ZhuZhu Pets (, formerly known as Go Go Pets) is an American line of plush robotic

hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera. They have become established as popular small pets. The best-known species of hamster is the golden or Syrian ...

toys created by Cepia LLC in 2009. Multiple spin-off toy lines, including ZhuZhu Puppies and Kung Zhus, have been released.

History

ZhuZhu Pets were created by Russ Hornsby for his

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

company, Cepia LLC. The name comes from

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

zhūzhū (), meaning "little pig." In late 2009, Cepia employed only 16 people in the U.S. and 30 in China. The original ZhuZhu Pets are nine different characters, with names including Chunk, PipSqueak, Mr. Squiggles, and Num Nums. There are various accessories for creating customized hamster habitats. ZhuZhu Pets can be put in either of two play modes: "nurturing mode," in which they coo and purr, or "adventure mode," in which they explore their habitat and respond to various stimuli. The toy first launched under the name Go Go Pets in July 2009, but was rebranded as ZhuZhu Pets in October. Cepia soon signed a distribution deal with Character Options to release the product (under the Go Go Pets name) in the United Kingdom for the 2009 Christmas season. ZhuZhu Pets were a craze during the 2009 holidays. They originally retailed for US$9, but for a time they sold for over $100 because of shortages. In December 2009, testing done by the consumer organisation

GoodGuide GoodGuide.Com was an online web, iPhone app and Android app tool which enabled consumers to retrieve evaluations of the health, environmental, and social impacts of consumer products such as toys, food, and detergents. GoodGuide was shut down on ...

was initially thought to have found more than the allowed level of the toxic, silvery metalloid

antimony Antimony is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Sb () and atomic number 51. A lustrous grey metal or metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...

in the Mr. Squiggles toy. After a review, regulators from the

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC, CPSC, or commission) is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing "unreasonable risks" of injury ...

said that the toy was within the "very protective" standard. GoodGuide subsequently issued an apology saying that their testing methods (which checked for surface toxins) were different from the federal standards (which check for soluble toxins.) Cepia encourages collecting of ZhuZhu Pets. Exclusive pets have been released in collaboration with

Hallmark A hallmark is an official Mark (sign), mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''Wikti ...

Build-A-Bear Workshop Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is an American retailer headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri that sells teddy bears, stuffed animals, and characters. During store visits, customers go through an interactive process where the stuffed animal of their ...

, and

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1948 in Washington, D.C.; its first store was built in April 1948, with i ...

. In early 2010 a set of new characters was released, including the Rockstar pets (Roxie, Ryder, Pax, and Kingston), inspired by the children of celebrities such as

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie ( ; born Angelina Jolie Voight, , June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Angelina Jolie, numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards ...

and

Gwen Stefani Gwen Renée Stefani Shelton ( ; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani rose to fame as a member and lead vocalist of the band No Doubt, whose hit singles include " Just a Girl", " Spiderwebs", an ...

. The brand continued to expand international, with an Asian (including Japan) distribution deal with

Sega Toys , previously known as Sega Toys Co., Ltd. until 2024, is a Japanese toy and arcade company which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings. The company was founded when Yonezawa Toys, Japan's largest post-war toy manufacturer, was abso ...

occurring in January, with Sega Toys planning on releasing manga and animated adaptions. A European (non-UK) deal with

Giochi Preziosi Giochi Preziosi S.p.A. also known as Gruppo Giochi Preziosi (Giochi Preziosi Group) is an Italian company that produces toys and TV series based on their toys. They work in association with Marathon Media and Mondo TV. Giochi Preziosi is the pr ...

occurred the following year. The range expanded in 2010 with new sub-themes, starting with ZhuZhu Babies, which were not electronic or plush, but plastic toys articulated with a small ball under their belly. Summer 2010 saw the launch of Kung Zhu, aimed at a male audience age 8–12 and focused on battling hamsters. In December 2010, the ZhuZhu Princess series was released, as was a line of sixteen Burger King toys. The success of the product led to several tie-in products, one example being

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

FurReal Friends FurReal Friends (later furReal in 2017) is a toy brand division of Hasbro and formerly of Tiger Electronics and Dreamright Toys created in 2002 focusing on robotic pets. FurReal toys widely vary in style and size, depicting different domestica ...

Furry Frenzies, which featured other animals. This inspired Cepia to release additional products in the "Zhuniverse" in 2011, such as Zhu Zhu Puppies, which were robotic puppies that move around and bark, and a revived version of Zhu Zhu Babies, which now featured baby hamsters with motors. In 2012, this was expanded further to include Zhufari, which featured many different wild animals, Zhu Zhu Kittens, a spin-off of the Puppies line, and Zhu Zhu Ponies, which featured fillies. To promote ''Quest for Zhu'', four Happy Meal toys were released at

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

restaurants outside the United States. The franchise was quietly discontinued by the end of 2013, due to decreasing sales. A short-lived spin-off subseries titled The Amazing Zhus debuted in Mid-2014, but was discontinued shortly afterwards.

2017 Revival

In 2015, Cepia LLC planned to reboot ZhuZhu Pets with a new look in partnership with

Nelvana Nelvana Limited (; also known as Nelvana Enterprises, Nelvana International or Nelvana Digital; commonly known as Nelvana; stylized as "nelvana") is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment s ...

, who would produce a new television series titled '' Polly and the ZhuZhu Pets'' for a 2016 delivery. This revival would being the toys back to their roots with the original four hamsters. ''Polly and the ZhuZhu Pets'' debuted on September 12, 2016 on

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

in the United States, before being expanded internationally and gaining a renaming to ''The ZhuZhus'', with Polly being renamed Frankie. Cepia signed a toy master agreement with

Spin Master Spin Master Corp. (formerly known as Spin Master Toys) is a Canadian multinational toy and entertainment company. Spin Master employs over 1,600 people globally with offices in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ital ...

, and in February 2017 they showcased the ZhuZhu Pets franchise at Toy Fair with designs, based more on the TV series. In 2018, ZhuZhu Pets was discontinued again, following the ending of the cartoon and lower-than-expected sales.

2024 Revival

In May 2023, Cepia LLC filed a trademark for 'ZhuZhu'. In June, the website was completely refreshed to say that ZhuZhu would be "Returning Soon". Rumours of the franchise returning were soon confirmed true by employees at Cepia, and in September 2023, Cepia LLC uploaded a video on Vimeo showing the first new Zhu Zhu Pets line for 2024 called 'Zhu Zhu Aquarium'. The new line was showcased at New York Toy Fair 2023 and made its debut release in April of 2024. The brand is currently active as of today, with the website online for their debut, alongside the idea that this new series/generation of Zhu Zhu Pets is set to expand later on.

Video games

In December 2009,

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

and GameMill Publishing signed an agreement with Cepia to release ''ZhuZhu Pets'' video games. The first title, simply titled ''ZhuZhu Pets'', was released in March 2010 for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. In August 2010, Activision and GameMill Entertainment signed an agreement to release a ''Kung Zhu'' title for the Nintendo DS. alongside a sequel to the original title, this time based on the "Wild Bunch" subtheme. ''Kung Zhu'' and ''ZhuZhu Pets 2: Featuring The Wild Bunch'' were both released in October for the Nintendo DS, while the latter was also released on the Wii. Additional Nintendo DS titles were released in 2011 - ''ZhuZhu Princess: Carriages & Castles'' (a reskin of the first title) was released at the end of February, followed up with ''Zhu Zhu Puppies'' at the end of March, a game tie-in to the ''Quest for Zhu'' movie in September, and ''ZhuZhu Babies'' (a re-skin of the second title) in November. Coinciding with the release of ''Quest for Zhu'', a video game adaptation for the

was released.

Films

Cepia LLC created The Dream Garden Company for 4 films with distribution by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

. On September 27, 2011, the franchise's first full-length feature film ''

Quest for Zhu ''Quest for Zhu'' is a 2011 American/Canadian direct-to-DVD animated action/adventure film and the first full-length feature film based on the ''ZhuZhu Pets'' franchise. It stars Canadian voice actors Mariah Wilkerson, Shannon Chan-Kent, Ian Jame ...

'' was released

straight-to-DVD Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strateg ...

. A second full-length feature film, '' The Power of Zhu'', probably in the works and has a trailer, potentially being released on DVD sometime in 2012 as well as a third film ''The Secret of Zhu'' that featured the voices of

Brad Garrett Brad H. Gerstenfeld (born April 14, 1960), known professionally as Brad Garrett, is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Garrett was initially successful as a stand-up comedian in the early 1980s. Taking advantage of that success in the la ...

and

Ken Jeong Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong ( ; ; born July 13, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and physician. He rose to prominence for playing Leslie Chow in ''The Hangover'' film series (2009–2013) and Ben Chang in the NBC sitcom ''Community'' ...

and fourth film ''Journey to GloE''. However, as of February 2014, no other films or even plans for films have been released for "The Power of Zhu", although it was completed and was "secretly distributed" to TV stations in France and Brazil under the title "Amazing Adventures of Zhu".

References

External links

* {{official website Hamsters in popular culture 2000s toys 2010s toys Electronic toys Entertainment robots Stuffed toys Toy animals 2000s fads and trends