As we all know, the use of the Talkboy tape recorder in Home Alone 2 inspired the mass-manufacturing of tape recorders that were comparable to the one Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) had.
Did these actually exist before then, or was the brand made up for the movie?
Er, Home Alone—but you knew that. 
I recall seeing it advertised after the movie. Maybe its first appearance was in Home Alone 2? Much like Super Mario 3 and The Wizard.
I know that it was not available for the Christmas after Home Alone 2 was first released (1992, I think). I wanted one for Christmas, my folks and I soon found out that we could not get them at the time.
Small tape recorders were available before, I think. A
(If previous post by myself exists, please disregard.)
Small tape recorders were available before, I think. But that’s not the point.
A search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office sees that “Talkboy” was registered to Tiger Electronics in 1991. Tiger manufactured the licensed tape recorder Talkboy with the Home Alone 2 name, so it seems the two are linked. (For some reason, even though they abandoned the “Talkboy” trademark, they still hold the rights to “Talkgirl,” Talkboy’s pink-colored female counterpart which was sold at the same time.
Well, a search of the USPTO escaped me… :smack:
Thanks, everyone. That’s interesting.