LED Eyes

Disclosure: This is not a compensated or sponsored post. I was provided the product for review purposes only. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The iconic toy getting a high-tech reboot that meets kids how they play today: It’s loaded with tiny sensors, comes with LCD eyes, talks and coos, and works with a corresponding app. I got my first look at this toy at Blogger Bash and it is as wonderful as it sounds.

The concept, developed by licensing company Wicked Cool Toys and Israel-based tech provider Seebo, aims to stir up nostalgia in parents who once loved the Cabbage Patch Kids with the hope they’ll share the modernized version with their own children. And stir up nostalgia it does: If you were ever part of the Cabbage Patch phenomenon, you can’t help but be charmed by the new doll.

The CPK Baby So Real doll comes with touch sensors on various parts of her body (feet, cheeks, legs, back, forehead) and LED lights embedded into her cheeks that glow red when she’s “sick.” When that happens, you’ll need to give her virtual medicine via the spoon accessory (also loaded with sensors, of course) to make her feel better. The doll has a motion sensor so she can sense when you’re trying to put her to sleep.

This being a modern high-tech toy, there’s of course a corresponding app. By pressing the on switch on the doll’s back, she’ll connect via Bluetooth to a phone or tablet (a small green light will shine on her back when it’s paired). The app has electronic versions of the classic Cabbage Patch Kid adoption papers and birth certificate. You can also give the doll a name of your choosing.

Baby So Real is incredibly sensitive to touch. By covering her eyes to play peek-a-boo or tickling her feet, she’ll laugh and play along. If you stop feeding her with the bottle, she’ll ask for more. Crying is kept to a minimum to keep it from dissuading a child from playing with it.

Whatever happens in real life (bottle feeding, burping and diaper changes) is reflected within the app via the doll’s onscreen avatar. The app is designed to look like you’re peeking in on a baby monitor, so you’ll be able to watch the digital baby react to how you’re playing with it in real life. For example, when you give her a bottle, you’ll see the avatar holding and drinking one of her own.

The Baby So Real doll is available with three eye-color options (brown, green and blue) and three skin tones (white, black and olive). While you can adjust the skin tone of the app’s baby avatar from directly within the app — the doll’s skin, however, doesn’t change in real life — you’re unable to update the eye color (you’d need to make sure you pick the one you want at time of purchase).

Wicked Cool Toys said the doll, which will cost $99.99 when it launches in fall 2016, will likely get a boy version in the future.