Holy crap, this thing might have been even creepier than Furby (yes, it is possible!), though in a completely different way.
Puppy/Kitty Surprise (the two main pets available, although bunnies, horses, and bears were also available) was an adorable stuffed animal that came with a mama animal and a bunch of babies. Cute!
Except the surprise was HOW MANY BABIES YOU COULD RIP OUT OF THE STUFFED ANIMAL’S INSIDES.
Fun, right?
Basically, the dog (here, ‘dog’ will stand for all the incarnations of the ‘mama animal’) had a velcoed-closed stomach, and the ‘surprise’ was how many puppies (‘puppies’ meaning any of the ‘baby animals’) were inside. The number ranged from one puppy up to five puppies—surprise! So you bought the dog, unvelcroed its stomach, reached into its insides, and pulled out all the babies. And then when you were done, YOU STUFFED THEM BACK UP INSIDE FOR SAFE KEEPING.
I mean, was this a bizarre kind of kids-play-C-section or what? Who wants to be part of the animal birth process? And this thing is supposed to be a TOY?
And yet so many kids look fondly back on this toy, because never underestimate the power of kids’ love for adorable baby animals, even if we do have to pull them from the mama first. I don’t think I ever had a Puppy Surprise (or maybe I’m just hoping I didn’t), but I’m sure I wanted one. Even I was not immune to the pull of the adorable puppies and kitties.
Besides being creepy, this toy was pretty unfair when you think about it. I mean, you pay the same for the ‘same’ toy, but you could get one puppy while your friend gets five? I don’t know if I’d call that ‘surprise.’ I might just call that ‘a scam.’ And why did the puppies come out with ribbons around their necks? How did the ribbons get there in the first place?
i remember the sales jingle for this. surprise surprise how many puppies are there inside. there could be 2 or 3 or 4 or 5!!!! (wow how sad was that)
ReplyDeleteLOL LOVE IT!!!
ReplyDeleteI had one of these and I kept one of the puppies. (I was one of the luck kids who got the max amount of puppies, but two of them were blind and one of them pink.) My daughter now plays with the puppy and asked me where it came from. Thank you for posting this with pictures so I could show her rather then try and explain that you took them out of the moms tummy. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe ribbons were colored pink or blue and determined if it was a boy are a girl, they were also sold individually. I never got one brand new but over the years i have come up with 2 mommy dogs and 2 mommy kitties all with atleast 3 babies. My daughter loves playing with them now!!
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm late to the game here, but all of the Puppy and Kitty Surprise dolls came with at least 3 babies. Getting more was rare. Only one of my friends had more than 3 puppies or kittens and the rest of us only got 3. I loved that toy!
ReplyDeleteI had one of these growing up! I loved it! My mom owns a daycare now and we still have 1 of the puppies there but idk what happened to all the others.
ReplyDeleteThey all came with at least 3 babies. I had one with 3 puppies and one with 4 ponies.
ReplyDeleteLol! I love this! I was just explaining to my bf the "Surprise Puppy" and had to show him a picture. So happy I found this blog bc you literally hit everything we said- especially sbout the csection. Hahahaha~fabulous
ReplyDeleteThey have now returned in stores.... :)
ReplyDelete