iZ audio toy review

Full Review

We've seen some crazy gadgets at Pocket-lint in the time we've been running - everything from a solar powered plant to binary watches, but nothing could quiet prepare us for iZ from Vivid Imaginations.

Created by the man behind the Furby and Poo-Chi, the iZ is a MP3-connectable interactive toy which is destined to hoot, rap, jiggle, burp and fart his way into the hearts of music lovers everywhere.

The alien stands 9in tall, is poseable on anyone of its legs and moves and jigs to the music. It's probably best to look at the pictures to get a better idea of what it going on, but iZ has a glowing trumpet-shaped horn, moving eyes and protruding ears, which can be tweaked, cranked and twiddled to generate different beats and rhythms.

There are four modes to keep the kids happy; Play, DJ, WZIZ FM and MP3 player support. The first will allow you to have full control of the music (or noise) that iZ makes, here you can use its belly, flick its dangled head dangle thing or rotate its ears to make different sounds. The mainstay of the controls are on its belly and its here you can also change modes and the thankfully the volume.

Once you've got over the fun of making your own tunes, you can choose to have iZ make them for you with the DJ mode. Here iZ is in control and mixes by himself. Pushing the belly button makes it try another mix, while rotating its ears change the beat or the tune. There are seven different tracks and for anyone over the age of 5 they will all come across as random noise.

iZ Wziz FM Mode is the most pointless of the four. This mode will force iZ to believe it's a radio and play his own version of a song. Changing the pitch, leads, rhythms or beats is not possible here, but you can change the music it is playing by twisting its ear.

The final mode allows you to connect an i-Pod or any other MP3 player, iZ can be used to create three personalised rhythm tracks using seven different sounds and beats or as a portable speaker unit which reacts to individually created, downloaded tunes.

Verdict

This has got to be one of the strangest things we've seen in the office in a long time. Kids will of course love it. It's design and bright colours will bring a smile to anyones face, while the random noise it makes will have kids jumping for joy it will drive adults insane.

The creator of the Furby may have created a fun toy here, but parents will have to keep their cool if its going to last longer than a couple of days before the batteries are confiscated or worst still iZ finds itself hurled against a wall at high-speed.

Buy with caution.

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