Re: Fisher-Price

[Carl Steadman <carl@suck.com>]

>Has anyone out there seen the new f/p polaroid camera ... it looks like

>a polaroid version of the pxl ....

> anyone with any information?



Look - it's Carl trying to write for mainstream media! And failing miserably!



Enjoy.



Carl



--



Creative Effects Fun PhotoMaker

$49.99

6 AA alkaline batteries; Picture Pacs, $14.99 each

Fisher-Price





PixelVision II





It used to be that photography, in stark contrast to the rest of the

modern arts, abided by a single, easily-applied rule: if the photo's

shot in black and white, it's art. If it's in color, you're either

looking at a fashion spread or your family album.



With the recent introduction of the colorfully packaged, yet colorless

Creative Effects Fun PhotoMaker, Fisher-Price has made the distinction

between the gallery and the galling much less black and white.



The Creative Effects Fun PhotoMaker is a low-cost instant camera that

prints pictures on thermal paper - or, as the box reads, that "uses fax

machine technology!" The Fun PhotoMaker has simple one-button

point-and-shoot operation, with switches for indoor/outdoor lighting

and high/low contrast. The lens's focusing ring has been repurposed to

be an effects nob: you can choose from a number of in-camera digital

special effects, including a TV screen frame and a word bubble, that

are superimposed onto your photo when printed.



Frame your subject, press the shutter button, and... wait. Very

patiently. The Fun PhotoMaker will play a tune - music that, you'll

discover later, is almost too good: a melody that says, in its upbeat

perkiness, "You just wait! This is going to be pretty good! Any minute

now!" The Fun PhotoMaker then starts whirring with a loud buzzing as if

it's broken, and then, after a couple of minutes, you'll have an

instant photograph - although the process was hardly instantaneous, and

the end result, far from being photographic, is more reminiscent of the

Roswell photos in the National Enquirer.



Children may be very forgiving when it comes to their own work ("It's a

bird," little Ashley will say, when asked about her latest de

Kooning-inspired drawing), but play the role of unforgiving critic when

it comes to commercial products, as anyone who's tried to pass off a

discount-bin Arabian Nights animated video for a videotape of Disney's

Aladdin would know. Any child who would compare the grainy, black and

white results of the Fun PhotoMaker to the color prints Mom picks up at

the FotoMat and not feel cheated is probably bound for a lifetime of

trading dimes for big, shiny nickels.



And then there's the problem of media. The Creative Effects Fun

PhotoMaker uses $14.99 disposable cartridges, called Picture Packs.

After 36 pictures, it's time to hit up Mom & Dad for another Picture

Pack - at those prices, it's not long before the Fun PhotoMaker becomes

a high-priced ViewMaster, without the reels.



It's the norm for functional toys - toys that actually do something,

like watches, radios, or alarm clocks - to be repackaged adult product

in primary colors. It's disappointing, then, that the Fun PhotoMaker,

which has obviously built a very different product for the children's

market, has produced a toy that probably won't have much appeal to

kids.



What Fisher-Price has done, somehow, is to ignore the lessons of the

past, and create a PixelVision for the '90s. The Fisher-Price PXL-2000

was a video camera which recorded pixelized video onto ordinary

cassette tape that sold for about $100. A commercial failure - kids

didn't like the video quality - the PixelVision has become a much

sought-after item among amateur filmmakers, with used cameras

auctioning today for about $400. Footage from the PixelVision has

appeared in such mainstream movies as Richard Linklater's 1992 film,

Slacker, and Michael Amadeyer's 1996 vampire flick, Naja.



The Fun PhotoMaker has some of the same cult appeal as the PixelVision -

what the PixelVision did for video, the Fun PhotoMaker does for

photography, producing images in a new, unique way. And the grainy

picture quality will undoubtedly only add to its cachet. All some

entrepreneurial soul has to figure out is to how to crack open the

Picture Packs to load in a new roll of thermal paper, so that the Fun

PhotoMaker can continue to be used after Fisher-Price discontinues it,

as the PixelVision was discontinued.



And while those of us in pursuit of the new cool toy run out and

purchase a Fun PhotoMaker and as many Picture Packs as possible while

they're still available, parents can rest assured in their original

assumption: that any product - but especially a toy - that feels

compelled to put "fun" in its name, probably just isn't.