If you have kids, you know that interactive toys are all the rage. Whether you love them or hate them, they’re here to stay.
My girls are no different so we were very excited to receive a Xia Xia Pets and Confetti Cottage to try out. Xia Xia Pets are little plastic interactive hermit crabs. When you tap them on a claw, they start scurrying around for 5-15 seconds. They don’t do much more than that, but I think that actually makes them cuter. Our Xia Xia is called Bimini and her little friend is Cuppy (the cupcake).
Each crab has a removable shell and the shells can be swapped between crabs to make them personalised to your child. Inside the shell, there is a little friend that can stay in the shell, be played with outside the shell, or attached to the front of the shell.
My 4 yr-old really loved playing with Bimini and Cuppy, but she was slightly worried that it might ‘get’ her, so she preferred playing with them while they weren’t moving. She also really loved the Confetti Cottage, especially telling me, “Mummy, it has a top floor and a bottom floor!”
When the older girls got home from school (6 and 7 1/2 yrs old) they loved it just as much, if not more.
The packaging for Xia Xia’s and the Confetti Cottage is worth noting. There was no assembly required and they didn’t seem over-packaged which I feel is important. It’s also helpful to be able to get the toys out of the box quickly and easily when you have impatient kids itching to play with them!
I liked this set, and would definitely consider getting the other crabs and various habitats. (Surprising because I tend to favour more traditional wooden toys usually.) The colours are simple and appealing, although I would say definitely geared towards girls. They seem fairly robust and the plastic is nice and thick. These toys are made by the same company who makes Zhu Zhu pets and like the Zhu Zhu pets, Xia Xia’s have a sensor in them so that if they crawl into something, they will stop and try to turn around. I think in comparison I prefer the Xia Xia Pets because they don’t seem as delicate and I don’t have the constant worry of getting hair caught in them like with the Zhu Zhu pets. But the kids seem to love them equally.
I’m sure if they’ve managed to convert me, then you’ll love them too 
