Luvabella Doll! I knew my gremlin, who is is baby and doll obsessed, would love them. Whenever I used to come and get her from nursery she would always say she had played babies. She loves to make up games and take care of her dolls. When we were told we were receiving one of the new amazing looking, interactive Luvabella Dolls from Spinmaster to review, we were both been mega excited. I have had a lot of repeated questions, asking when it was coming.
This doll is tipped to be one of the Christmas toys that so many kids will want. The toy of the season! It is that cool and innovative. It can be always hard to choose a gift but Luvabella is perfect!
I can see why.
Luvabella Dolls – What Do They Do?
On the wait for this doll, I have read some of the hype over social media. There have been some mixed reactions over Luvabella.
Why?
It is VERY life-like and very interactive. I decided before I accepted the review to ask my eldest to have a look at it on an online video first. She was unbelievably excited to be receiving her “real dolly”. She wasn’t fussed about it being too life like in the slightest!! So it may be a novel, even slightly odd idea for an adult to have such a life like dolly but ultimately who is playing with it? Who is going to completely fall in love with it?
The children.
That is all that matters and to them it is awesome.
And I have to agree.
Luvabella dolls respond to you, like a real baby. Show them love and affection and their facial expressions change. They talk, move and play. You can play peek a boo and hear her giggle and listen to her chest for her heartbeat. Hold her feet and she will say “Mama” and babble. The exciting thing is the more you play and talk to her, the more she will talk too and she has a repertoire of 100 clear words and phrases. Use her spoon to feed her and she’ll chew, asking for more if not full. Luvabella will learn new animal names and sounds with her Lamby toy! If she gets fussy, all she needs is her dummy. When it’s time to go to bed after a big day of play, lull her to sleep with her bottle.
Features
Luvabella comes as a blonde or dark haired dolly.
- True-to-life facial expressions and movements. Her eyes actually seen the light or dark.
- Tickle her and she giggles – if you tickle her feet or belly she really laughs.
- She plays peek-a-boo – gently cover her eyes with you hands or material. She will start to make curious sounds and when you move your hand or material away, she will say “Peek-a-boo!”
- She reacts to her spoon, bottle and dummy. You can spoon feed her, give her a dummy to soothe her to sleep and bottle feed her too.
- Luvabella will tell you she is hungry by saying “eat please” or “me hungry” and you can feed her with the spoon.
- You can burp her by gently patting her back a few times.
- She loves to play with her Lamby. You bring the animal accessory to her mouth and you should hear a kissing sound signalling she has entered playtime. The animal helps her to say new animal name.
- She will say Mama and Dadda if you hold both her feet. It is possible to change from either Mama or Dada, depending on who is playing with her.
- She is capable of learing over 100 words and phrases! She will learn new animal names and sounds and new types of food, as examples.
- The more you play the more she learns ! As you interact with her she’ll expand her vocabulary from baby babble to over 100 words and complete phrases!
- Kids will have a natural nurturing experience as they feed, burp, play and soothe their own baby
- Contents: A Luvabella doll, a removable dress, a set of removable bottoms, a removable bow, 4 interactive accessories: Spoon, Bottle, Soother, Lamby and instructions
- Batteries Required: 4 C cell batteries (not included)
Luvabella is not a cheap dolly, retailing at £99.99 and is recommended for children age 4 years and up.
What Did We Think?
Honestly? We have been blown away by this doll. My daughter received it at 10.30am on a Saturday morning. Three hours later she was still playing with her!
Luvabella was quite easy to set up. As mentioned in the features, no batteries are included so we made sure we had bought some. You unscrew her back with a screwdriver and slot them in and screw the back on. She’s ready to go.
The gremlin was a little apprehensive at first and asked me to hold her but once she started to get to know Luvabella. she fell in love with her pretty quickly. I have barely had a look in. I like the way you have to get to know her; I guess like you would with a real baby.
Although the gremlin’s baby sister is obviously far too young for Luvabella, she was completely mesmorised too and was NOT happy when her big sister did not give her a look in. Poor thing!
I was amazed at how lifelike Luvabella was. The “skin” on her face is so realistic and soft and her eyes are really cool. She will look around, blink and respond to you. I love how they can sense the light and dark.
For the gremlin feeding her with her bottle and spoon and using the dummy were by far the most her favourite things to do. You do have to be careful not to shove anything into her mouth. Luvabella will yawn and you can pop her dummy in or bottle to soothe her. If you bring the spoon to her mouth she will open it and say “ahhhhh”. Then you can gently place the spoon.
My little one was also quite fascinated by hearing her heart beat when she put her hand on her chest. She also adored putting her down to sleep and waking her up. Luvabella is really cute as she gets tired and starts to yawn. I love how her eyes also start to droop too. She can be put to sleep and woken up by pressing the back button. It is also advised to switch off Luvabella when not playing with her to conserve the batteries.
You can easily move her legs to lie her down and sit her up easily.
The Good
– The whole concept of the doll is brilliant. Luvabella is interactive, cute and a complete delight for a small child who loves playing with dolls.
– She allows a small child to do everything they would want to do with a doll; feed them with both a bottle and spoon, give them a tummy and put them to bed. My daughter was truly delighted when she started to respond to her, giggles and when Luvabella called her “Mama”.
– It’s amazing how her vocabulary increases over time. As I said before, my daughter was delighted to hear new phrases. You could tell she thought Luvabella really loved her.
– Luvabella is easy to get to grips with. The gremlin soon learnt what she needed to do and the instructions were very clear for me to help her get the most out of her.
– The price. Some may say Luvabella is expensive and yes she is BUT she is worth it for what she does as a product and the true delight on my daughter’s face is completely worth it.
The Not so Good
– You have to buy batteries. This is always a slight bugbear of mine, as it cost hubby about £9 for a pack of 6, 4 of which we would use.
– Luvabella is quite heavy compared to a normal doll, so I definitely think the age recommended age of 4 years and up and is perfect. A younger child may also be more heavy handed.
– She does make a noise when her body moves. I noticed this but the gremlin didn’t however so depends how you look at it.
Video
Overall
Overall I really do love this product. The true happiness it has brought to my daughter is priceless. She absolutely loves it. Yes, at first it can feel a little strange when you see how interactive and life-like Luvabella is but this soon passes when you learn what she can do as a doll.
It is a costly present but it will make children extremely happy this Christmas. If you have a child who loves to play with babies and dolls, this will make all their games come to life even more. You will get a LOT of smiles and excitement.
I would fully recommend.
If you are keen to see Spinmaster’s toy of the year for 2018, check out my Hatchimals HatchiBabies review.
Disclosure – we were provided with Luvabella free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
