TOMY does it again! | Pet and Talk Terapagos Review

When I checked TOMY Japan's website to see if there was another talking Pokémon plush similar to the Sprigatito and Fuecoco plushies released last year (which I own), I saw a talking Terapagos based on the anime (which I've never seen when it the series came out but I've seen an image of Liko holding her Terapagos)! I was hoping that they would release Quaxly, but sadly, they never did.

Based on the translated description of the website, it acts similar to the two plushies. Basically, if you talk, it will respond, has a special voice command and it has a special feature on the plush (Sprigatito's feature was "petting" it's head (I tried saying it's Japanese name because some sites claim that if you say its name, it will react in a special way but it doesn't) and Fuecoco's was rubbing it's stomach and it had two commands: Hogeta (JP name for Fuecoco) and Hinoko (Ember in Japanese)). 

I bought it from an eBay seller as a pre-order instead of Meccha Japan (since I dealt with their slow shipping when I bought Sprigatito) and when it was the 14th in Japan, the seller shipped it out fast! And I managed to get it in the mail through FedEx on 9/16 (who never rang the doorbell... shaking my head).

Terapagos takes 3 AAA batteries. This plush is very cute and I love the materials used but I have some cons that I will get to later.

I turned it on, and my gosh, its voice is adorable! The glow on the back is nice. I'll share a photo of the glow in a dark room.

You talk to Terapagos and it replies. TOMY's site said the more you talk to it, the more it will respond. You can pet the back of it and it will react! Also, if you say its name, it will react to it! I think when I used its Japanese name, it reacted in a special way vs. when I used its English name through Google Translate.

Now, I will get to the cons.

I'm not a fan of the battery pack. I thought there was no on/off switch, but when I looked at the side of the box, it showed where the switch was. I thought it would be like the Sprigatito and Fuecoco plushies where they had a hard battery pack (to hide the mechanisms). Here, it's just a loose voicebox with the area where the lights are (to show it glowing). If the lights were hidden inside the plush while the battery pack was connected through wires (like the Electronic Pikachu plush from the 90s), that would be great.

My second con is the petting feature. I had trouble trying to get it to react to me petting it on the back. Maybe it could be the sensor of the voice box or the material of the back, I'm not sure. I wish it was a button instead like with Sprigatito's "petting on the head" feature. When I did take its voicebox out and petted it on the sensor twice, it did sing but then I did it again for a video on this blog and it wouldn’t do it.

Update: turns out, you’re supposed to stroke it. Still, I had a hard time triggering it to sing.

Third, similar to Fuecoco, when it shuts off/goes to sleep, you have to turn it off and on again. When the Sprigatito plush goes to sleep, you could easily wake it up by pressing its head. I wish you could wake it up by pressing its back. Also, it seems to shut off after it begs for you twice. After the second try, it falls asleep. 

Finally,  I thought it would be big, but it appears to be it's actual size in the anime/games. I don't think it deserves to be in a big box. Never judge a box by it's cover or size.

I'm not being too harsh on this plush because Terapagos is adorable and it's still worth it if you're a fan of the Pokémon. When its normal form was revealed before the DLC, I wasn't a fan of its design. But I've gotten used to it and liked it after looking at it again. I haven't encountered it in game because of how far behind I am in part 2 of the DLC. I guess this might be the most disappointing TOMY Pokémon plush released based on the recent anime to me? I wish it had some electronics in there like blinking or moving besides the glowing, but nah... just a voice box with a light on top.

Here's my rating on this plush: 4.5/5 - despite my cons, it's adorable. Again, the voice is super cute and I bet that there are Terapagos fans out there who would love this plush.

In order of TOMY Pokémon (2022) plushies from best to eh...:

1. Sprigatito

2. Fuecoco

3. Terapagos

I plan to re-review the plushies I already reviewed on my channel (Sprigatito and Fuecoco coming soon) and future plushies here (if TOMY manages to release another plush similar to the 3, I will review it here).

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Terapagos plush website (TOMY JP) (Archive) | Not even joking, on TOMY's Japanese store, it's almost gone!