Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
This has been and still in some ways is one of my favourite toys. It is one of two Bend a tune toys made by Fisher-Price, the other is the trumpet which there is already a recording of on The Electronic Toy Archive. I have both toys and both of them Are modified with a variable resistor to control the speed. When the speed is put too high, many glitches are caused similar to what can be heard on a lot of the Mattel toys. I’ve definitely not got all of them in this video because there are so many and the voltage makes a difference to them as well.
Originally, the Fisher-Price Barney bend a tune toys have flexible plastic necks that when bent make the pitch rise. Both of mine now have switches assigned to this function and the circuit bend makes the interval of the pitch change of the function vary but it is opposite ways Round for each toy. On the banjo, the higher the speed, the less the interval and on the trumpet, the higher the speed, the greater the interval.
I’m hoping someday I can isolate the sounds this uses to play the tunes as I know it is possible, particularly on the higher voltage glitches. However, I think it probably synthesises the sounds with whatever chip it uses as the notes can prolong and then decay. A lot of times when glitching, this will reassign one melody to another sound and when it reassigns the main melody to the base sound, it is a minor third lower give or take an octave or two, but when it does it to the other sound that is more like a chord it is usually a fourth Different. My Papa circuit bent this for me when I was five so I’ve had a lot of time to play with it and get a lot of different glitches.
This has been and still in some ways is one of my favourite toys. It is one of two Bend a tune toys made by Fisher-Price, the other is the trumpet which there is already a recording of on The Electronic Toy Archive. I have both toys and both of them Are modified with a variable resistor to control the speed. When the speed is put too high, many glitches are caused similar to what can be heard on a lot of the Mattel toys. I’ve definitely not got all of them in this video because there are so many and the voltage makes a difference to them as well.
Originally, the Fisher-Price Barney bend a tune toys have flexible plastic necks that when bent make the pitch rise. Both of mine now have switches assigned to this function and the circuit bend makes the interval of the pitch change of the function vary but it is opposite ways Round for each toy. On the banjo, the higher the speed, the less the interval and on the trumpet, the higher the speed, the greater the interval.
I’m hoping someday I can isolate the sounds this uses to play the tunes as I know it is possible, particularly on the higher voltage glitches. However, I think it probably synthesises the sounds with whatever chip it uses as the notes can prolong and then decay. A lot of times when glitching, this will reassign one melody to another sound and when it reassigns the main melody to the base sound, it is a minor third lower give or take an octave or two, but when it does it to the other sound that is more like a chord it is usually a fourth Different. My Papa circuit bent this for me when I was five so I’ve had a lot of time to play with it and get a lot of different glitches.
