Old is New Again

Little Tikes wanted to get into storytime play and challenged our team to develop an item for this new electronics toy category. What we designed was an affordable item that speaks to the nostalgia parents and grandparents have for the reading toys of the 70s and 80s. Our goal was to design a product that avoided complicated mobile pairing, apps, or screen time that complicate the function and increased the cost for the competitors in this space. We wanted to center the play pattern around learning to read—without kids realizing it.

When I was little I had a hand-me-down Little Golden Books record player and several books to go with it. Inside the back cover of each Golden Book was a 6” vinyl record with an incredible narration for each book. I even think I learned to read by playing with that old record player. So when our team started talking about entering this category I knew immediately what I wanted us to create.

The Story Dream Machine is a read-along storybook projector with narration, music, and sound effects. It’s also an ambient noise machine and a nightlight.

The ever-expanding library features stories from Little Golden Books, Berenstain Bears, Sesame Street, Trolls, Kung-Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Random House, Harper Collins, and much more to come.

Story packs also include a collectible figure that activates special ambient light shows specific to each character. The machine also features an assortment of ambient white noise sounds for a sleep aid.

My team and I designed the machine to be tough and durable, the UI to be easy for young children to use, and the aesthetics to remind parents of the toys of previous generations without looking dated. We overcame so many challenges to bring this item to market; from the microfilm to the optics, build quality, safety, and licensing, it’s amazing we did it in less than a year.

Last August, we began meeting with licensors—this August, the item became the #1 top-selling new release in Amazon’s toys & games category along with the story packs. Walmart sold out of its first shipment in the first 3 weeks and is now scrambling to order more units. I can’t express in words how proud I am of this product and the very small team that worked so hard to make it the success it has exploded into.