Talkboy: The Greatest Movie Prop Ever

1. Of course you remember the Talkboy fromHome Alone 2: Lost in New York.

2. Unfortunately it didn't actually exist. It was actually designed as a non-functioning prop for the movie.

Via: images.businessweek.com

3. But, after a massive letter-writing campaign by fans of the movie, the Talkboy was put into production. Manufactured by Tiger, it was released in 1993 and became an instant hit.

Talkboy was a handheld cassette player with an attached microphone, its features included a fast/slow switch, which sped up (to a faster speed of 130%) or slowed playback (slowdown to a speed of 76%), causing voice manipulation.

4. The Talkboy also benefited from being released almost simultaneously with the VHS release ofHome Alone 2.

5. Tiger also released a pink version marketed towards girls, called Talkgirl.

Via: etsy.com

6. Tiger expanded the Talkboy line well into the late '90s, releasing the Talkboy FX Plus, Talkboy Jr., Talkboy Pen and the Talkboy Shock Rocker.

Hasbro bought Tiger in 1998, and the Talkboy line was phased out in favor of newer lines like Furbies, Bop It, and HitClips

Via: ebay.com

7. Because of its popularity, Talkboy's are still widely available on sites like eBay, usually ranging between $20 for a used one, to $150 for mint in the box.

The only problem would be finding blank cassette tapes to use with it.

8. The memorable Talkboy commercial:

href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/javascript:;" csal="link2126392_1040783"/> Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=anjyiO754hU.

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Article author: briangalindo