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Hatchimals Won’t Hatch, Barbie Hello Dreamhouse Door Won’t Open: Complaints Pour In About 2016’s Hottest Christmas Toys

Published on: December 27, 2016 at 6:08 PM ET
Aaron Homer
Written By Aaron Homer
News Writer

Two of the hottest toys of 2016 – Hatchimals and the Barbie Hello Dreamhouse – have turned out to be the source of tears, anger, and disappointment to parents and kids across the country, CNBC is reporting .

Every Christmas, it seems, there are one or two hot toys that every child just has to have: in the ’80s it was Cabbage Patch Kids; in the ’90s it was Tickle Me Elmo. And in 2016, it was Hatchimals and the Barbie Hello Dreamhouse.

Unfortunately, it seems that parents – some of whom spent hundreds of dollars and/or waited in long lines for the hot toys – are finding to their dismay that they toys just don’t work. Either they don’t work as advertised, or they don’t work at all.

Hatchimals Won’t Hatch

If you’re not familiar with Hatchimals – a portmanteau of the words “hatch” and “animal” – the concept works like this: you buy a plastic egg, and then once it’s unwrapped on Christmas morning (or Boxing Day for Canadian and British readers), the happy child holds, caresses, and plays with the plastic egg. That motion sends a signal to a processor inside the device, and after a period of time – ostensibly less than an hour or so – the stuffed animal toy inside will slowly peck its way outside of the plastic egg. Voila! Now your child has a new, interactive friend! Your child can teach the new toy to talk, walk, and play games.

That’s the theory, anyway. As it turns out, though, several parents have found that their kids Hatchimals simply won’t hatch.

Other parents have reported that, once the Hatchimal hatched, the batteries wore out pretty quickly.

Making matters worse, some parents have reported calling manufacturer SpinMaster for customer service, only to be put on hold for hours, and even getting disconnected without getting any help.

Barbie Hello Dreamhouse? More Like Barbie Nightmare House

If parents who bought Hatchimals for their kids are disappointed, they’ve got nothing on parents who shelled out $300 or more for the Barbie Hello Dreamhouse.

Ostensibly, the Barbie Hello Dreamhouse , according to manufacturer Mattel, “allows you to customize and create your own sounds throughout the house… Hello Dreamhouse must be connected to your Wi-Fi network. You can always ask Hello Dreamhouse for help or explore the companion app for videos of more ways to play.”

So imagine it’s Christmas morning (or Boxing Day morning – do we really have to keep doing this?). Your excited little girl has just torn off the packaging on her new favorite toy, you’ve installed that batteries, read all of the arcane instructions, you think it’s ready to go, and:

“Error Code 18”

“Error Code 11”

Frustrated parents have found that Error Code 18 has something to do with networking, and 11 prevents the front door from opening. None of that is any comfort to the thousands of disappointed boys and girls across the country whose $300 Christmas gift is now a worthless hunk of plastic and microchips.

For what it’s worth, Mattel has tweeted – multiple times – that they are “aware” of the issue, although how or when they’re going to fix it is anyone’s guess.

Have you had any problems with Hatchimas or the Barbie Hello Dreamhouse?

[Featured Image by Ollyy /Shutterstock]

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