Random As Rhyme

I have decided on another feature I am going to do in addition to ‘Wordless Wednesdays‘. On days that start with a ‘T’ I will write about things I always wanted as a child/teenage.I will write these on either Tuesday Thursday, or both, depending on mood. Anyone who’s childhood spanned the late 80s early 90s should find these a pleasant trip down memory lane.

Without further adieu here is this weeks Thing I always Wanted

The Talk Boy:

For those of you that might have forget, the TalkBoy was featured in Home Alone: 2, and while the first 2 Home Alone movies featured a gang or awesome tricks for young boys to try this is the one that was the most marketable.

This product was basically a glorified boring tape recorder used by goofy professors and what not. What Tiger did though was paint it silver, add an extend able mic, and the ability to play at half speed, full speed, or reverse.

This doesn’t really sound all that exciting really, but combine Hollywood Movie Magic, a clever marketing scheme, and the fact that kids are stupid and you have a sought after item.

Apparently the gimmick was that if you slow down a pre pubescent voice it sounded like that of a full grown adult to everyone around (provided everyone around was incredibly stupid). Awesome, now you can prank your sister and her bf like in the commercial.

Or like Kevin in the movie, steal your dads credit card and commit identity theft, and get a swank New York hotel room much to the displeasure of the snooty concierge.

Obviously now this all sound completely moronic but at nine years old this would have been my ticket to all sorts of mischief. Unfortunately my parents saw right through the marketing gimmick and straight to the potential jail time I could incur using stolen credit cards to order lots and lots of Ninja Turtles merchandise.

So this goes as the first of many things I always wanted.

Here are some videos of clever use of this device.

Tags: 80s, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Talk Boy