Kung Zhu Review

Posted on | July 25, 2010 | No Comments

I’m not going to mince words with this one, Kung Zhu will be the hottest toy for boys this holiday season. If I thought the girls liked the regular Zhu Zhu pets, it’s nothing compared to how the boys enjoyed and played with the Kung Zhu hamsters and play sets. I was lucky enough to be asked to review the new Kung Zhu line and it was Christmas in July at my house.

When the package first arrived, I hid it. My seven year old son had seen the commercials for Kung Zhu and had been talking about how cool they look and how he wants them. Part of the deal is that I host a party with his friends and let them play with the Kung Zhu Pets and see how they like it. I knew the party was still a few weeks away and didn’t want to hear my son ask to play with the Kung Zhu pets every day.

But it was like he has radar for these things. Two days after I put the box in the garage he found it and kept asking what was in it. I eventually caved (huge mistake) and showed him. He was relentless, so I finally let him play with one pet and his armor and he was in heaven. He got me to open a few play sets as well, but he played with them every day so we were both happy.

When the day of the party came my son and husband set the whole thing up.

It took a little while to get the configuration the way they wanted, but putting the sets together was very easy. It is also easy to get them apart if you make a mistake, want to change something or just to put it away.

I wish I could describe the excitement that was in the air when the kids started to arrive and play. The girls played for a little while, but soon ran off to do other things. The boys however, were mesmerized. They each picked a Kung Zhu hamster and his matching armor and started playing right away. The boys I had over ranged in age from 3 to 10. The 3 year old played for a while, but he was a little young for it. The rest of the boys were age 7, 8, 9 & 10 which was perfect.

They played for two hours non-stop. I truly could not believe it. My son has a million toys in his room and we have a big pool outside, plenty of things to distract them. But not once did any of them ask to do anything else. All the parents were just amazed at the attention spans the boys seemed to have suddenly developed.

After two hours I made them take a break and have a snack. They all brought their pets to the table and pretended to feed them. They ate their snacks quickly and ran back to play for another hour or so. Most would have played longer, but the parents were ready to leave.

I think what kept their interest so long was the variety. They would play with different portions of the set at a time. Like they would concentrate on the training area, then move on to a battle in the arena. When they got tired of that, they put their Kung Zhu hamsters into their tanks and played on the floor. They would continue to rotate from item to item which kept their imaginations going.

As you can see, my review is nothing but positive, I would definitely recommend the Kung Zhu line. If you are gift shopping I would probably keep it for the age range of 6-8 to be on the safe side. Even though we had a nine and ten year old that played, I would be concerned that it was because they were comfortable playing with the younger kids. Whether you are looking to just buy the Kung Zhu pets and a few accessories or the whole set I don’t think you can go wrong.