Last updated on January 15th, 2026 at 03:01 pm
Wooly Willy – Family Game Review
Wooly Willy is a Family/Entertainment game from Neal Colston, first launched in 31st January 2019.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 3+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Wooly Willy Stand Out
Stuck in a waiting room with nothing to do? Yearning for a bit of nostalgic fun from childhood? Need to keep the kids entertained? Check out the new Wooly Willy game for the iPhone or iPad! No metal shavings or magnetic wands required. Now you can have the magic of this classic toy at your fingertip everywhere you go.
Since the 1950's, Wooly Willy has been providing hours of giggles and laughs. Unleash your creativity on the classic images of Wooly Willy and Hairdo Harriet or give your friend a makeover by choosing from your own image library!
New
• Optimized for iOS 10 and 9
• New Drawing Brushes
Features
• Choose from 3 Classic Wooly Willy Characters: Wooly Willy, Hairdo Harriet, and Buddy Beagle.
• Also choose from 8 Halloween and Christmas Characters: Jack O Lantern, Freaky Frank, Cool Ghoul,Wacky Witch, Santa Willy, Nutcracker, Elfred Elf, and the Gingerbread Man.
• Use images taken instantly from your Camera or saved from your Photo Library
• Shake to Erase or clear with a button
This Family game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Wooly Willy is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 3rd November 2025
Recent improvements include:
Updated the classic app to work better on newer devices and newer OSes.
Download & Availability
Wooly Willy is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Needs and undo button and able to take pics from camera.
This is our daughters favorite app. She just loves it! She is constantly playing it.
Our kids really dig the updated colors! Great job guys.
We love this app nothing to change about it.
It doesn't catch your eye as the classic wooly willy. Disappointed.
Would be cooler of it was like the original and you had to drag the shavings onto the picture.
Does not work.. Reported the problem Nd nothing has been done about it.. Wow.
"hair" would only draw in one line-did not work.
Unfortunately we didn't read the reviews before throwing 99 cents away. We bought the iPad version (because this is a classic game) and every time we try to play it, the app crashes immediately (game just shuts off). So, basically we feel robbed. Apple should protect consumers from ripp-offs like this.
Hgghvfj thfhycbufhbuc yyyghvffg.
It's more like a spraypaint effect rather than the classic "magnet" effect. We can't believe we just spent a dollar on this. Would have rather had a mcChicken.
It reminds us so much of the one we used ton have as a kid! Works so well, and is really fun! We recommend it to anyone who wants to have a moment back into childhood, for older children or young adults, to seniors (who know how to use iPads)! Worth every penny.
We loved this when we were little, and still do. It's worth the 99 cents.:).
We love that you can use your own pics! Our kid love giving each other beards and Mohawks.
Just realized all you have to do to save your work is take a screenshot…to do this, all you have to do is hit the homebutton and the sleep/wake button at the same time, then your picture will be saved in your photos (not sure if it works with iPod touch).
We used to play this all the time when we were younger and we're only 15. We guess these were big 5 or more years ago. We haven't seen another since then.
You can save the photos using the iPhone "screen capture." Just press and hold the sleep/wake button. Then press and release the "home" button. Your screen should flash white. Once this happens you will find your cool faces in your photos under "camera roll.".
- It's a classic 2. You can save your creations using the screenshot feature…. You hold down the home button and push the lock/power button. BAM.
Pretty sweet game but we wish u could save your work when your done.
Dude we love this! Must download.
A++ this is amazing and reminds us of when we were a kid.
A classic game that you must buy now.
We bought this app, not to long ago,,, pretty good,,, but need to make it easier to put the woolys on,,, other than that,,,great,,,,funny,,,,awesome!!!!!we say buy it, totally worth .99.
By reading some of these reviews, you wonder what game people thought they were getting. This is something simple. Just like the cardboard- backed original was….. They captured the images and the frustratingly hard way it was to move around the metal filelings… It brought us back to our childhood and did everything it said it would.
Had a cheap version of this when we were a child.
We like this app alot. It's very cute, but somewhat unlike the real version of the toy. We wish you could still do the dragging with the hair, however we do like the fact that there's unlimited hair unlike the real toy. And 99 cents is a pretty good deal. Good job.
This isn't the most advanced app but u do get a lot of fun out of it. That being said u can only get so much fun from it but it's only 2 dollars. So for the price it's great.
Ok we are about to buy this and it looks good so we think we are but for all the peple who don't know how to take screenshots here ya go…. 1) Click down on the home and power buttons at the same time, your screen will flash white. 2) Go to your pictures and it will be in your saved pictures file.
Man, we loved this toy as a kid! We think we were 5 years old the first time we saw one, it was one of the best toys our parents ever got us probably. We think this is even better now, plus we can add our own pics? No reason not to download this app!!! Very slick design, easy to use, and you get both versions plus an awesome, and funny feature "our pics"! So far with all the apps, this is the best $1.99 we've spent so far. Plus this company did a really awesome list program called "our List" which one of the best out there with the same price point. We highly recommend it as well. Paze, we like what we see so far, keep up the awesome work.
Entertaining! It's something to do when your bored… Doesn't get old. We love it.
As we recall on the original, you dragged metal filings onto the picture and piled them up. You could also drag them away or move them around. This would be better if you could drag from the edge to pick up some filings and drop them where you wanted them. Being able to drag clumps of filings around (back to the edge would remove them) would allow you to fix mistakes and give better control than just drawing on filings with your finger. To all those griping about the price-Come on! It's 99 cents? What do you expect for a buck.
To developer: Please adjust it so when you draw you don't have to go super slow to get full lead things. When you draw fast, the lead things spread out a lot, making it annoying. Otherwise, we like it.
It really needs more of the classic magnet feel. We were dissapointed, expecting more of a retro feel. Maybe in an update.
We only wish you could save your photos.
Great little app to pass the time but it would be nice if you could save the image to your iPhone photo library when you were finished. Hopefully we will see that in a future update. HINT HINT.
This game is fun for about 5 mins. It should be free.
This was a great and fun idea for a program, but it's actually a terrible representation of this classic children's toy. First of all, the original had a bunch of magnetic powder at the bottom of the screen that you could drag from. This doesn't allow you to drag anything from the bottom of the screen. In fact, it doesn't allow you to drag anything! Dragging magnetic powder is so crucial to enjoying it because what if you mess up? What if you stick some dust in the wrong place? Well, you could drag it elsewhere. In this program, you can't drag away a mistake. You're STUCK WITH IT! Plus, the dust doesn't look right. It's a bunch of asterisks. And it makes it look like a bunch of ants are crawling on the guy. And the more you spat on, the worse it looks. No, no, no, the graphics should have been much better than this. Hopefully, they'll update it.
In, where's the gravity? That's the whole point of The real one.
It crashes every time, we want our money back.
You cant really do ANYTHING to the chick because she pretty much already has hair….. Plus it is very slow and pointless.
App was terribly slow on our iPhone 4 waste of a dollar.
This app stinks just like the original.
Not worth the 99 cents. The magnetic debris is literally triangle wire frame. The screenshots are misleading.
This game is cool, but we think it Should be free. It's cool for kids. It is cool the 1st couple times, But then…. It gets old. Good Game! Bravo! ;-).
Don't waste your time or money, this app is junk.
We actually deleted this app. Thats how bad it was.
You aren't dragging pieces like the real wooly willy. It just appears under your finger…very slowly. Takes forever to create any solid looking image. Awful.
If you loved the old game, don't get this one.
Our pick for the worst app ever. Thank you for wasting our time and stealing our money. If it is not too much trouble could you kick us in the nuggets too. That would the perfect way to cap off purchasing this horrible app.
We have such found memories of the original but this really falls short. There is no adjustment for the pressure sensitivity and the iron filings behave nothing like the orginal.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 3.2
- Size: 17.96 MB
- iOS: 18.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Neal Colston
Last updated: 3rd November 2025 | Genre: Family, Entertainment | Developer: Neal Colston