Vivid Imaginations PIXL Character Mash

Multiplayer maps

This is a bit rubbish. My five year old grandchild barely looked up from her fire tablet and the three year old could turn it on but got bored within a couple of minutes. If I could send it back to the early nineties my daughters would have loved it then. Now? not so much.

Really!!! What the heck is this, another bit of pointless plastic is what it is.Comes with preloaded emojis, which are pixelated images of pretty much nothing, why would you want something as pointless as this.You can upload another load If you have the wish to do so, again, I don’t get, nether did my 4 and 7 year niece, they looked at it with excitement, them realised it bleeped and that was pretty much it.A complete waste of money in my opinion

I'm utterly disappointed with this product, so I had a browse around amazon pages to check what other customers thought about it. But strangely, all I could find were a single sentence comments from various delighted parents (and few grandparents) sounding suspiciously similar in depicting what a hit those little pieces of plastic were with their offspring and rushing back on line to buy more. Amazingly, someone actually bought the whole multicoloured selection to distribute at a party and regardless of yet another reported 'hit' among the youngsters, I'm hard pressed to be convinced that the children abandoned their smart phones and iPads for this.This toy is moronic in concept - it's basically a pixelated LED display wrapped up in a plastic casing with a couple of goggly eyes and a strap. It comes with a set of preprogrammed animated characters and icons - basically a plastic pixel model showing an animated pixel. If this thing appeared on the market in the 80s, then yes, bring it on, but now? Really??The toy is programable by visiting the manufacturer's website and bumping them with each other the characters will be transferred from one to another. And that seem to be the only even remotely interactive feature, but for that you are required to buy more and more of those, but I won't be spending money on this complete waste of plastic and circuitry.

1 of a series of 6 interactive toys which arrive pre-programmed with their own personalised emojis and animations. 1 x lithium battery is already installed and the toy is ready to go but; there are no instructions. It's up to you to download an app for full instructions. Check out whether or not your device is compatible with the app before you buy the toy; PiXLCHARACTER.COM.From the app you create further text/emoji's etc., and upload them directly into the toy by holding it against the screen. I've tried it over 2 Samsung devices, phone and tablet, and it hasn't worked. I've also had problems with the app completely locking up and locking me out of text mode.Operating the toy relies on a series of clicks on the small button under its display screen which is somewhat random and takes concentration.The body of the toy itself is lacking any movement or interaction, doesn't speak, and is really just a series of quick pixelated images flashing across a small screen. However; if you can get your PiXL character fully loaded with designs and text you can 'bump' it into other characters so they swap content. That of course depends on buying more than one toy and having a compatible device.Targeted age range is from 3 years+. My grandchildren are 4 and 5 and I wouldn't leave them alone with this if only because the rubber strap is thick, stretchy and not something I'd want them playing with unsupervised. They wouldn't have a clue how to operate this toy apart from clicking the button to switch the display on.I'm leaving 2* because I can't use the app, some of the pixelated images aren't easy to recognise and working through the clicking options is too fiddly for younger children.

Oh dear - I had really high hopes for this little creature. First impressions were great - a nicely packaged little gadget in a funkily designed box and the PIXL character, Mash, is a very likable little thing. When you press the button which looks rather like a tummy button, he makes basic little beeping noises, which remind me of primitive computer games and emojis made up of red pixels light up on his tummy. The shapes are fairly basic and are displayed on the 8x8 pixel screen - some are more immediately recognisable than others, such as the cherry and the hot beverage - others are harder to distinguish, but could be whatever you want them to be.You can create your own emojis, but it's not all that easy to come up with new and original ideas that actually turn out in the way that you hope, especially if you are 7 or 9. Fortunately, my kids had the bright idea of using the emojis for the other PIXL characters which are shown on the back of the box for inspiration.One of the main problem I have with this toy is that it has clearly been designed to be used with two or more. You need to have at least two to bumpinate and that's probably the best part of this creation - but therefore, I think that these should be sold in dual packs, not in single packs. Unless you have a friend you can try it out with, I think it makes it rather expensive to invest in this for very little play-ability. My girls have played with this a little, but it doesn't have any of the charm of the iconic Tamagotchi nor any of the interactive fun for solo play. I forsee this little creature being hung from a backpack and forgotten about.