Throwback Thursday: Tiger’s Talkboy

For this week’s Throwback Thursday we’re going to rewind time all the way back to 1993 (did you see what we did just there… try and keep up). Let’s take a trip down memory lane to try and get you into the proper frame of mind. In 1993: Bill Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States, the band Ace of Base had a hot new single called The Sign, and Macaulay Culkin was regarded as an up-and-coming young actor… and still sane. In fact, you have a young Mr. Culkin and 20th Century Fox’s Home Alone franchise to thank for this product’s existence. Hit the jump to read more about… the Tiger Talkboy.

Originally, the Talkboy was designed as a non-working movie prop for the 1992 Home Alone sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The device was made into an actual product in 1993 by toy company Tiger after hordes of young fans wrote letters wanting to know where to acquire the device. If Talkboy isn’t ringing any bells, perhaps you are more of a visual learner. Here was the commercial spot that ran advertising the device — compete with a mischievous, pre-pubescent, Macaulay-Culkin-wannabe:

The device, which was a glorified tape recorder, had the ability to slow down or speed up voices and featured a retractable microphone thing. Mr. Culkin’s movie-character — Kevin — made the device look oh-so-cool as he used it to outsmart the film’s dim-witted antagonists, Marv and Harry. How about it? Anyone ever own a Tiger Talkboy?

We’d like to thank Michael Bettiol for this week’s Throwback Thursday suggestion.

BGR Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.