The Voice Scrambling Helmet
By: Garry Kitchen
Tags: Toys, Invention, Invention Ideas, Toy Design, Electronics

Back to 1979 and the helmet.

We built a prototype of the idea using two Darth Vader helmets from Toys ‘R Us.

It was a bear to get them working but eventually we did (sort off). When they worked, they were incredible. It was so cool. Unfortunately, there were times when they didn’t work. Gerry, the engineer in charge, had decided to do the voice processing with analog circuitry (I prefer digital myself). Some days that analog circuitry did what it was supposed to… other days, not so much.

And on top of that, the physical Darth Vader helmets we were using for the prototypes were made for kids, so it was a pain in the a** to get them on and off your head to test. And you had to have them pulled down all the way, so that your speaking voice didn’t audibly leak out and interfere with hearing the scrambled voice.

Jim came back to the lab one afternoon while we were testing the prototypes, and on that particular day, they were working well. He was so impressed that he ran to the phone and set up a meeting for the following week. He was going to take the prototypes up to Boston to demonstrate them to the Vice President of Marketing of one of the country’s largest toy companies. We had done work for that company before, so they were excited to see what we had come up with.

Gerry and I spent the rest of the week through the weekend trying to “sure up” the prototypes for the upcoming demonstration and, by Sunday night, we felt we had done all we could. They worked most of the time. Monday morning arrived and Jim came to the office, grabbed the units and drove four hours north for the big demonstration. All day, we waited for a call from him, hoping to get an update on how the presentation had gone. Not a word.

Finally, at about 7 pm Monday evening, we heard the lobby door. We gave him a minute to drop stuff in his office, and then we ran in to get the word on how it went.

I was first into his office, “How did it go Jim?”

With his back to us as he was putting down his briefcase, he snarled “Not well, the effing things didn’t work. We tried for two hours then gave up. Here, get these out of here.” When he turned around to throw the prototypes at Gerry and I, it took every ounce of self-control we had not to burst out laughing.

Here was Jim, the picture of composure, the man who was never flustered, with the bridge of his nose completely destroyed, showing a bloody dent where the too small, child-size helmet had forcibly been stopped each time he jammed the malfunctioning device onto his head for yet another try.

Years later one of the Star Wars licensors came out with a Darth Vader, voice-changing helmet toy, but it didn’t have the scramble/unscramble ability. It just modified your voice.

Star Wars™ Darth Vader™ Voice Changer Helmet by Hasbro

As I went on to learn, such is the life of an inventor. You win some, you lose some. C’est la vie.

[1] Mattel Football was programmed by Mark Lesser, a pioneer in electronic games who went on to have a successful career as a game programmer and designer. His early work does not get the attention it deserves.