View-Master
More actions
| View-Master | |
|---|---|
| |
| Basic Info | |
| VR/AR | Virtual reality |
| Type | Stereoscope |
| Creator | William Gruber |
| Developer | Sawyer's |
| Manufacturer | Sawyer's; GAF; View-Master Ideal Group; Tyco Toys; Mattel (Fisher-Price) |
| Release Date | 1939 (New York World's Fair) |
| Versions | Reel viewers (1939 onward); View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer (2015); View-Master Deluxe VR Viewer (2016) |
| Optics | |
| Optics | Two eyepiece lenses, spaced about 65 mm apart in the original patent design |
| Device | |
| Input | Lever |
View-Master is a line of stereoscopes created by William Gruber and introduced by Sawyer's of Portland, Oregon, at the 1939 New York World's Fair.[1][2] The classic viewer shows seven three-dimensional scenes, each stored as a pair of small color transparencies on a thin cardboard reel.[1] The brand has passed through several owners and has belonged to Mattel since Mattel's merger with Tyco Toys in March 1997.[3]
In 2015 Mattel and Google turned the brand into a smartphone-based virtual reality viewer built on the Google Cardboard platform, followed in 2016 by a Deluxe VR Viewer.[4][5] Mattel discontinued both VR viewers, together with their apps and services, beginning on 1 November 2019.[6] The National Toy Hall of Fame inducted View-Master in 1999.[2]
History
Invention and launch
In 1938 Harold Graves, president of Sawyer's Photographic Services, met William Gruber at Oregon Caves National Monument, where Gruber was taking pictures with two cameras strapped together. Gruber explained that he wanted to update the stereoscopes common in 19th-century drawing rooms by producing three-dimensional color slides and a new hand-held viewer, and the two men agreed to produce the device.[2] The stereoscope itself goes back to the work of Charles Wheatstone in the 19th century.[7] According to the Oregon Historical Society, Edwin Eugene Mayer, who had bought into Sawyer's in 1919, formed a partnership with Graves and Gruber and came up with the name View-Master.[1]
Gruber, a German immigrant who had moved to Oregon in 1924, filed a U.S. patent application for a "stereoscopic viewing device" on 20 January 1939.[8][9] The patent, US 2,189,285, was granted on 6 February 1940.[9]
View-Master debuted at the 1939 New York World's Fair and was first sold through specialty photography stores.[2] Sawyer's initially marketed it as a photographic souvenir, and early reels showed American national parks such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone. By 1941 more than 100,000 stores carried View-Master.[10]
Wartime use
During World War II the U.S. armed forces used View-Master viewers and reels for training, including aircraft and ship identification and range estimation.[7][8] Sources give different quantities. The Oregon Historical Society states that the military ordered 100,000 viewers, while Mental Floss reported purchases of "more than 10,000 View-Masters and 6 million reels".[1][8]
Disney licensing and postwar growth
In 1944 Sawyer's hired the sculptor Florence Thomas to create scenes from fairy tales and children's stories for reels.[8] In 1951 the company bought its competitor Tru-Vue, a film-strip producer, and with it the stereo licensing rights to the Disney characters. That led to reels of Disneyland and of Disney films and television programs, and sales rose sharply; the company later produced reels for many other children's programs and films.[2] The same year, Sawyer's opened a plant near Beaverton, Oregon.[8][1] Reels of the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II sold 1.5 million units in nine months, according to Mental Floss.[8]
Changes of ownership
| Owner | Period | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sawyer's | 1939-1966 | Portland company that introduced View-Master[2][11] |
| General Aniline & Film (GAF) | 1966-1981 | Acquired Sawyer's in 1966[8][11] |
| Investor group led by Arnold Thaler, later View-Master Ideal Group | 1981-1989 | Thaler bought the View-Master line with a group of investors in July 1981; the company went public in 1983[12] |
| Tyco Toys | 1989-1997 | Acquired View-Master in 1989[12] |
| Mattel | 1997-present | Tyco merged into Mattel in March 1997; View-Master is listed with Fisher-Price among Mattel's infant and preschool brands[3] |
Some accounts, including those of the Oregon Historical Society and HISTORY, date Mattel's purchase to 1998.[1][10] Mattel's own annual report for 1997 describes "the March 1997 merger of Tyco Toys, Inc. ... into Mattel".[3]
Under Tyco, View-Master was one of the company's core product lines. Tyco's 1996 securities filing said the line held "the dominant market share of this category", announced new story reels such as Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 101 Dalmatians, and stated that "All new and old films will fit any View-Master viewer".[12]
The Beaverton plant closed in 2001.[8][1] In December 2008 the brand stopped producing nature and tourism reels, while animated-character reels continued under the Fisher-Price brand.[10] When the VR version was announced in 2015, Mattel said it had sold more than 1.5 billion View-Master reels and over 100 million View-Masters in total.[4]
Design
Each classic reel holds fourteen images in seven pairs, which the viewer combines into seven three-dimensional scenes.[1] The images for a pair are taken with two cameras spaced a few inches apart, so that each eye sees a slightly different view, the principle of stereoscopy.[10]
Gruber's 1940 patent describes a disk with fourteen windows, each holding a transparency, and a pair of eyepieces that show two diametrically opposite transparencies at the same time. The eyepieces are spaced about 65 millimeters apart to match the average distance between the eyes. A spring-loaded lever with a point that engages index holes in the disk advances it by two positions per stroke, so that the seven views repeat in a cycle without any image appearing upside down. Titles printed around the center of the disk appear in a small window as each view comes up.[9][7]
VR viewers
View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer (2015)
Mattel and Google announced a virtual reality version of the View-Master on 13 February 2015 at the Toy Fair in New York. The plastic viewer holds a smartphone and works with Google's Cardboard VR platform through a companion app.[4] Road to VR described it as "a chunky plastic version of Google's Cardboard smartphone viewer" and noted that it has no head strap.[13] The companies said the device would let children "explore and learn about famous places, landmarks, nature, planets and more in 360 degree photospheres".[13] Doug Wadleigh of Mattel told TechCrunch: "Our physical product was really designed for the family. It's kid-friendly."[4]
At the announcement, the viewer was priced at US$29.99 with a sample reel, for release in fall 2015. Android phones were supported first, with iOS support planned by the end of 2015.[4][13] When ABC News covered the launch on 2 October 2015, it listed the viewer at US$29.99 for ages 7 and up, working with Google Cardboard-compatible iOS or Android phones, and three experience packs sold separately at US$14.99 each: National Geographic Wildlife, Space, and Destinations (with places such as the Statue of Liberty and Chichen Itza).[14] The red viewer keeps the lever of the original; Aslan Appleman, a senior director at Mattel, told ABC News that generations of children had "clicked the iconic lever".[14] In the VR version, pressing the lever selects content in the apps.[15][16] ABC News reported that Mattel designed the viewer with sound channels so that users could hear the experience without headphones.[14]
Mattel sold the product as the View-Master Virtual Reality Starter Pack (model DLL68), released in 2015 for ages 7 and up. The pack contains one viewer, one Preview Reel, an adapter for the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s, and a user guide. Mattel's compatibility list includes the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 6, 6 Plus, 5s, 5c and 5 (iOS 8.3 or later), Samsung Galaxy S6, S5, S4 and Note 4, Motorola Moto X (2014) and Droid Turbo, LG G4 and G3, HTC One, and Nexus 6 and Nexus 5, and notes that it may also work with newer phones that have screens between 5 and 6 inches.[17] In February 2016 Apple began selling the Starter Pack through its online store, though not in its retail stores.[18]
Reels and apps
In the VR version, the physical reels are used to unlock and select content in the View-Master apps; New Atlas noted that the same content was also available through in-app purchases. In New Atlas's description, the user looks at a reel through the viewer with the app running, and "As the app recognizes the reel, augmented reality icons appear above and a push of the trigger lets you enter that experience."[15] Mattel's product pages tell users to scan the QR code on the bottom of a reel to unlock its content.[19] Macworld wrote that pointing the phone camera at the Preview Reel "overlays a virtual menu of sorts", a simple use of augmented reality.[16]
Later experience packs included a 2016 Masters of the Universe game in which players help He-Man against Skeletor.[19] Mattel's discontinuation notice also lists packs based on dinosaurs, Batman: The Animated Series and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.[6]
View-Master Deluxe VR Viewer (2016)
In February 2016 View-Master previewed an updated model, reported by TechCrunch as the Viewer DLX, priced at US$40 for release in fall 2016. It added a headphone jack, improved lenses and a focus adjustment dial on top of the viewer.[20] Mattel sold it as the View-Master Deluxe VR Viewer (model DTH61), released in 2016. According to Mattel, it has an "expanded field of view with a wider lens", a focus wheel, a headphone connector and a built-in adapter for the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s, and it supports phones with 5- to 6-inch screens, including the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.[5]
| Model | Mattel product number | Released | Announced price | Notable features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| View-Master Virtual Reality Starter Pack | DLL68 | 2015[17] | US$29.99[4] | Google Cardboard-compatible viewer, Preview Reel, lever input, no head strap[13][17] |
| View-Master Deluxe VR Viewer | DTH61 | 2016[5] | US$40[20] | Wider lens and larger field of view, focus wheel, headphone connector[5] |
Reception
In a February 2016 review, New Atlas called the viewer "a great first taste of VR for kids" and "a not-too-shabby Google Cardboard viewer for you to try VR on the cheap". The reviewer found it sturdier than a typical cardboard viewer, but noted that a child tester "was expecting a more immersive and interactive experience" and that the first model lacked focus adjustment and a headphone connection.[15] Macworld's John Moltz found it "reasonably well put together" but called the static content underwhelming: "there are no people milling about, there's no movement of any kind." He also criticized the lack of a head strap, the limited field of view and blurring for glasses wearers.[16]
Discontinuation
Mattel announced that "Beginning November 1, 2019, View-Master VR Starter Pack & Deluxe VR viewer will be discontinued", along with the associated apps and services and the experience packs. Technical support for the VR products ended, and Mattel said it would arrange refunds for defective devices still under warranty.[6] Mattel's service page for the Starter Pack lists it as discontinued in 2018.[17]
Other products and media
Classic-style reel viewers are still sold. Basic Fun! markets View-Master Classic and View-Master Deluxe viewers with 3D picture reels, including an Endangered Species set and a Mickey Mouse Deluxe Edition.[21]
On 16 October 2024 Mattel Films, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the production company Escape Artists announced that they were developing a live-action View-Master film, described as a "four-quadrant family adventure".[22] On 11 November 2025 Mattel announced that Phil Johnston, co-writer and co-director of Wreck-It Ralph, would write the film for Mattel Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Escape Artists.[23]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Lori Erickson (2020-06-23). "From Stereographs to Souvenir Shops: OHS's View-Master Collection". Oregon Historical Society. https://www.ohs.org/blog/ohs-view-master-collection.cfm. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "View-Master". The Strong National Museum of Play. The Strong. 2021-08-20. https://www.museumofplay.org/toys/view-master/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Mattel, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 1997". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). Mattel, Inc.. 1998-03-18. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000063276/000006327698000004/0000063276-98-000004.txt. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Anthony Ha, Jordan Crook (2015-02-13). "Google And Mattel Revive The View-Master". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/13/google-and-mattel-revive-the-85-year-old-view-master-with-cardboard-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "View-Master Deluxe VR Viewer - (DTH61)". Mattel Service. Mattel. https://m.service.mattel.com/us/Technical/productDetail?prodno=DTH61&siteid=27. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "View-Master Information and FAQs". Mattel Shop. Mattel. https://shop.mattel.com/pages/view-master. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Al Williams (2026-02-19). "The History Of The View-Master". Hackaday. https://hackaday.com/2026/02/19/the-history-of-the-view-master/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Jake Rossen (2017-06-21). "Chakka-Chhh: The Hidden History of View-Master". Mental Floss. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/84549/chakka-chhh-hidden-history-view-master. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Wilhelm B. Gruber (1940-02-06). "US2189285A - Stereoscopic viewing device". Google Patents. https://patents.google.com/patent/US2189285A/en. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Gregory Wakeman (2025-05-30). "How the View-Master Turbocharged Armchair Travel". HISTORY. A&E Television Networks. https://www.history.com/articles/view-master-reels-history. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Dalia Miller (2022-05-14). "Timeline of View-Master Ownership". 3Dstereo.com. https://3dstereo.com/blogs/news/timeline-of-view-master-ownership. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Tyco Toys, Inc. Form S-3/A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). Tyco Toys, Inc.. 1996-06-11. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000786130/000095013696000442/0000950136-96-000442.txt. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Scott Hayden (2015-02-14). "View-Master Comes to the 21st Century with Help From Google, Delivers 'Kid-Friendly Immersive Digital Experience'". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/view-master-comes-21st-century-help-google-delivers-kid-friendly-immersive-digital-experience/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Susanna Kim (2015-10-02). "Mattel Gives Classic View-Master Toy a Modern VR Makeover". ABC News. https://abcnews.com/Business/mattel-classic-view-master-toy-modern-vr-makeover/story?id=34203285. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Simon Crisp (2016-02-25). "View-Master VR review: A great first taste of VR for kids". New Atlas. https://newatlas.com/view-master-virtual-reality-kids-review/42040/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 John Moltz (2016-03-03). "View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer review: Affordable VR device could use better content". Macworld. https://www.macworld.com/article/227458/view-master-virtual-reality-viewer-review-affordable-vr-device-could-use-better-content.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 "View-Master Virtual Reality Starter Pack - (DLL68)". Mattel Service. Mattel. https://m.service.mattel.com/us/Technical/productDetail?prodno=DLL68&siteid=27. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Scott Hayden (2016-02-05). "Apple is Selling the ViewMaster Virtual Reality Viewer". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/apple-selling-viewmaster-virtual-reality-viewer/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 "View-Master Masters of the Universe - (FDF10)". Mattel Service. Mattel. https://m.service.mattel.com/us/Technical/productDetail?prodno=FDF10&siteid=27. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Lucas Matney (2016-02-14). "View-Master Shows Off Updated Version Of Its Iconic Virtual Reality Viewer". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/14/view-master-shows-off-updated-version-of-its-iconic-virtual-reality-viewer/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "View-Master". Basic Fun!. https://www.basicfun.com/view-master/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Umberto Gonzalez (2024-10-16). "Live-Action View-Master Movie in the Works From Mattel, Sony and Escape Artists". TheWrap. https://www.thewrap.com/live-action-view-master-movie-mattel/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "Phil Johnston to Write Live-Action "View-Master" Feature Film from Mattel Studios and Escape Artists". Mattel Corporate. Mattel. 2025-11-11. https://corporate.mattel.com/news/phil-johnston-to-write-live-action-view-master-feature-film-from-mattel-studios-and-escape-artists. Retrieved 2026-09-27.