Baby Annabell Learns to Walk - Review

I am a massive fan of the Zapf Creation brand. I'm 24 now and I remember owning both Baby Born and Baby Annabell dolls when I was little. Every time I had money I would be buying them new clothes for them at the toy shop. Fast forward 22 years, I have my own daughter and the Zapf Creation brand is still as wonderful as it was then so we purchased a My First Baby Annabell for E's first birthday. She takes her doll everywhere with her so I was really excited to be able to review a doll that is a bit of a step up from that one - Baby Annabell Learns to Walk.

When I first showed E the box she was really excited to have a new baby and was very impressed by her beautiful pink hat and floral bodysuit. She comes without batteries (takes 3 AA ones) so I let her have a little play and cuddle whilst I dug some out. She took to her straight away but when I first inserted the batteries and turned her on, she got a little freaked out by the crying and babbling sounds. The doll is recommended for ages 3+ so it could have just been that E is a little young as she's just shy of two years old. Once she saw her brother playing and laughing she totally came round to her.

The doll is called Baby Annabell Learns to Walk but she does so much more than that. Baby Annabell's hands, legs and head are poseable and in the instruction leaflet you are shown which ways to position the doll to get her to do certain things. By having her hands flat on the ground, knees bent and head up, Baby Annabell will crawl. If you sit her flat on her bum, face forward and arms down, she will throw a tantrum if she's sat too long and if you place her feet on the floor, lift her hands and hold them as if you're guiding her to walk, she will walk. Whilst doing all these actions she will either cry, babble or say "mama". If she is crying, after around 25 seconds she will give in and fall asleep. We have wooden floors in our living room so these would be slippery and Baby Annabel wouldn't move so we had to ensure that we placed her on a rug so she would have some friction behind her.

It does take some playing about to get used to placing her in these positions. E obviously does struggle with being a bit too little but her big brother at almost 4 years old is absolutely loving looking after Baby Annabell. E's favourite feature is that her eyes close if you lie her down. The button on her bellybutton is also something that E is constantly pressing. This makes Baby Annabell giggle which in turn makes E giggle and it is just the cutest thing to watch. Both E and C love playing with her so she isn't a toy that is just for girls. After just having soft bodied dolls, I think that they really enjoy having one that's a bit more interactive.

Baby Annabell Learns to Walk retails at £49.99 and is available from all major toy retailers. You can find out more about the range at the Baby Annabell website and you can also keep up to date on Facebook and Twitter.

(We received this item for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)