Poo? You can't really say 'Poo' can you? (Tiger Electronics Poo-Chi Interactive Puppy)

Member Name: naturenet

Product:	Tiger Electronics Poo-Chi Interactive Puppy
Date:	30/07/01 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: hard to break, unfailingly cute, kids of all ages love it

Disadvantages: eats batteries, hard to get out of box, not that exciting after a while

Let's make a toy and call it 'Poo'. On second thoughts, let's not. It might be better to call it Poo-Chi and hope that the little ones won't spot the allusion.

So what do you think? Did they notice? I will in fact draw a discreet veil over the moment when the great discovery was made in our household that the boys had a present and it was called 'Poo'. However when the hilarity had died down we were left with a remarkable new toy. Now, eight months later, we still have it, and, unlike every other toy I can bring to mind, all the plastic bits associated with it are still in their correct place. That must be a good sign.

Poo-Chi is a plastic dog. It does very little, but it has a remarkable charm for children and grownups alike. You can pat it, feed it, talk to it and so on, and with a bit of the eye of faith imagine that it responds to you by moving about a bit (it dosn’t walk or anything, but can stand up and waggle its ears) or flashing its eyes, or making little noises. The plaintive whine when it is left alone is so similar to a real dog that one is almost forced to go and comfort it. No, really. Well, I do, anyway.

Poo-Chi does have drawbacks. It comes apart fairly easily, but, amazingly enough, it seems to be designed with this in mind, and the bits that come off (the ears) are simplicity itself to put back on. Perhaps if they didn't come off, they would be too easy to break off or bend. A few thousand running repairs later and, to be fair, the ears are as firmly attached as they ever were. Would that more toys were like this. Probably it wouldn't stand being dropped or kicked around, but then it's so cute that even our little horrors have not felt the need to smash it so far.

Poo-Chi also consumes batteries rather keenly. It is not cheap to run, and cannot be turned off. After a while it turns itself off, but you cannot just turn it off yourself, and this can be a pain.
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br>We like Poo-Chi, and so do the kids. What’s more, they have failed to destroy it despite their best endeavours. Even its cute little plastic bone is still sitting in front of it as I write, waiting for someone to feed it to it and wake it up. In fact, perhaps it looks a little hungry right now? Maybe I could do with a rendition of ‘Camptown Races’ barked in tune? Perhaps I should be going…

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