Tiger Electronics

Tiger Electronics was founded in 1978 in Illinois by brothers Randall and Roger Rissman, beginning as a maker of inexpensive consumer electronics like phonographs before finding its calling in low-cost handheld games. Through the 1980s and especially the 1990s, Tiger became the king of the single-game LCD handheld, tiny, affordable gadgets with fixed-segment screens, tinny sound, and a stiff plastic charm that could be found on drugstore shelves and in Christmas stockings everywhere.

Tiger's specialty was licensing. It churned out LCD adaptations of nearly every popular arcade game, film, and franchise imaginable, from Sonic the Hedgehog and Street Fighter to Mortal Kombat and countless movie tie-ins, games that were technically primitive compared to a real console but cost a fraction of the price and were often a child's very first video game. The company also made electronic toys, talking gadgets, and quiz devices that blurred the line between toy and game.

In 1997 Tiger swung for a more ambitious target with the Game.com, a genuine handheld console with a touchscreen and internet aspirations meant to challenge Nintendo's Game Boy. It flopped commercially, undone by weak hardware and a thin library, and stands as a fascinating footnote in handheld history. Far more successful was the toy side: Tiger launched Giga Pets, riding the virtual-pet craze, and in 1998 unleashed Furby, the animatronic owl-like creature that became one of the most sought-after toys of the era.

That blockbuster made Tiger an irresistible acquisition target, and in 1998 toy giant Hasbro bought the company. Tiger's independent run ended there; it lived on as a Hasbro brand, later associated with products like HitClips and further Furby revivals. Its legacy is one of democratization, for millions of children who never owned a Game Boy or a home console, a beeping, blinking Tiger handheld was their introduction to the simple, irresistible pleasure of holding a game in their hands.