Assuming that you’re equipped with the normal amount of neural wiring, you’re afraid of spiders. For some reason, this perfectly normal anxiety makes some creative people try to turn them into something cute.

Interestingly, a cartoon was recently taken off the air in Australia due to parents’ concerns that it didn’t portray arachnids as sufficiently scary. This may make sense on a continent where much of the wildlife is actually trying to kill you, but for the most part, it’s really not necessary to teach your kids to panic around spiders.

These cuddly monsters are larger than you would expect, but still charming instead of threatening. The trick is that they are programmed to run in the direction of any noise they hear. The louder the noise and the closer they are to its source, the more energetic they get. This means that a barking dog or an excited toddler can easily create a positive feedback loop that will leave your ears ringing.

With that in mind, this isn’t a suitable gift for kids who live in apartment complexes, and certainly not in mine. It can, however, be a huge amount of fun, especially for group play – although parents might want to “lose” the batteries from time to time.

Yellies are available in several designs, each supposedly with their own personalities, although this is hardly noticeable.

What’s disappointing about this product, unfortunately, is that it has a great deal of trouble actually locating the source of a sound. Some people have had better experiences than others, but at this price, you really shouldn’t be expecting NASA-level engineering. In many cases, Yellies simply keep going in circles or even run away from the person playing with them; this can still be fun, but isn’t what’s claimed on the box.