Thursday, January 05, 2006

Scamps my playful pup vs Furby

This Christmas, my family came into the possession of a Furby and Scamps. Let me admit right now, I am more partial towards Scamps. I bought Scamps for myself and Furby for my 3 year old daughter. Here's a comparison of Scamps and Furby.













ScampsFurby
Price$40$30
Batteries3 C (not included)3 AA (I think), included
Accessoriestoy, bonespoon
Abilitiesbarks, sits up, lies down, sits normal, waves paw, barksear/eye expressions, talks, moves feet up and down
Cuteness4 out of 53 out of 5 (maybe other color combos are cuter, but ours looks a little odd)
Command ExamplesSit, down, wanna treat, good dogHey furby... show me a dance, tell me a story, how are you
Min. Age to use semi-effectively(based on limited experience)4 years (my 3 year old just doesn't talk clearly enough for Scamps and doesn't understand the need to wait, but her 4 year old friend does just fine making Scamps sit and lie down)5 years (every command must be prefaced by "Hey Furby" then waiting for furby to respond, then the commands (which are long), a little tricky for 4 and younger)
FailuresUsually chalked up to being a stubborn/playful dogSince Furby can talk, it is obvious he doesn't understand, main misunderstanding is between "sing me a song" and "play a game"
Turning off (I can't really get sleep mode to work with either of them)Switch on bottom, when turned off forgets all training Switch on bottom, doesn't seem to forget, but since there isn't any training it is hard to tell
Length of play (how long my kids will play with it)10 min10 min

Personally, I like Scamps better. Scamps has the advantage of looking like a dog, so I expect it to act like one, and it does a reasonable job. Also, as a toddler entertainer, most kids know what to do with a dog, they aren't quite sure what Furby should be able to do.

Furby has a slightly higher standard held to it because it "talks" back to you. Furby's consistent misunderstanding of singing vs playing its game is hard because my daughter loves the song (weird version of Twinkle, Twinkle, little star) but not the game so much. The only way I've found to get it out of game mode is to turn it upside down.

My earlier Scamps review.

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