Snow Pets: Not Your Childhood Stocking Stuffer

What do you do when your stocking stuffer becomes the main event? This is what happened to me recently when I was checking out Snow Pets as a potential stocking stuffer this year. A small unassuming package, seemingly containing a small unassuming toy, and yet once we got going, this toy literally exploded. Good things come in small packages, especially when that package is a Snow Pet.

Snow Pets from Be Amazing! Toys are a new line of blind box collectibles. In my childhood it was all about the Kinder Surprise toys, this year for my kids, it’s all about the Snow Pets.

The Snow Pets come from the magical land of Snowy Falls, and each is patiently awaiting a new owner. The Snow Pet itself is contained within a snowball until awakened by adding water through the snowball’s hard shell. Once you pour the water into your snowball, a chemical reaction leads to the snowball bursting open, snow falling everywhere, and the appearance of your snow pet.

The videos of this toy don’t do it justice. The pictures I have taken don’t do it justice. This toy is shockingly fun, and exceeded all our expectations. It is not as messy as you would think, and far more entertaining than such a small thing should be.

The initial run of these toys contains eight characters, along with eight rare icy counterparts, which is a variation on the regular character. These are available on Amazon in singles or multipacks. Just get the multipack; one will never be enough. The rare toys have a glittery, icy finish to set them apart from their regular friends. As of December 4 you will be able to buy these and also the second series at Michaels stores. Michaels will also carry an exclusive line of “ultra rare” gold editions. Is it December 4 yet? While I focus on my Peppermint Lane collection from Funko, my kids are working on their own Snowy Falls villages.

Exploding the snowball to reveal your pal is not even the end of the fun. Once revealed a snow pet can be used and re-used in a variety of ways. In traditional play it can be a figure used for creating stories with the other pets, and it can be a pencil topper. But the snow can then be dried out and you can recreate the explosion. The snow can also be kept and re-used endlessly in much the same way you would use kinetic sand. If you happen to open a rare pet, your snow will include chunky glitter. This was a big crowd pleaser for my small crowd.

The snow itself is of course non-toxic so you don’t have to worry about any accidental ingestion, and so far it has not left a stain on any of the surfaces we have used. One word of warning. Some of our snow was left out during a rainstorm, and we soon learned a valuable lesson. The snow will continue to absorb water until it can absorb no more, at which point it becomes an entirely different beast and much harder to clean up. The snow we left outside eventually looked like something that Jabba the Hut would cough up, and no amount of dry time could restore it to it’s snowy glory. However if your kids like slime and you hate it, put your hand up with me here, then you will all love this toy. It is a great slime substitute. Much easier to work with, clean up, and so much more fun.

GeekMom received three Snow Pets for review purposes, but I will not tell you how many have been purchased for Christmas; it is quite a shameful amount.