The FurReal Newborn Farm Friends Piglet is an interactive electronic toy and just one of many different types of animals that the FurReal toys produce. The toy itself comes in a cardboard three sided box so that the toy is touchable before purchase; however, it is not really “testable” because the toy is not switched on. The toy is secured to the box with numerous twist ties that are secured at the bottom with packing tape. Inside the box there is also a feeding bottle secured with twist ties, and an adoption certificate hidden in the bottom of the box (underneath the cardboard platform that the piglet is on).

The piglet requires three “AAA” batteries which do not come with the toy when ordered directly from Hasbro; however, the piglet I ordered from Target via Amazon did come with the three “AAA” batteries in it already. The piglet is one of the “newborn” FurReal line which also consists of a leopard, a lion, a white tiger, a lamb, a chimp, a panther, a Calico kitten, a grey and white kitten, a marmalade kitten, a white kitten, a brown/tan puppy, a dalmation, a grey poodle, a boston terrier, a white lion, a honey bear, a silver white kitten, a grey/white bunny, a white bunny, a beige bunny, a black and white bunny, a white bunny, a black and white kitten, a cream kitten, a king Charles Spaniel, a tan and white puppy (bulldog), and a white poodle. The other FurReal friends products (not newborns) include Squawkers McCaw the parrot, Butterscotch the pony, S’mores the pony, a beagle, a black and white pup, a chocolate lab, a dalmation, a pug, a schnauzer, a chimp, a lion, a white tiger, a Burmese kitten, a Calico kitten, a marmalade kitten, Luv Cub baby brown bear, Luv Cub baby polar bear, Luv Cub baby grey bear, Luv Cub baby red and brown bear, and the Luv Cub baby panda bear. These toys range in price from $12.99 for the newborn friends to $19.99 for the Friends to $29.99 for specific friends and $299.99 for the FurReal friends ponies.

The FurReal friends piglet moves and squeels/oinks in response to stimuli. There is an on/off switch inside a secret Velcro pouch on the piglets stomach (also where the batteries are hidden) which activates the piglet and a sensor on the piglet’s back which causes the piglet to respond. When touched the sensor on the piglet’s back causes the piglet to grunt, wiggle his nose and squeel and when held it causes the piglet to bow down and “oink”. When you stroke down the piglet’s back his tail also wiggles.

The FurReal Newborn Farm Friends piglet was high on my list of toys to review because the entire line of FurReal friends is rapidly growing and topping many Christmas lists this year. The interactivity of the FurReal friends also intrigued me since there are few toys with the claimed level of interactivity that FurReal friend’s did for the price they are sold for. I picked the piglet because out of all of the toys the piglet was the cutest one and other than that the other FurReal newborn figures in the same price range all seemed to do the same thing…which now that I have had a chance to review the toy, really isn’t that much.

The toy itself is recommended for ages four and up, and while I feel that the toy would prove entertaining enough for children of four to six I feel that it would not prove to be entertaining enough for children over the age of six (possibly seven). While the toys could be collected by children over the age of six, I really don’t feel that this line, at least the FurReal friends excluding the pony’s and Squawkers McCaw the parrot, would be much fun to a child over six. The reason I came to this conclusion was that although the toys are fun to play with for the first few minutes it soon becomes apparent that they do very little other than make a noise and bow down. The piglet, for example, does not respond to it’s bottle with suckeling it simply stands there unless the back sensor is touched and then it responds with a nose wiggle and a grunt; however, at no point does it’s mouth open to receive the bottle.

While the piglet is a cute toy and can serve as simply a “cute toy on a shelf” I found that the “interactivity” of the toy wasn’t as much as it was hyped to be. The piglet responded only to touch on it’s back sensor and there is nothing in particular that you can do to elicit certain actions from the piglet other than holding the sensor to make the piglet bow and touching it briefly to make it grunt, oink or wiggle it’s nose or tail. There isn’t a specific “do a to get b” “do c to get d” type of structure to the toy. The lack of response to any stimuli other than touch is also frustrating, the toy comes with a feeding bottle so I expected the piglet to actually respond to the bottle either by opening it’s mouth or suckeling, it did neither.

The FurReal Friend’s piglet is worth the money for a younger child in the recommended age range; however, I do not recommend it for older children in that age range unless they specifically want to collect “cute toys.” The FurReal friends initially reminded me of the Furby frenzy a number of years ago; however the fact that they do not mature in their responses and simply come with a pre-programmed set of actions that are minimal at best proved to be frustrating and while it may be enough to entertain a younger child, it will most certainly annoy an older child.