Tiger Electronics facts for kids
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| Industry | Video games, consumer electronics, audio games |
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| Founded | June 15, 1978 |
| Headquarters |
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U.S.
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| Parent | Hasbro (1998–present) |
Tiger Electronics Ltd. is a well-known American toy company. It is often called Tiger or Tiger Toys. The company is famous for its handheld electronic games, the Furby toy, the Talkboy recorder, and Giga Pets. They also made the 2-XL robot and fun audio games like Brain Warp.
Tiger Electronics started as its own company. Its main office was in Vernon Hills, Illinois. Since 1998, it has been part of the big toy company Hasbro.
The Story of Tiger Electronics
How Tiger Electronics Started
Gerald Rissman, Randy Rissman, and Arnold Rissman started Tiger Electronics in June 1978. They began by making simple items like record players. Soon, they moved into creating handheld electronic games and toys that helped kids learn.
One of their first big hits was the 2-XL Robot in 1978. Later, in 1984, they released K28, Tiger's Talking Learning Computer. This learning computer was sold all over the world.
Popular Handheld Games
Tiger also became very successful with many simple handheld electronic games. These included Electronic Bowling. They also made games based on popular movies and characters. Some examples are games for RoboCop, Terminator, and Spider-Man.
In the early 1990s, the Talkboy became a huge hit. This portable cassette player and recorder could change the speed of voices. It was first seen in the 1992 movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
After that, the "Brain family" of games came out. These included Brain Bash, Brain Warp, and Brain Shift. Tiger also got the rights to the Lazer Tag brand.
Why Tiger's Handheld Games Were So Popular
In the 1990s, Tiger's line of handheld LCD games made a lot of money. A magazine called GamePro explained why these games were so successful in 1993:
- Great Licenses: Tiger was good at getting licenses for popular movies and TV shows. This meant they could make games based on what kids loved. They released these games quickly while the characters were still very popular.
- Low Price: Tiger handheld games usually cost about $20. Other handheld games at the time cost more than $30. Plus, those games needed a separate system to play them on, which cost another $50 or more.
- Simple Fun: The games were easy to learn and very addictive. While older players might find them too simple, kids aged five to twelve loved them. Their easy gameplay was more appealing than other video games that were often too hard for younger children.
New Ideas and Growth
In 1994, Tiger launched a special line of handheld LCD games called Tiger Barcodzz. These were barcode games. They could read any barcode and use it to create stats for your game character. This line was very popular in Japan. There were even TV shows where gamers competed to find the best barcodes.
Around 1995, Tiger made a version of Lights Out. In 1997, they created a fun fishing game called Fishing Championship. It was shaped like a small fishing rod. Another popular toy from the 1990s was Skip-It.
In 1995, Tiger bought the toy division of Texas Instruments. Tiger also agreed to make and sell electronic toys for Hasbro and Sega.
Joining Hasbro
Tiger Electronics became part of the Hasbro toy company on April 1, 1998. Hasbro paid about $335 million to buy Tiger.
After joining Hasbro, Tiger continued to make cool electronic products. In 2000, they made electronics with the Yahoo! brand name. These included digital cameras and webcams. They also made a "Hits Downloader" that let you play music from the internet on Tiger's "HitClips" players.
Tiger also created the popular iDog Interactive Music Companion. They made the ZoomBox, a portable projector that plays DVDs and connects to game systems. Other products include the VideoNow personal video player and the VCamNow digital camcorder. They also released the ChatNow line of two-way radios for kids.
Tiger even made electronic tabletop versions of popular game shows. These included Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The Weakest Link.
Awesome Tiger Products
Handheld LCD Games
Tiger is most famous for its simple handheld electronic game systems. These games had LCD screens. Each game unit had a picture printed on it that you could see through the screen. Different parts of the picture would light up to show characters and objects. This was similar to how numbers light up on a calculator or digital clock.
Tiger made its own games. But it also got licenses from top companies to make its own versions of popular games. These included Capcom's Street Fighter II, Sega's Sonic 3D Blast, and Konami's Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
Later, Tiger introduced "wrist games." These combined a digital watch with a smaller version of a Tiger handheld game.
In 1995, Tiger released Super Data Blasters. These were sports-themed handhelds. They showed current player stats for a sport. You could also record new stats. They had a built-in game for the sport and features like an address book and calculator.
In 1998, Tiger released 99X Games. These handhelds had a dot-matrix screen. This allowed for many different backgrounds and gameplay styles for one game. You could even link two systems with a cable to play against a friend.
Cartridge-Based Systems
Tiger also made three special systems that used cartridges.
- The first was the Quiz Wiz. This was a very popular quiz game system. Players put in a cartridge and used a quiz book to play.
- The second was the R-Zone. This system used red LCD cartridges. The images were projected onto a screen that covered one of the player's eyes.
- The third was the Game.com handheld system. This system had cool features like a touchscreen and limited internet access. It was meant to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy and Game Boy Color. However, the R-Zone and Game.com were not very successful.
Furby Fun
Hasbro, which hadn't made many high-tech toys before, was very interested in the Furby. With Hasbro's help, Tiger quickly developed the Furby. It was released for the 1998 holiday season and became a huge hit. It was the most popular toy of both the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
The technology behind Furby kept improving. This led to the FurReal line of toys in 2003. A more modern version of the Furby came out in 2012. The high-tech Furby Connect was released in 2016. In 2023, a new Furby with voice commands was released.
The Brain Family Games
From 1994 to 1999, Tiger created the Brain Family. These were electronic handheld audio games.
- In 1994, Tiger released Brain Bash. It had four purple buttons inside and four yellow buttons outside. It had five game modes. In "Touch Command," a voice would say "one touch one," and you had to press the correct buttons.
- In 1996, Tiger released Brain Warp. This game was a round unit with six colored knobs. A voice would say a color or number, and you had to turn the game so the correct knob faced up. It was similar to the game Bop It. In 1997, a Star Wars version called Death Star Escape was released.
- In 1998, Tiger released Brain Shift. This game had six colored LED lights. You used a stick shift to follow voice commands. It had a memory game and a "code buster" game. Some Brain Shift units had a problem where the sound would get messed up when the batteries were low.
Making Toys for Other Brands
Tiger became a top maker of electronic toys based on many different licenses. These included Star Trek, Star Wars, Barney & Friends, Arthur, Teletubbies, Winnie the Pooh, and Franklin. They also made toys for Neopets and game shows like Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
In 1996, Tiger made toy replicas of the Turbo Man doll. This doll was featured in the 1996 movie Jingle All the Way. The toy had many features from the movie, like a disk shooter, a boomerang, and a jetpack with lights and sounds.
Boogey Ball Game
In 1999, Tiger Electronics released an electronic LED light game called Boogey Ball. There were two versions. The first version had some bugs in games 2, 3, and 5. The second version fixed these issues.
The game was like Pac-Man. You moved a green LED light through a maze of 30 lights. You had to either avoid a red light or catch a yellow light. The game was known for its fun voices. When you turned it on, it would say, "Oh you turned me on baby, let's boogey!" If you failed, it would say, "Oh drat!" This game was also published by Hasbro.
Harry Potter Challenge Wand
In 2001, Tiger Electronics released a memory game called the Harry Potter Magic Spell Challenge. It was also known as the 'Challenge Wand'. In the first game, you played against an Evil Wizard. He would cast a spell on the wand, and you had to remember the order.
The wand had four sounds and two voice commands: "Wingardium" (tilt down) and "Leviosa!" (tilt up). The game had 8 levels, and the patterns got longer. If you made a mistake, the Evil Wizard would say things like "Now the pain begins!" If you made three mistakes, the game was over. The game also had a "Simon-style" game and a game that needed two wands.
Hidden Test Modes
Tiger Electronics and Hasbro often included a hidden test mode in their electronic games. These test modes would play sounds to check the speaker. They would also play through all the sounds programmed in the device. You could either trigger them manually or they would play automatically. Games like Brain Warp, Brain Shift, Boogey Ball, and Brain Bash had these test modes. Tabletop games like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? also had them.
Images for kids
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Tiger Electronics logo
See also
In Spanish: Tiger Electronics para niños
