Cricket dolls

Cricket is a talking doll that was first unveiled in February 1986 at the American International Toy Fair in New York. It was the first major product sold by Playmates Toys, a Hong Kong-based company that until that time had mostly imported toys from overseas and distributed them for the U.S. market.

Cricket was designed by Larry Jones at California R&D Center. Similar talking animal toys such as Worlds of Wonder's Teddy Ruxpin and Mother Goose had previously been released but Playmates' concept was to create a humanistic doll that simulated speech capability. The scripts and songs were written by Robin Frederick and Jay Tverdak. Cricket's catchphrases, including "Are we having fun or what?" and "I'll be talkin' to ya!" were written by Jones. Cricket was voiced by nine-year-ol
Laura Mooney

The Cricket dolls operated in similar fashion to that of Teddy Ruxpin, but had two-sided cassette tapes with sound and movement data on separate tracks rather than on separate sides of the tape. The doll required four "C" batteries for the player and one nine-volt battery for the mouth movement.

Cricket was available in models with black and white skin colors. The black Cricket doll was released with two different hairstyles, one with hair identical to that of the white version with two curly pigtails tied with pink yarn and the other version had short curly hair with no ribbons.

Cricket was sold wearing a pink sweater, yellow underpants, pleated mint green skirt, yellow socks and pink high-top sneakers with monogrammed laces. Her sweater came in two variations, one knitted and the other velour. Cricket also came with her "health plan" and two tapes, one labeled "Operating & Caring for Cricket" and the other, which was unlabeled, featured songs, jokes and stories.

The Cricket line was discontinued before all of the planned products could be released. These included the book and tape set “Cricket Visits Australia” and a planned device named the “Chatterbox” which would enable Cricket and Corky to interact in much the same manner as the Grubby accessory for Teddy Ruxpin. Despite this, the products continued to be included in lists and advertised in pamphlets packaged with the doll.

Book and tape sets

Cricket Books were all hardcover and featured interesting facts and instructions for various crafts and activities.

* ''Cricket Takes a Vacation''
* ''Cricket's Clubhouse''
* ''Growing Up with Cricket''
* ''Cricket Goes Camping''
* ''Around the World with Cricket''
* ''Holiday Fun with Cricket''
* ''Cricket Goes to the Circus''
* ''Cricket Visits Australia (unreleased)''
* ''Cricket's Special Surprise''
* ''Cricket Visits the Zoo''
* ''Cricket Visits China (unreleased)''
* ''Cricket Visits Spain''

Outfit and tape sets

These sets included a tape with games, jokes and stories and a coordinated outfit with accessories.

* ''Indoor Play Time''
* ''School Time''
* ''Time for Health and Exercise''
* ''Time for Outdoor Fun''
* ''Party Time''
* ''Sleepy Time''
* ''Cricket Goes to a Wedding''
* ''Cricket Goes to the County Fair''
* ''Cricket Tours the Hospital''

Other accessories

* ''Cricket's Kitty Shadow (Included tape and grey plush cat)''
* ''Cooking with Cricket (Included tape, plastic utensils and recipe book)''
* ''Cricket's Favorite Games (Included tape and board game)''
* ''Cricket and Corky’s Chatterbox with “Let’s Play Together” tape (unreleased)''
* ''Cricket's Sneakers (Available in blue, red, purple or yellow)''
* ''Cricket's Very Own Chair''
* ''Cricket's Slumber Party Sack''

Corky

Cricket had a younger brother named Corky which was released in 1987 and voiced by seven-year-old Edan Gross. Corky was available in both black and white-skinned models. Tapes that were produced for Corkey either came with an appropriate outfit or a workbook which included activities related to math or reading.
* ''Let’s Play Outdoors (Included workbook)''
* ''Let’s Play at My House (Included workbook)''
* ''Let’s Play at School (Included workbook)''
* ''Corky’s Big Game (Included baseball outfit)''
* ''Corky’s Adventure Scouts (Included scout uniform)''
* ''Corky’s Star Ship (Included astronaut outfit)''
* ''Corky's Very Own Chair''
* ''Corky's Sleep Sack 'N Pack''

Jill

Cricket also had an older sister named Jill (voice actress currently unknown), who also operated in much the same way as did Cricket and Corky. Jill however used cartridges instead of tapes and had voice-recognition capabilities. Jill was available in both black and white-skinned models. In 1989, an inanimate version of Jill with no speech capability was produced. Jill's catchphrase was "I'm a lot like you.". Extra cartridges could be bought separately in sets; the sets included a cartridge, an outfit, and various related accessories.
* ''Jill Babysits''
* ''Jill's First Job''
* ''Jill's Cheerleading Tryouts''
* ''Jill's Staring Role''
* ''Jill's Slumber Party''
* ''Jill Goes to the Mall''

Other merchandise

In addition to the collection of Cricket books, outfits and tapes, Playmates produced coloring books, paper dolls, and home videos.

In 1987 two videocassettes were produced by Hi-Tops Video using audio from already released audiocassettes including “Cricket's Clubhouse” and “Around the World with Cricket.” Also in 1987 four coloring books illustrated by Pam Posey and Kathy Allert were published including “Cricket’s Clubhouse”, “Cricket’s First Day of School”, “Cricket’s Round the World Tour” and “Cricket’s Busy Day”. In 1988 Random House published the illustrated story book “Cricket and the Birthday Ring” written by Emily James.

References

{{Portal, 1980s

External links

Doll Info - Playmates Cricket Talking Doll

Are We Having Fun or What??? - Cricket & Corky Dolls

Doll brands
Playmates Toys