Long before there was Instagram, kids used to get their “reels” in a much different fashion.
It’s well beloved as the View-Master and it completely changed the way that children saw toys…literally. Think of it as the first virtual reality headset.
The road from early Kodachrome to the National Toy Hall of Fame is a storied one fueled by more clicks than any viral post.View-Master can trace its roots back to Portland, Oregon, in 1919 when Owl Drug Store pharmacist Edwin Eugene Mayer partnered with Sawyer’s Photo-Finishing Service.
By the 20s they found success selling souvenir photographic postcards and album sets. But everything changed when they joined forces with organ-maker and avid photographer William Gruber.
Sawyer’s capitalized on the introduction of Kodachrome in 1935 debuting the View-Master four years later at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Not originally designed to be a toy, View-Master utilized specially formatted stereoscopes which required “reels” for viewing. Each reel was essentially a cardboard disk that when inserted into the View-Master projected a pair of seven small Stereoscopic 3-D transparent color photos. This allows for a binocular-style depth perception when viewed simultaneously.
In layman’s terms, early viewers could enjoy pics of landscapes such as the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns and more, right in the palms of their hands.
View-Master gained popularity in the 40s when the United States military scooped up 100,000 viewers and six million reels for personnel training during World War II.
By the 50s, View-Master was the industry standard and began remodeling its viewers, making them lighter and more ergonomic. Disney was the first franchise to license with View-Master, agreeing to bring Mickey, Donald and Goofy to thousands of eyes. Franchises such as Doctor Who, Star Wars and many others followed shortly thereafter.
Despite changes to the viewer’s design, View-Master (which merged with Mattel in 1997) ensured that all reels would always be able to fit all models. All totaled, View-Master has crafted roughly 1.5 billion reels across 25 different versions of the viewers.
The National Toy Hall of Fame inducted View-Master in 1999 as part of just its second class ever.
Expanding into virtual reality was the next logical step for View-Master and in 2015, the company teamed with Google to offer its View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer. Today the company is exploring AI integration.
But all of that is anecdotal and technical stuff. Venturing into a world of imagination via a View-Master is a core memory for many kids and adults.
Even if every once in a while a reel would get stuck mid-click. 😣
Give them a look here on hobbyDB where you can document, build and track the value of your collection.
So we want to know…did you own (or still own) a View-Master? Which were your favorite reels? Share your thoughts and memories with us in the comments below!
I had a talking View Master. Same discs but there was small record that was attached to the back of it. When you clicked the lever, the record would tell you about the picture you were looking at. 😉
That was some of the best technology of the times! 😂
This one brings back memories for sure! I had the standard View Master with reels from Electra Woman & Dyna Girl to various Comic Book themed ones. I remember thinking this was just such an amazing toy, still do actually.
Classics!! So glad they’ve been able to keep going strong all these years later.
I loved my View Master! I wonder what I saw on it? hahaha
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