Xia-Xia Pets are here! {Giveaway}

I recently received for review a set of Xia-Xia pets {by Cepia, the makers of Zhu-Zhu Pets}! Keep reading because I have a giveaway too! :)

Xia-Xia pets are from an island far away where they dance the Samba to their favorite song. Open their shells and a little friend waits inside! Their shells are their costumes, polished and bright, watch them parade and skitter scatter all night! So come join the party, a festival of cheer, in the land of Xia-Xia where it's Carnivale all year.

Xia-Xia Pets were recently named Toys 'R Us's Hot Toy for 2011 and I'm sure they will be on many many Kids' Christmas lists this year.

I thought they were cute and their cottage and house are quite whimsical. I wasn't sure what kids would think of them, and I'd not seen the ad on TV yet - so wasn't quite sure what to make of them or how my 3.75 year old granddaughter would feel about them.
So... I gave them to Madysen... and she loved them! I was actually surprised that she played with them for so long {about 45min}, but she was quite taken with them.

Based on a Carnivale theme, Xia-Xias are four collectible, robotic hermit crabs with removable shells that contain a little friend hidden inside. A press of the claw and they are on the move skittering around. And to make them even more fun and collectible you can purchase extra shells that contain not one, but two little friends!

Meet the Xia-Xia crabs!

Bimini with her pink polka-dot & striped shell, she loves to strut her stuff in different shell fashions.

Trinidad with his dazzling, bright orange & yellow swirled shell, he loves to dance. Press his claw and watch him skitter scatter in a fun parade.

Turks is sweet and bubbly, and has a red shell and pretty pink bows, making her a cute companion.

Tobago with his rough-and-tumble blue exterior and happy grin, he's always dancing to the Xia-Xia Samba.

3 playsets are available to round out the fun! Rio de trio Village, Copacabana, and Confetti Cottage.
You can visit www.xia-xiapets.com to learn more.

I, personally, prefer open-ended toys that allow a child to use their imaginations in play, and I think these little hermit crabs will offer that for quite some time.


What did I think about them?
While I'm not a huge fan of plastic toys they are cute and stood up to Madysen. I think they will stand up to normal child play quite well. As mentioned, I do like that they are an open-ended toy and I can see Mady introducing these to her GnomeWorld setup and them fitting in there nicely. The little friends in the shells are tiny and therefor very cute {who doesn't like tiny cuteness?? lol} - they are great to collect and trade. Mady did need some help getting the shells off and on but they do go on easily once they are turned correctly. The playsets were easy to put together and I only needed the instructions for a few pieces on the Copacabana. It's cool that the cottage and the Copacabana can attach together, and you could probably finagle the Village to hook on also. At any rate all the extras make a nice playset with lots of possibilities for hours of fun for the 4+ crowd.

And now for the giveaways! {sorry for the icky photos above - no light & I wanted to get this posted}
The first winner chosen will receive the Rio de trio Village, 2 Collectible Shells, 1 Trinidad + 1 Tobago!
The second winner chosen will receive 2 Collectible Shells, 1 Trinidad + 1 Tobago!
{The Village in the first giveaway, & the 2 crabs in the 2nd giveaway were opened for review purposes but are like new & will include their original boxes; the other crabs are NIB}

This is an easy peasy Rafflecopter Giveaway but the first entry will be to post a comment on this blog post - just scroll down to do that, post your comment, then mark it done on the Rafflecopter widget. The rest of the entries are to be completed on Rafflecopter. If you have any questions just email me: cokelush at gmail
Open to residents of the US. 18+ only please.
Disclaimer: I was sent Xia-Xia pets & playsets to review. All opinions are my own. Your mileage may vary. :)