Kung Zhu Toys - Review & Giveaway (by the makers of Zhu Zhu Pets) - CLOSED

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Thanks to Cepia, LLC and MomSelect, I recently had the opportunity to share the Kung Zhu Pets with some of my closest friends and their children while doing a product review!  What better way to get an honest opinion than to have multiple boys trying to figure out how a new toy works all at the same time?  I received most of the toys pictured below from Cepia, LLC and MomSelect to test out and I can honestly say that if you had frustrations with the initial Zhu Zhu Pets Habitrail, that the "training grounds" that are part of the Kung Zhu Pets are really durable and well-made.  Maybe it's because they are geared towards boys but I can say that this set held up to the abuse of our rough and tumble product testers that ranged in age from 2 to 6 years old.  I'm guessing that they are likely tougher on toys than an 8-year old would be anyday!

From the company:  "Once transformed, you can arrange ultimate battles between your Special Forces and Ninja Warriors Kung Zhu Pets! The Special Forces Kung Zhu army includes Stonewall, Seargent Serge, Rock'O and Rivet. These tough hamsters will evolve into Special Force Warriors after training in either the Alpha or Bravo training grounds with different weapons, armors and defense technology. In the meantime, your Ninja Warriors including Yama,Azer, Drayko and Thorn, will transform into rough fighters after training in their Samaurai and Ninja grounds using their own weapons and armors. Each of these Ninjas has a hieroglyph or Dragon symbol on its bright and colorful fur while the Special forces have either a star or comet army sign."

Our thoughts:  The hamsters really do act like the sweet Zhu Zhu Pets we came to love until they go through the training grounds!  Once they have their battle armor on and run across the smart chip activators, well they really do become fighting hamsters.  I think we actually heard them growling at each other in the Battle Arena while they were fighting (even without armor, they still change personality upon entering the Battle Arena)!  We wish that the hamsters could use their armor in the entire training grounds but they just don't fit in the passageways! 

If you were purchasing only a few pieces, I would definitely recommend buying the Battle Arena and hamsters from opposing forces and matching suits of armor.  The Kung Zhu Tanks were also a lot of fun!  One great design feature of this toy is that each piece of the training ground is made to work independently, so if you only buy one or two at a time, it will all still work and you can link together later!  You can really add a lot to this set but it will take up a lot of room to set up the entire training grounds (It was worth it because the kids really enjoyed it)!  Released in mid-June, Kung Zhu Pets are sure to be a hit!  Based on the website, it looks like there are plans to come out with additional Ninjas and Special Forces soon!

We had a hard time getting the kids to step away from the Kung Zhu Pets long enough to eat dinner!  They all really had fun with them and were excited to take their hamster and suit of armor home with them!  We couldn't even break their attention to look at the camera, the Kung Zhu Pets were too exciting!  As my boys were heading to bed, and I was about to start putting away everything, I was asked, "mommy, can we please play with it tomorrow when nobody else is here?"...so it sits against the windows waiting for tomorrow when more battles will take place! 

Giveaway Details: (US entries only please)
I have a two hamsters (Stonewall & Azer) and two sets of armor (Shadow Jonin & Thunder Strike) to give away to one lucky reader (value of ~$40) - please note that although these specific hamsters and armor do not "match", they do all work together and will give you a set from the Special Forces and one from the Ninja Warriors because it doesn't really matter what armor you use on each hamster. To enter this giveaway, Visit Kung Zhu toys and let me know your favorite warrior Kung Zhu Hamster or which piece of the training grounds you think is the coolest! It's that simple! I'll be picking the winner at random! This giveaway will end on July 25, 2010 at 9:30PM Central and I'll e-mail the winner who will have 48 hours to respond!

(Please include your e-mail so it's easy to contact you. It's no fun to determine a winner and have no way to get a hold of them! If you're new to this whole blog giveaway thing - check your profile, your e-mail may be hidden!)

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Disclosure:  I was provided the toys for review and the toys for giveaway but no additional compensation was received.  The opinions included in this review are mine and the parent's of the children that attended the Kung Zhu party, and may differ from your opinions.

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