Thought this might be of interest---
'Star Wars' Figures From Hasbro Learn
To Speak in a Boost for Electronic Toys
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Hasbro Inc. unveiled a line of speech-enhanced "Star Wars" figures and a pact with a leading robotics expert in moves to boost its fast-growing portfolio of electronic toys.
The No. 2 toy maker, leading an industry trend, has been adding technology to a growing portion of its product line, even creating computer versions of board games like Monopoly. Analysts expect electronics-related sales at Hasbro to reach $850 million of the company's $3.7 billion total in 1999 -- success that follows years of frustrated high-tech development efforts.
At the industrywide American International Toy Fair opening in New York Monday, Hasbro, of Pawtucket, R.I., is making several announcements cementing its technology strategy. The company is showing buyers a system that will allow a new generation of "Star Wars" action figures to simulate speech with the aid of a microchip-laden tag and a separate palmsize speaker.
The technology was developed by Innovision Research & Technology Ltd., Berkshire, United Kingdom. A Hasbro official said the new "Star Wars" figures will be priced somewhere above the $5.99 figures that were 1997's best-selling boys' toy, but under $8. Price information for the speaker, sold separately, wasn't available.
The new "Star Wars" action figures will go on sale at the beginning of May, three weeks before the May 21 opening of the next "Star Wars" movie.
Hasbro also has agreed to license technology from ISRobotics Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., company founded by Rodney Brooks, head of the artificial-intelligence laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a pioneer in the field of mobile robotics. Products resulting from the agreement aren't expected to emerge until 2000.
This agreement follows the big U.S. Christmas success of Mindstorms, a robotics construction set from Lego Group AG, Denmark. Lego is also expected to roll out a new line of "Star Wars"-themed interactive toys that will feature some Mindstorms technology at the New York toy show Monday. Unlike Mindstorms, however, which requires a computer to program the toys, Lego's "Star Wars" line won't. The toys will carry a self-contained programming system and be able to emulate many of the chores and tricks performed by their computer-enhanced counterparts, such as warning of intruders in a house, following flashlights in dark places and roaming along prescribed boundaries. Simplified for nine-year-olds, the Lego "Star Wars" line is expected to outsell its older-age appropriate Mindstorms by a ratio of 4 to 1, according to Lego's internal estimates. The new toys will retail for $99, half the price of a Mindstorms.
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