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Wonder Pets: This is Serious Ming-Ming

Wonder Pets: This is Serious Ming-Ming; Fisher Price, recommended age 18months+, MSRP. $37.99USD.

The Wonder Pets is one of Nick Jr.'s hot preschool favorites. The three fuzzy little caped crusaders are adorable and endearing. It's easy to understand why kids love 'em.

Ming Ming, the little yellow duckling who always proclaims, "This is se-wious!", is a favorite of the three. In a year of everything animatronics it is understandable that this little yellow quacker should claim her rightful place it the hot toys.

Ming Ming is a plucky little duck who entertains young children with her signature phrases, songs, and dance moves. When Ming-Ming answers her can phone, she proclaims "This is se-wious!" and then proceeds to dance to the Wonder Pets theme song. Although it really looks more like she is skating, she glides in a semi figure eight and her cape waves. This was a favorite with the crew. She then proceeds to ask kids to accompany her on her next rescue mission to save the baby animals like the "pa-watt", aka parrot.

As cute and funny as we found this duckling, we had a few "wittle" issues with Ming Ming.

As is the case with almost all of the mechanical critters the gear mechanism hum is a bit distracting, but you can live with it. Ming Ming does her little dance only on hard, flat, smooth surfaces. If she bumps into anything at all, or is picked up during her performance, she sticks in the leg up position. Not the greatest plan when making a toy for 18 month olds.

If you wait until she is quiet and push the toe button she resets herself. This is mentioned in the instructions as well. This biggest disappointment for the Crew was that Ming Ming was neither soft nor cuddly. She is hard bodied with yellow fur over her inner workings, she has pliable, plastic stick pieces inside the cloth wings and cape, enabling them to flap.

The Crew also would have liked her to say a little more. It did spark the imagination in those who were fans of the show. Some of the kids did go off and make plans to save the baby pa-watt from Pirate Island. Some of the Crew also imitated animal noises and responded when asked, "who says Moo?"; they danced when she danced, and sang the theme song. So it did initiate play which is always a good thing and we feel the basic point of this toy.

All in all Ming Ming is cute. She made everyone giggle and laugh for awhile but lacked substance to keep anyone around for too long. This is a great addition if you are a collector, or if your little one is a hard core Wonder Pets fan.

About the Author: Mary Rose is a Mommy, a writer and an early childhood educator who believes in learning through play and the value of good toys.