July 25, 2004

By: Stacey Holz
Website: http://www.1st-in-toys.com

Hasbro's VIDEONOW Player, Ranked #1 in the Toy Industry, Announces Next Major Innovation - VIDEONOW COLOR

Prompted by the run-away success of VIDEONOW, the first ever kid-friendly, portable, personal video player, Hasbro, Inc.'s Tiger Electronics introduces VIDEONOW COLOR coming this fall. In 2003 alone, more than 1.2 million VIDEONOW personal video players and more than 4 million VIDEONOW personal video discs were sold.

VIDEONOW was recently ranked the number one TV-promoted product in the toy industry by a survey of retailers and wholesale distributors conducted by The Toy Book, a leading toy industry publication.

Building on the brand's amazing performance to date, VIDEONOW COLOR combines the high caliber programming and easy portability of the original VIDEONOW with an awesome colorful, ergonomic design, a larger, back-lit screen and improved video playback quality. Now kids and tweens can enjoy a bigger, better VIDEONOW viewing experience - in COLOR!

VIDEONOW is a hit and the only personal video player designed for kids and tweens with content available in stores for an approximate retail price of $8.99, said Brian Goldner, Hasbro's President, U.S. Toy Segment. VIDEONOW COLOR is the next generation of this highly successful platform and we will be launching with an incredible array of new content.

Of course, the innovation VIDEONOW COLOR brings to the tween marketplace is only as good as the library of content offered...and Hasbro continues to bring VIDEONOW fans incredible programming, allowing kids to easily build their collections of their favorite shows and stars.

VIDEONOW COLOR will offer the hottest names in children's entertainment, featuring popular titles from Nickelodeon including SpongeBob Squarepants, The Amanda Show, Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron, as well as popular new episodes of ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos, NBC's Fear Factor, American Idol and TLC's Trading Spaces, among others.

Hasbro has the personal video business for kids and tweens figured out, said Steve Youngwood, senior vice president, media products, Nickelodeon. We look forward to taking our relationship to the next level with the major breakthrough introduction of VIDEONOW COLOR.

VIDEONOW was one of the industry's top innovations in 2003, and one of our strongest performers," said Wayne Yodzio, vice president, divisional merchandise manager at Toys 'R' Us Inc. Great content at a low price drove the success of VIDEONOW and we expect VIDEONOW COLOR to be even bigger.

VIDEONOW COLOR has raised the bar in the world of electronic entertainment for kids, said Jim Silver, publisher of Toy Wishes Magazine. With a vast collection of great content at a price that offers tremendous value, it's sure to be an item kids will be asking for.

For approximately $75, kids this fall can have their very own VIDEONOW COLOR personal video player to take with them anytime, anywhere. VIDEONOW COLOR is backwards compatible - so the installed base of more than 4 million VIDEONOW personal video discs, already in kids hands, will play on VIDEONOW's next generation of hardware technology; each color unit will play both the new color personal video discs as well as the original personal video discs which will play in black and white.

Additional full length titles now available include top rated Nickelodeon shows like My Life as a Teenage Robot, Danny Phantom, Rocket Power and All Grown Up. In addition, viewers can choose from action-packed episodes of Duel Masters, Transformers Armada, GI Joe, Discovery Channel's Shark Week and Monster Garage, Animal Planet's The Jeff Corwin Experience and That's My Baby.

About The Author:

Stacey Holz is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-toys.com.  Find fun kids educational toys and children’s wooden toys you enjoyed as a child.