This 12-inch G.I. Joe doll—Duke, if you must know—not only has buttons to make him shout commands, but also uses “VOICE FX” to cause “realistic facial movements.” Of course, that probably just means he opens his mouth to lip sync, but that’s still pretty impressive for a $15 toy (okay, so there were things like Teddy Ruxpin, like, 20 years ago, but I still think it’s cool).
Soon we’ll have dozens of dolls that can play back pre-scripted recordings and facial movements and kids will use them to make home movies, which the internet awesome-watchers will herald as a “revolution in proletarian filmmaking” and give it a name like ‘toychinima.’ (Thanks, Rob!)
Catalog Page [eToys]
Steve Chester writes:
Not sure if you care, but I can share a bit more information on this one (Ok, I admit… I was playing with one in the store).
There’s a little button on his chest. Press the button & his mouth opens and he speaks a word or phrase. The cool thing is that the harder the button is pressed, the farther the mouth opens, and the louder he “speaks”- and not just in terms of overall volume. Softer presses will evoke a speaking voice, but pressing it harder will change the quality of the voice to a shout.
There is also a “skin” layer on his head that hides the jaw joint, but stretches when the mouth is opened, much like the skin on your cheeks does.
All in all, kind of a goofy product, but for a $15 toy, it’s something no one else has done before, and it’s fairly sophisticated in terms of the tech inside…
And Derek sends this link to the commerical from Hasbro for the new doll.
Talking Duke MPEG [Hasbro]
