Toy Files · 🎛️ Electronic & handheld

G33Z3R Toy Files · 19921996

Was the Talkboy a real product before Home Alone 2?

Talkboy

Introduced
1992, after the movie — the prop came first
Made by
Tiger Electronics
What it was
A handheld cassette recorder with a slow-playback switch that deepened your voice
The craze
Christmas 1993 shortage after kids wrote in demanding the movie's version

🗳️ Did you have one?

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The file

Kevin used one in Home Alone 2 to book a hotel room in a grown-up's voice, and it wasn't for sale. Kids wrote to Tiger; Tiger built it. The Talkboy with the slow-down switch arrived in 1993 and immediately sold out.

It was a real tape recorder, so it also recorded your siblings saying things they'd regret. The pink Talkgirl followed. The prop-to-product story is the most Gen X way a toy ever happened.

Sources: Wikipedia — Talkboy

Did you have a Talkboy? Tell us about it — or about the year you asked and didn't get one.

The drive, the dance, the heartbreak, the summer. Add a memory of Talkboy.

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