The Amazing Friends

The Amazing Friends are a series of unreleased, story-telling toys by Kenner. They appeared in the 1987 Kenner Toy Fair catalog, and each playset would feature an animated character and a cassette-playing robot.

Trisha & Tooner

This playset was mentioned in a newspaper by The Times, that was published on the 14th of February, 1987. Trisha is the name of the doll, while Tooner is the name of the robot. Trisha is a 17-inch doll with a blonde ponytail and blue eyes. She wears a pink long sleeves shirt and a pair of white pants, decorated with colorful rectangles. She also wears a white pair of sneakers with purple socks. Trisha requires two C batteries and one 9-volt battery.

Tooner is an 11-inch, blue robot with a round, pink, transparent helmet and a rectangular body. The lines on his arms are pink, and so are his hands. His head, shoulders, and legs are dark blue, and the front of the robot is a cassette player. His eyes are a pair of round, red LED lights, and his mouth appears to be made up of four, square-shaped, red LED lights. Tooner has a colorful selection of buttons above the cassette player on his body. Tooner requires four C batteries to operate.

Tapes & Books

A page of the Kenner catalog mentions books and tapes for them include:

Features

You can choose from three volume settings Trisha has, and each side of a tape could play for 12 minutes and 30 seconds. The books contain activities, while the cassettes are said to have content such as stories, games, music, jokes and more.

Trisha blinks her eyes and opens her mouth, as she speaks. Using Tooner, you can play, fast forward, and stop the cassettes. Tooner also has two option buttons you can press when choosing an activity while a cassette is playing, and you can adjust Tooner's volume. Tooner is said to be able to communicate with Trisha from 15 ft away.

A store display featuring Trisha and Tooner was created. It was only to be plugged into a 110 volt outlet, rather than using batteries.

Bantor & Beeper

This playset features a monster named Bantor, and a robot named Beeper.

Bantor is a soft, blue, egg-shaped monster with a pink mane that runs down his back from his head, a pair of arms with purple hands, and a pair of feet which each have three, purple toes. Bantor’s hands have four fingers, and his eyes have dark blue pupils, a green iris, and a yellow sclera. His face is covered with a patch of purple fur, and his eyelids are pink. He has two teeth which jut out of his lower jaw. The body of the toy is filled with foam. He requires four C batteries and one 9 volt battery to operate.

Like Trisha, Bantor moves his eyes and mouth as he speaks, and he has a three-way volume control.

Tapes & Books

Each side of the tape plays for 12 minutes and 30 seconds, and the books contain activities.

Beeper is described as Tooner’s cousin, having the same functions and appearance with different colors. Beeper is a paler shade of blue, and while he is shown with pink hands in one photo, another photo shows him with purple hands. Beeper’s helmet has a tint of blue, rather than pink. Beeper is also said to be able to communicate with Bantor from 15 feet away, and requires four C batteries to operate.

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