges only run $10 and the nail polish kit, which comes with three bottles, runs about $30. I don’t know how many nails you should be able to print before the ink runs out, but I’d guess several hundred if not more, depending on the designs and colors used.

Conclusion

I would have loved the Barbie nail printer had it existed when I was a young girl. Heck, even now it’s fun to be able to print seasonal images on my nails! Girls will love it though and the nail printer will surely be a sleepover hit. The only downside is the price of the printer itself, at $179 (Toys R Us exclusive) it’s quite a commitment. Thankfully Mattel kept the refills priced fairly though, so the long term cost of ownership isn’t that bad. Plus, think of all the trips to the nail salon that you can save with your kids!

The bottom line is the Barbie Doll’d Up Nails does exactly what it sets out to, and does it well. The printer is a little expensive, but divided by the hours of fun, you probably come out at a pretty reasonable number.

Editor’s Rating – 4.5 out of 5 Stars – Editor’s Choice

The Dora doll, clothing, Explorer Girl friends and related accessories are really designed to be used in a traditional offline doll play environment first and foremost. However, Mattel has also integrated online gameplay to give the Dora doll an intertactive gaming experience for kids. This distinction is important, as the online world is heavily dependent on the offline play and purchase of Dora Links accessories and figures. Parents need to view the online experience as an accessory to the physical goods, not the other way around.

The two worlds of online and offline play merge well together though, giving kids a truly unique experience in the doll world. We’ve not seen anything like this before, though we fully expect this to be a developing trend, especially if Dora Links is as popular with young girls as we expect it will be.

Getting Started

The Dora Links doll comes in bright packaging and looks exciting to open. Once you get through all of the plastic and twisty ties (uggh!) girls are immediately ready to play with the doll and a few included accessories (purse, chair and hair brush). The doll also comes with a stand to help Dora stand up while she is connected to your computer. She comes dressed in a cute pink dress with purple leggins and orange mary jane shoes (very stylish).  Also included is the installation CD, bright pink USB cable and a one-page getting started guide.

The installation process is fairly simple and quick. Upon inserting the CD, it will automatically launch the installation program and step-by-step instructions will appear on your screen. Once the software update download is complete, you then need to create a password for your account. After your account is created, you can plug in the included USB cable into the side of your doll (parental help will probably be needed for this process) and connect it into your computer to get started!

Online World

After launching the Dora Links program, you will be introduced to Dora and her world through a series of tutorials. Once you have completed the startup sequence, you can begin exploring Puerto Verde or engage in a series of mini-games.

The main attraction for kids is going to be solving mysteries with Dora. Dora Links currently has six mysteries, but more will be added regularly. Some mysteries take longer than others, the time commitment will be largely dependent on kid’s abilities to navigate Puerto Verde to find clues and interact with people in the game. The mysteries save kid’s work though, if not completed in one sitting.

As kids complete mysteries, they’re awarded Dora dollars. With Dora dollars, kids can “buy” virtual goods like  new outfits, trendy furniture and other items around the city. These items are available to Dora throughout the game.

Kids who enjoy dress-up will really love all the options available with Dora Links. Not only does Dora need to change her online appearance to solve some of the mysteries, but girls can put her in hundreds of different outfits and change her hairstyle and makeup for different looks. The physical doll can participate in changes too. Inside Dora’s head are several motors and lights that let kids control part of her hair length, eye color, blush and lipstick intensity and the three LEDs that are her earrings and necklace.

Being able to modify Dora’s physical appearance is certainly a big hit with the kids, it brought them back to the PC on a regular basis so they could tweak her appearance (just watch a young girl’s face the first time she figures out how to change Dora’s eye color, it’s a pretty spectacular event for them). The doll also brings kids back to the computer by reminding them of mysteries and the like. Dora’s messages are updated when the doll is connected to the computer, so kids will get a perpetually changing offline play experience. Within the online experience, not only will kids be able to hear and read the game instructions for instance, but the Dora doll will also speak to them, providing a special immersive experience.

Following are a series of videos showing the physical transformations of the doll that kids can control (note: the blush only pulses on video, the lights don’t do that with the human eye).

The online world isn’t perfect though. We found several kids who got frustrated with the mysteries because they couldn’t navigate Puerto Verde very well, or didn’t know they had to find a hardware store to borrow a ladder for instance. The game is sensitive to those who are struggling though, if kids are taking a long time to solve a particular part of the mystery, more clues will be available that hopefully send them in the right direction.

There are a few other hiccups too. some of the features that are supposed to be in the online world aren’t quite ready yet. Kids are promoted to click on the characters with exclamation points over their heads to learn more about them, but none of those characters currently exist. It’s clearly a case of Mattel wanting to get the world out there for early Dora Links buyers, but we suspect the experience will be much better by the time most of these dolls go online the afternoon of December 25th (hopefully Mattel’s servers are ready).

Just know when your child gets started with Dora Links, that there will probably need to be parental help until they get the hang of the menus, navigating around Puerto Verde and so on.

The only other major concern we have is in the messaging on the Dora Links site. Many of the buildings and most of the mini-games are locked. If kids want to go into a locked building, they are prompted to have their parents go to the website to learn how to unlock them. Unfortunately the website doesn’t tell parents how to solve this problem though. The solution goes back to the offline world – each Dora Links accessory comes with a unique code that kids can enter to unlock new areas of Puerto Verde, or some of the dozens of mini-games. Each Dora Links accessory or doll package has an icon on it,and gives kids an idea of what its unique code will unlock in the virtual world.

Bottom Line

Dora Links breaks a tremendous amount of new ground in doll space that’s not been very innovative or very interested in integrating new technology to this point. It’s important though that parents remember the online tools are an add-on, and they should be thinking of Dora Links as normal doll play with the addition of the Dora physical feature customizations and the Dora Links online content.

Given the technology involved, the retail price of $59.99 for the Dora doll is more than reasonable, we’ve even seen it discounted in retail down to $50. Even for the suggested price, there’s a tremendous amount of value in terms of both fun doll play and the added online experience. Girls are going to go nuts for this doll, in fact they already have, the Dora Links articles we’ve written here before are the most popular on our site.

The bottom line is that if you’re a parent with a daughter in the targeted age group of 5-8, this is likely a must-buy this Holiday season. The doll is very well made, the physical customizations will make girls delighted and the online gameplay is going to continually evolve and get better over the years.

Editor’s Rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars – Editor’s Choice