Yak Bak - History

History

In December 1994, YES! launched its YES! Gear product line with the introduction of Yak Bak, a simple device consisting of a single speaker and two buttons. One button was marked "Say" and the other, "Play." By holding down the "Say" button, a person could record six seconds of sound, during which a light would shine to indicate that the Yak Bak was recording. Afterwards, the "Play" button would enable the person to hear what was just recorded. This was the basic premise for all subsequent models of the toy, each one adding a slight variance to the original. The television commercial for it showed a boy sitting in a living room recliner while his sister came by and started fussing at him. Then he kept playing his "Is not!" quote using the Yak Bak at his sister, while his sister kept saying "Is too!".

Following encouraging sales of its 1995 line of minirecorders, YES! introduced four new Yak Bak products for 1996 and lowered the products' prices to a more affordable range. The original Yak Bak would be re-released in 1997 as Yak Bak Classic and again in 2000 as Yak Bak 2k.