Everything You Need to Know About Hatchimals

Hatchimals are the latest interactive pets and one of the most anticipated toys of the year. Spin Master has managed to majorly hype them up while also keep them pretty much completely under wraps (or egg shells, really), no one really knew what would happen once they got their hands one of those colorfully speckled eggs.

We snagged one on launch day (we got the Toys-R-Us exclusive Owlicorn) and we’re ready to share our Hatchimals journey with you guys! Here’s a few things you should know before you get a Hatchimals egg of your own.

1. You pick the species of your Hatchimal, but the color is a surprise. There’s a bunch of different species you can get your hands on (each with their own personality types), but if you’re looking for a specific one, you’ll have to buy it from the right store. Here’s where you can find them:
Owlicorns can be found at Toys-R-Us
Burtles can be found at Walmart
Bearakeets can be found at Target
Pengualas and Draggles can be found pretty much everywhere toys are sold.
Until your egg actually hatches, you won’t know what your Hatchimal looks like or what color it will be, but they’re pretty much all birds mashed up with other creatures, hence why they hatch out of eggs and have beaks.

2. You’re in charge of helping your Hatchimal grow every step of the way. From cracking out of it’s shell (literally) to caring for it through each stage of it’s fuzzy little life (baby, toddler, and kid), you’ll need to interact with and nurture your new friend by petting it, rubbing it, and nurturing it in all sorts of ways – it’s a very hands on experience. Each stage unlocks new interactions and games – you can even teach it to dance and talk! Hatchimals are a virtual pet come to life in a huge (and super cute) way! (And it comes pre-loaded with batteries, so you don’t need to worry about that at all!)

Once you’ve raised your Hatchimal to the Kid stage, you can play with it forever as a kid, or reset it back to the baby stage and start all over again. You can only hatch it once though, so enjoy it while it lasts! Take lots of photos and videos like the proud mama or papa you are so you can always remember your little cutie.

3. It’s going to take anywhere from 10-40 minutes before your Hatchimal is ready to peck it’s way out of the egg. Thankfully, it’s not just sitting around and waiting for it to hatch. While in the egg phase, you can care for your Hatchimal by paying attention to the colored glow of it’s eyes peeking through the shell. If the eyes turn pink, you can hold the bottom of the egg and listen to it’s little heartbeat. If it’s orange, tap the shell to help cure your Hatchimal’s hiccups! The whole process is pretty engaging and fun. Ours hatched in about 20 minutes of consistent interactions, but we’ve seen others take more or less, so just be patient.

4. Hatchimals don’t connect to an app, unlike most of the other interactive pets out there in the world right now. Hatchimals are all about celebrating your time together and having fun without being connected to a screen. There’s so much you can do with it, you don’t even need an app in order to enjoy your experience. We really liked not having an app and having to switch back and forth between interacting on our phones and with the toy itself and found that it helped us stay in the moment a bit better.

5. Hatchimals don’t quite stack up to the Furby Connect in our opinion, but we definitely did like both for different reasons. Don’t get us wrong – we think you’ll love your Hatchimal if you get one. Furbys are HILARIOUS. They’re weird, they’re silly, and you can help them poop in a giant toilet. They’re like the awkward best friend you never knew you needed. Hatchimals are more about the connection between you and your pet and caring for it, more like a traditional virtual pet like a Tamagotchi. Plus, the fact that it literally hatches out of a real egg is kind of amazing. They’re also a little bit cheaper at $59.99. Basically, both are cool in their own way and they’re definitely both worthy of a space on your Christmas List!

6. One final thing – you probably don’t want to hear this, but we recommend actually reading through the instructions. If you’re like us and generally toss the instructions in the trash and head forth to figure things out for yourself – DON’T. There’s a lot of helpful info in the Hatchimals instruction booklet, including handy charts about what each colored glow of the eye means and how to interact with your Hatchimal. Lucky for you, they’ve made it really easy – there’s an instructional video on the Hatchimals YouTube channel that can help you out that makes everything really simple and easy to understand.

All in all, Hatchimals definitely live up to the hype, so if you’ve been dying to have one, you definitely won’t be disappointed once you finally get your hands on one! Even better? They’re finally available, so you can get one RIGHT NOW!