
One of my favorite startups at TechCrunch50 earlier this week was
ToyBots, a spinoff of the popular Facebook/iPhone game developer
Social Gaming Network. ToyBots has created technology that they'll license to toy manufacturers that will make those toys Internet connected and controllable. Our launch post on them
is here.
I think ToyBots is the future, where all toys (and just about everything else) is Internet-connected. But I don't think the company is dreaming big enough.
There are obvious similarities between ToyBots and
Teddy Ruxpin, an 80's superhit toy that moved and lip synched stories via a cassette tape player hidden in the back. 1.4 million of the toys were sold in the first year it was on the market in 1986, and it was the number one selling toy in 1985 and 1986. Worlds of Wonder Inc., the company that launched the toy, had sales of $93 million in its first fiscal year.
Now imagine Teddy Ruxpin with an Internet connection. Upload stories (even ones that you read yourself) over Wifi. Then the toy talks them back to you. There's a website that acts as a remote control and mirrors your movements, possibly even via a webcam that detects and understands your movements. Make and share a choreographed set of movements.
Add in the huge virtual and physical merchandising opportunities as the toy gets stuff in the real and virtual worlds.
ToyBots done right is a multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity. And CEO
Shervin Pishevar knows it. But there's just one problem.
"We don’t want to build the toys ourselves. We want to be the gaming cloud," he told the judges at TechCrunch50.
TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
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