Not amazing

Last year I tested Torch from FurReal friends and to be frank, many of the problems I had with Torch are also problems that have carried over and are even amplified with Ricky. In short, Ricky is a bit disappointing for us. At first, I thought it was just me, but even letting my partner try him had the same result and frustrations. Furthermore, the kid test was the same, while both ages of kids enjoyed it, they had a lot of the same problems we did when trying him. It was awkward how disconnected his actions were from what they were doing.

If I had to make a suggestion I would definitely choose Torch over Ricky, especially as he can often be found on sale and I prefer him overall. Read my full review to find out why Ricky only earned 3 stars, I'll also list some of the features he has.

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Cute factor
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In terms of looks, Ricky really does a great job being cute. He's furry, he's adorable. He basically looks like a husky puppy, so what's not to love there? He's soft and feels nice to cuddle and both older and younger kids found him to be adorable (even I agree, as an adult!).

He loses a bit of cute factor compared to Torch simply because of his actions. It feels like he 'enjoys' being touched less. Torch the dragon makes a lot of cooing and trill noises that come from you petting the sensors, but in the case of Ricky, he spends a lot of time yipping and making strange noises that don't sound terribly dog-like exaggerated whines. This means he rarely feels like a real dog (they love to be petted) and it never really feels like he's enjoying being petted unless you pet his cheeks (which triggers the 'lick' feature).

The pooping/tooting function also had a bit of a cute factor, depending on if your kids like this kind of thing (hint: Most kids and some parents find it hilarious).

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Features
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Tricks: I feel like the amount of 'tricks' Ricky can do is a little exaggerated by the advertising. He can do two tricks. The bone flip and the paw raise/shake. Both of these tricks are nice and amongst everybody's favourite part of Ricky. Part of the reason for this is it's hard to 'trigger' a lot of Ricky's stuff and he feels disconnected, like he doesn't always react to you, but around 90 percent of the time these tricks works.

Bone Flip: Put the Bone on Ricky's nose (logo face up) then you can make any loud noise and he will flip the bone into his mouth. Genius! While you can make any loud noise (many people choose to clap), in my opinion, the best way to do it is to name the trick "Ricky, Bone Flip!" which makes it seem even cooler, but it's just make-believe he will respond to any loud noise. The problem with the trick is he drops the bone afterward. While this might seem like a good idea, and pulling it out of his mouth is easy, he makes a sad noise when you do so, in practice it isn't. If you have tiled or wood floor it is so loud falling on the floor that I wish he didn't drop it.

Hi-five/Paw/shake: This is Ricky's second trick. Since this isn't triggered by sound it mostly works, though sometimes he inexplicably does something else. If you press (his, not yours) right paw he will lift his paw for a second for a hi-five before starting to 'shake' it. I do think the 'shake' comes too fast after hi-five, not giving a child enough time to change the movement and grab his paw, but overall it's a cute trick that is easy to do.

100+ Sounds and Motions:

The sounds Ricky makes aren't cute to me, or the kids who test it. The only sounds we found cute were when he sings a song and when he makes a sad noise. The rest of the vocals are...odd and sound like fake whines. Dogs don't whine a lot, they have a lot of cute noises like chuffs sighs, quizzical noises. The noises Ricky makes are not really like any of those and don't sound real or different enough.

As a result, while there might be 100+ sounds and motions, I would struggle to point out more than 15. They mostly all sound the same and are indistinct from one another.

We also couldn't figure out what 'triggers' the song that he sometimes sings (very cute). Sometimes pressing or holding the paw seemed to cause it, but never on a consistent basis.

For motion/movement, he definitely does more than the sound. There are more motions than sounds, for sure. For a start there's the tricks, but other than that, he mostly just moves and blinks in generic ways, nothing I could pinpoint as exciting or realistic dog behaviour.

He will lick if you rub both his cheeks at the same time (again inconsistent), but it's not in anyway realistic (not expected), it feels like dry plastic poking you. Of course, kids still love this and next to the tricks, it's a favourite feature.

Eat and poop: Both older kids and younger kids find this hilarious, but we did have massive problems with the execution. When you feed Ricky you are supposed to touch his upper lip to make him 'chew' the treats, but he never seems to be able to swallow them. no matter where we put them. But no matter what we tried he rarely swallowed the treat down, it just got stuck at the back of his mouth. This would easily be fixed by having his head tilt slightly back at the end of the 'munch' motion and should have been caught in testing. As a result, a lot of the time the kids ended up poking the treats back so he'd swallow them. Unfortunately, sometimes this would 'trigger' the 'munch' motion and he would chomp down on their fingers. This was a bit scary to younger kids and if their fingers are near the outside of the mouth it's quite a firm pinch that can be startling.

The poop problem is really more the instructions. It says to 'pat his back', but that's not really accurate. if you pet or rub his back like a normal dog, nothing. You have to very firmly press on a panel near his tail to activate it. So it doesn't really feel like petting a dog. Once you know how to activate it, it's cute and kids really laugh at the tooting and treats falling out of his 'bum hole'. But because the eating is so difficult and annoying, you lose a bit of the magic.

Be careful using this. Though it's rated for 4+ I do feel concerned that some kids might eat the dog treats, which are small magnets, this could be pretty dangerous. Overall though, I'd recommend it more for those younger kids than older, as they are more willing to go-with-the-flow and won over by Ricky's cuteness. Older kids immediately (to my surprise) knew what the bone trick was (magnets!) and while they still enjoyed it, they had the same problems with Ricky I did. They were awkward and didn't like that he didn't seem to respond well to their actions, was inconsistent and the feedback I got gave the impression that they would probably only use the bone trick regularly and he'd end up cast aside after a bit.

He also comes with a 'treat pouch' that is stiff, difficult to open well and kind of annoying because of this.

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Set-up
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Ricky takes 4x 1.5V C batteries that do NOT come with and as with all kids toys you must open the panel with a standard crosshead screwdriver. The panel is located by tearing open the velcro on his tummy.

He's not difficult to get out of the box or set-up, as always I recommend a set of nail clippers to cut the parts that are tied in (pet or human is fine) and it shouldn't take more than ten minutes.

Comes with: Ricky (no batteries), Treat pouch, treats, big bone treat.

SUMMARY
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Pros
+ Very cute.
+ Soft and easy to cuddle.
+ Has a lot of movement and some sound.
+ Does two tricks and can hum a song. (Bone trick is a highlight)
+ Can eat the treats and toot and poop.
+ Easy to setup.

Cons
- Batteries not included. 4x 1.5V C batteries
- Becomes boring quickly.
- Sounds are unrealistic and 'samey'.
- Older kids know how the tricks are done.
- Inconsistently responds to petting, doesn't seem like he enjoys it.
- Tricks don't always trigger correctly.
- Hard to get him to eat treats properly.
- Instructions are vague (petting back doesn't work well for 'pooping').

Recommended: If on sale. For younger kids (4+) who aren't annoyed by Ricky's lack of reaction and inconsistency. Kids who enjoy other Furreal products.