He's compact! He's portable! He uses cassettes!
AC adaptor optional! PRESS Q to return to the 2-XL Robots & Programs Index
New battery compartment!		 PRESS A to learn about the Tiger 2-XL Programs
New battery compartment!		 PRESS B, the MORE INFORMATION BUTTON, to learn about the Tiger 2-XL Type 3's TV show
New battery compartment! 		PRESS C to compare the Tiger 2-XL with the Mego 2-XL.
New battery compartment! 		Earphone jack on this side!

  • Press A to learn about theTiger 2-XL Programs.

  • Press B (the More Information Button) to learn about the Tiger 2-XL Type 3's TV Show "Pick Your Brain".
  • Press C to view images comparing the Tiger 2-XL and the Mego 2-XL.

Please push A, B, or C, or Now.

To return to the 2-XL Robots & Programs Index, push the Question button.

You have selected B:
Tiger 2-XL Type 3

In 1992 Tiger Electronics re-introduced 2-XL to the world. Dr. Michael Freeman was still writing the programs and providing 2-XL's voice, but this new 2-XL had a much harder attitude than his older "brother." Push that question button without being told to and he really let you have it! But this was most likely due to the fact that almost all the programs were double-length programs now, so messing around with the buttons was more likely to make you switch into the other program. It was great to have 2-XL back, and talking about current things (for the time, anyway) like Captain Picard and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The new 2-XL came with a new look for the 90's. His new body design featured much more pronounced arms than his predecessor. The eyes still lit up like the old Mego 2-XL, but they flashed in a steady pattern, and he now had a mouth light that blinked in time with what he was saying (like the previous Mego Type 2's eyes had done). The biggest change, of course, was that he no longer ran on 8-Tracks (a joke by the early 90s) but now ran on standard audio cassettes. By recording different tracks on the right and left channels of both the front and back sides of the cassette simultanously, Dr. Freeman was now able to do the same things he had done with the four tracks of an 8-Track tape over a decade before. The added bonus to this was if you put a regular cassette into it and pushed the B or C buttons, you would hear it played backwards! Another major change was that he could now run on batteries! In the old days he was AC only; if you wanted to take him with you on a camping trip, you had to have a mighty long extension cord! Now you could easily just grab him by his conveniant handle on the top of his head and carry him around with you as he talks. Not to mention a headphone jack for listening to 2-XL without interrupting anyone else in the house. All this, and at 3" shorter than the old 2-XL units as well!

An interesting achievement was that 2-XL got his own TV show at this time, a game show called "Pick Your Brain," with Mark Summers. This show featured a giant 2-XL (this thing must have been at least 10 feet tall) that helped give the topics to the kid contestants. The producers wanted to bring Dr. Freeman in to do the voice for the show, but for some reason that didn't work out, so instead they brought in voice actor Greg Berg as a replacement voice. More information on this show can be found in the More Information Button: 2-XL on TV section.

Disney Family FunThe Tiger 2-XL was also the winner of the 1992 Walt Disney Co. Family Fun Award for Best Learning Toy! Click on the image on the left to take a look at the award!


The Programs

The Tiger Electronics run started out as being mostly educational programs like the classic 2-XL had been, but by its second wave it had become mostly story / adventure tapes. The line had one more batch of educational tapes with a "Scholastic Series" before stopping production in 1994. All in all this 2-XL had a three year run, which stands up pretty well when you compare it against the original 2-XL's four year run.

UNCONFIRMED PROGRAMS
The revised box for the Tiger 2-XL (released in 1993) listed a few more tapes scheduled to come out that year, but I've never seen them show up anywhere. Since these tapes were all listed together, were all at the end of the list, and one of them was very similar to a title released in 1994, I believe they were never made.

If anyone has or knows of any other tapes that are not listed here, please e-mail me!

Comparison Images of the Tiger 2-XL and the Mego 2-XL

Mego 2-XL & Tiger 2-XL, Bionic Brothers.

Besides the obvious radical design changes to the Tiger 2-XL's body, notice the difference in the labeling of the Tiger 2-XL's buttons. In 1981, the last year of the Mego run, nearly all the programs came with a card to relabel the Mego 2-XL's buttons so that True and False were moved to Q and C, and Yes and No were moved to A and B. This made it much easier to have multiple programs running on the same tape without having to resort to constant use of the "little booklet" (ie, while a Yes or No question was being asked on Program 1, a True or False question could be asked on Program 2). Obviously this design was greatly prefered over the original layout, so when the time came to design 2-XL all over again, the buttons were changed to reflect this.

Side Profiles This image really drives home that the bars on either side of the Mego 2-XL were meant to be his arms. In the cartoons that Frank and I would draw, we always drew these as being able to move or slide up away from his body and hold things.

Also note the earphone jack in the Tiger 2-XL's feet. The blue segment on the his back was like a little backpack that was designed to hold more 2-XL tapes for storage. One more example of both how this new 2-XL was intended to be more on-the-go, and how it evolved into Kasey the Kinderbot (whose programs are now the backpack itself).


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