Plush animals have had a steady and strong competition from smartphones and other gadgets. Kayle Concepts has made a new line ot stuffed animals called Bluebee Pals that use technology and will usher the new generation of plush animals.
Stuffies have long been using technology. There are stuffed toys that can sing, dance, talk. But they can’t really do all that much that is different. Pretty soon children are wowed by the video games and electronic toys and leave the stuffies aside.
“Fifteen or twenty years ago, the number of people buying plush toys was double or triple what it is today”, says Laura Jiencke, president of Kayle Concepts to the Saudi Gazette. She has designed plush animals for years and knows all about the benefits of stuffies.
Jiencke is convinced there is a way stuffed animals can use today’s technology to appeal to kids everywhere. Herbert Low from China has the same idea. He and Laura met and agreed to work together on the idea.
The result is Bluebee Pals – the new generation of plush animals. Each toy has a Bluetooth receiver inside. Through it you can connect it to a laptop, tablet, Android or an iOS device. You can then stream audio from that device to the toy.
Currently the Bluebee Pal line has a stuffed lion, sheep, dog, zebra and a teddy bear. Of course there are plans of adding more and more stuffies to the line. Jiencke says there is only one condition – the new stuffies have to as cute or cuter than the current ones.
Bluebee Pals have already made quite a few friends. The free ap iStoryTime for example has partnered with them. Thus you can now stream bedtime stories to the stuffed toys who can tell them to the kids while they hug them. That is a lot better than simply placing the smartphone near them, right?
Cubic Frog on the other hand will be offering other apps that help with learning sounds, colors, the alphabet and so on. So you can see the huge possibilities with these new toys. They can be both entertaining, comforting, educating. The Bluebee Pals can even be used by parents to make calls and speak with their kids from a distance.
The toys cost 65 dollars and are about 13 inches tall. The Bluetooth receiver is easily rechargeable through USB. There is even lipsync technology that moves the mouth of the toy while it is singing and speaking.
