If you are familiar with Alive Baby Animals from WowWee, than you’ll know how cute and cuddly these robotic animals are. You can snuggle with them, feed them, and all the while watch as they interact with you with their adorable baby animal sounds. It’s almost like having a real animal cub, minus the threat of it biting you and having to clean up after it. The newest addition to the Alive Baby Animals family is the Alive Minis. The Alive Minis are just a miniature version of its namesake. These are just as adorable, but more economical for those families looking to give their child a robotic animal on a budget.
The Alive Minis consist of Mini Lion Cub, Mini White Tiger Cub, Mini Panda Cub, and Mini Leopard Cub. Just like the bigger version, the Alive Minis also are a great companion for little kids who love animals and especially baby animals. Our review sample was that of the Mini Lion Club. He came adorably packaged with a baby bottle to feed him, batteries, and an adoption certificate.
The switch to turn him on/off is on his belly. When turned on, his eyes open and he starts to make cooing noises as you stroke his head and back. When I put the cub down, he also made whimpering noises and he made deep purring noise when I lifted him up to hold him tight. The bottle is basically a plastic toy and you have to force the lion cubs mouth open in order to feed it. It’s not the most convenient way of feeding a doll, I have to say. But the cub seemed to enjoy the bottle by closing his eyes and making slurping noises. Adorable!
When you put the cub down it will go to sleep by closing its eyes and then the Alive Mini will actually just shut off after awhile to conserve battery power. Overall, it’s an adorable little toy for those kids who may not be ready for the more sophisticated version of the Alive animals. It’s also a great compromise for parents who maybe can’t afford the more pricey robots, since the Alive Minis only cost $19.99. If your kids love stuffed animals but want to get a little bit more interaction out of them, than this is perfect. However, for older children they may be enamored at first but will probably grow bored quickly. The toy is priced right and for those who are holiday shopping on a tight budget this year, this is one toy that will make younger kids coo over, even if it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of its counterpart. The WowWee Alive Minis retail for as low $13.49 and can be found at Radio Shack, Amazon, and Toys R us.
The Good: Adorable, cuddly, and priced right. Great introductory robot toy for young children. For those kids who love animals they will be happy with this cub.
The Bad: After the cub rotates through its 7 sounds and feeding becomes boring, your kids may not be interested anymore and just add it to their collection of other stuffed animals.
