Little Live Pets Gotta Go Flamingo (Moose Toys)

 

Playing with toys that evacuate is nothing new to our society. Kenner made a big splash (pun intended) in 1973 with their Baby Alive dolls. The concept was simple. Feed the doll. Watch it go to the bathroom. Clean up after doll, rinse (literally) and repeat.

Because of our world's fascination with children playing with defecating toys, it's no surprise that 2020's most popular toy for the holiday season was Gotta Go Flamingo. Feed Sherbet seated upon the throne a powder based meal, and watch the magic unfold as the bird wiggles, sings, chats back, and takes a dump.

Moose Toys proclaims Gotta Go Flamingo is, "The perfect gift: This toy is designed to bring hours of great fun and laughter for kids aged 4+."

Not convinced? Well check out the advertisement for the product. Maybe your problem is that you're just not visualizing all the potential this thing has going for it.

Yikes. So many things I could say about how disgusting this toy is and question why any parent would endorse this type of thing. Instead, I'll focus on the facts. Those being the numerous low reviews being presented on the various product pages for retailers, all of which are based on the toy's performance, or lack there of, as opposed to the nature of its design.

First and foremost, many parents are complaining about the overall mess it makes. They state that the toy is simply not easy for children to use, resulting in sand going everywhere. Further, many report that when pouring the powder into the flamingo's mouth that it does nothing more than seep out of the various joints, only contributing more to the mess.

This leads to the next issue. One reviewer stated that they reached out to Moose Toys about refills of the fake food, and were told there were no plans to produce any. While I know the sand based material is designed to instantly turn back into its powder form after pouring it out of the toilet portion, making it reusable, you will eventually spill enough that you'll run out.

If this weren't bad enough, when not plagued with its short battery life, many people are complaining that the toy simply stops working, or worse, never worked at all from the moment they took it out of the box. Rather than make noises and move around, it instead clinks and clanks, as if every gear within is under duress. Probably because sand and moving parts aren't the best combination.

With all of these technical issues and no plans to provide any refills, where exactly is the hours of fun that Little Live Pets are professing about coming from? Mind you, I still don't understand where any fun would come from by watching a toy poop to begin with. But, hey, if that's you're thing, have at it - For however long it lasts based on the above. You don't take my word for it. The reviews speak for themselves.

Now I won't lie. These review examples are from Amazon, and the toy does currently have a 76% five star rating, making it "average" among consumers. However, Target is a whole other story, with only a 52% five star rating, with 24% of the one star ratings echoing those of the examples above. You can check out some of those reviews below.

I'll even post a few from Wal-Mart just to be thorough.

With how poorly consumers are professing this toy works, or rather doesn't work, it's very hard to believe that any amount of quality control wouldn't have caught this before making it past the original design phase. Instead it got unleashed on the general public, making Gotta Go Flamingo highly disappointing for many parents and their kids. It may have been the hottest toy for the holidays, but it also appears to be quickly turning into the biggest dud for the year.

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