Vet Squad Review

I first saw these toys as prototypes in January at the London Toy Fair. Lots of toy companies were bringing out vet related products, but the Vet Squad range stood out to me because of the price and how much there was to play with. Suitable for age 4 and up the sets have some small parts and they are a little fiddly, but overall they will appeal to a wide age group. My 4 year old is just as keen to play with them as my (nearly) 9 year old. All the parts are formed hard plastic, apart from the small sponges. The details are provided by a combination of different coloured plastic, some painting and stickers. There are moving parts, but no electronics so no batteries are required. 

Each pack comes with one of the vets, a pet, a clip on backpack and 2 accessories. The 4 sets are: 

Yara & Luna the Rabbit

Robin & Snowy the Owl

Emily & Brooke The Dog

Ava & Leo The Cat

The characters are diverse in skin tone and although they all have a similar body (with a disproportionately large head) their figures are neither overly skinny or busty which is important to me in toys which will inspire my children. They look too young to describe as "women", but being trained vets I’m not sure girls is right either. The characters in these packs all come in a green and blue uniform. They have sensible footwear and are dressed appropriately for going on an adventure.

There are 4 vet & vehicle sets to collect: 2 smaller sets: Ava’s Quad Bike Rescue and Emily’s Speed Boat Rescue (both £12.99 RRP and 2 larger sets: Robin’s Air Ambulance (RRP £16.99) and Yara’s Transforming 4x4 (RRP £19.99). The figures which come with the vehicle sets wear a different uniform to the Vet & Pet packs.

Reef Rescue contains: Emily wearing flippers, a speed boat, a turtle with a sore flipper, bandage, stethoscope, bucket and sponge.

Forest Rescue comes with: Ava, a quad bike, a poorly elephant, the first aid box, a bucket, a bottle of milk, a clip board and sunglasses (for Ava, not the elephant probably).

Air Adventure contains: Robin, A helicopter, a horse with a sore leg and bandage, a headset for Robin, a first aid box which fits on the back of the helicopter, a bucket, and sponge. The helicopter has a winch so the horse can be scooped up and carried to safety. You can wind the winch up using a nob on one side and on the other side of the helicopter there is a flip down access to a control pad.

Safari Expedition is my absolute favourite part of the range and wasn’t part of what we were sent to review so I went out a bought it because I loved it when I saw the prototypes. The set contains: Yara, a giraffe, 4x4 vehicle, stethoscope, visor, clipboard , 3 bottles, bandage and sponge. The really cool part of this set though is that the 4x4 transforms into a travelling medical centre. 

Unlike the other vehicles (but I suspect like the Vet Surgery yet to be released) there are stickers included which need to be added to the 4x4. Personally I’m not a fan of when companies do this as the toys always look a bit messier when we put the stickers on ourselves and they never stick as well, but admittedly my children enjoy doing it. 

After applying the 21 stickers the car is ready to play with. It opens up at the back so there are scales, an x-ray, a map etc. It suggests you fill the bath at the back to give the giraffe a wash (and you can use the warm water to heal the giraffe’s wound), but after the effort I went to applying the stickers I will not be encouraging water in it. There is a winch at the front and the spare tyre at the back comes off to be a food bowl. It’s so much more than just a vehicle which is why it’s my favourite part of the set. It is pretty difficult to get Yara into the seat on this one compare to the others, but it isn’t too bad once you get the knack of opening the seat belt bit first .

You can add to your collection with more animals to heal in either packs of 2 or 5. There are 10 to collect in total, we received a tiger and a panda with a sore head in our 2 pack (as well as the obligatory bucket and sponge)

The final part of the range is expected to be available in October, it is a fun vet surgery playset where all the rescued animals can be taken to be made better.

I love the idea behind these toys: inspiring girls to go on adventures, rescue animals and become vets (which generally requires straight As at A Levels before a 5 year degree so it’s quite something to aim for). These toys don’t just aim to inspire though, through purchasing them you are directly benefiting animals with a donation going to the SEALIFE Trust. The SEALIFE Trust play an important role worldwide protecting the world’s oceans and the marine life in them as well as owning 2 marine animal sanctuaries: the Cornish Seal Sanctuary and a Beluga Whale Sanctuary off the coast of Iceland.

There is lots of detail which encourages play eg the first aid boxes which hold the bits of kit included in the set, but it also opens up to show stickers indicating they are weighing scales. The clips on the seats are like seat belts which feels like an important nod to safety. The animals are injured as shown by a cut on some part of their body, they can be (temporarily) healed before clipping the bandage on that comes with some of the animals. The box suggests using warm water  to heal them and the included sponge, but we found it more effective if they were rubbed better (getting a bit of friction going).

There are some short YouTube videos which introduce the Vet Squad in the style that my 4 year old absolutely loves eg the toys be moved around with visible hands and voices recorded over the top. To add in an educational element they include short information clips about different animals eg snowy the owl (who happens to be purple).

The Vet Squad range can be bought from Amazon (affiliate link) and the normal toy shops.

***Disclosure: (Most) of the products in this post were gifted for the purpose of review. All thoughts are my own and those of my family***