GigaPet Giga Friends

Babe, Sabrina's Cat "Salem",
R2D2, Yoda,
Rancor

Welcome to our Giga Friends Page. Make sure you also stop by our main Giga Pet Page. Giga Friends are 'sort of" virtual pets. We visited with their manufacture, Tiger Electronics, to better understand the differences between Giga Friends and Giga Pets. They said, that Giga Friends take less maintenance ( require less care) and are based on TV and move characters. The dividing line still seems a little blurry to me.

'Friends" were released in late 1997 and many children received them for Christmas. Currently the literature for all the "friends' says for ages 5 and up. The pets are currently available in TV and movie characters including several Star Wars pets.

Rancor, most fearsome beast in the galaxy in trouble?

January 16, 1997 our local TV station, KWTV channel 9 Oklahoma City ran a story of a mother complaining about the instructions and display of Rancor. His directions say he eats nude young women for "snacks" and "finds them tasty." The mother felt this was not an appropriate toy for her young son. The station aired a graphic of the woman on the display and "altered" it so it would not be offensive to viewers. They contacted the manufacture, Tiger Electronics, and their response was,they were just being true to the Star Wars character.

We certainly understand how a mother could find this offensive. But if mothers find this offensive, we have seen a lot of instruction sheets they better not read. We (Polson Enterprises) do offer design services in the develpment of unoffensive, easily read, understandable English text for virtual pet instructions sheets, brochures, and packaging along with verifying the pet design itself will not cause problems like this one.

Product Review

In addition to the information from Tiger below, one of our readers has submitted an excellent product review of the Giga Friends pets. We posted it on our Giga Friends Product Review Page.

Sabrina's Cat "Salem"
Modeled after the teenage witch's cat is a popular model. His desired is to become human again. He talks on the telephone, eats ice cream. The pet itself is in one of Tiger's very pretty cases.

Babe
Modeled after the popular movie character. He wants to become a world class sheepherder.

Rancor
Modeled after a Star Wars character. He is the most fearsome beast in the galaxy.

Yoda
Modeled after a Star Wars character. He will teach you the "ways of the force."

R2D2
Modeled after a Star Wars character. You can program him to solve puzzles, dodge Stormtroopers, and help Princess Leia.

 

This page was constructed 17 January 1998

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