Hatchimals is a line of electronic pet style toys launched by the company Spinmaster on October 7th 2016. Their main gimmick and selling point is that they come packaged in a plastic egg and will hatch by themselves after being played with for long enough. Afterwards you can take care of them and play various games with them. It spawned various spinoff lines including Hatchimals CollEGGtibles, Hatchimals Pixies, and Hatchtopia Life as well as tons of licensed merchandise. The line ended in 2019 with Hatchimals Wow but a new reboot called Hatchimals Alive! released October 2024.
Releases[]
Original line[]
Original[]
The first ever line of hatchimals was released in 2016. The eyes would change color depending on how it is feeling and when the egg is ready to hatch the eyes will flash rainbow. Once the hatchimal is hatched you could play games with it. The hatchimal goes through different growth stages as you play with it and unlocks new games each growth stage. There were originally five hatchimal species: penguala, draggle, bearakeet (Target exclusive), owlcorn (Toy"R" us exclusive), and burtle (Walmart exclusive). The owlcorn species comes with a crystal nest. Each species came in two different color variants and you couldn't tell which one you were getting until the egg hatched (penguala and draggle both had 4 variants, 2 in one egg and 2 in a different egg). In 2017 the Glittering Garden series was released which was based around the Glittering Garden location from Hatchtopia. Glittering Garden has the same five species as the originals (and the exclusive species are at the same stores) but they are different colors and have sparkly fur. Also in 2017 the Golden Lynx was released which is a brand new species for the electronic pets and a Walmart Black Friday exclusive. In 2018 the last classic hatchimals set was made this time based on the Fabula Forest location in Hatchtopia. Two brand new hatchimal species were added for this release: tigrette (introduced in Hatchimals CollEGGtibles) and puffatoo.
Hatchimals Surprise[]
Hatchimals Surprise was released in 2017. The gimmick of this line is that two twin hatchimals hatch from the same egg. Once hatched the twins could interact with each other and play games together. This line had six completely new species that were not pulled from previous electronic pets or Hatchimals CollEGGtibles. The species for this line are as follows: peacat, giraven, zuffin (walmart exclusive), puppadee (Toys "R" Us exclusive), ligull (Target exclusive), and deeriole (Target exclusive).
Hatchimals Mystery[]
Hatchimals Mystery was released in 2018 and is based on the Cloud Cove location from Hatchtopia. The main gimmick of this line was you could get multiple possible species from one egg. The Hatchimals Mystery egg is the only egg to have nine possible outcomes in one egg instead of two. All of the species are from Hatchimals CollEGGtibles but completely new to the electronic pet line. The available species are as follows: bunwee, elefly, hedgyhen, pandor, and hamstar (secret rare). each hatchimal has 2 variants except for hamstar.
Hatchibabies[]
The Hatchibabies were released on October 4th 2018 (Hatchimals day). The gimmick for this line is that the hatchimals are babies forever. These hatchimals are the first to be able to rock while still in their egg. Included with the hatchimal is a birth certificate you can use to name your hatchimal. Once the egg is hatched and the hatchimal is taken out it will reveal three peel-to reveal compartments in the bottom of the egg that contain accessories. The accessories included are a bottle, rattle, cuddle toy, and brush. Once the accessories are taken out the plastic part in the bottom of the egg can be used as a high chair. The accessories would have different colors and molds depending on which hatchimal you got. There is also a compartment at the very bottom that has a secret message paper which reveals your hatchimal's gender and other things about them. They had 4 variations per species, 2 for each boy(blue) and girl(pink) hatchimals(not including kitsee and unikeet). There were eight total species available which is the most any line of electronic pets has had. All of the species were originally from Hatchimals CollEGGtibles (except kitsee) . The species are as follows: ponette, cheetree, chipadee (amazon exclusive), koalabee (walmart exclusive), foxfin (Walmart black Friday exclusive), monkiwi (Target exclusive), unikeet, and kitsee.
Hatchimals WOW[]
Hatchimals WOW was released in 2019. The main gimmick of this hatchimal is that its neck and legs can extend to make it grow taller. The Hatchimals WOW egg does not crack meaning this is the first and only hatchimal you can re-hatch. The hatchimal comes with a confetti fruit accessory that can be used to interact with the hatchimal. Llalacorn was the only species for Hatchimals WOW and it came in either pink or purple. This was the last electronic pet before the reboot.
Reboot[]
Hatchimals Alive! Mystery Hatch[]
Hatchimals Alive! Mystery Hatch a reboot of hatchimals that was released on October 4th 2024 (hatchimals day). During the hatching process the entire egg glows instead of just the eyes, it wiggles around, and mists which no other egg has done before. There are five species for this reboot with four returning from the previous iteration and one new species. The species are: draggle, pufficorn, tigrette (Amazon exclusive) , pandoo (Target exclusive) , and puppadee (Walmart exclusive).
Trivia[]
- On December 29, 2016, many people heard the Hatchimals say the F word while sleeping and it was on the news; however it was false, they were just snoring.
- When the toys originally released they were so popular that people were fighting over them in stores and scalpers were charging hundreds of dollars for them similar to what happened with furby or cabbage patch kids.
- Parents were complaining about their original hatchimals not hatching. This was due to the motors getting stuck or the egg was just taking a while to hatch. Spin master released a how to video and updated the hatching process in response to this.
- The original hatchimals were outlived by their spinoff line Hatchimals CollEGGtibles.