The Littlest Pet Shop Pet Display and Play Pet Nook Turtle with Surf Shop is a novelty toy, one piece among many in a collectible unit of pet nooks. The Littlest Pet Shop Pet nooks are small panoramas which fit together to create one large “pet shop,” however they only come one to a pack. There are currently six Play Pet Nooks available: a bunny with a grocery store, a cat with a candy shop, a monkey with a gym, a puppy with a vet office, a seahorse with a bathroom and a turtle with a surfshop.

The Play Pet Nooks come in a cardboard backed plastic package, within the package is a small panorama, one prop for the panorama and the pet that came with the panorama. The prop fits in to a custom hole for it within the panorama (on the surfshop panorama there are three holes for the palm tree prop.) There is also a magnet within the pet assumedly to keep the pet within the panorama. The panorama itself is decorated with a large sticker of the background of choice (in this case a surf shop,) which is why this toy is not recommended for water play. The panorama also has small holes in the top and curved scrolls on the side to hook it on to other panoramas and create a larger pet shop theme.

The packaging was taped together with what seemed like industrial strength tape, this did serve the purpose of keeping the toys in the packaging but it also served the purpose of keeping me out and as a result upon opening the packaging was torn. Within the packaging is a booklet of other Littlest Pet Shop products along with a coupon code for 10% off Littlest Pet Shop products online…be prepared, there are a LOT of different pets available. The toys themselves are encased in a plastic shell and attached with some type of flimsy rubber band, this can be removed without using scissors but it may not be an easy feat for a child so I recommend that you remove the toys from packaging yourself.

Although I think the Littlest Pet Shop toys are a cute concept I find them to be cheap toys with limited wow factor. The collectible aspect of these toys adds some value as a childrens toy and the fact that the individual pet “nooks” are able to be joined to other individual pet “nooks” makes this toy a neat concept but still it’s not enough to convince me it’s worth its money. The pet “nook” itself is pretty tough however the sticker which forms the backdrop can be peeled away or destroyed in exposure to water so keep that in mind. The prop for the “nook” (in this case a palm tree) is made of softer plastic and is bendable which is great, had it been made from harder plastic it would be snapped within the first five minutes of play. The prop itself slots in to the “nook” in a shallow hole which barely holds the prop upright and one bump with the hand and your prop will come out of the hole and fall down increasing the frustration factor. Now the pet itself has a moveable head and is about the width of two adult fingers. The pet comes with a magnet, this causes the pet to stick to various things that magnets should stick to; however, I have yet to find a way to stick it to the pet “nook.” Being that the pet doesn’t stick to the pet “nook,” at least not in the toy I purchased, I don’t quite see the point in putting a magnet in the pet. Since there is no magnet within the “nook” to connect with the magnet within the pet once set up as a “scene” the pet will move around quite a bit. While this may not be such a problem with a single pet nook as your child will want to play with the pet, should your child have a few pet nooks and attach them together pets will begin toppling out of their nooks and this can definitely add to the frustration factor for your child.

All in all I’m not convinced this toy is a great investment, I would say if your child is looking at the Littlest Pet Shop line of toys and really has to have one stick with the solo pets. The pricetag on the solo pets runs around $1.99 a piece and there are many to collect but as with all small toys I remind you of the potential of a choking hazard!