If your daughter is one of the many girls obsessed with Pixie Hollow, then this year’s gift list will probably feature Techno Source and Disney Consumer Products’ new Clickables Fairy Collection featuring Disney Fairies. Pixie Hollow is Disney’s newest virtual world, and over 7.5 million Disney Fairies avatars have already been created. Girls can escape into Tinker Bell’s world to help bring about the change of seasons by meeting friends, playing games, and collecting items in nature.
You don’t have to buy any of the Clickables toys to join the online world. The toys simply give your child another way to incorporate fun on the computer with fun with friends in real life. Pixie Hollow is free to play, but to take full advantage of all the site offers, you have to buy a membership package: The monthly rate is $5.95, semi-annual is $29.95, and annual is $57.95.
Whether or not your daughter has a membership, the Clickables Fairy Collection lets her unlock special content for use in the Pixie Hollow virtual world. Each Clickables toy comes with a charm–some with more than one–which girls use to unlock secret gifts. And each Clickables device, such as the jewelery box, handheld game, and friendship bracelet (all pictured above), has a Y-shaped sensor. When the sensor is touched by the matching sensor on a charm or friendship bracelet, information is able to be transferred and stored.
Each charm unlocks special clothing, accessories, or decor for your online Pixie Hollow avatar. The charms can be shared with an infinite number of friends, so you can get a new barrette from one friend and a new skirt from another. The Clickables Fairy Friendship Bracelet ($19.99) lets your daughter become friends with whoever she touches her bracelet to.
When she plugs the bracelet into the computer with the provided USB cable, she can then accept her new friends and items; when she logs into Pixie Hollow, her new friends and items will be there for her to play with. One advantage of the Clickables toys is that you know your daughter is playing with people she actually knows, rather than random strangers. Disney takes thorough measures to keep the site safe, but it’s hard to tell who’s who on the Web.
The Clickables Fairy Charms Starter Set ($29.99), which includes a jewelry box and charm necklace with three charms, makes it easy to add charms to a fairy. When I tried using the jewelery box, though, I encountered some problems: It didn’t do what the instructions said it was supposed to. I tried changing the batteries, but still, nothing happened.
The instructions that came with the jewelery box tell you to press the activation button and that the jewelery box will light up. This just wasn’t happening for me. What it doesn’t say is that you have to hold the button down for an undetermined time before the box lights up and makes a sound. Then, you’re told to touch the back of the charm of the Clickable sensor to the top of your jewelry box. You have to hold the charm in place until the lights flash, which sometimes takes a few seconds, but can also takes much longer.
Then I accidentally dropped the box from about 3 feet up, and what do you know? It worked. So, after trying the box with two sets of new batteries and then calling someone to help me, all it took was to knock it off my desk (this is not actually recommended!). The box is also difficult to open.
As for the Clickables Fairy Game, the electronic handheld LCD game ($19.99), has five different games to choose from. The player scores points, which turn into Tink Points online. The user plugs the game into the computer with a USB cable, and can transfer the points to their account that way.
The device also has the Y-shaped sensor that allows the player to transfer the points she’s earned to a friend’s jewelery box or friendship bracelet. The points let you buy a butterfly to follow your fairy around. The game’s screen is very small, while the body of the device is quite clunky. It’s difficult to see what’s on the screen, and the graphics are very rudimentary, even for a child’s game.
All in all, I wasn’t very impressed with the line of Clickables toys. There’s not much you can do with them after you have unlocked the charms, and the jewelery doesn’t look like something girls would want to wear regularly. As for the game itself, if you don’t pay for a membership to Pixie Hollow, playing the game seems somewhat pointless. You play to collect items and gain points, but then can’t put these to use unless you′re a member. Bottom line: If your daughter simply must play Pixie Hollow, I’d recommend you pay for a membership and skip the toys.
Update: Corrected prices.
Original post by Jennifer Bergen
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