Back in January at the Toy Fair I got my very first look at My Friend Freddy Bear. Very similar in playability to the My Friend Cayla doll that we reviewed last year.
My Friend Freddy bear is aimed at a younger audience of around two to five years old. This does place it too young for my girls but they are always interested in seeing what a toy can do anyway so when we received it we sat down together to have a play.
My Friend Freddy Bear takes 3 AA batteries that are not included. When you insert the batteries check that you have selected the correct language, My Friend Freddy Bear can speak English, French and German. You will also find two other switches, on to turn him on or off and one to control how much his mouth moves. He can be used by himself or when connected to the My Friend Freddy Bear app that is available for iOS and Android. When played with by himself My Friend Freddy Bear speaks to you, giggles and responds to his stomach sensor. He also knows when he has been laid down or held upside down. He says some lovely phrases such as “We have so much fun” or “I love you”. Freddy’s voice is a bit robotic but the kids didnt seem to mind about that at all, after all who knows what a teddy should sound like?
You connect My Friend Freddy Bear to the app via bluetooth. You will need to go into your bluetooth settings on you device to do this. When you first use teh app you will be asked some questions about the child that will be playing with Freddy. This includes a list of their favourite things such as colour, food and toy. You will also be asked about family members, day to day activities and other things that will allow My Friend Freddy Bear to really know your child and speak to them as if he has known them for a long time.
The My Friend Freddy Bear app allows your child to interact with Freddy bear through playing games, listening to stories or talking about the picture albums. The games available on the app are basic colour matching or problem solving games which are suitable for the 2 to 5 years age range and you can choose a difficulty level to match your child. As you play the games on the app Freddy gives instructions for you to follow such as which bowl to move the correct colour fish in to, this helps teach listening skills as well as colour recognition. All of the games have an educational element such as colurs, problem solving or learning about animals.
My Friend Freddy Bear will definitely be one of the most sort after toys this christmas and it is bringing high quality electrical toys to a younger audience. One additional benefit that I found was that if you forgot to disconnect My Friend Freddy Bear from your device then the sounds from your device will come out of Freddy. This was particularly funny when Elizabeth started watching a minecraft youtube video and Freddy was doing all of the narration. You could use this to get Freddy to sing along to your childs favourite song or just use him as a portable speaker.