Walmart Exclusive "Kid Connection" Shark Play Set Review:
Walmart has expanded their 3.75" scaled line of "Kid Connection" playsets quite a bit this year with new entries in their dinosaurs, construction, civilian and military lines and the introduction of their new farm and safari lines. One of their new sets is the $4.97 "Shark Play Set" I am about to review.
Last year saw the release of a large $14.97 set containing reissues of several Chap Mei pieces including a large great white shark with lever activated chomping action, a smaller static tiger shark, a great boat with a light and sounds searchlight, 2 figures, a large coral diorama element and a great accessory tree. That set is getting a refresh that should be out any day now that replaces the small static tiger shark with a larger, unspecified species of shark with lever activated biting action.
The same new shark is also available in a smaller $4.97 set with a new boat, a light and sound searchlight (recycled from the larger set), a figure (recycled from the larger set and several older Chap Mei and "Animal Planet" sets) and an accessory tree based on previously released accessories.
The set is a bit of a disappointment for a few reasons:
The shark is stubby and oddly shaped. The tail is too short and thick in relation to the body. The lower jaw is also too short compared to the upper jaw so the shark has a very noticeable overbite. The lever activated biting feature is also poorly designed as there is very little range of motion in the jaw, this combined with the overbite just makes this shark feel like a half-assed effort.
The boat is pretty nice until you turn it over and see that it is hollow on the reverse. The sculpt is, otherwise, serviceable and the add-ons (searchlight and antenna) as well as the movable oars are well done, but they do not make up for the hollow underside. The light on the searchlight is bright and the sounds (various claxons and "water" sounds) are very loud.
The figure and accessories are recycled from many, many previous Chap Mei offerings. Thankfully, the accessories at least are the older versions that are detailed on both sides unlike several recent offerings that were hollow on the reverse.
Despite the relatively cheap price, I still expected better based on previously released sets in this range.
There is a bit of an oddity to this release as I believe it has the first real "variant" I can recall seeing in a "Kid Connection" set: there are 2 different boats available. The set I picked up had a yellow Zodiac-styled raft, but there is also an orange canoe-like boat with a double sided oar available with all of the same accessories (see the 3rd picture in the review).
