Petite Star Bubble Review

The Petite Star Bubble (designed by NJOY UP) is an umbrella fold pushchair which is unique because it has a seat at the front which faces forwards, but also has a seat at the rear which parent faces. The central seat back can be moved forwards or backwards to have the child facing the direction of your choice. Each side has a harness on, so its easy peasy to swap direction. Simply move the seat to the desired position, and turn the hood inside out (whilst still attached) so that the visor part faces the direction that the child is facing. It really is as simple as that.

I love sending a new pushchair out for the first time with Mr BB because I always get an honest and instant reaction upon his return. So I waited with baited breath for Mr BB to return with the Petite Star Bubble. The door was flung open and he exclaimed:
“This pushchair is brilliant”!!
Believe me, that’s a rare accolade from him, so I am going to let him start this review off.

So, why did Mr BB think the Petite Star Bubble is so brilliant?

First of all he could see our 22 month old son. Our son thinks the Petite Star Bubble is brilliant. Every time our son gets in the Bubble he giggles and grins. He clearly loves being able to see us, but also he loves looking out over both sides from a very upright seating position. From a parent perspective, Mr BB said that the Bubble was superb to use, even when he had to push it one handed around the supermarket (with a basket in the other hand). He said it was very stable and felt solid. He arrived home with a bag hung on each handle and the small basket full. But above all Mr BB said that the manoeuverability of the Bubble was superb and he promptly spun the Bubble round on the spot to prove it. Bearing in mind we have a continuous stream of top pushchairs through our house, this was a real compliment from him!

I will be honest and say that I can very much appreciate the ground breaking nature of this amazing umbrella fold pushchair, and especially the thought, design and mechanics that have gone into making the Bubble look simple, but yet working so well. However I am not quite as enthusiastic as Mr BB – probably simply because we like different pushchairs, but also I have used the Bubble more, and had a few issues.

I must stress, that we have one of the first sample Bubble pushchairs here. The team are still working on the final Bubble. I must compliment the Petite Star team, who have been speaking with us during our trial period. They have been sending our findings and issues back to the factory, and have been working to change what they can. Please bear this in mind as you read on.

First Impressions, fold and styling:

The Petite Star Bubble offers something unique – the parent facing, plus the forward facing option, in an umbrella folding lightweight stroller without needing to remove or swap any parts. This is exciting as I don’t believe it has been successfully achieved before. At first this looks like a really simple thing to do, but when you consider how the seat moves and fixes, and how the hood has to move to give the child cover, then you start to understand how complex this pushchair is. On top of that, the Bubble is supposed to be able to be folded with the seat in any position or direction into a neat umbrella fold. I have to take my hat off to the NJOY UP team who originally designed the Bubble for managing all this and making it seem simple to the user!

The Petite Star Bubble is also very stylish to look at. We love the white chassis with the black and in our case, the purple fabrics. It looks fresh, clean and modern. We especially love the bubble logo detail on the otherwise solid black wheel hubs.

Child Comfort, Seat Recline and Harness:

So, from a user perspective, it was fantastic to have the choice of which direction our children faced. The Petite Star Bubble has a central seat back which moves forwards and backwards, with a simple squeeze upwards of a button situated in the handle. This is very easy to do. The seat drops into position easily. There is a harness fastened to both sides of the central seat back. When the Bubble arrives, there is a head hugger plus two harness pads attached to one harness. It is really easy to unclip the harness and move the head hugger and pads to the desired side of use. Both seat sides have a crotch pad on.

However the Bubble looks a little odd with effectively an empty seat at the front of the pushchair when the child is rear facing (see the photoset of the empty Bubble). You do a double take when you see the Bubble because it does look like a child should be sat in the front, but you have left the child behind and that you are pushing an empty pushchair. It is a shame that the calf rest does not flip up to cover the lower half of the seat, because then the hood can be pulled down to almost meet it thus effectively hiding the front seat when not in use (see photo). All of the Best Buggy team feel strongly that some kind of cover for the front seat would make a huge difference to the Bubble aesthetically when the rear seat is in use.

The Petite Star Bubble is suitable for use from birth as the seat lies completely flat on both sides. There is a photo above of our 22 month old son fast asleep laid flat in the Bubble. He has plenty of room to stretch out, and his legs and feet are being supported by the calf rest. The calf rest can flip up to flat, or down, to suit the age and needs of the child.

The Bubble seat also sits very upright, which has been brilliant for both children. As the photos above show, our son loves the view over the sides of the Bubble stroller to watch the world and his sister playing. For some reason he really found this funny and he would play peekaboo round the sides. There is also a mid way recline position on both sides.

We felt that both our children were comfortable in the seat unit which is great especially considering our eldest is now 3 years 7 months old and 102cms tall. The seat back is very tall – it is one of the tallest pushchair seats we have measured at 58cms tall when forward facing. Our daughter could reach the floor forward facing, but I would expect that given her age and height. We did find that the footrest was a little too far back for her to get her feet onto the footrest easily, but Petite Star have listened to our feedback and the footrest will be adjusted for future shipments. However, it was lovely that as an older child, she could also parent face. Parent facing she was unable to touch the ground with her feet.

We have had issues with the seat recline. Three times during our testing period, the seat has jammed. It was impossible to simply move by hand, but folding the pushchair and then reopening it fixed two of these occasions. Petite Star are aware that we have had problems, and I believe our Bubble is the only one being currently tested that has this issue. Our Bubble will be looked at upon its return to try and work out how to make things better. (*Update – Petite Star have been unable to replicate the fault with our pushchair upon its return to them.)

We also had a couple of problems with the Bubble harnesses. Again these are being looked into by Petite Star. The first was that the harness is extremely difficult to adjust. It was a ‘sit down with a cup of tea for half an hour job!’. This is the reason why we did not adjust the harness in the parent facing photos with our daughter in, and also why our son is mainly parent facing. BUT we did turn this into a positive, because the Bubble worked absolutely brilliantly for us with two children of pushchair age. We live close to the centre of town, and so Mr BB often takes one child with him to the shops as a treat. The harness on the respective sides was all set up for each child, so a simple move of the seat rest ensured that the seat was the correct way for each child without having to adjust the harness for each child on every outing! It meant that the youngest child could be parent facing for his outing, and that then our eldest could be outward facing. From this respect the Bubble has been genius because we currently have two pushchairs, one set up for each child, but the Bubble would mean that we only need one pushchair instead of two.

To be honest, we see the use of the Bubble for siblings as a bigger selling point for us than the fact that one child can face in either direction. Although our son is of an age where he does sit facing either way, he would almost certainly have parent faced in the Bubble until he chose to forward face, which does render the front seat redundant until that time. This does make me wonder whether having both seats on view at the same time is necessary, and whether one seat fabric side or even harness could be hidden or removed / added on when required?

The Bubble opens with the seat parent facing, so having discussed this with the Best Buggy Focus Group, we all unnaimously said that we would have left the seat parent facing for a child of any age, unless the child particularly requested to forward face. We got a similar response from our Facebook page. However one retailer did think that some of her clientale would constantly swap from forward to reverse facing, and the Bubble would be a second pushchair for many. Plus having one buggy to do everything from birth to three is what will appeal to thrifty parents, or those short of space. The Bubble will appeal hugely to families who travel a lot, as there are very few small fold, suitable from birth, parent facing pushchairs.

There were two occasions where it would have been useful for us to have had our son forward facing. First of all if the sun was behind us so that he would have got full shade in the front (but the chances are the shadow of the adult would have provided shade?). The second was when our son needed putting into the Bubble asleep. It was tricky to lift him into the flat rear compartment over the sides (it is difficult to load the child in between the handlebars), but the one occasion we really needed to be able to put him into the front seat asleep, was one of the times that the seat jammed.

We could see that the forward facing option would be useful on an outing eg to the zoo where we wanted the child to see everything; or someone else said that they turned their child forward facing when out with friends so that their children could see each other. We suspect an older toddler may like the option on any given outing of which way they faced. I know my daughter does ask to swap round mid way through some outings if the option is there!

The harness buckle itself was easy to use, but not too easy for a child to open. I did have a problem with the harness when I cut my finger on it. Upon closer inspection there are several sharpish points on the buckle on the side next to the child. Unfortunately the huge crotch pad doesn’t quite come up tall enough to protect a child from the top sharp corners and I would be concerned to have these rubbing against my child’s tummy. Again, Petite Star are aware of this.

We also had an incident where I sat my son up from being reclined parent facing, and his arm got stuck in some part of the side of the pushchair leaving a bruise. Due to the fluid hood fabric, it is very easy for a child, as my son did, to push their arms out to the side or underneath the hood fabric when reclined. So a word of caution would be to ensure that your child’s arms are visible, or even hold their hands, before sitting them upright!

Hood:

The hood on the Petite Star is genius. I will admit to puzzling over it for a couple of days because the instructions are not clear but yet the demo we had at Harrogate made the hood look simple to use. It was simple once we worked it out! We got stuck because there are two velcro tabs which attach to the top of the chassis, which hold the hood in place when the seat unit is forward facing. But if these are undone, then the Bubble hood quite simply flips inside out, so that the visor part is then facing the parent! Ingenious! It is one of those details that looks so simple, but must have taken some thought to get it working so fluidly, and also looking so neat and tidy. More than that, the NJOY UP team have thought about how the hood needs to attach in both directions and there are three velcro strips on the hood which fix onto the top of the seat unit, and down the sides of the seat depending on the direction of use. I have to say, for a hood which is quite floppy fabric, it does pull beautifully taught and does look smart.

We realised on one sunny afternoon, that the sun was streaming through the seat handle onto our son’s head when he was parent facing. However this would only be an issue in the upright position, and only parent facing. I found simply releasing the fabric at the rear of the hood to cover the hole resolved this.

Basket:

There is a small basket on the Petite Star Bubble. However unlike a standard umbrella fold stroller, there is no way of accessing the basket from the rear because the rear seat obstructs access. The NJOY UP team have cleverly thought to put zips into the basket on each side. I will confess to being skeptical at first about the usefulness of the basket, but Mr BB got a couple of bags of shopping underneath the Bubble and I managed to get lots of bits and pieces – nursery pictures, coats etc underneath. Mr BB did also hang shopping bags off each handle and said that the pushchair still felt stable. One of the BB Focus Group said they would have strapped a bag into the front seat (when rear facing)!!

Handlebars:

The Petite Star Bubble has two handlebars. These are well placed and a good height for me at 5ft 6ins. Mr BB is taller at nearly 6ft and he said the height was fine. Mr BB did say that he found the foam on the handlebars a little squashy. Given we have a toddler who needs a hand to walk with, or we have a shopping basket or nursery letters in one hand, we do spend a lot of time pushing one handed, and I agree that there was a little too much give in the foam which did make steering one handed tricky at times.

Wheels and Brake:

The Petite Star Bubble has 4 double stroller wheels. As Mr BB demonstrated, it was no problem to spin the Bubble around on the spot when empty. The pushchair responded well except when pushing one handed when not surprisingly the Bubble became harder to manoeuvre.

There is a linked brake on the rear wheels. There is a press down button on each rear wheel which activates the brake. Flicking the brake up again releases it.

Handling:

Mr BB loved how the Bubble handled. He found it really easy to use. I have to say I did find the push was great when I pushed using both hands. The Bubble went easily across our gravel, on grass, pavements etc. However when I tried to push with one hand it all got much harder. We did had a disastrous supermarket trip where I was trying to push the Bubble one handed whilst holding onto my eldest and the shopping basket. The Bubble is better when pushed with two hands!

Fold:

The Petite Star Bubble has a typical umbrella fold. Simply flick up the small foot plate in the centre of the rear bar between the wheels, and then press on the side pedal to get the Bubble to fold. Petite Star told me that the Bubble should fold with the seat on in any position which is pretty amazing considering this is an umbrella fold. In reality though we were unable to fold the Bubble when the seat was upright and forward facing. We found the fold was easiest in one of the rear facing positions. (*EDIT We believe this has been resolved)

I did find unfolding a little tricky, simply because the foot plate in the centre of the rear bar that needs pressing down to open the Bubble is hidden under the calf support and is also quite high up. I did find myself having to look to find it each time. As said previously, the Bubble always seemed to unfold with the seat unit parent facing. To be honest, this will please a lot of users who are fed up of having to turn a seat unit round to parent facing before use!

There is an automatic storage lock which is brilliant. It clicks in easily at the end of the fold. However we had issues because this lock is quite low down on the right hand side, which then leaves the other side of the pushchair gaping open. The gaping was exasperated because once folded, I am right handed, and naturally go to pick the pushchair up on the left hand side and as I did so, the chassis gaped open. I was worried about the long term effect of doing this. Indeed we only had the Bubble for a few weeks, but we felt you could see and feel that there was a slight difference between the solidity of the left and right handlebars.

The Petite Star Bubble feels a little on the heavy side for an umbrella fold stroller at 8.5kgs but you are getting a from birth seat, head hugger, and two way seating. It is certainly a lot lighter than most other pushchairs with reversible seats!

In Conclusion:

The Petite Star Bubble has been extremely well designed and thought about. The quality and fabrics all appear to be good. As a pushchair the Bubble works great. The seat is easy to move from forward to reverse facing. We love the parent facing option which to be honest is a huge part of what the Bubble is about. The seat is large and roomy. Its even easy to push the Bubble with our heavy 3 year 7 month old rear facing, two handed.

We have had some teething problems, but our Bubble is a sample one, and our findings have gone back to the Petite Star team who have been brilliant at listening and responding.

In reality, although the concept is brilliant; (and we were the first ones jumping up and down saying how fab the pushchair was;) having now used the Bubble, we are not entirely sure whether you need both a front and rear seat at the same time – I know for our youngest, we are unlikely to switch him round to forward face until he asks. Even our eldest prefers parent facing. So for us rear facing was enough of a selling point for the Bubble – and for that alone the Bubble is worth buying because its difficult to find a good rear facing, small fold pushchair. We are currently trying to find a rear facing small fold pushchair for a holiday and the Bubble would be perfect! When / if the day comes that your child does want to outward face, then it is no problem to simply flip the seat over, which saves buying another pushchair later. Therefore you only need one pushchair from birth to 3/4 years old, with no requirement for a cocoon or carrycot. From that respect the Bubble offers excellent value for money.

Having the front seat empty whilst the child is rear facing does look odd. Some way to cover or hide this would be aesthetically more pleasing because to be honest, it does look as if you have forgotten the baby at first glance! However for siblings, where one harness can be set up for each child, the Bubble has an extra selling point ie switching easily between seats for different children without having to alter harnesses. For that reason alone we would buy the Petite Star Bubble. We also think that a modified Bubble would make a fantastic back to back tandem for two older children with a bit of tweaking, stronger chassis, proper safety testing etc!! (Please dont try this at home but maybe NJOY UP will!!)