Play character

Claim 1

A three-dimensional play character adapted to produce sounds in a voice appropriate to the character and to appear to be animated when the character is speaking or singing, said character comprising: A. a body provided with legs and other appendages to create a full embodiment of the character and having a head attached thereto in a configuration appropriate to the character, said body having at its rear an open cavity, said head having a mouth opening by a translucent element; B. an internal light pipe extending from an optical inlet at a side of the cavity to said translucent element to convey light thereto; C. a pre-recorded magnetic tape cassette secured at a fixed position within said cavity, the recording being in a voice appropriate to the character; and D. a battery-operated playback module pluggable into the cavity to engage and operate the cassette to play back and reproduce the recording, said module being provided with a light bulb which is caused to produce light pulses in synchronism with the played back voice and is positioned in registration with the optical inlet when the module is plugged in, whereby the light pulses are conveyed to the translucent element mouth to impart animation to the character as the character speaks or sings, the same module being usable with different characters each provided with a cassette having a voice recording appropriate thereto, said module further including an amplifier, a loudspeaker and a playback head which when the module is plugged into the cavity, the playback head then lies in operative relation to the cassette tape to yield audio signals that are amplified in said amplifier and applied to said loudspeaker as well as to said light bulb, said loudspeaker being at the rear of the module to direct sound rearwardly when the module is plugged in.