Readers of a certain age will likely remember the View-Master, a toy that you held up to your eyes to view specially formatted slides that came on cardboard discs. You could advance the slides with the push of a button. Click, you’re in Disneyland. Click, you’re looking at the Space Needle.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Mattel is giving the View-Master a 21st-century makeover, reimagining it as a reasonably priced virtual-reality toy for kids. Here’s what the finished product will look like when it comes to market later this year:
The wearer will have his or her eyes locked out of reality, staring into goggles that can replicate any one of a number of environments—from Alcatraz prison to “underwater adventure”—thanks to totally reinvented cardboard discs, which are now called “experience reels” in Mattel parlance.
Right now, this product still only exists in concept form. When Mattel visited USA Today to show off what they’d been working on, they were using Google Cardboard, the foldable cardboard pattern that turns into a head-hugging virtual-reality mount for any smartphone.
USA Today reporter Edward C. Baig tries to stop the View-Master from sucking out his eyeballs.
Mattel produced a promotional video showing off what you’d actually see if you were to strap one of these on your head.
The redesigned View-Master headset will cost $29.99. It comes with a sample reel, and you’ll be able to buy other reels for $14.99 each.