I’ve lurked here for a long time, and was hoping you all might be able to help me with something.
I found a Mr. Mike at a local flea market, the trouble is, it doesn’t look like any of the ones I’ve seen or owned previously. I thought the character was created for the Toy Story movies, and I cannot find evidence otherwise, this is why I’m so baffled by what I found. It’s dated 1993 Hasbro, so it pre-dates Toy Story’s release.
Does anyone have any idea what this toy was called before it was given this name in Toy Story? It has all the same functions as the Toy Story version, but is missing the dial for the voice changing setting at the top. The top is blue, instead of red, and the cassette door is red with white markings, instead of white. Also, it has the antenna, but it’s fixed in the down position, and no, it’s not just stuck.
Anyone have any ideas, or any more info on the toy and its connection to the movies/Pixar?
The closest product I came to that existed before Toy Story was this. I would have guessed that your model was some company’s tricky alterations to sell their own popular Mr. Mike knock off, except it’s Playskool. And Playskool did release Toy Story toys. So that would make no sense. Otherwise there were and have been a lot of children’s cassette recorder with microphone products of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Playskool has made several. The one I linked to is the closest it gets to without the product being Toy Story affiliated. I want to say that what you have was just an oddly colored pre released toy for the film, except that’s a good two years before Toy Story. How interesting.
Thanks for the reply Gazelle. I had actually seen that other recorder, it’s like a non-anthropomorphous Mr. Mike
The weirdest part about what I found, at leas to me, is the white lines on the cassette door. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost be convinced that they’re CG mapping lines. They look very much like auto-cad too, they don’t seem to serve any sort of design purpose.
The original name of the toy is “Playskool Rockin’ Robot”.
It came with the correct white cassette door; so I guess that red door came from a different player that was put in to replace the possibly damaged original one.
Yeah it looks like perhaps it didn’t come with the red door and someone switched them for function purposes. That’s a really interesting find.
What I think is cool to look at personally is that my own Mr. Mike that I have somewhere back from 1995 has the same exact button logos except one has Woody line art. But on the right side where you see the pictures of Mr. Mike by the red switch, that’s exactly the same as what was on my Mr. Mike. It’s interesting to see how close to the original product it is.
Outstanding! That’s one mystery down, thanks for the info!
As far as the door being a replacement, I can’t image another toy, let alone cassette player, having been produced with a cassette door the exact same shape as one for the Rockin’ Robot. Do you know whether or not the original Rockin’ Robots had the same blue top as the one I have, instead of the movie version red?
I have no idea, but Playskool released a movie-accurate version in 1996:
EDIT: There was also a version that replaced the red voice changer top with a fully funtional radio (if you look closely, this one says “AM/FM” on the top, while the above version says “Voice Changer”):
I’d like to see a modern take on the toy. maybe allow it to connect to an ipod, play MP3s. maybe maybe it play CDs too. not sure if it would even need to be a cassette player anymore, just need to look like it does.
Oh my word, those last two pics of the Mr. Mike toy just brought me back 7-8 years… I think we owned the one with the AM/FM radio, if I’m not mistaken… but my memory escapes me.
I’ll have to watch that old home video of my little 5 year-old (at the time) brother singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and playing with this toy again to find out…
I genuinely never realised that this toy actually existed outside of Toy Story. I guess I thought that Pixar made it up for the purposes of the film or something. So, I’m loving the fact that it really is a toy! How cool!
I think we owned the one with the AM/FM radio, if I’m not mistaken… but my memory escapes me.
So, I’m loving the fact that it really is a toy! How cool!