Hatchimals

Hatchimals are a toy created by Spin Master described as a “magical creature inside colorful speckled eggs.” A Hatchimal is unlike a regular toy, instead of unboxing the toy from typical packaging and being able to immediately play, a child unpacks the toy and cares for an egg, which the Hatchimal hatches out of after a period of time. Over time, users interact with the Hatchimal as it progresses from an egg, to a hatching egg, to a baby, to a toddler, and eventually to a child. Users have the ability to reset the Hatchimal at any time.

A Hatchimal provides feedback to a user through sounds and different colored eyes (e.g. light blue eyes representing a Hatchimal that is cold, teal eyes representing a Hatchimal that is learning to talk).

Connection

The novelty and interaction patterns of a Hatchimal provide a helpful example of how an artifact can communicate without words. Whether it be through sounds (e.g. baby sounds) that everyone has an understanding of or a Hatchimal’s ever changing colored eyes, which users are able to glean information from regardless of its small set of possible states. Similar strategies could be applied to an artifact regardless of its complexity. One might even see an argument for limiting the mechanisms an artifact can enact.

Questions

• How does the sometimes faulty nature (Hatchimals need to take a break from time to time) of a Hatchimal effect its users connection to the toy?
• How much of the adult interest in Hatchimals is due to the novelty of the toy? Or is there a deeper interest in seeing how one’s action can initiate a reaction from an inanimate object?