Though Furby was created as a girl's toy because it is cute and furry, it has been popular with boys because of its attitude and its penchant for making gross sounds, like burps. It's not really soft and cuddly anyway. It was made small for portability, so it was difficult to put too much padding around its plastic guts.

Techno Toys Lifelike Dolls With Attitude Are A Hot Commodity This Season. November 26, 1998 by JODI DUCKETT, The Morning Call. AMAZING AMY, Playmates. Jun 20, 2014 Playing with My Amazing Amy Doll. Playing with My Amazing Babies Doll - Duration. Amazing Ally Interactive Dolls Playmates Toys.

Its plastic base is visible. When it moves, the sound of its motor is obvious. While Furby does much more than its virtual predecessors, one thing it doesn't do is die. Furby will just go to sleep if you stop playing with it (of course, it'll beg you to keep playing first).

And when its batteries run out, which they will do, it won't lose its memory. 'Furby very happily will sit in your room very quietly and nothing will happen to it.

He doesn't age, his batteries don't go out, his memory doesn't go south,' said Jeff Jones, Tiger vice-president of marketing. AMAZING AMY, Playmates, $80, ages 3 and up Amy is cute too, with crystal blue eyes, baby soft skin, slightly blushed cheeks, a soft body and a sweet voice.

Stickmuster Download Chrome here. But except for the fact that she doesn't automatically close her eyes when she sleeps, she's pretty smart too. Amy's play is directed by an internal clock similar to a virtual pet. The LCD clock, encased in a tiny heart on Amy's chest, is very easy to set. By squeezing Amy's hands according to the directions, you set the current time, Amy's wake-up time and her bedtime. Once the clock is set, the digital screen on Amy's chest displays hearts on the top and smiley faces on the bottom.

When Amy is completely healthy, her heart indicator will show five hearts. When she is happy, there will be five smiley faces. The clock controls almost everything Amy does. She won't play after her bedtime (for special occasions, there is an override so she can stay up late). She knows what she wants and asks for it at certain times of the day -- to change into her sleeper at night and play clothes in the morning, to eat cereal for breakfast and pizza for lunch, to have her diaper changed.

Sensors on Amy's body and in her accessories give Amy the information to respond. For example, if you try to feed Amy her plastic hot dog at breakfast, she'll say something like 'It's not time for a hot dog. Please give me bananas.'

If you try to play a game with her when she's hungry, she'll tell you she wants to eat instead. There are sensors in her mouth, her hands, her diaper, her belly and her back. She comes with a bag of accessories -- 'food,' toothbrush, medicine -- with sensors attached. If you feed her a toy cookie, she'll know it's a cookie because the sensor in her mouth connects with the sensor on the cookie. Hopefully, anyway. Sometimes, the connection is hard to make.

Ryan Slate, director of marketing for Playmates, said that making that connection has been the biggest problem with Amy. He said the company has raised the sensors on the play pieces and lengthened the metal sensors on her teeth. The sensors also allow children to play games with Amy. One is Simon Says, where you do whatever Amy tells you -- squeeze her hand, brush her hair, etc. -- but only if she says Simon Says. She knows if you get it wrong. Even though she's a baby who needs her diaper changed, Amy can talk very clearly.

She will often say things like 'I love you, mommy' or 'I like to play' and 'Am I cute or what?' Playmates claims her vocabulary has more than 15,000 phrases. Amy also cries very annoyingly and does so often when she wants her diaper changed or she's hungry or wants to play. Amy doesn't have a motor, so her body doesn't move when she talks. That's also why she looks like she's smiling even when she's crying and her eyes don't automatically close when she goes to sleep. Her eyes are gravity-activated; they close when you lay her down. Edius 6 Crack Free Download. By early next year, additional play packs with clothing and accessories, will be available -- the Beach Picnic Pack and the Birthday Party Pack.

Amy also has her own toll-free hotline -- the number is printed on her battery compartment. You can call the number to order missing play pieces, but you can also program Amy not to ask for the piece until you get a new one. Slate said that Amy's high price hasn't hurt her sales. 'Parents are willing to spend the money if they feel it is a worthwhile investment, meaning it is going to engage their child for a longer period of time. 'It expands on the imaginative play pattern of little girls.

So much of it is, `How did she know?' To a little girl, that's magic.' ACTIMATES ARTHUR Microsoft, $55, ages 4-8 Following in the footsteps of preschool star Barney, this interactive Arthur is soft and sweet and infinitely more enjoyable.

Based on the hugely popular mouse character by Marc Brown of storybook and now, television, fame, Arthur is stuffed with computer power and sensors so that he can play games and talk with children who are a little older than fans of the happy-go-lucky purple dinosaur. His little sister, D.W., is also an Actimates doll.

Founded in Hong Kong in 1966, Playmates Toys is one of the leading toy marketers in the world today. Over the past 45 years, Playmates has brought to market a number of toy brands that defined generations of kids, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Waterbabies, Star Trek, Simpsons, Space Jam, Nano, and the Amazing dolls, among others.

Despite the inherent volatility of the promotional toy industry, Playmates Toys has remained a market leader, guided by the operating principles of creativity, flexibility and simplicity. Today, Playmates continues to build upon a strong and focused brand portfolio, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Company was founded as Playmates Industrial in 1966, as primarily a doll manufacturing subcontractor for US and European toy marketers. By the mid-1970s, Playmates had earned a reputation as a leading supplier of top quality dolls. In 1978, Playmates took an important step toward becoming a global toymaker by establishing a sales force in Boston to market and distribute its own lines of dolls and preschool toys, Li’l Playmates. In December 1984, Playmates became the first toy company to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange, under the ticker 0075. A portion of the capital raised was used to establish a new marketing and distribution center in California, with the goal of preparing the Company to enter the promotional toy segments of the industry. Two years later, Playmates had its first big success in promotional toys with Cricket, the first ever interactive doll to be brought to the mass market. The initial success of Cricket was quickly followed by one of the greatest hits in the history of toys – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Playmates introduced the Turtles, then an unknown property, at the 1988 New York Toy Fair. Despite an unenthusiastic reception, Playmates pushed forward with the line, funding the first five episodes of the cartoon series. And from an initial 3,000-piece order, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went on to become one of the greatest success stories of the industry.

By 1990, the Turtles had become one of the best-selling toys ever, and the cartoon show was the top-ranked Saturday morning kids show in the US. The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, released in 1990, grossed over $200 million worldwide, setting a new record for a release by an independent studio. In the same year, the Turtles had an estimated 60% share of the action figure market. Driven by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles phenomenon, Playmates sales exceeded $500 million in 1990, and the Company became the first toy company in history to generate over $200 million in pretax profit. In 1991, Playmates introduced Waterbabies, a line of water-filled baby dolls.

Children and parents were captivated by the life-like, warm and cuddly baby dolls. Waterbabies sales reached reached almost two million units in the US in 1991, making it the number one promotional doll in the US.

Waterbabies would remain a top-selling doll brand for over a decade. A number of successful toy introductions followed throughout the 1990’s, including Star Trek, Exo Squad, Primal Rage, and Space Jam. In 1997, Playmates launched the Nano line of virtual pets, which quickly became a “must-have” toy that Christmas, and established Playmates as a major player in the electronic toys business. The following year, Playmates set a new industry standard for dolls with Amazing Amy, a highly intelligent interactive doll that could respond with over 10,000 phrases.

For the next eight years, the Amazing dolls remained one of the most popular doll brands in the US. In 2000, Playmates revolutionized the industry again with The Simpsons collector figures that interacted with playsets with phrases from the TV show. In 2001, Playmates launched the Disney Princess line of dolls. The relationship with Disney expanded further in 2005 with the acquisition of the Disney Fairies toy license. A number of other toy introductions contributed to the Playmates line-up in the 2000’s, including King Kong, Strawberry Shortcake, Hearts For Hearts Girls, a new generation of Amazing dolls, and the re-launch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By maintaining discipline in inventory control, product mix, and overhead management, Playmates has successfully navigated the cycles inherent to the promotional toy industry. Going forward, Playmates will continue to pursue profitable growth by introducing safe, innovative, toys to kids throughout the world.