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[PWOKristy]

http://www.hatchimals.com

Toys R Us says its for release on Wednesday. The Hatchimal needs your help to Hatch and later grow up into a kid. You must first play with the egg by tapping on it or flipping it. When the time comes, a pair of glowing rainbow eyes will peer out from within the shell, letting you know it's time to Hatch. Maintain contact with the egg as your Hatchimal pecks out of the shell. Now, you can focus on raising your new furry friend through 3 different stages, including baby, toddler and kid. You can even teach your Hatchimal to walk, dance and repeat what you say. The surprise is in the egg. Place your ear to the egg and listen to your Hatchimal's lively heartbeat. Tap or flip the egg to elicit a response from the Hatchimal, such as glowing eyes, cute sounds and tapping back Your Hatchimal creature will really peck its way out of the shell as you touch the egg. Sings "Hatchy Birthday" as it enters each new stage. Teach your friend to walk, talk, dance, play games, repeat what you say and more for engaging fun. There's like penguins, "dragons" and "bears". Toys R Us prices it at $79.

[aibo7m3]

Hatchimals were first released back on October 7th. I personally wouldn't buy one from Toys R Us at $79 since their retail price is $59 and I'm guessing they may go on sale shortly after Christmas.

I have two Hatchimals. I got the Walmart Exclusive one (called a "Burtle") last month to try out for my birthday and unfortunately was a bit disappointed. Mine worked for about half an hour, and then partway through the hatching process, the turning mechanism began to fail and make a horrible squeaking/screeching sound. After around an hour of slow stuttering and squeaky motion, the turning mechanism failed completely and the Hatchimal was not able to break itself out of its egg. I had to break it open after this and seems to be working alright since, but the hatching is the fun of it, and it's a real shame if this doesn't work correctly.

I actually just did buy myself another Hatchimal (the dragon/eagle one called a "Draggle") for Christmas because I caught one for sale on Walmart's site and wanted to give Hatchimals another try, but if this one fails to hatch as well, I'm officially done with this product and will be returning it.

[Talon]

I'll be anxious to see how this second experience goes for you, Aibo. That first one was a bit of a disappointment. Even so, I was glad to hang out with you over Skype as you tried to bring it into the world.
Talon

[Bagoas]

If anyone wants to see it work as it's supposed to, this is a decent video (although it proves that it takes a looong while to hatch)-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oad_x2oqXtE

Hope your second one goes better, aibo7m3!

[aibo7m3]

I do think the hatching process is very creative when it works as intended! Been busy at a family gathering all day, so I don't think my second Hatchimal will be unboxed until tomorrow, but I'm hoping for the best then.

[Skygryph]

Just wanted to chime in here, for those interested--I have two Hatchimals, and the first one's hatching was nearly identical to Aibo's: All was going well until the gears inside started making a strange grinding/stuttering sound after about an hour, and its pecking against the shell became weak. It also ended with me forcibly breaking the egg open after a couple of hours past that point, when I became fed up with it.
My second one, though, hatched perfectly. It started pecking at the egg after about 15 minutes, and 20 minutes later, it was out, all on its own. Quite a difference there. The first was the dragon version, while the second was the penguin...though based on reviews, it seems like the quality control in general for Hatchimals right now is not too strong.

Also, as fair warning, the different growth stages (baby, child, or what not--can't remember the exact names) are extremely short in length, which could be a little disappointing, but it does make it easy to simple reset and go through them again from the beginning multiple times. I'd say the whole growth process from baby to fully-grown only takes about an hour or so. In my case, since I don't like the full-grown stage as much as the middle stage (the middle stage makes more cooing-type sounds, which I prefer), this is actually a good thing, since I can just reset it and get back to my preferred stage over and over again, without having to wait too long.  xD

Still very cute, despite the flaws, and if you're looking for something like a simple Furby and don't necessarily mind having to "help" during the hatching, I'd recommend them.

[aibo7m3]

I hatched my second one a little while ago. My first one (the Burtle) pecked weakly for a little while before having all the issues I mentioned above and I had to break it out. I have heard some people say that Burtles are more prone to these problems than other Hatchimals, but I don't know if that's actually true. My second one (the Draggle) did really well for the first ten minutes and broke away around half the shell in that time, afterward, the beak became stuck in the outward position, yet it was still able to spin for the most part (meaning it mostly just twirled around and broke through the shell as it went with its beak stuck out). That one was technically able to hatch on its on with minor help from me (I had to push on its beak a bit to get it moving, but I didn't break away any shell pieces). Still only took about 15-20 minutes for him to break out of the shell though, versus the 1+ hours I spent trying to hatch my Burtle before giving up and breaking it free.

My second Hatchimal also arrived to me with a small crack already in the shell, which I presume was damage acquired in transit to my local Walmart. They're cute robots, but I don't think I'd ever buy another unless Spin Master came out with a vastly improved version and new designs. Most of the appeal is in the hatching process which seems to fail often and they're basically somewhat limited Furbies after that. My Burtle is grown up, but my Draggle is still in baby stage since I really haven't run it much at all since hatching it.