Help me identify this children's toy from my youth
September 11, 2013 6:27 PM Subscribe
As a kid growing up in the 80s I often played with a 'speak and spell' kind of toy whose idiosyncratic (British?) digitized voice is burned into my head to this day, decades later. Help me figure out who made the toy and what its name was.
Here are the clues I can dredge up from my memory:
- This wasn't a 'speak and spell' exactly, I just use that term to describe a kid's toy that said things using a synthesized/digitized voice. I believe it was a plastic box with various 'overlay' cards that you slid into it. Each card had a different theme with pictures on it, and you pressed various buttons on the card to get the voice to say different things. The toy was educational in nature, each card had things for you to learn about.
- Time period would have been the late 80s, and it was a toy that I'm assuming was available in the US (I grew up in Houston, TX). A relative gave it to me, though, so I can't rule out that they got it abroad.
- The voice that spoke to you was a very sharp sounding male voice that I seem to remember being of some British origin. I'm relatively convinced of this because there was a card that talked at some point about times of the day, and 'tea time' figured quite prominently to my American befuddlement.
- There was a 'location' card which pictured various famous geographical locations, and you would press them to hear their names. One was Copenhagen, with a picture of the Little Mermaid statue. Another was some iconic image of Egypt (maybe the pyramids)? When you pressed the Egypt button the stern male voice would say "EGYPT!" with a real accent on the "T".
- My mother seems to recall hearing the phrase "Press the red key!" over and over again. Maybe when you put each card on the machine there was a red button placed in different places for each card that would calibrate the machine to tell it which card you were using. That's just a guess, though.
If anyone has any clues I would be immensely grateful. In a perfect world I'd find a version that's still in working order to give to my daughter!
Here are the clues I can dredge up from my memory:
- This wasn't a 'speak and spell' exactly, I just use that term to describe a kid's toy that said things using a synthesized/digitized voice. I believe it was a plastic box with various 'overlay' cards that you slid into it. Each card had a different theme with pictures on it, and you pressed various buttons on the card to get the voice to say different things. The toy was educational in nature, each card had things for you to learn about.
- Time period would have been the late 80s, and it was a toy that I'm assuming was available in the US (I grew up in Houston, TX). A relative gave it to me, though, so I can't rule out that they got it abroad.
- The voice that spoke to you was a very sharp sounding male voice that I seem to remember being of some British origin. I'm relatively convinced of this because there was a card that talked at some point about times of the day, and 'tea time' figured quite prominently to my American befuddlement.
- There was a 'location' card which pictured various famous geographical locations, and you would press them to hear their names. One was Copenhagen, with a picture of the Little Mermaid statue. Another was some iconic image of Egypt (maybe the pyramids)? When you pressed the Egypt button the stern male voice would say "EGYPT!" with a real accent on the "T".
- My mother seems to recall hearing the phrase "Press the red key!" over and over again. Maybe when you put each card on the machine there was a red button placed in different places for each card that would calibrate the machine to tell it which card you were using. That's just a guess, though.
If anyone has any clues I would be immensely grateful. In a perfect world I'd find a version that's still in working order to give to my daughter!
Oh, is it the VTech Little Talking Scholar?! They were around at the end of the '80s. Here's one on eBay!
posted by misha at 7:33 PM on September 11, 2013
posted by misha at 7:33 PM on September 11, 2013
I'm voting for Alphie too!
posted by justonegirl at 5:43 AM on September 12, 2013
posted by justonegirl at 5:43 AM on September 12, 2013
I know this isn't much help, but my uncle worked for Texas Instruments during that time period and they made quite a few educational electronic toys apart from the Speak & Spell. Wikipedia lists these ones:
Texas Instruments' Solid State Speech technology found its way into a number of other titles also related to the Speak & Spell line. Examples include:
Speak & Learn Magic Wand – A work-booklet-based electronic game featuring the use of infra-red barcode reader technology.[94]
Speak & Music – A musical audio game allowing free-form and memory-based (rhythm memory, eidetic musical memory, etc.) gameplay.[95]
Ready... Set... Read! – Considered the spiritual successor to the Speak & Read line.[81]
Magic Reading Desk – Considered the spiritual successor to the Ready... Set... Read! and Speak & Read lines.[82]
Little Maestro – A musical audio game aimed at younger children than the Speak & Music.[96]
posted by tacodave at 3:50 PM on September 12, 2013
Texas Instruments' Solid State Speech technology found its way into a number of other titles also related to the Speak & Spell line. Examples include:
Speak & Learn Magic Wand – A work-booklet-based electronic game featuring the use of infra-red barcode reader technology.[94]
Speak & Music – A musical audio game allowing free-form and memory-based (rhythm memory, eidetic musical memory, etc.) gameplay.[95]
Ready... Set... Read! – Considered the spiritual successor to the Speak & Read line.[81]
Magic Reading Desk – Considered the spiritual successor to the Ready... Set... Read! and Speak & Read lines.[82]
Little Maestro – A musical audio game aimed at younger children than the Speak & Music.[96]
posted by tacodave at 3:50 PM on September 12, 2013
Response by poster: Sadly, doesn't look like any of these are a match. The machine itself wasn't a robot or object of any kind - I remember it being a nondescript dark colored box of some kind. The Vtech Little Talking Scholar is close, but no cigar. I want to say that the cards you pressed had little delineated squares, each with a tiny graphic on it.
posted by pziemba at 6:03 PM on September 12, 2013
posted by pziemba at 6:03 PM on September 12, 2013
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posted by zizzle at 6:55 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]