Subtitled by Jaye, with assistance from Evan Clue i-Dog! The little dog, with the big sound. You can plug him in, and i-Dog plays your tunes! [commercial audio fades out] He lights up to your touch, and changes colors along with your music! i-Dog! Little dog, big sound! [i-Dog barks] the tale of i-dog: the ipod accessory that ruled the world This is the Sega Toys i-Dog, the first of its kind, released exclusively in Japan on April 2nd, 2005. It was designed to appeal to two of the biggest trends at the time: iPod accessories, and virtual pets. As an iPod accessory, it's pretty self-explanatory. It was designed to fit Apple's trademark visual aesthetic, and it sports a 3.5mm jack on the side. When you plug in your iPod, your music will play through the i-Dog's built-in speaker, and it'll wiggle its head and ears around and it's very very cute. [Bopeebo (Instrumental) - Friday Night Funkin'] As you can see, there are 7 LEDs on the i-Dog's face, which it uses to express emotion. If it's green, it's absolutely vibing. If it's orange, it's mildly content. and if it's red, it's friggin angry. Booping its nose and petting it on the head makes the i-Dog happier. But it doesn't like when you touch its tail, or ignore it for a long time. The degree at which it's feeling these emotions is determined by how fast the LED pattern rotates. For example, if the i-Dog is really really happy, it'll have a fast-spinning green pattern. It's like the equivalent of a dog wagging its tail. It also has this very weird feature called 'mimic mode', where it'll listen to you speak, and it'll repeat it back to you in "i-Dog language", which is basically just gibberish. [Clue, offscreen] Hey, i-Dog! Give the audience a reason why they should subscribe to kkclue! [electronic beeping noises] [Clue, offscreen] That is a very good reason! Thank you! [electronic beeping noises] And I thought the microphone was broken, but this actually is functioning as intended. I had the manual translated from Japanese to English, and in the mimic mode diagram, the top frame is the user saying "Hello!", and the bottom is the i-Dog responding with "Beep beep, boop beep!", so it's very clear that you're not supposed to understand it. There were a few variants of the Sega Toys i-Dog. White, Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink, collaboration with Atmos, collaboration with Sapporo. But, they touched on an idea that I really, really liked, that they never returned to, which is changing the shape of the face LEDs. The variants were called "Happy Version" and "Lovely Version". The Happy Version is light blue and features star shaped LEDs. And I think it's adorable that they took "starry-eyed" to a literal degree. And the Lovely Version has heart shaped LEDs, and it really does feel like they're trying to sell to me specifically, because oh my god, I want it so bad. As much as I want them, I will not be buying them, because getting this guy imported from Japan was expensive enough as it is. Most of my audience is American, so if you've seen an i-Dog before, it probably looked like this. This is the first model of i-Dog that landed on American store shelves, and it was produced by Hasbro, and Tiger Electronics. Outwardly, it's not too drastic of a re-design compared to the Japanese one. They gave the Hasbro i-Dog back legs, and paw beans! They replaced the two buttons on top with a light sensor, and they moved the microphone from here, (on right leg) to here. (under chin) Design-wise, yeah, they're pretty similar. But the software that these two are running is completely different. The Japanese i-Dog makes mostly surreal electronic noises, [electronic joyful royalty-free jingles] while the Hasbro i-Dog features a lot of dog-centric sounds, like barking and such. [electronic barking noises] I understand why they made that change, the Japanese i-Dog doesn't really come across as a "dog" in its behavior. [electronic boinging noises] It just kinda acts like a weird robot. Which, which is cool, by the way. I like that. You turn the Japanese i-Dog on and it's like [electronic victorious sounding jingle] and then you turn on the Hasbro i-Dog and it's like [electronic rising growling noises] [electronic barking noises] It's definitely up to personal preference, but I just love the absolute insanity of the Japanese one. It's just such a manic and exciting toy. [electronic victorious royalty-free jingle] And we can't move on to the next topic without acknowledging that the i-Dog's design has aged beautifully. The white glossy plastic with silver accents, and transparent ears and tail, it looks so modern, even 15 years later. So many similar toys from this time period just age like milk. You guys remember iZ??? [Commercial] iZ from Zizzle! Batteries not included, each sold separately! Did I just unearth some memories for a lot of the people watching this video? Cool. Sorry! You're better off not remembering! Look how terrible this design is! [chaotic discordant "music" noises] If they released a Bluetooth i-Dog, didn't change its visual design at all, and released it in modern day, it would slay! But iZ is a perfect example of a design that only would've worked in the mid-2000s. It would be lampooned if it was released today. Good design doesn't age. And speaking of age, one thing that hasn't aged beautifully are the materials that make up the i-Dog. The plastics that they used for the i-Dog have a tendency to yellow when exposed to UV light. Both of these 2005 i-Dogs I purchased new-in-box. The Japanese i-Dog released in an opaque cardboard box, which kept it in perfect condition for a decade and a half, whereas the Hasbro unit released in a box with a transparent plastic window. It's not uncommon to see new-in-box i-Dogs on eBay that have suffered a lot of yellowing. All because of that stupid window. When it comes to yellowing, these two units are in the best condition I've ever seen. You can see the yellowing process starting to begin, though. There's very, very slight yellowing on the ears and tail. But other than that, they're gorgeous. But it's not just the plastics that have aged. These little rubber things that cover the 3.5mm jack, They yellow so fast, and I usually just remove them because they're really gross. But the aging doesn't end there! If you buy a used i-Dog on eBay, you have a very good chance of it being dead on arrival. A few years ago, I ordered this Pink Dalmatian i-Dog on eBay, and it came with this matching purse. It's very cute. I like it a lot. But sadly, it did not work. So I sat it on my shelf as a display piece, and I ordered another one. This time, it was a Rainbow Dalmatian. And I was shocked that it too, was dead on arrival. At that point, I was finally willing to shell out a lot of money just to get a brand new one. I determined that these two i-Dogs both suffered from the same exact problem. The previous owner had left the batteries in the i-Dog for a decade, and you're never gonna believe this, they corroded! It wasn't receiving power because there were battery leakage stains in the way of the metal contacts. The solution to this problem is to mix baking soda with a little bit of water, then you dip a Q-tip in there, and then you scrub the acid stains until it all comes up! 30 minutes, and a lot of Q-tips later, the batteries will have no problem making contact, and your dog is alive again! So now I have three OG Hasbro i-Dogs, and three is a lot of i-Dogs. And that is, in fact, uh, more than one, and less than four, so there you go! But what if I wanted to catch 'em all? Let's say, hypothetically, I wanted every single one of them. Well, I'd be collecting for the rest of my dang life! White, Black, Blue, Fuschia, Pink, Lime, Purple, Red. And Red was exclusive to Target. And then you've got the Dalmatians. Black, Pink, and Rainbow, those are lovely. And there was Cow, and Tiger, and those are really rare because no one bought them. Have you heard, about a band called Kiss? They had an i-Dog. They had, well, four, actually. Have you heard of a character called, I dunno, Spider-Man 3??? i-Dog sure haaas, they call it the "Spi-Dog". They had this Stupid Dumb version, and the Cool version. [laughs] And the Spi-Dog makes absolutely no sense, because why would they put Spider-Man's eyes here, but then not change the LED design??? It just, it just shines through it??? I don't, I don't like it. [far away] I just think it looks really stupid. [Video] I have owned one of these before, The lights don't show up very well on the, on the eyes. They are very, very poor. Anyway, it was clear that Hasbro was taking full advantage of the popularity of the i-Dog, and they stepped up their game by introducing brand new models. In 2006, Hasbro released the i-Cat, the supposed yin to the i-Dog's yang. It has a few changes here and there. Firstly, the face LEDs are not diffused, so it looks a lot cleaner. I prefer the diffused LEDs, I think the light bleed looks great especially in the dark. I just think it looks really lame without it. The i-Cat also introduced touch capability. You can touch the face LEDs and it'll light up whichever one you're touching. I like the subtle whiskers on the face, and the curved tail looks really good. The i-Dog has a perfectly straight tail and it looks like an antenna. And they added this bizarre... claw design to the paws? It would be more welcome if they kept the back legs, when they did so, but they didn't. And the biggest problem with the i-Cat, is that the motors in it are extremely loud, and the built-in speaker is embarrassingly quiet. Even when it's maxed out, it's hard to hear the music over the sounds of the motor. [Athletic - Yoshi's Island, overlaid with obnoxious motor noises] [Clue, offscreen] I got this one brand new, it has no excuse to be this loud. The i-Cat is perfectly acceptable, I would've loved it as a kid, but when compared to the original i-Dog, I'm not a big fan. the next release after the i-Cat was the i-Fish, and oh my god, it is ridiculous. I can't believe Hasbro greenlit this idea. Like, it's really cool, and it's a great addition to the world of i-Dog just because it's such an outlier, but there's a massive missed opportunity here. They could've made it waterproof, and it, and it isn't... It isn't waterproof. As a matter of fact, the i-Fish manual absolutely begs you to not let it go for a swim. It is a fish out of water, literally, and metaphorically, and because of that, it's one of my absolute favorites. Why is the LED pattern vertical??? Both of its fins are buttons, and why does the back of the fish look like a skeleton??? And the gimmick of the i-Fish is that it SPINS, and when it does it wiggles its little tail, and I love that??? But also, also, they didn't really think that through, right? Because it's not wireless, you have to use a cable to play music on it. And when you do that, the fish spins as it does, and eventually tangles itself up in its own cable. Like, are you kidding me? i love the i-Fish so much because it should not exist. It's a fish that can't swim, and it tangles itself up from getting too excited, and honestly, that is such a mood! Okay, I know that was really frantic, but I just love the i-Fish so much. The next release was the i-Cy. Ya get it? "i-Cy", it's a penguin! And the LEDs are on their big fat tumtummm! I like the goofy pear shape, and the black and white design, I mean, it looks pretty good. They lean from side to side, and they wiggle their lil' flippers around... It doesn't have any variations unless you count some Burger King toys. I'll get to that in a little bit. [Sponsored Segment Begin!] But before we move on to the next topic, This video is sponsored by Atlas VPN. When you connect to a VPN, all of your internet traffic is encrypted, and routed to a server somewhere else in the world, and your ISP is none the wiser. When you use a VPN, you can bypass regional content locks on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, BBC, Hulu, and HBO. You're paying for a subscription to these platforms, and they have content that you can't watch! The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, one of the greatest shows of all time, It's "on" Netflix, but uh oh! It's only available in the UK for some reason! Guess I'll have to pack my bags... ¯_(ツ)_/¯ No! No. No. Stay right where you are. Not every VPN supports all of these streaming platforms, o_0 but Atlas VPN does, and on all your devices to boot! I use a VPN every single day of my life, because data is the new oil. All these huge companies are gonna manipulate you to get it, and your internet service provider has no problem selling you out. Atlas VPN is running an 86% discount for their 3 Year deal, [Sponsored Segment End!] with a 30 day money back guarantee, so check it out by clicking the link in the description below. I know you guys love it when I talk about pups. Well, the next product they released was the i-Dog Pup. Please talk to me and my son whenever you please! They are very smol and they make tiny puppy noises. [electronic tiny puppy noises] I must protect the child. So as you can imagine, the i-Dog Pup was like a budget option. It's matte plastic instead of glossy, and the tail isn't a button anymore, but the real game changer is that the pup does not have audio in. There's no way to play music with it. Is that not the entire point of the i-Dog? It just dances to music that it hears through its microphone. Which means you can make just about any sound and it'll dance to it. I put it next to my keyboard while I was writing this script, and it just danced the entire time from the sound of me typing. The i-Dog Pup is very cute, but it doesn't do anything. It had a couple of variants. Black, Silver, Orange, Green, Blue, Light Blue, Pink, Light Pink, Green Swirls, Pink Flowers. Pretty good stuff. And next was a huge release. the i-Dog Amp'd, which was considered like a second generation of i-Dog. It could move its head up and down, and it could wag its tail, and it could tap its little foot. dhfksjdfkjgsf tap the foot,,, littl tappy paw... They re-introduced the touch capability from the i-Cat, and that's kinda neat. but the most prominent feature was the stereo speakers, one on top and one on bottom. Do the stereo speakers really make a difference? No, they still sound awful! Even though music playback is a primary feature on the i-Dog, it's interesting that every single i-Dog speaker is just the worst thing ever. In the context of a kid's toy, it's plenty passable, the demographic that they were aiming for would never be able to tell the difference. But it's all highs and mids, the low end just doesn't exist, and so many frequencies are just absent. And I don't know I managed to go this far in the video without acknowledging that. [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is of perfect quality] [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is significantly more tinny and lacking in bass] [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is slightly fuller than before, but is much quieter] [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is so much more quieter, can you even hear it?] [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is just nothing but mids] [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is comparable to the first Hasbro i-Dog] [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is the most balanced out of all of them, though bass is still lacking] The whole selling point of the i-Dog Amp'd was that they had supposedly better speakers. And yeah, the Amp'd is a little bit louder, but it still doesn't sound good! However, as an addendum to my statement about how every i-Dog product sounds terrible, there is one i-Dog product that they released in the future, that sounds pretty good. And we will get there when we get there. Alright, so getting back on topic about the i-Dog Amp'd, There were some creative variants, and there were a lot of them that were focused on patterns instead of just colors, and I think that's kind of a cool idea. But you know what? Hasbro thought the Amp'd wasn't good enough, because in 2008, they released this Lad. This is the i-Dog Dance. and basically everything is motorized. The head, the ears, all of its legs, and the right paw. I know this sounds silly, But I think that kids would be scared by this toy. It makes menacing beeping noises, and sometimes it just suddenly lunges like it's going to attack you. [electronic menacing beeping noises] [electronic lunging forward noises] [electronic weird rising beeping noises] [electronic threatening growling noise] I don't know why they felt the need to change the sounds! The previous sounds were just fine. Don't get me wrong, though, I do love the i-Dog Dance. I love that it just absolutely grooves. For variants, there weren't any. There was only White, and Black. Next up, we've got the Smallest i-Dog ever made, the i-Dog Clip. And you thought the i-Dog Pup was the smallest one??? :y_wheeze: No. The Clip is even smaller! It's very tiny! They karate-chopped an i-Dog's head right off of its neck to make this product! Isn't that crazy? How could they do such a thing??? And you can hang it off of your jeans!!! [with incredible distortion] wWwWwHaT?!?!?! You could make all your classmates so jealous in elementary school if you wore one of these Bad Boyyyz!!! [fart noise, with incredible reverberation] [laughs] Okay, I gotta, [laughs] I've gotta get back on track. Okay, so it has a built-in audio cable, and you plug that into the iPod, and it'll play the music through its tiny terrible speakers. Where have I heard that before? But, there's an alternative, right? There's a headphone pass-through on the top on the unit! So the i-Dog can still flash its little lights on your belt loop, and you don't have to deal with any signal degredation! ["BONK" noise] and you don't have to deal with any signal degredation! ["BONK" noise] It's the first and only i-Dog product to have not only an audio in, but an audio out! It's the first and only i-Dog product to have not only an audio in, but an audio out! I think it would be incredibly lame if someone unironically wore one of these in 2008. But if I saw someone wearing one now, I would immediately befriend them. It's the same sort of thing as people wearing Tamagotchi as a fashion accessory. I'm super into it. Alright, so immediately after the smallest i-Dog ever made, they released the biggest i-Dog ever made, the i-Dog Soft Speaker. And this thing is huge. And you'd think that them making it into a plush would have an effect on functionality. Kinda. It, it runs the same software as a regular i-Dog, but it's not motorized, for obvious reasons, so it can't move its head or ears like the others can, and that's fine, because they could've gone the easy peasy route and made it not functional, and just make it a pillow that's shaped like an i-Dog, but they went the extra mile to not skimp on the features, and I respect that a lot. Remember earlier in this video when I said that there was one i-Dog product in which the speaker actually sounds pretty good? Yeah, this is the one. [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio is just as tinny as before] [Main Theme - Nintendo Labo, audio sounds barely different compared to most of the other models] [but hey, we're listening to this through a microphone, and then through a YouTube video. it's best to take Clue's word for it.] When you're working with such a tiny device, you only have so much room to work with. But this thing is massive, so I'm sure that those limitaitions didn't really apply, and they could fit something a bit higher fidelity in there. It's not competitive with today's technology! I'm just saying that this is easily the best sounding i-Dog product by a wide margin. And I realised that it was a decent speaker whenever Luke and I were hangin' out, and he plugged in the i-Dog Soft Speaker to my computer while we were playing video games or something, and in like ten minutes, I forgot it was there, and then an hour later, I looked back and I was like, "Oh yeah." "The audio's coming out of that." "Wow, I didn't-- okay. Cool." You do kinda have to crank it, though, it is a little bit quiet, but other than that, it's really good. As for variants, there were a few. White, Blue, Pink, Light Pink Flowers, Hot Pink Flowers. And finally, this is the last proper i-Dog release ever made, the i-Turtle. It is exceptionally rare, and after digging and digging on eBay for months, I was not able to get my hands on one. But what I was able to get a hold of was the i-Turtle Burger King toy, and this gives me a good opportunity to talk about those. Hasbro partnered with Burger King for an i-Dog promotion twice. Once in 2007, and once in 2008. For the 2007 promo, they offered the Dog, Penguin, Cat, and Turtle, with five different colors, and three different features. The Hip-Boppers, Hip-Boppers. Hi-bobbers. The Hibble-Blobblers. From what I could tell, they were essentially just bobbleheads. The Rock 'N Rollers, where you would roll them and they would dance in some way, like move their head, or waddle. And the Spot Lights, where you'd press their nose and the LEDs would glow. My Burger King i-Turtle is a Rock 'N Roller. His little head bobs in and out when he rolls. They all would come with stickers, and you were intended to stick them where the LEDs would normally go. It's very cute, I'm into it. The 2008 promo was entirely Halloween themed, and the i-Dog family was all dressing up to trick or treat. I got two of them, the i-Cat princess, and Robot, respectively. I don't like that they're so clearly gendered, but, 2008, what 'ya gonna do? I just wanted a pink and blue one, because it's my favorite color scheme. The idea is that you're supposed to punch out the shapes from the little box they come in, and make a wearable costume with it. And that's fun, I would love that as a kid. I love the scale of the Burger King toys too. They're just so tiny, I love 'em. i-Cat, proud parent. i-Turtle, proud parent. Wait... Oh! I was lying! This is a kkclue video! You think I'm just gonna leave out one of the mainline i-Dog products? You're wrong!!! Okay, but seriously, this thing is actually incredibly rare, and I have my friend Rose to thank for finding one and letting me feature it in this video. Rose is also an amazingly talented artist, and they've made some i-Dog related stuff, for example, this kickin' Soundwave Surfin' i-Dog pin. It totally rocks. Link's in description. Now that my lies are out of the way, we can talk about the i-Turtle. Alright, take a second, imagine what sound a turtle makes. Okay? Alright. So here it goes. [electronic aquatic boot-up noises] [electronic dolphin noises] The i-Turtle sounds like a dolphin. The LEDs are on its shell, and they wiggle their little head, and I love them, and they're adorable and precious. But why does the shell, move up and down? I don't really get that design decision. And when you press their little head down, it's a button, right? But they're so light, that when you do it, their entire back half of their body comes up with it, like, I, [fart noise] their entire back half of their body comes up with it, like, I, their entire back half of their body comes up with it, like, I, [laughs] It's, it's just weirdly under-designed. You can understand why this one is so rare, I can't imagine it sold well. It was already so far into the i-Dog's lifespan that people were getting bored of it at that point. It doesn't help that the i-Turtle is very unexceptional, so let's move on. Okay, so remember how earlier I was talking about the i-Dog Soft Speaker, and I commended Hasbro for retaining all of the functionality instead of just going the easy route by making it just like a pillow? Okay, so in 2009, they literally did that. Hasbro's final fart in the tub for the i-Dog franchise was a plush speaker that was just shaped like an i-Dog, and didn't have any i-Dog functionality, what was the point? And that was actually it. That was the last thing they ever made in the i-Dog franchise. Why did this lame plush have to be the last hurrah? It's so sad. I'm sure you all are wondering one thing at this point in the video. Can you plug in all of the i-Dog products at once, and create an i-Dog symphony? Well, let's find out. [wow, look at they groove] Special thanks to my brother, Ian, for creating that song for this video, Thank you to all of my supporters at patreon.com/clue, it means a whole heck of a lot, [please do] Please join my Discord server, discord.kkclue.com, Every time I'm not making videos, I'm hanging out there, so feel free to reach out. Recently, I've been streaming up a storm on twitch.tv/kaykayclue, it's been a lot of fun, I do art streams, and occasionally some speedrunning stuff. Also, please check out my meta show, love letters, it's on this channel, and it's genuinely really good, please watch it. I've been checking my analytics, and 100% of my viewers are not subscribed, I don't actually have any subscribers, so it'd mean a lot if you could be the very first, Shoutouts to DankPods for being the best iPod YouTuber ever, Thank you for watching, and I'll see you again real soon.