Adults of a certain age remember with fondness their first electronic toys: the halting digital commands of the learning game “Speak & Spell,” introduced in 1978, or the plastic flashing lights of the memory game “Simon.” Compared to contemporary toys, such retro electronica appears quaint. The recently released Robosapien V2 biomorphic robot, a “fusion of technology and personality,” includes 67 preprogrammed functions such as “throw, kick, dance, kung-fu, fart, belch, rap, and more” and Hasbro’s three-foot-tall Butterscotch FurReal Friends pony shakes her head and emits contented whinnies when you brush her mane. The most popular toy in the 2006 holiday season was the T.M.X. Tickle Me Elmo, a 15-inch-tall electronic terror that performs histrionic giggling fits to entertain children ages 18 months to 7 years. Even old-fashioned toys have been updated to suit our technological age: owners of the first Baby Alive doll, introduced in 1973, worked a lever on the doll’s back to make her swallow mushy concoctions with names like “Cheery Cherry” and “Yummy Banana” that you shoveled into Baby’s mute, puckered mouth. Today’s Baby Alive is a robotic little marvel who blinks, grimaces, sleeps, and precociously informs you when she “has a stinky.”
According to the NPD Group, the average American planned to spend $153 on toys during the 2006 holiday season. Much of this money was spent on electronic toys, and industry analysts expected toy manufacturers to enjoy considerable sales gains, much of it fueled by consumers’ purchase of pricey electronic playthings like Robosapien and Butterscotch. Six of the top ten toys in FamilyFun magazine’s Toy of the Year Award list for 2006 are electronic.
(Click here to read this entire article from the Winter 2007 issue of The New Atlantis.)
