My Meebas from Mattel

My Meebas is a new concept from Mattel which is aimed towards the younger set of kids. It's a mixture of several things like a virtual pet, games and activities and finally a real plush toy which is the ultimate "reward" that kids get for "looking after" their virtual pet so well. Some say that it is loosely based on the Tamagotchi from Bandai America, which I am inclined to agree with. Having played with My Meebas, I do see some potential of kids liking it because of it's friendly nature. But I can imagine that the ending would be bittersweet for me when the plush toy pops out (it hasn't happened yet).

A pink My Meebas arrived for me in the mail the other day. Having heard about it on the grapevine, I couldn't wait to try it out first hand. By the way, there are four colors of My Meebas, signifying different things like love (pink), friendship (blue), intelligence (purple) and happiness (blue/green), with two more joining in later this year.

The My Meebas are basically a little tube with an LCD screen attached. The screen can be moved up and down - actually it's pretty cool how this is done. There is a control panel with buttons that can be used to guide the little creature here and there within the screen. You can play games, make the little Meeba do various activities like explore the surroundings and watch as it grows.

The first time the My Meebas grew and changed, my little one burst into tears! She was upset and couldn't understand why her new little Meeba looked so different. She finally got the picture that the Meeba keeps growing as you keep playing with it.

After playing with the Meeba for a while, it is supposed to pop and a plush toy is supposed to emerge. I'm still waiting for mine to pop. I just hope it doesn't scare my little one this time around!