Epic Win: Puppy Surprise
Submitted and Written by Amanda M, who loves surprises
Puppy Surprise was an early ’90s toy from Mattel that could come with anywhere between 2 to 5 puppies in her womb. The womb was velcro, so your puppy could give birth over and over again to your heart’s content. I had one, and I loved mine (I got gipped though – 2 puppies).
There’s a phrase you don’t hear everyday: “velcro womb.”
Apparently most kids were getting two or three puppies, rarely the coveted five puppy payoff. Googling “puppy surprise” came up with this hilariously NSFW (language-wise, at least) rant about getting only three puppies. An excerpt:
THREE F****** PUPPIES? HOW COULD THIS BE… OMIGOD WHAT DID YOU DO TO DESERVE THIS!??# As the tears stream down your face, you decide I WON’T LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE I ONLY GOT THREE PUPPIES IN MY PUPPY ASSF****** SURPRISE.
I loved my puppy surprise! I probably still have her packed away in a box somewhere. She also had 5 puppies, which I didn’t realize was that rare.
I had a kitty surprise too, I think she had 3 kittens.
Did you have Barbie’s friend ‘ Pregnant Midge’?
I had pregnant Midge. I have no idea why they took her off the market! Mom used her to explain to me where ladies kept their babies and how they came out and stuff.
Also my puppy surprise had 3 (I think) I had the black and white one.
I loved this toy. It makes me laugh now though, thinking how I had one of these (the cat I think) but there was such a big deal about the pregnant barbie. You had to remove the puppies/kittens from this toy. Little weirder
I had a puppy surprise! I got it for Christmas and my parents videotaped me opening it, so I have it forever (*rolls eyes*). Mine had 5 puppies, I guess I was lucky!
I had one of these! Creepy as hell when you think about it.
I think mine only had 3 puppies. I didn’t even realize there were different numbers of puppies.
I had a puppy surprise *and* a kitty surprise. My puppy only had three, but my kitty had five!! Sadly, I took them in for a school project in 5th grade, and two were stolen.
Who got two?? The commercial said you could get 3, or 4, or 5, not two.
I was so jealous of my friends Puppy Surprise.
I got 2 puppies in mine, and right next to me, my niece got all 5. I felt pretty ripped off. Luckily, they sold “refills” of 3 puppies in case you lost your originals, so I saved up my allowance, and got a different breed of puppy (my original were some weird mutt bulldog).
I used to have that and the kitty.
Each came with 5. I guess I was lucky. I still have them in a box in my room too.
My brother had this and my parents told me that while I was being born, he showed it to the doctor and said ‘Look! my puppy’s having babies, too!’ and the doctor laughed and said he wished it was that easy. =)
I had a Kitty Surprise, my sister got the Puppy Surprise, She got 3 puppies, and I got 6 kittens, 5 in the kitty, 1 fell out into the box. So my sisters puppy got to have kittens.
I had a kitty surprise and I got 4 kittens from mine. But I lost one and was left with only three. I think I got mine as a birthday gift.
I had the puppy, the kitty, and the pony.
The kitty and pony were given away, but I still have my puppy. =D
I think my puppy had 4, my kitty had 3, and my pony had 4.
Did anyone else have the pony anyway? XD
I had the pony and puppy, and also the bear, which I think came out a little later than the rest. My pony was pink and white, the bear was green and yellow, and I can’t remember the color of the puppy. I’ll have to look for it in my mom’s basement next time I visit.
I had the pink and white pony too, with 5 babies. My sister had the black and white one and only had one baby…needless to say, I had to share!
My sister got the puppy surprise–it had 3 or 4 puppies. I still remember that stupid “three or four or FIVE” song.
I had the Puppy, the Kitty, and the Bunny. 4, 3, and 2, surprises respectively. Screw Barbies, these were my absolute favorite. I know that I still have them packed away at my parents’ house.
Also, one of my favorite memories: Pretending a table lamp was a volcano, one of my kittens “fell in” and landed on the light bulb. I got called to lunch or something. When I came back to rescue the little kitten, the fabric on her stomach was slightly burned and some of the little plastic beans inside her had melted together. My brother nicknamed her Tumor Kitty
I had a puppy surprise! I got 4 puppies. Mine looked a bit different though…she was completely plush, without the plastic face. Maybe she was a knockoff. This is so weird…I was just talking about this toy the other day.
Aw, I had a Kitty Surprise! I think I had four kittens, I don’t remember. We probably sold it at some point, since we’ve moved and had a lot of yard sales…
The packaging here allowed you to reach in and feel the tummy – my sister chose my puppy for me by picking the puppy with the biggest tummy, so I got 5 puppies! It was the most decent thing she ever did for me as a kid. Mum still has the toy packed up somewhere in her home, I think I had the sheepdog styled one, and one bulldog faced extra puppy – it was a tight squeeze getting 6 inside that tummy.
will sum1 sell me theirs? please!!!!
I still have mine somewhere … her body was solid pink and her ears were white. I didn’t know you could get different amounts of puppies inside! I got three and could barely squeeze them all in! I bought the individually packaged puppies in sleeper pajamas, though.
The birthday I got a “Kitty Surprise” was also the day I learned what a C-Section was. My parents weren’t big on pulling punches when they thought it was funny.
I had a puppy surprise, and I got 2 measly puppies, but for Christmas, I got a kitty surprise, and it had 5 kittens!
I had a puppy surprise that was gotten from the Salvation Army toy bin. It had 2 puppies and a kitten. I also had a pig from the same toybin that worked in the same way except the 3 babies would also velcro to the mothers side by their noses.
OMG, i still have one of these sitting in my bedroom. the puppies are long gone (i got 5
) but the mother dog is still in pretty good shape, considering that ive owned her for close to 2 decades
I had a puppy surprise, a pony surprise, AND a bear cub surprise! They each came with three babies, and I remember my mom explaining to me that the 5-litter ones were made to be rare. I just loved how each puppy/pony/bear cub was unique. It was sort of like a Cabbage Patch Kid, times three.
lmfao I got three puppies in mine too. And then they had this thing… where you could buy an extra puppy that was wearing pjs so you didn’t know its gender until you opened up the butt of the pjs. Then it had “It’s a girl!” written on the inside.
My sister had Kitty Surprise and got five kittens. Dammit.
I had one of those too!
I also think they should make an “octo-mom surprise” where the babies kinda plop out. I’d buy one.
Libby, I got one of those too! My puppy had 4, so with the extra one I was able to bump it up to the amazing 5 puppies. Did you keep the box the extra one came in? It looked like a little home!! lol
ahh memories!
I read the rant
Just, wow.
I had a puppy, kitty, and bunny. My kitty and bunny both had 3, but my puppy had 5! They are still in my closet at my parent’s house.
I had a puppy surprise, and I managed to get 4 puppies! Or was it 5? They’re all in a box somewhere and I can’t rightly remember…
But I remember buying an additional puppy that came with a mermaid costume!
I loved my puppy’s I got it from my dad when he was visiting from jail. And he filmed me while i was playing with them and singing still got the tape and probably the dog in a box somewhere. It had 3 puppies.
Btw I’m Swedish so seems to be popular around the world.
I totally had a pony surprise. I for 3 ponies. If I remember correctly there were a couple gurls in my class that had puppies and they all said that they got 3. I can’t imagine trying to cram 5 puppies or ponies in that, mine was pretty full
My sister had this. I used to put my X-Men into the mother puppy. Don’t ask.
I had one of these probably still do somewhere she had four puppies, also on the same idea does anyone remember the troll toy that was like this, had different coloured streaks in her hair that could be babies.
I had the Puppy Surprise- the pink one. She had five puppies. I gave the mom and four of the puppies to my little cousin and kept my favorite puppy.
I had the pony surprise and the kitty surprise, plus one extra kitten that was wearing pajamas, holding a teething ring, and in a sleeping bag.
Now that I think about it, pony surprise was a little bit weird as horses don’t have litters; even twins are quite rare!
The pony suprise made me soooo MAD!
I grew up on a farm around horses and knew that ponies never had that many babies. If a mare does have twins they almost alwayes both die… very sad. I think some kid at school argued with me about it when I told her ther her pony suprise babies were all going to die. o.0
I asked for one for christmas. Instead of a preggers puppy, I got a single replacement puppy cause my parents really didn’t understand the concept, they just bought the first thing they saw that had the logo on it. Actually it was the one with the pajamas with the ‘its a girl’ written on it. It totally ruined my christmas XD
I had a Kitty Surprise and got the lucky 5 kittens.
I had a later version of puppy surprise, although I think it was still called puppy surprise. They were way cuter than the originals and I had 4 puppies. I loved that little thing to death~
I had the kitty surprise, and got the coveted 5 kitties. I think the kitties had more of the 5 than the puppies. I also still have the birth certificate floating around here somewhere.
I couldn’t describe to you how excited my 6 year-old self was when I found out mine had 5 puppies. It was like, the year of “5″ because I also had that set of Quints, with the playground and the house and the rocking horses. Needless to say, each Quint was paired up with a Puppy Surprise and they ruled the playroom with adorable iron fists and paws.
I remember Quints!!!!
AWESOME.
Puppy surprise was the best. Mine had FOUR puppies, and I “adopted” one.
The ones I had were “floppy eared” and the one I “Adopted” had pointy ears.
Very cool.
always wanted pony surprise, but that never happened.
My cousin and I both got puppy surprise for Christmas one year, mine had 4 and hers only had 3. I remember she cried for hours over that.
I had the puppy surprise, bunny surpise and kitty surprise. My neice and nephew still play with them! I too only got three babies per animal.
Wow, so many people here who got all 5.
I had puppy surprise, kitty surprise AND pony surprise and I only ever got 3 babies per mom. I was so disappointed. 
But I still played with them a lot – I think I just went ahead and mix ‘n’ matched the babies to make a big litter.
I got 5 puppies!
Every year on our birthdays we got to pick out one present for ourselves, I picked the Puppy Surprise one year. I was quite happy to have gotten 5 puppies 
Probably the best present I picked out for myself 
Man Petting a Squirrel
Puppy Surprise was Hasbro, not Mattel
I wanted this, or the kitty surprise. I never got one though
I had one, too. I remember feeling all the stomachs in the store, and I chose the one that felt the biggest…. and only got 3 puppies I think. Bummer. My best friend’s had 5, and I was insanely jealous. She always had the luck
I got five. I thought I was the luckiest kid ever. Until I brought the puppies to school and someone stole my favorite one. She still denies, but I know it was her!
They sold individual puppies as well. I bought an extra one and shoved it inside the dog with the other five I had. I tried to trick people into thinking I had six puppies.
WORST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER! i didn’t understand why baby came out the middle of this ugly cat dogs stomach.
I had a Kitty Surprise, but my joy was somewhat dampened by my midwife mother’s constant complaints about the unfortunate mother-cat’s C-section.
i sooooooo wanted one! i never got one, my cousin did, she got everything…. it’s not fair!!!! i’m still annoyed by that 18 years later! never knew u could get different anumals, musn’t of had them here in australia.
omg i loved these things to death. now that i think about it, it really seems weird that i loved playing with a pregnant toy so much but they were my favorite. i had a pink and white dog it had 4 pups i had a lavender cat with 3, its babys had eyes that would close or open with warm or cold water. a bunny with 2 a bear with 3 and a tan horse with 2 (i was spoiled) i still had the horse untill recently..
Oh gosh, I guess I’m just now realizing how absolutely spoiled I was as a child. I had the puppy, kitty, pony, bunny, and bear, though I don’t remember how many I had in each, and I remember getting enough of the “pajama’d babies” to have 5 of each. I also recall having… surprise outfits.. did that happen or is my poor spoiled brain just trying to be even more spoiled?
I do recall losing quite a few of the babies when I thought it would be fun to play hide and seek with them (by myself as I was an only child) then went to have dinner, when I came back, could not recall where I hid all the babies. I was just that good at hiding.
Then of course, I had my parents buy even more of the babies, to replace the fallen comrades.
Yeah….. Never had the toy – but as an avid animal lover I’ve had many pets leave their own “surprise”.
My little one loves playing with my puppy surprise which is still in mint condition. I was lucky to not only get five babies, but someone at the factory must have messed up because I got both a girl and boy runt!
I got one of these awful things fo christmas. when the babies came out of its chest they looked premature baby animal. my parents should have spent the money on counseling… i really wanted to be a talk show host as a christmas gift.
Well you all will hate me, I actually got one with 5 puppies. they don’t fit in as well though.
Three puppies. A boy, a girl, and a weird runty one. Mine was all white and definitely weird looking.
I’m a little too old for this but my sister had two-both with five puppies, I’m surprised more people didn’t get them, all you have to do is find the heaviest box.
will sum1 sell me theirs?