A blog for random junk

In 2003, there was a toy recall at Walmart, but not for any of the expected reasons. The toy was a baby's sound machine, meant to soothe babies to bed. The toy was shaped like a tugboat, with some cute sea critters to top it all off.

The problem? Many parents listening to the ocean wave sounds heard a faint voice repeating "I hate you" over and over again. Whether the audio of a voice saying "I hate you" was actually in the sounds, or if it is a case of pareidolia is unknown, however interestingly in one news article*, Walmart did not chalk it up to the phenomenon, calling the noise parents were concerned about "beeps" instead.

The toy was very quickly recalled, no evidence of its existence is documented outside of photos and news articles from the time period. It is a miracle the high quality photo displayed above exists at all.

This is where I think toyblr could step in, if any of you guys have collected toys from 2003 or know someone who has, see if you have this toy and if its audio still works. It would be an incredible find for such a bizarre and somewhat funny search.

More important info:

This toy was under Walmart's "Kid Connections" brand and was presumably manufactured in China. However, the toy could have been manufactured anywhere outside of America as stated in a rant against the brand:

To save money, Wal-Mart contracts with manufacturers to make several private label toys, which are sold under names such as Wal-Mart's Kid Connection. Profit margins on these products, many of which are manufactured outside the United States, are often twice those of brand-name toys, said the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he continues to do business with the retailer.

This toy was made as a cheaper alternative/competitor to Fisher Price's Ocean Wonders Aquarium toy. While there's similarities in design and function, Ocean Wonders Aquarium does not share the same audio as the recalled toy.

I would love for this to be found some day, for the novelty factor and curiosity if the audio really did include that "subliminal message".

A plush of Kindy Kip, a character from a lost series of edutainment games that were sold in Australia. I posted some info about the series here a while back.

I have no info on it, and it doesn’t seem to have been mentioned on the official website. The listing shows only one side of the tag which says “Made in China” which is strange.

Kindy Kip: I.T. for Tots (Lost Media)

I know I’ve been posting more about obscure stuff rather than bootlegs lately, but I want to share this since I’ve been thinking about it for a while. 

 When I was younger, I used to play a series of edutainment games called “Kindy Kip” by Kip McGrath. It features a yellow furry monster with human hands and legs called “Kipster” and a mouse called “Monty”. There’s also a white monster with glasses which is supposed to be Kipster’s grandfather.

Looking it up doesn’t reveal any images and there is hardly any info other than trademark information, two LinkedIn profiles for people who worked on the game, a brief mention of the game on Google Books, and a webpage showing the location of the company responsible for the game. Trademark Elite states the “Kindy Kip” trademark was filed on August 23, 2000.

The games were briefly mentioned in “Cyberlines 2.0: Languages and Cultures of the Internet” on Google Books:

“Some software developers such as Kindy Kip: I.T. for Tots have taken marketing right into childcare centres. The centres pass on promotional material to caregivers. Their purchase of the software earns the centre a commission.“

Even though it was used by childcare centers (according to the book), you could buy the games yourself from the official website. If you wanted the free trial version, you had to send an email to the company; it wasn’t up for download on the website.

I don’t remember how many games there were. The Wayback Machine only has two shockwave files saved. One shows you what the start menu for the games looks like and the other asks you if you’re a girl or a boy and to enter your name; the loading screen is continuous.

Aside from clicking on things the games would ask you to click on, there were coloring sheets and songs. Some coloring sheets were archived on the Wayback Machine, along with desktop wallpapers. The screenshots in this post and the picture of the computer also came from the archived website. There are more screenshots archived on the Wayback Machine.

The games were targeted toward kids from ages 2-5 and were sold in Australia. I don’t know if they were ever sold in New Zealand.