Tactile writing instruments with sound bite gags
Soundboards during the 2010s were a pretty big thing on older smart phones when I was in school . However before that, there was the talking/singing pens that would play a select few soundbites. At the time I didn’t think much more of these pens existed. It wasn’t until recently that I stumbled across a Family Guy version and compared it to my Fred pen. Down the rabbit hole I went.
Old/new vintage stock of the pens found on sites like eBay refer to a website Funtalking.com on the back packaging. A website which is no longer around today. Thanks to Wayback Machine we can see various captures preserved for our enjoyment. From these captures we can see the company that produced these pens and other soundbite products in the bottom left. Kamhi World was responsible for bringing the pens to consumers all the way back in 2005.
Today you can still go to their website, kamhiworld.com, which is used to showcase their talking products in a portfolio-like structure. The website is still worth checking out as they showcase all the soundbites the devices came included with.
Talking pens retailed for roughly $8. Depending on the bundle sizes you could save about 1/4th the overall cost if you bought the whole set. Refer to this Wayback Machine capture.
For the sake of keeping this post simple, I’ll only refer to the branded IP versions. Stuff like The Boss Talking Pen will be excluded from this topic.
Various Versions of Talking pens
Napoleon Dynamite (2005) & Nacho Libre (2006)
Family Guy (2006)
Simpsons (2006)
Shrek the Third (2007)
Singing Pens (2008)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Fred (2009-2011?)
Jersey Shore (2011)
Should you collect or sell Talking pens?
The nature of these talking/singing pens are niche to where pricing is everywhere. Some eBay sellers may list them as high as $50.00, while some listings will start with a $0.99 bid and end at $0.99. Some of the more niche stuff like Jersey Shore and Fred have the potential for a decent return. I would recommend to hold off until the right listing comes available if you’re looking to buy as you may be lucky enough to score one for cheap.