The New Cabbage Patch Kid Will Be This Year’s Creepiest Xmas Gift

Dolls coming to life used to be the stuff of nightmares, but now it’s becoming an eerie reality. The “Baby So Real” doll from Cabbage Patch Kids is a bluetooth-enabled, robotic wonder whose animated LCD eyes are as expressive as they are terrifying. The doll, which was announced earlier this year but is finally on sale in the US, also has a bunch of other tech bells and whistles, including her own app that lets you nurture her virtually.

Baby So Real is like Teddy Ruxpin’s new, improved sister — not a coincidence since she was designed by Wicked Cool Toys, which also designed the famous talking bear. According to Engadget, her electronic eyes are meant to give her a lifelike appearance, and she even blinks and closes them (while she snores) as she’s falling asleep. But the effect is more than a little distracting, especially in moments of transition when they look more like glowing grey demon orbs than sweet baby eyes.

Still, it’s the kind of novelty — for example, the way Baby So Real gobbles up her medicine from her own interactive spoon — that kids eat up. The doll also talks, drinks from a bottle, burps, laughs when tickles, and even plays peekaboo. And if that wasn’t enough engagement for you, you can rack up “baby points” by caring for her, then use those points to decorate her virtual nursery or expand her virtual wardrobe. The app even functions as a kind of simulated baby monitor when you’re away from your actual doll.

Basically, once you invite Baby So Real into your life you can never escape her bright-eyed clutches. So real. Maybe even too real. And if you’re looking for something that might terrify a child this holiday season, you can find Baby So Real at major retailers for $100.