Xeno the Interactive Monster – Top Toy Christmas 2014
We were invited to a special day at London Zoo with Xeno (RRP £79.99). Now if you have not heard of Xeno then I am sure you will, as I predicted that he is going to be one of the top toys this Christmas. He comes in three colours pacific blue, ultra violet and burnt orange and I would describe him as a cross between a Tamagotchi and a Furby, because he has care needs but is a toy that you can play with and taken to bed.
He has eight touch sensors and audio outputs to communicate with you. With over 10 emotions (including happy, sad, playful, hungry and unwell) and over 40 different expressions. His eyes light up and change to also help express his needs: You can really understand him – “hungry!” he cries. To feed him simply place your finger in his mouth, and he will eat it. But watch out as he is a monster and may burp or parp on you! He loves to sing and dance – but be careful not to have the music too loud. I discovered that mine did not like Justin Bieber as every time I played his music it made him cry!! You can cheer him up by tickling his feet, or rubbing his belly. You can clean the bogie from his nose by giving it a gentle tug, and when Xeno gets too tired he falls asleep and snores away.
He loves to play games and has 5 inbuilt (see the instruction sheet for how to play) – he says, “wanna play?” There is also a FREE app with more games. You can play this with or without your Xeno toy. But if you play with your Xeno toy he intereacts with the app; what you do on the screen takes care of your Xeno toy.
The really cool thing is he interacts with other Xeno toys. They all get on like a house on fire. This was something I was really keen to see on our visit to the Xeno party at the Zoo. To make your Xeno play with you again you have to move the Xeno toys away from each other, to gain his attention again.
I love the sensory aspect of Xeno as he feels squishy. He has a wipe clean material so not going to get as messy as a fur toy. This toy is aimed at those ages 5 and upwards but think it’s appeal range is wider than that, simple enough for younger children and my 11 year old loved it.
Update 2020. We never received the Xeno we were meant to be gifted because they had problems with it. Our children really wanted one though so we shelled out that Christmas. They are not very well made/designed and as you can see both eyebrows came off and the foot.
We were invited to London for the Xeno party, we received free entry to the Zoo and a goody bag. All words and opinions are my own.