Kung Zhu Pets

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to host a Kung Zhu party, courtesy of Mom Select. My sons invited their friends and had a blast taking their Kung Zhu pets through the training grounds and into battle inside the Kung Zhu arena! You can read more about how the party went over on Finding Bonggamom, and here's what I thought about the Kung Zhu pets and accessories:

The Basics
Kung Zhu Pets, like their predecessors the Zhu Zhu pets, are furry electronic, interactive hamsters that scoot and scamper everywhere. They have a little sensor on their nose that makes them back up whenever they bump into something so they don't get stuck. Kung Zhus also have special battle mode sounds that get activated when they are "swiped" against a special magic key.

The magic key turns these sweet little furry hamsters:



Into fearsome fighting machines!


We received an assortment of Kung Zhu pets and armor as well as an assortment of Kung Zhu playsets, including the Ninja Dojo Base, Special Forces HQ, Training Grounds (Alpha, Bravo, Ninja and Samurai), Missile Attack Tower, Dragon Hammer and Battle Arena.



The Bongga
My kids already love their Zhu Zhu Pets, so I wasn't surprised that they got into the Kung Zhu Pets like a hamster would dive into woodchips. They make all the usual cute Zhu Zhu pet noises I love, plus they make additional special Kung Zhu noises when they get into battle mode (they're supposed to be "tough guy" sounds like a "Haiiiiiii-ya!" karate yell, or a military bugle call, but they end up sounding adorable!). Who wouldn't love them?


What surprised me is how much they enjoyed the Kung Zhu playsets and accessories -- they are really entertaining! You can buy armor for your Kung Zhu pet, which makes them look like furry fighting machines -- which my boys absolutely love. They also love the fighting vehicles, with their little missile launchers and moving buzz saws and other battle features that will delight any bloodthirsty little boy's heart. They've hit on the perfect recipe for making these hamsters appealing to boys -- get their pets to do battle! And since these pets are so cute, all that violence stays in the fantasy world, where it belongs -- making Kung Zhu pets the perfect outlet for little boys' action play.



And I have to say, the Kung Zhu playsets are way better than the original Zhu Zhu Pet hamster runs, which are cute, but the kids have always favored creating their own hamster bedrooms and apartments out of cardboard, tape and glue (which I really like because they get to be so creative). These new playsets are not just plastic paths your pet can run through -- each one has obstacles that the Kung Zhu pet must get through (for example, they have to smash through a wall, cross a swamp with a special boat, scurry through some exploding fireworks, etc..) before getting to the Battle Arena, where they try to flip each other over (and avoid the missiles and smashing hands that might flip them over!) in order to be the last hamster standing. The accessories are sold separately, and can all snap together to form one giant, awesome Kung Zhuniverse.





The Blah
I can't really find any drawbacks to the Kung Zhu pets! As for the Kung Zhu playsets, even though they're much more entertaining (and consequently, better value) than the original Zhu Zhu Pet hamster runs, they're still big and bulky plastic pieces that are a hassle to store.


The Bottom Line
Little Boys will be drawn into the Zhu Zhu world (or should I say Zhu-niverse?) with these tough-yet-cute Kung Zhu pets and their action accessories and playsets! They're great for pretend play and action play for all aspiring ninjas, both the human and the furry kind.

Disclosure: I received a product sample, but was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. Product information is provided by the featured company/product and is clearly indicated as such. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.