Zhu Fari by Zhu Zhu Pets : Review & Giveaway

I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself this week.  And it's not the post-holiday blues, as I came crashing back down to earth and reality.  Although, it is depressing how quickly routine sets in again, and you start to ask yourself exactly how long ago the holiday was, and start hankering for another one!

No, for the past week and a half I've been suffering from MAN FLU.  Even though I'm decidedly female.  It's been a nasty flu, complete with aches and pains and the dreaded....woe is me....feeling - the part of the flu that makes it man flu.  The intense miserable feeling sorry for ones self.  And I was severely disgusted by my extended family's lack of sympathy and concern.  Nobody listened when I told them how dire the situation was, not even when I realised I'd woken up in the middle of the night and was telling it to the bedside lamp - such was my delirium.

There was one thing that broke me from my man flu woe is me state, as I started to recover from my near death masculine influenza maximus :

A delivery!

Zhu Zhu Pets - I've praised them in previous posts.  They are my discipline deputies whenever I need to wrangle the twins into submission.

The kind and generous Louisa from Brand Meets Blog  took pity on me  decided I was a prime candidate to trial the latest offering from the Zhu Zhu Pet family - Zhu Fari.



My biggest mistake was telling Miss5 this good news as soon as Louisa had confirmed the details. Every single day - both in the morning when she woke up, and again in the afternoon when the mail had been delivered - she wanted to know if it had arrived yet.  Every.  Single.  Day.

"Is it here yet?"

"Not yet"

"Why?"

"It's only been two days, give it time"

"Whyyyy?"

"Because it takes time to send things in the mail"

"Whyyyyyyyyy?"

[Insert pause as I count to 10 in my head]

"Because mail has to travel from another place to get here"

"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"

"Because"

"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"

"Because it's the mail man's way of trying to teach you patience.  Because it's so much more fun this way, listening to you whine every day.  Because they ride the parcels all the way on a pushbike that gets a flat tyre every second day, and the chain comes off every other day."

The Australia Post gods intervened at this point, and it arrived.  It only took 2 weeks, but it seemed like an eternity with the daily saga of Miss5 doing her best Days of Our Lives devestated pouty facial expressions, combined with her interrogatory and whiny whyyyyyyy line of questioning.

Just for fun, I made her wait a full day before opening the box.  It was the only way I could get her to clean her room, do some reading homework, be nice to the twins, eat extra broccoli, and organise my nail polish collection.  That last bit was just to see how far I could push it.

There was a great unveiling - as Miss5 meticulously removed every piece of tape, and carefully opened each item.

We got an elephant.  Mambo is a blue elephant.  He's kind of like a Zhu Zhu pet with attitude and street cred.

He is so freaking cute, but filled with attitude when you press his button.  I love him.  I may have possibly played with him more than Miss5.  But only because she goes to bed earlier than me, so I was afforded an extra couple of hours of night time play.  On a related note, he enjoys watching The Office, Modern Family and Criminal Minds.  I know this because he made all the right growling and/or purring noises at all the right times.

The Zhu Fari accessory kit was interesting.  It took me a while to put it together, even with the assistance of instructions.  This could be down to the fact that I was highly distracted by Miss5 hogging the Zhu Fari while I was constructing its ramp.

At first I thought it wasn't anything special.  Just a ramp.  But, put the Zhu Fari on there and it is hilarious.  It chatters away as it makes its way to the top, then stops - grunts and triggers the clasp for the gate below as it dives off the end.

The twins, they are not quite as wary of the Zhu Fari as they are of the Zhu Zhu Pets.  Possibly because Miss5 and I sitting on the floor losing it laughing takes away from the fear and intimidation factor.

Mental note to self : Do not ever sit on the floor laughing at the Zhu Zhu Pets or the Mister T pic, otherwise they'll be on to me and I'll be totally on my own with all future disciplining.

If  you  your kids like the original Zhu Zhu Pets,  you'll  they'll love the Zhu Fari range.  They are like Zhu Zhu pets with attitude.  Just make sure you allocate fair play time  for yourself  so everyone gets a turn.

Zhu Fari are available at all good toy and department stores.  Check them out.  They make an excellent  school holidays distraction  kids birthday present

Note to #1 Hubby : For my birthday, can I please have vodka, diamonds AND a Zhu Fari of my own. Thank you

The Zhu Fari collection
For more info visit their website www.zhuniverse.com

The best part : I have a Zhu Fari pet and accessory to give away!

For your chance to win :

1.  Follow this blog
2.  Follow on Twitter or Facebook
3.  Comment with who/what you'd love in miniature electronic format - a la Zhu Fari

Mine would be Mister T.  Because his pic is the only thing that will shut the kids up, so it would be awesome to have a little electronic version of him following the kids around the house, warning them off dodgy or destructive behaviour with an appropriately placed and semi-threatening "what you lookin at fool?"  and "you keep that up and you're gonna meet my friend painnnnn!".

Entries close midnight (WST) Thursday 8 September.

Entry is open to Australian residents only.
Winner will be drawn by random.org
Winner announced on the blog Friday 9 September
Winner has seven (7) days to respond or prize will be re-drawn

Good luck!

Now I'm off to go  water the plants  clean the house  prepare a nutritious meal for my family  bond with my  kids  Zhu Fari.

PS. Next I'm going to talk extensively about my love of all-inclusive holidays, in the hope that Club Med or Club Fiesta is reading this, and will offer me up one of their amazing all-inclusive holidays to test and review.