Video Challenger

Half as fun as Lazer Tag!

Canadian packaging

Video Challenger (ビデオチャレンジャー) was an interactive television toy that released in 1987 by Takara. Toy-Television interaction was supposed to be the next big thing in toy marketing and Mattel had a similar TV-Toy in North America at the same time called Captain Power.

The toy consisted of a light gun called the Challenge Blaster that responded to signals from the television playing a VHS tape. The more the player fired at appropriate targets on the screen, the more points the Challenge Blaster would rack up. The more times the sensor on the toy got "hit," the more points the gun would lose. Since the "game" was only a VHS tape, the missions played out the same way all the time.

The toy was cross-marketed into the anime The Headmasters in which children could fire at the Decepticons in the opening credits and score points in selected episodes. Daniel himself carries a Challenge Blaster in the anime and is sometimes seen playing the game.

Video Challenger was sold in Canada by Irwin Toy and in the UK by Bandai.

Software

• Space Challenge
• Thunder Storm
• Road Blaster
• Godzilla Challenge 1 & 2
• Sky Wars
• After Burner
• Turtle Challenge (UK)

External Links

• Toy Review at Everything2