Washington –
Disney showed off its vision for the future of play earlier this week with a new line of smart and wearable toys, called “Playmation.”
The toys use a combination of Bluetooth, motion sensors and wearable technology that allow children to act out stories in interactive ways. A base set of toys – the starter pack is “Avengers” themed – comes with Iron Man's laser blasting gauntlet, two action figures and two other smart toys for $120 (R1 500). The toys connect with a base hub that can narrate a set of adventures or just provide some basic outlines for a play session (Iron Man's artificial intelligence assistant JARVIS voices the stories).
Up to two sets of the toys can also work together – for play dates – Disney said on Playmation's official website. Once kids suit up, they even can play a version of laser tag with the base station. These adventures are stored in the cloud, so kids can pick up a story where they left off.
That ability to store data over time also comes into play with the set's smart action figures, which can “teach” the wearable toys new abilities over time. Finally, a mobile app ties everything together, letting kids track their progress and download new adventures.
For those who aren't in love with superheroes, Disney has also planned “Star Wars” themed toys for release in 2016, while “Frozen” gear is due in 2017. (The toys fit adult arms, too, in case you want to play with your kids. Or, you know, your adult friends.)
The unveiling represents an expansion for Disney, which in the past has licensed characters to traditional toymakers such as Hasbro. But Disney's native toy division, called Disney Consumer Products, has been growing and is profitable. And the release of Playmation may signal a shift by Disney to take more control over its own product lines.
Smart toys have not been universally welcomed by privacy advocates. At a toy fair earlier this year, Mattel endowed its Barbie doll with voice-recognition software that allow it to “hear” children speak and give chatty responses. As the doll listens, audio recordings travel over the Web to a server where the snippets of speech are recognized and processed. That information is used to help form Hello Barbie's responses.
Children's privacy advocates cried foul, while some parent groups labeled the toy “eavesdropping” Barbie.
For Playmation toys, an internet connection is required only for downloading new apps or missions, Disney said. The toys will not be hooked-up to the Web while children are playing with them.
Disney has tried some other experiments for connected toys, including a line of figurines that interact with its Disney Infinity video game. But on the site, Disney says that “Playmation” is definitely not a video game.
“Playmation is an entirely new category of play – unlike anything you've ever experienced,” the site reads. “There is a companion app, but Playmation is not meant to be played in front of a screen.”
Disney's clearly looking to appeal to kids who want some high-tech playtime - and maybe also to parents who want to see more than their children in front of big and small screens all the time. – Washington Post