There's a (Little Live Pets) Mouse in the (Mad)house ! (review)

"Mum, can I have a puppy? Or a kitten? What about a hamster?" Words that can strike fear into the hearts of many parents ! We've always had pets here at The Madhouse so the kids have never really had to ask if we could get one, but when our rabbit Charlie passed away earlier in the year, they did try their luck at securing a replacement critter. If you can't have or don't want pets, Character's Little Live Pets range could be a cute compromise !

The Madhouse kids were delighted to receive a Lil' Mouse House Trail Playset and a Little Live Pets Mouse to play with and review. (The current range also includes butterflies and birds but I can see these being made in a wide range of other animals too.) As with a real pet, you get to choose the colour of the mouse you'd like to adopt and each one has a name. We got Smooch the grey one (and in my opinion, the most realistic) but you could also opt for Staria (purple), Little Twinkle (pink), Angelee (white), Chatter (blue) or Crumbs (brown).

The Little Live Pets mouse is very cute. It has a furry felt body, foam ears and a soft plastic tail. We didn't spot its on-off switch at first because it's the mouth, which surprised us ! There are also two sensors on its back which allow you to pet it to wake it up if it goes to sleep or encourage it to be extra enthusiastic. As soon as you put it on a flat surface, it scurries and scampers all over the place squeaking, which had the Madhouse kids in fits of giggles. It makes 25 different noises, most of which are quite realistic, but the one that makes us laugh the most is a rather infectious giggle. Not very mouse-like but incredibly cute ! The mice need 3 x LR44 batteries but I was pleased to see that they come ready installed (supposedly for demo only but ours are still working, after some pretty intensive playing).

The Little Live Pets Mouse House Trail is a fun mousey playground that will have your Lil' Mouse scurrying around at great speed and whizzing round in the open areas, squeaking happily. It is easy to clip together just by looking at the picture on the box, although you'll probably need the help of an adult or older sibling as some of the clips are tricky to snap together. The playset features :

2 x Scamper Domes
4 x Mouse Stoppers
1 x Scamper Dome Support
1 x Up Ramp
1 x Down Slide
1 x Bubble Track
1 x See Saw Track
2 x Sharp Bends
2 x Small Ramps

Extra kits can be added to the playset to make it even bigger and better - there is a mouse house with an exercise wheel which looks great fun - but you will need quite a lot of floor space, even with just the Mouse House Trail playset.

The basic concept reminds me of an improved version of Zhu Zhu Pets. The little mice are very cute and the playset makes them even more fun to play with, but I do think that the mouse trail playset should include a mouse, rather than having to buy one separately.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £9.99 for the Lil' Mouse, £14.99 for the Mouse House Trail

for more information : http://www.character-online.com/products/Little-Live-Pets/



Disclosure : We received the products in order to write an honest review.