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 | , |
| Parent | Hasbro (1998–present) |
Tiger Electronics Ltd. (often called Tiger or Tiger Toys) is an American company that makes toys. They are famous for their handheld electronic games, the popular Furby toy, the Talkboy recorder, Giga Pets, the 2-XL robot, and fun audio games like Brain Warp and Brain Shift.
Tiger Electronics started as its own company with its main office in Vernon Hills, Illinois. Since 1998, it has been a part of Hasbro, a much larger toy company.
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The Story of Tiger Electronics
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 educational toys.
One of their first big hits was the 2-XL Robot in 1978. In 1984, they released K28, Tiger's Talking Learning Computer, which was sold all over the world. Tiger also had great success with many simple handheld electronic games, including Electronic Bowling. They made games based on popular movies and characters like RoboCop, Terminator, and Spider-Man.
In the early 1990s, a big hit was the Talkboy. This portable cassette player and recorder could change the speed of voices. It first appeared in the 1992 movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. After that, they created the "Brain" series of games, which included Brain Bash, Brain Warp, and Brain Shift. Tiger also got the rights to the Lazer Tag brand, which was a popular laser tag game.
Why Tiger's Handheld Games Were Popular
Through the 1990s, Tiger's line of handheld LCD games made a lot of money for the company. In 1993, a magazine called GamePro explained why these games were so successful:
- Great Licenses: Tiger was good at getting licenses for popular movies, TV shows, and characters. This meant they could release games about things kids loved while they were still very popular.
- Low Price: Tiger handheld games usually cost around $20. Other handheld games at the time cost more than $30, plus you needed to buy a separate game system, which was another $50 or more.
- Simple Fun: While older gamers might have found Tiger's games too simple, kids aged five to twelve loved them. Their games were easy to learn and play, which was more appealing than other video games that were often too difficult or complicated for younger children.
In 1994, Tiger launched a special line of handheld games called Tiger Barcodzz. These were barcode games that used any barcode to create stats for your character. They were very popular in Japan. Tiger also made a version of Lights Out around 1995 and a fishing game called Fishing Championship in 1997. Another popular toy from the 1990s was Skip-It.
In 1995, Tiger bought the toy division of Texas Instruments. Tiger also started making and selling electronic toys for Hasbro and Sega.
Joining Hasbro
Tiger Electronics became part of the Hasbro toy company in 1998. Hasbro paid about $335 million to buy Tiger. After joining Hasbro, Tiger continued to create many electronic toys.
In 2000, Tiger made various electronics with the Yahoo! brand name, like digital cameras and webcams. They also created a "Hits Downloader" that let you play music from the internet on Tiger's "HitClips" players.
Tiger also makes the popular iDog Interactive Music Companion. They created the ZoomBox, which is a portable projector that plays DVDs and CDs and connects to most gaming systems. They also have a line of "Now" devices, such as the VideoNow personal video player, the VCamNow digital camcorder, and the ChatNow line of two-way radios for kids. They even made electronic tabletop versions of game shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The Weakest Link.
Popular Tiger Products
Handheld Games with LCD Screens
Tiger is most famous for its simple handheld electronic game systems with LCD screens. Each game unit had a fixed image printed on it that you could see through the screen. Characters and objects would light up individually in front of this background, much like numbers on a calculator.
Tiger made its own games, but it also got licenses from many top companies. This allowed them to sell their own versions of popular games like Capcom's Street Fighter II, Sega's Sonic 3D Blast, and Konami's Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Later, Tiger introduced "wrist games," which combined a digital watch with a smaller version of a Tiger handheld game.
In 1995, Tiger released Super Data Blasters, which were sports-themed handhelds. These devices showed player statistics, let you record new stats, had a built-in game for the sport, and included features like an address book and calculator.
In 1998, Tiger launched 99X Games. These handhelds had a dot-matrix screen, which allowed for more varied backgrounds and different ways to play a single game. You could even link two systems together with a cable to play against a friend!
Cartridge-Based Handheld Systems
Tiger also made a few handheld systems that used cartridges.
- The Quiz Wiz was a very popular quiz game system. Players would insert a cartridge and use a quiz book to play.
- The R-Zone used red LCD cartridges, similar to Nintendo's Virtual Boy. The images were projected onto a screen that covered one of the player's eyes.
- The Game.com handheld system was meant to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy and Game Boy Color. It had cool features like a touchscreen and limited internet access. However, both the R-Zone and Game.com were not very successful.
The Furby Toy
Hasbro was interested in the new Furby toy. With Hasbro's help, Tiger quickly developed the Furby and got it into stores for the 1998 holiday season. It was a huge hit and became the "must-have" toy of 1998 and 1999.
The technology used in Furby continued to grow. This led to the release of the FurReal line of realistic animal toys in 2003. Newer versions of the Furby toy came out in 2012 and the high-tech Furby Connect in 2016.
The Brain Family Games
From 1994 to 1999, Tiger created the "Brain Family," which were electronic handheld audio games.
- In 1994, Tiger released Brain Bash. It had four purple buttons inside and four yellow buttons outside. It featured five different game modes.
- In 1996, Tiger released Brain Warp. This game was a round unit with six colored knobs sticking out. A voice would say a color or a number, and you had to turn the correct knob to face upwards. 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 included a memory game and a code buster game where you had to find a certain number of colors in sixty seconds.
Making Toys for Other Brands
Tiger became well-known for producing electronic toys based on many different popular brands. These included Star Trek, Star Wars, Barney & Friends, Arthur, Teletubbies, Winnie the Pooh, Franklin, Neopets, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, and many more.
In 1996, Tiger made toy replicas of the Turbo Man doll from the movie Jingle All the Way. The toy had most of the features from the movie, like a disk shooter, a boomerang, and a light and sound jetpack.
=Boogey Ball Game
In 1999, Tiger Electronics released an electronic LED light game called Boogey Ball. The game was similar to Pac-Man. You moved a green LED light through a maze of 30 LED lights. Your goal was to either avoid a red light or catch a yellow light. The game had a fun electronic voice that would say phrases like "Oh you turned me on baby, let's boogey!" when you started.
=Harry Potter Challenge Wand
In 2001, Tiger Electronics released a memory game called the Harry Potter Magic Spell Challenge, also known as the 'Challenge Wand'. In this game, you played against an Evil Wizard. He would cast a spell on the wand, and you had to remember the sequence of movements and sounds.
The game had four sound commands and two voice commands: "Wingardium" (tilt the wand down) and "Leviosa!" (tilt it up). The game had 8 levels, and the patterns got longer and harder with each level. If you made a mistake, the Evil Wizard would say things like "Now the pain begins!" If you made three mistakes in a round, the game was over. The wand also had a game similar to Simon, where you had to repeat a growing pattern.
Hidden Test Modes
Tiger Electronics and Hasbro often include a hidden test mode (also called a demo mode) in their electronic games. These modes usually play a sound to test the speaker and then go through all the sounds programmed into the device. Games like Brain Warp, Brain Shift, Boogey Ball, and Brain Bash have these hidden test modes.
See also
- In Spanish: Tiger Electronics para niños
