Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
does what he is told, learns new commands quickly |
| Disadvantages: |
goes to doggy heaven when turned off or batteries run out |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
With Christmas away and gone for another year, I thought I would review some of the toy's we bought the kid's for their Christmas. The first toy which I though would be interesting to review was Scamp's which we bought for daughter because all she wanted from Santa Claus was more FurReal friends to add to her collection of them. She wants to be a Vet when she is older hence the reason she wanted lots of animal toys from Santa. Santa Claus managed to get her Scamps from Argos a few months before Christmas because he was really organised this year and didn't leave all the shopping to last minute like last year. Scamps cost £39.99 (cat no 3523150) which is a
little on the expensive side for a stuffed toy I hear you say. But Scamp's is no ordinary stuffed toy, he is actually quite clever because he is follows commands and does what he is told, unlike my 2 real life dogs.
Scamps is quite cute, he is black and white and resembles a Collie dog, he isn't too big either he is only about the size of a puppy. The best thing about Scamps is that you don't have to toilet train him, take him for walks and he stays the same size for ever more. He even came with his adoption certificate from FurReal friends and our daughters name had to be printed onto it, so now she is the proud owner of this lovely wee furry puppy.
Before Scamps could be trained and fed he had to be brought to life using three size C Alkaline batteries which had to be inserted into his belly under a flap on his fur. After the batteries were inserted we had to choose which way we wanted to wake him up, we could either put him on whistle mode or on clap mode. We decided that it was better if we out him on whistle mode after all it would make him more realistic. Once you have pushed the little black switch next to the battery compartment to "On Whistle" all you have to do is whistle and Scamps springs to life.
Scamps has three different sensors on his body under his fur which are for petting and feeding him. He has a sensor on his back, this is where he likes to be petted and stroked. Another sensor behind his ears because he loves getting his ears scratched and finally he has another sensor on his mouth so as he can eat his meals and pick up his bone. So he is realistic, he likes getting his ears scratched like most dogs do, back rubs and of course he has to eat to stay alive. Well he isn't as realistic as you may think; he doesn't get dehydrated and need a bowl of fresh clean water, so that's one less thing to worry about.
Scamps loves to play, if you tell him to "Sit" he will sit down, he can also recognise the lie down, and speak command. When you tell him to speak he has a really squeaky bark like one of those little ankle biter dogs. Scamps likes being told he is a "Good boy" and when you tell him this he barks happy at you and wags his tail. He does lots of other things too. If you ask him "Wanna treat" he begs and you have to place his bone in his mouth and he lies down and chomps away. If you don't give him his bone after saying "Wanna treat" he gets impatient and starts whining. Scamps bone is a small red plastic one and when you adopt him this can be found in his box
along with his tug of war rope and adoption certificate.
Scamps isn't a good little puppy all of the time, he can be quite stubborn and disobedient at times, especially when he is playing with his rope and you ask him to drop it. Sometimes he will do as he is told, other times he just ignores you and guards his toy.
As well as playing with Scamps you can also teach him more commands. When you are teaching him new commands you have to do this in a quiet room with minimal noise levels because he might not understand the new commands if the room is too noisy. When you are ready to teach him a new command you have to wait until he is not moving or making any noises and then clearly say "Howl, wave, paw or sit up and beg" You have to say each command three times before Scamps really understands what you are asking him to do. Although he was a very clever boy when my daughter was teaching him his commands because he understood them after the second command, so there was no need for her to repeat the command a third time.
Scamps is really intelligent too, he is really good at counting and can count up to 255 although we have only taught him to count to ten just now as he is still quite young. If you say two to him he will bark twice, say three and he will bark three times and so on.
Scamps can also add numbers together but this takes a little time to teach him to do. You have to programme him to do this, all you have to do is say "Adding game" so as Scamps knows you want him to learn the adding game, then say one and wait for him to bark once. Once he has done this then he is ready to learn his adding up, if you say to Scamps one plus two he will bark three times, five plus five and he barks ten times and so on. He can add sums up to the value of 255, although we have only taught him up to number 20 so far.
Scamps also needs fed during the day, my daughter feeds him three times a day (the same time out two dogs at home get their dinner) to feed Scamps you just need to give him his bone and he will chomp away at it, although I wouldn't take his bone off of him until he has finished munching away because he gets angry and growls at you if you take his bone off him. Once Scamps has had his dinner he usually likes to go for a sleep, in order for him to go to sleep he just likes you to hold him and press down on his back, and he starts to breathe deeply and fall asleep. To wake him up again you just need to clap or whistle on him it just depends on whether you set him to clap mode or whistle mode when you inserted his batteries.
I think that Scamps was worth the £39.99 we paid for him because my daughter loves him to pieces and he really does understand the commands. I would have thought he was a waste of money if he didn't understand the commands and do as it was supposed to do. So in general he was well worth the money we paid for him, umm well it was Santa Claus who bought him from Argos.
There is only one bad thing which happens to Scamps and that is when his batteries run out or you turn him off, he goes to doggy heaven and you have to learn him all of his commands again when you put new batteries in or switch him back on.
You can buy Scamps from Argos, Woolworths, Toys R Us and other good toy stores, although the prices may differ from each shop. Scamps is also available in the black and white Collie dog version and also a long haired Golden Retriever version too.
Scamps is a good interactive toy for young children who can't have a dog of their own or for children who want a dog as it will give them some sort of responsibility looking after Scamps.
We put the batteries in Scamps on christmas day and have used Duracel batteries, I dont know how long these will last though. I expect that they will probably last about 4-6 months maybe longer. As for Scamps dying when the batteries run out, I think that Hasbro should have considerd this when they were designing Scamps and added some sort of chip to it so as it can remember all the commands your child has taught him. Apart from that I have nothing more bad to say about cute little Scamps.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed my first review of 2008
:o) Lisa x
© just.bcoz
2008
Display pictures
