Tiger Electronics
From Free net encyclopedia
Tiger Electronics is a USA-based toys manufacturer, best known for the Furby and Giga Pets.
Randy Rissman and Roger Shiffman founded the company in 1978. It started with low-tech items like phonographs, but then began developing handheld electronic games and teaching toys. They achieved success with many simple handheld electronics games like "Electronic Bowling" and other titles based on movie hits, such as "Robocop" or "Terminator". An early 90's hit was the variable speed portable cassette/microphone combo "Talkboy" (seen in the 1992 movie Home Alone 2), followed by the Brain Warp. It also licensed the defunct "Lazer Tag" brand from its inventors, the Worlds of Wonder company.
They have made two cartridge based systems. The first and least technically sophisticated was known as the R-Zone. It employed red LCD cartridges which were projected via backlight onto a reflective screen that covered one of the player's eyes. All R-Zone games were adapted from existing Tiger handheld LCDs. The second was the game.com handheld system, which was meant to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy and boasted such novel features as a touchscreen and limited Internet connectivity. However, it was ultimately a failure, with only 20 games produced.
Tiger Electronics has been part of the Hasbro toy company since 1998. Hasbro, previously shy of high-tech toys, was very interested in the development of the cuddly "Furby". With Hasbro's support, Tiger was able to rush through the development process and get the Furby on the shelves for the 1998 holiday season, during which it was a runaway hit -- the "it" toy of the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
Tiger also created the Giga Pets line of handheld electronic "pets" to compete with the popular Japanese Tamagotchis.
The company has since become one of the most prominent producers of electronic toys, chosen to produce toys based on a wide variety of licenses, including Star Wars, Barney, Arthur, Winnie the Pooh, Franklin the Turtle, Neopets, Wheel of Fortune and many more.
In 2000, Tiger was licensed to provide a variety of electronics with the Yahoo! brand name, including digital cameras, webcams, and a "Hits Downloader" that made music from the Internet (mp3s, etc.) accessible through Tiger's assorted "Hit Clips" players.
The continuing development of Furby-type technology has led to the release of the "FurReal" line of toys in 2003.
They should not be confused with the American electronics retailer, Tiger Direct.
External links
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