WowWee

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WowWee Group Limited
Company type Private
Founded1988;36 years ago (1988)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
FounderRichard Yanofsky
Peter Yanofsky
Headquarters Hong Kong, China
Website www.wowwee.com

WowWeeGroup Limited, is a privately held, Hong Kong-based Canadian consumer technology company.

Contents

History

Initially from Canada, the two founding brothers (Richard and Peter Yanofsky) moved to Hong Kong to form the company in 1982, as an independent research & development and manufacturing outfit. [1] As an OEM seller, they produced products such as the Power Rangers Power Gloves and the Talking Tots dolls. [2] In 1987, the company changed focus, building and marketing toys under their own brand in response to a fall in OEM orders. In 1999, they produced new products including a robotic dog (MegaByte), T-Rex, and the Animaltronics and Dinotronics lines of remote control animals. In 1998 the company was purchased by Hasbro. [3]

Under Hasbro

Shortly before the Hasbro sale, [4] Peter Yanofsky reportedly caught physicist/roboticist Mark Tilden on the Discovery Channel, and soon hired him as a consultant. [3] Initially Tilden worked part-time with WowWee while he continued his work with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, but in 2001, Tilden joined the company full-time. One of his first products with WowWee was the B.I.O. Bug, released in 2001. Unfortunately, while sales were doing well, they weren't as strong as either WowWee or Hasbro would have liked. In part this has been attributed to the after-effects of 9/11 and the anthrax attacks, while Tilden has also expressed disappointment with some of the limitations placed on the product design by Hasbro. [4] After moving to WowWee full-time in 2001, Tilden focused his attention on developing Robosapien.

While Tilden was developing Robosapien, Hasbro canceled the project several times, leading Yanofsky to negotiate out of the contract in 2003. [3] Robosapien was released in 2004, and over 1.5 million were reportedly sold in the first five months of sale. [5] Robosapien was the first commercially available biomorphic robot, and the first to integrate personality-like features. Tilden continued to develop the line with the Robosapien V2 (released in 2005), which added functionality like speech capability; RS Media™ robot (released in 2006), which included user-created functions, and Roboreptile (also in 2006). [6] The Roboquad a four-wheeled robot (released in 2007); the RS Tri-Bot, a three-wheeled robot (released in summer 2008), [7] and RS Media (2006).

In 2007, working with inventor Sean Frawley, WowWee released the FlyTech Dragonfly  –a remote control flying ornithopter. [8] The Dragonfly was named as one of the inventions of the year by Time in 2007. [9] The success of the Dragonfly led to other flying toys, such as the Bladestar (a remote controlled helicopter) and the Butterfly (a wind-up ornithopter aimed at younger children).

Under Optimal Group

On September 27, 2007, the publicly traded Optimal Group announced they had entered into a purchase agreement to acquire WowWee Ltd, which they completed in November of that year. [10]

At the 2008 CES, several new products (including the Rovio and Femisapien) were announced with their estimated release dates and prices. [11] [12]

Private again; Fingerlings & Avastars

In 2010, the management of WowWee entered into a support agreement with Optimal Group, and took the company private again. [13] In 2014, a new product, MiP, was released. It won more than 10 Tech and Toy awards, including the Toy Industry Associations’ 2015 TOTY award for Innovative Toy of the Year. [14] MiP was also named "Innovative Toy of the Year" at the National Robotics Week. [15] At the 2015 CES, WowWee announced products including MiPosaur and REV. [16]

In 2017, the company employed about 100 people. [17] For the 2017 Christmas season, it introduced, through a series of viral promotions on social media, a product called Fingerlings. The tiny robots, in the shape of monkeys, sloths and unicorns, became one of the most popular toys of the season. [17] [18] Some shoppers complained that they were sold fake Fingerlings on Amazon and Walmart's websites. [19] In 2018, WowWee followed up [20] the success with large interactive plush Fingerlings in the Fingerlings Hugs series.

in 2022 WowWee formed a partnership with the Roblox development group Gamefam to launch the Avastars line of dolls.

2010 lawsuit

On November 23, 2010, Engadget revealed that WowWee and a number of retailers were being sued for trademark infringement by Gibson Guitar Corporation for unlawfully using the shapes of the bodies and headstocks of Gibson's signature guitars in their Paper Jamz line of battery operated toy guitars. [21] WowWee denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the shapes Gibson claimed as trademarks were generic and therefore could not function as trademarks. On November 24, 2010, the court denied Gibson's request for a temporary restraining order, [22] but on December 22, 2010, granted Gibson's motion for a preliminary injunction. The case was later settled, with WowWee paying Gibson an undisclosed amount for licensing the likeness of Gibson guitars, according to Gibson CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz. [23]

2022 lawsuit

On August 3, 2022, the video game company Roblox Corporation sued WowWee due to the Avastars line of toys. Roblox claimed that the Avastars' designs were too similar to that of a classic Roblox avatar. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Furby</span> Electronic robotic toy

Furby is an American electronic robotic toy by Tiger Electronics. Originally released 1998, it resembles a hamster or owllike creature and went through a period of being a "must-have" toy following its holiday season launch. Over 40 million Furbies were sold during the three years of its original production, with 1.8 million sold in 1998, and 14 million in 1999. Its speaking capabilities were translated into 14 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Tilden</span> Canadian roboticist

Mark W. Tilden is a robotics physicist who produces complex robotic movements from simple analog logic circuits, often with discrete electronic components, and usually without a microprocessor. He is controversial because of his libertarian Tilden's Laws of Robotics, and is known for his invention of BEAM robotics and the WowWee Robosapien humanoid robot.

BEAM robotics is a style of robotics that primarily uses simple analogue circuits, such as comparators, instead of a microprocessor in order to produce an unusually simple design. While not as flexible as microprocessor based robotics, BEAM robotics can be robust and efficient in performing the task for which it was designed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornithopter</span> Aircraft which use flapping movement of the wings to generate lift

An ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers sought to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as flying animals. Larger, crewed ornithopters have also been built and some have been successful. Crewed ornithopters are generally either powered by engines or by the pilot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nerf</span> American toy brand

Nerf is a toy brand formed by Parker Brothers and currently owned by Hasbro. Most of the toys are a variety of foam-based weaponry, with other Nerf products including balls for sports such as American football, basketball, and baseball. Their best known toys are their dart guns that shoot ammunition made from "Nerf foam". Their primary slogan, introduced in the 1990s, is "It's Nerf or Nothin'!". Annual revenues under the Nerf brand are approximately US$400 million.

GoBots is a line of transforming robot toys produced by Tonka from 1983 to 1987, similar to Hasbro's Transformers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomy</span> Japanese toy, childrens merchandise and entertainment company

Tomy Company, Ltd., trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere, is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as Tomiyama Toy Manufacturing Company (富山玩具製作所), became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pirate. In 2006, Tomy merged with another toy manufacturer, Takara, and although the English company name remained the same, it became Takara Tomy in Asia. It has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poo-Chi</span> Robotic dog toy

Poo-Chi, one of the first generations of robopet toys, is a robot dog designed by Samuel James Lloyd and Matt Lucas, manufactured by Sega Toys, and distributed by Tiger Toys. Poo-Chi was released in 2000 and discontinued in 2002.

The Robosapien V2 is the second generation of Mark Tilden's Robosapien robot. It is nearly twice the size of the original robot, standing around 1.85 feet (56 cm) tall. Instead of the original caveman grunts, the V2 can speak a large list of pre-recorded phrases. It has infrared and basic color recognition sensors, grip sensors in its hands, touch or contact activated hand and foot sensors, and sonic sensors. For movement, the V2 has an articulated waist, shoulders, and hands giving him a variety of body animations.

<i>The Transformers</i> (TV series) 1980s American animated series

The Transformers is an American-Japanese animated television series that originally aired from September 17, 1984, to November 11, 1987, in syndication based upon Hasbro and Takara Tomy's Transformers toy line. The first television series in the Transformers franchise, it depicts a war among giant robots that can transform into vehicles and other objects.

The Flytech Dragonfly is a remote-controlled flying toy manufactured by WowWee. The Dragonfly has been incorrectly billed as the world's first commercially available RC ornithopter. It was actually preceded by several other products, including Hobbytechnik's Skybird, Park Hawk, and Slow Hawk radio controlled ornithopters, and the Cybird radio-controlled ornithopter from Neuros.

The RS Media is another product in WowWee's line of biomorphic robots, based on a walking system designed by Mark Tilden. The RS Media uses basically the same body as the Robosapien V2, but a different brain based on a Linux kernel. As the name implies, the RS Media's focus is on multimedia capabilities, including the ability to record and playback audio, pictures and video. he retains and builds upon the Robosapien V2's sensor array and programmability.

FemiSapien is a female humanoid robot that WowWee announced at CES in January 2008. It can respond to sight, sound, and touch and can be programmed with a sequence of movements. At CES 2008 an estimated release date of late summer and $99 MSRP were given, and was being sold for $89.99 in 2009.

<i>Robosapien: Rebooted</i> 2013 Canadian film

Robosapien: Rebooted is a 2013 science fiction family drama film starring Bobby Coleman, Holliston Coleman, Penelope Ann Miller, David Eigenberg, Joaquim de Almeida, Kim Coates, Jae Head and Peter Jason, produced by Arad Productions Inc., Arc Productions, Crystal Sky Pictures and Brookwell McNamara Entertainment and distributed by Anchor Bay Films and TVA Films. It is based on the toy Robosapien.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gibson Brands</span> American musical instrument manufacturer

Gibson Brands Inc. is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was formerly known as Gibson Guitar Corporation and renamed Gibson Brands Inc. on June 11, 2013.

RoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by WowWee toys. Released in 2004, the Robosapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included or by a PDA. The product sold over 1.5 million units between April and December 2004, and was named "Toy of the Year" by the Toy Retailers Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paper Jamz</span> Musical toy line produced by WowWee

Paper Jamz was a collection of musical toys, produced by WowWee. Introduced in 2010, Paper Jamz were paper-thin musical toys, which included guitars, microphones, keytars, drum kits, and amplifiers. They were also marketed as "Instant Rock Star" instruments.

Moose Toys is an Australian-owned toy design, development and distribution company founded in 1985. Moose is headquartered in Australia, has over 600 staff and distributes to over 50 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fingerlings (toy)</span> Line of robotic toys

Fingerlings is a toy line released in 2017 by WowWee. The toy is a robotic creature that wraps around a finger and reacts to touch and sound with actions like blinking and blowing kisses. Fingerlings Hugs are larger plush toys that have the same interactivity.

References

  1. ↑ Krueger, Justus (February 28, 2006). "Robot climbs evolutionary ladder". South China Morning Post. Hong Kong.
  2. ↑ "History". WowWee (Official Site). Archived from the original on April 8, 2008. Retrieved May 1, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 Goldman, Francisco (November 28, 2004). "A Robot for the Masses". The New York Times.
  4. 1 2 Feder, Barnaby J. (February 21, 2002). "Toyland Is Tough, Even for Robots". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ Taylor, Michael (November 16, 2004). "Innovative toy packs a punch". South China Morning Post. Hong Kong.
  6. ↑ Bullard, Dave (August 9, 2006). "Techno comes to toy town". The Courier Mail .
  7. ↑ WowWee RS Tri-bot
  8. ↑ Marriott, Michel (February 8, 2007). "If Leonardo Had Made Toys". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ "Gadget of the Year: FlyTech Dragonfly". Time. November 1, 2007. Archived from the original on November 4, 2007.
  10. ↑ "Optimal Group Completes WowWee Acquisition (Press Release)". Yahoo! Finance. November 7, 2007. Archived from the original on December 22, 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2008.
  11. ↑ "CES 2008: Meet the new WowWee Robot Lineup!". RoboCommunity. January 8, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  12. ↑ RoboCommunity Team (January 14, 2008). "WowWee Robots 2008 – Release Dates and Pricing Guide". RoboCommunity. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  13. ↑ Optimal Group Enters Into Support Agreement With Management of WowWee Group for Offer of US$2.40 per Share, March 17, 2010
  14. ↑ "2015 TOTY Winners". The Toy Association. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  15. ↑ named Innovative Toy of the Year at National Robotics Week, ToyNews, April 16, 2015
  16. ↑ WowWee® Shifts Into Hyperdrive at CES with REV™ and MiPosaur™, PR Newswire
  17. 1 2 Corkery, Michael. "How the Fingerling Caught On (Robot Grip and All) as 2017’s Hot Toy", The New York Times , December 9, 2017
  18. ↑ White, Martha C. "A Brand New Set of Fingerlings Toys Have Arrived. Here's Where to Buy Them", Money , December 20, 2017
  19. ↑ Pisani, Joseph "Shoppers: Fake Fingerlings sold through outside sellers on Amazon, walmart.com", USA Today , November 21, 2017
  20. ↑ "Fingerlings Hugs Bella Is in Stock At Amazon for Pre-order". I4U News. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Gibson sues WowWee, retailers over Paper Jamz toy guitars". Engadget. November 23, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
  22. ↑ "Adams v. Gibson, 2:07-cv-00777-RAM | Casetext Search + Citator". casetext.com. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Gibson Responds to WowWee Settlement Article". MMR. January 12, 2011. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
  24. ↑ Brittain, Blake (August 3, 2022). "Roblox sues tech toymaker WowWee over avatar figurines". Reuters. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
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