MGA Entertainment is adding a working miniature television set to its Miniverse collectible line, carrying a brand built on tiny, hands-on versions of everyday objects into the home-video category.
The Miniverse Real TV Player and Video Tapes assortment is available now through MGA's own online store, with additional retail distribution set to begin later this month, the company said. The line pairs short clips from familiar films and television shows with the collectible, customisable format the brand uses across its other Miniverse products.
A miniature set that actually plays
The entry point is the Real TV Player, which bundles a tiny retro-styled red television, an exclusive videotape and a display case. Users slide the videotape into the television, press play and watch a 30-second clip drawn from the accompanying show or film. Playback is therefore real rather than decorative, though the experience is scaled to the collectible format.
MGA says more than 30 Real TV Video Tapes are available to collect. The licensed selection draws on NBCUniversal properties including Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Back to the Future, Casper, The Good Place, The Office and Saved by the Bell, among others.
MGA has built Miniverse around miniature versions of real-world items, and the Real TV Player applies that approach to entertainment hardware: the physical tape is the collectible, while the television is the device that gives it a use. Because playback depends on licensed footage, each tape is tied to a specific title, a structure that lends itself to ongoing releases as the library grows.
Mystery capsules widen the library
As with other Miniverse collections, the set can be expanded through mystery capsules sold separately. Each capsule contains three mini videotapes sized to fit the television, plus a mini keychain and a case so a favourite tape can be carried elsewhere.
"The screen may be tiny, but the idea is anything but," said Josh Hackbarth, chief marketing officer at MGA Entertainment. He said the line takes films and shows fans already love and turns them into a collection they can press play on, and framed the format as arriving at a moment when audiences are rediscovering physical media, with a particular satisfaction in choosing a tape, inserting it and watching an iconic scene. MGA characterises the combination of nostalgia and working function as playful, innovative and unexpected.
The new line is aimed at children aged eight and older.