Hatching Dragons Toothless - How to Train Your Dragon Toy Review (age 5+) Sent by Spinmaster

Spinmaster's Hatching Dragon arrives as a gorgeous interactive egg and pretty soon hatches into Toothless, from How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. We've been sent him to review and he's been a definite hit. Cute, but no too cute...

The packaging does include some single use plastic, but is mainly card and more minimal than I found with toys even this time last year.

Your toy arrives with batteries, and how long they last after hatching will depend on how much it's been disturbed during storage. Replacements will be 2 x AA if/when you need them. Definitely Christmas morning-friendly, in 2 minutes the egg is out of the box and you are playing.

The only other items in the box except for the egg are instructions and a fish for your baby dragon to eat. Before your baby dragon in it's egg will 'come to life' you need to remove the two keys underneath. Just twist and pull off. He should wake up immediately!

The tagline is Hatch, Train, Play - but maybe it should be Play, Hatch, Train, Play because you really can play with the egg. It is very clever and will tap back at you, echoing the number of 'taps' you made.

By shaking it, turning it upside down and otherwise interacting, you can get a variety of responses from your egg. You can see lights through the egg and it's very exciting. Your baby dragon will go to sleep if you leave him though - so he won't hatch by himself when you aren't there!

Hatching started quite quickly, around half an hour after my son started playing with his dragon. He played with it a lot. You can obviously extend this time by letting it rest or go to sleep. You can just hear the telltale engine whirring over the noises the dragon inside makes.

There is likely to come a point when your dragon won't come out by himself any more, and you have to give him a little helping hand by moving some of the shell. By that point you'll be able to see a lot of Baby Toothless already.

The photos don't really do him justice, he's actually incredibly cute and my boys were delighted with him - even at 9 and 11! He chatters and growls away at you, and is very interactive.

Underneath he has a rotating wheel with numbers. It's really easy to turn and changes the mode of play with Toothless. When he arrives he's set to 1 - and he does have an Off!

0 = Off
1 = Autonomous Mode
2 = Dragon Trainer
3 = Roar Back
4 = Ask Toothless
5 = Dragon Fire
6 = Follow The Alpha
7 = Dragon Dance

It's impossible to show you properly without video, so here is ours. It shows my boys playing with the egg, hatching the Baby Toothless dragon and all of the different modes and games he plays.

He is very impressive and very cute. When he flies and his little wings flap away, you genuinely can't help but say "awwww". His big bright eyes are incredibly friendly, and he's made from a very slightly rubbery patterned plastic which feels warmer and softer than regular plastic toys.

No surprises Toothless is a real hit here. He's good value for the money and will no doubt make a lot of children very happy on Christmas morning. He's an expensive toy and in our house would be a main present, but if my children were very keen on How To Train Your Dragon then I'd have no qualms about buying him.

Hatching Dragon Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is distributed by Spinmaster and available to buy now from all good toy stores rrp £59.99 - a fair price for a toy which has so much capability, especially for fans. Amazon affiliate link below:

We were sent our Hatching Dragon Toothless by Spinmaster for review. Amazon links are affiliate and I earn a few pence if you buy through my link, as a thank you for taking the time to add it. It helps keep The Brick Castle running..