Kung Zhu Battle Arena

In an earlier post I wrote about the latest additions to the Zhu Zhu Hamsters range of toys. What I didn't mention in that post was that the same company behind them (Cepia LLC) has also created an additional range of hamsters and accessories aimed at boys. So how do you make cute electronic Hamsters appealing to boys? Easy, you give them armour, tanks and weapons, and then make them fight each other! Oh, and you also give them a name that implies fighting - Kung Zhu Hamsters!

At the time of writing this post there are eight Kung Zhu Hamsters available, four of these belong to the Special Forces faction, and the other four belong to the rival faction Ninja Warriors. Azer, Drayko, Thorn and Yama make up the Ninja Warriors. While Rivet, Rocko, Sergeant Serge and Stonewall make up the Special Forces.

Before the Hamsters are ready to fight they need to undergo extensive training, and this is possible through the various playsets. They include a wheel of fire, bases for each faction,  plus four different training grounds - each with it's own specific challenges and obstacles.

Obviously you can't expect hamsters to fight naked! Which is where the armour sets come in, they include lots of different kinds of weapons from war hammers to laser canons, and provide decent protection in battle. The two factions have their own armour sets - the ninja's have Blizzard Jenin, Dark Jonin, Fire Chunin and Shadow Jonin. And the special forces hamsters have Ambush, Dune Tracker, Night Raid and Thunderstrike.

For really tough battles the Kung Zhu Hamsters also have the option of using vehicles which offer greater protection and impressive looking weapons. The vehicles include Buzz Saw which has chainsaw style blades, Rhino Tank which has machine and laser guns, Scorpion Tank which has moving claws and spinning blades, and finally Spider Skull which features missiles and machine guns plus two pincers mounted on the front.

So once the hamsters are trained and kitted out with armour or vehicles, there's only one thing left to do… fight! These fights take place in the most important playset in the range - the Kung Zhu Battle Arena. The arena is circular in shape and combatants enter via two underground tunnels. With it's red and grey colour scheme and decorated with flags, it certainly looks the part. The Kung Zhu Battle Arena is big enough to hold around four hamsters at a time, but in reality it will probably work best when there are just two hamsters in - as any more than that could get a bit chaotic.

The Kung Zhu Battle Arena doesn't include any Hamsters,  these will need to be purchased separately, as will the armour sets. The Arena retails for around £30 and the Hamsters and Armour retail for around £10 and £8 respectively.  Just like their Zhu Zhu counterparts, the Kung Zhu range is tipped to be one of Christmas 2010's top selling toys, so if you like the sound of them you might want to snap them up early!

View a video of the Kung Zhu Hamsters and the Kung Zhu Battle Arena playset.