About 75 years after the introduction of the first View-Master, Mattel has unveiled the newest version -- just in
time for New York's annual North American International Toy Fair.
Mattel plans to start selling the new View-Master in October. The prototype shown here isn't a working model.
The new toy can take viewers on immersion tours of all kinds of new venues, similar to the old View-Master, which showed images of landmarks and scenery.
The View-Master is the latest example of Google's virtual-reality Cardboard technology in new apps and devices. Earlier this week, LG announced a promotion to use a Cardboard-based headset for its flagship G3 smartphone.
With a working prototype of the View-Master not yet available, Mattel used a Google Cardboard headset -- which is made of cardboard -- to show off View-Master's capabilities. Here, a Nexus 5 smartphone is used as the display, offering a stereoscopic view of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
The old View-Master used circular reels of images showing landscapes or scenery. When looked at through a new View-Master, a menu of 3D images pop up out of the new reels, which then take users to 360-degree pictures.
These reels aren't actually necessary -- you could instead just download new images -- but they offer a useful nod to the View-Master's long history.
Viewing inside the Cardboard prototype, I could look all around me and click through to different views of places, like when I jumped from outside Alcatraz to inside a cell on the former island prison.
Here is CNET's Bridget Carey giving the View-Master prototype a try.
Several of the new reels for the new View-Master have pictures from decades past that were used in older versions of the toy, such as the solar-system reel that includes old pictures of astronauts on the moon.
While View-Master may have been a must-have item decades ago, it hasn't been of much interest for today's kid. Mattel is hoping to change that with the new View-Master.
This new product may just be the start. The company plans to use more technology in its products to keep its toys and board games fresh in the Digital Age.
