KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was the hot item this Christmas season: Hatchimals. Countless kids around the country got their holiday excitement levels to all-time highs as they anticipated opening up that prized present, and then, more importantly, watching that present come to life.
“I was like almost crying in my room,” says Khloe Gast, whose gift from Santa doesn’t work.
Parents helped Santa by standing in lines for hours in hopes of getting their hands on one of the hottest toys this holiday season.
It’s all many kids wanted to unwrap Christmas morning, now some of those kids say their Hatchimals won’t hatch.
Families in the metro are dealing with the disappointment.
“I was like really freaking out, I was upset, I tried to wake it up,” Khloe said.
Eight-year-old Khloe Gast woke up Christmas morning excited to see what Santa brought.
That excitement turned to tears when she opened the Hatchimal she had been wanting for weeks.
“They come in screaming and crying hysterically, Santa got me a fake Hatchimal! It’s fake! It’s not working,” said Khloe’s mom, Sarah.
Sarah said most places were sold out of them, some being sold online for hundreds, even thousands of dollars.
Santa was able to find them out of state at Target for Khloe and her six-year-old sister, Alexis, whose Hatchimal did work.
“He had already partially hatched out of his egg. She already got him out of the box, enabled him, and he started spinning, and pecking his way out…the other one did nothing,” Sarah explained.
“It doesn’t even work, and that spoils the whole day,” Khloe said.
“That’s hard when you’re eight years old for Christmas to spend your morning crying,” said Sarah. “I was just distraught, because here’s one child, she’s playing with it, she’s so excited, she’s loving on it, and it’s doing all sorts of cool stuff, and the other one is just sitting there staring at her.”
But the Gasts are definitely not the only family having issues.
“On Christmas day, he went to open it, and it ended up not hatching. We had to pull it apart, and it still is taking a very long nap, hasn’t woken up yet,” said Madison Lichtenauer.
Lichtenauer said her mother-in-law waited in line in the cold before the store even opened to get one for her grandson.
“My mother-in-law drove from Iowa to here to watch him open this, and for it not to work, I think it was a really big disappointment for her not to see him excited,” Lichtenauer added.
Both families said they followed all the directions, changed batteries, tried everything, but nothing helped.
Both emailed the company but got an automatic response.
“All of them should be working. If they’re a lot of money, they should be working,” Khloe said.
Spin Master — the company that makes the toy — released a YouTube video to help parents troubleshoot.
Some suggestions include waiting until it’s quiet and then tap the toy again.
Turning the egg upside down for eight seconds.
Then, turn the egg right side up and try tapping it again after it’s quiet.
There are also plastic locks located under the egg that need to be in the correct position.
Spin Master released a statement.
Spin Master is committed to making life more fun for children around the world with all of our products.
While the vast majority of children have had a magical experience with Hatchimals, we have also heard from consumers who have encountered challenges. We are 100% committed to bringing the magic of Hatchimals to all of our consumers. To ensure all queries receive a timely response, we have increased the number of Consumer Care representatives, extended our hours, and increased the capacity for callers in the queue to help prevent calls dropped due to the holiday volume. We have also created troubleshooting tips on Hatchimals.com and a video with the Top 5 Things To Know About Hatchimals.
We are committed to doing everything possible to resolve any consumer issues. We sincerely apologize and thank everyone who is experiencing an issue for their patience.
Spin Master’s Consumer Care team can be reached at customercare@spinmaster.com.
