VIP Pets Mini-Fans Review

Reviewed by Deborah Banasko

We love a surprise-based toy in our house, particularly when you add in amazing hair and cute accessories.
The premise behind the VIP Pets Mini-Fans by IMC toys is that these cute pups are the supporters of the VIP Pets. Each fan has it’s favourite VIP Pet and belongs to one of 6 squads.

The packaging is very pink! There is a heart shaped hot-pink comb capsule surrounded by a plastic wrap which you remove and dispose of. On the lower part of one side of the capsule are three coloured strips in yellow, green and purple leading to a co-ordinating dissolvable material at the base. Now this is the fun part! You immerse the base into water and watch the magic rainbow colours trail and merge into the water, allowing you to open the capsule and access the toy.

The instructions were straight forward, showing each of these stages in a series of six photographs so you can’t really go wrong with this.

The rainbow water reveal is a nice touch, although after around a minute the kids were desperate to see which toy they had got as the water was less rainbow and more murky yellow by this point. It was easy to nudge out the material and let it crumble away.

Once open, the capsule houses the main sealed bag which contains the toy plus the accessories bag. Our character is Emily and like all of the pets she is a girl, measures just over 6cm in height and has amazing 20cm long hair.
Emily came with her own accessories, and these do vary between pups. We received a comb, two little crown-like bands for her pigtails and stickers to decorate the heart shaped house. The corner of one of our stickers was a little wet but I suspect that was due to it touching the capsule when we removed it from it’s bag so just be careful with that and allow the capsule to dry thoroughly.

First of all her hair is amazing, and the fact that all of the pups have such different styles, colours and textures of hair makes collecting them even more exciting. The character has an oversized head in relation to her body, the head can twist and tilt but that is the only adjustable feature. The detail on her face and body is really good, down to her pink paw pads and football emblem on her outfit. Her face is really sweet but the final touch is the glitter sparkle on her flowered pigtail bands. I love her, even I can’t stop stroking her hair.

It is nice to have a genuine use for the capsule as it becomes part of the game play rather than a pointless chunk of plastic that will soon head for the rubbish bin. Within the capsule the main sealed plastic bag is the only wasteful piece of plastic packaging as the accessories are within tissue paper which was lovely to see. Part of me wishes that these surprise style toys would have solely paper packets inside, although in this case a water proof covering is essential so there is no other option.

My initial plan was for this pet to belong my 9 year old daughter as she loves anything with long hair that she can style. However, the rule in our house is that we don’t have boys and girls toys; we just have toys. My 6 year old son loves a doll as much as he does his action figures, and he totally fell in love with this little pup. Rather than share, my kids clubbed together for a second one so that they could have one each. They really liked these toys!

What I love about these VIP Pet Mini-Fans is that there’s so much excitement and fun involved before you actually play with it and style it’s hair. As well as the rainbow water reveal and opening the little packets, my kids loved taking their time decorating the house with the stickers. The capsule has raised areas and outlines to guide you how to arrange the stickers and achieve the best look for your pets little home. Stickers include a large mirror, various beauty products, a hairdryer and other fun little add-ons.

The VIP Pets Mini Fans are £9.99 which is a great price point and good value for the amount of surprise and detail involved. A perfect gift for a birthday, an ideally priced pocket money spend and certainly a good school party present.
They cover a wide age range as I can see a 3 or 4 year old playing happily with these pretty pups, but my 9 year old equally loves to style it’s hair and play with it. I suspect my kids will want to buy another with their pocket money, or even one of the main VIP Pets as they have been talking about these for their birthdays.

Whilst kids love a surprise character, part of me wishes that the packages were numbered in some way to avoid duplicates. I have to say I felt nervous when my son opened his VIP mini-fan (bought with their pocket money) as I knew they would be devastated to have the same pet twice. Luckily we got a different pup.

I can’t find fault with this toy as it delivers everything that it claims to (and more); it is good quality and a fantastic price. Three days after opening it and my daughter and eldest son are still smiling. I would award this toy 5 stars out of 5.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £9.99

This product can be purchased from Smyths toys here.