Mattel announces new and improved VR View-Master

A year on from announcing the surprisingly awesome Google Cardboard-inflected View-Master revival, Mattel has unveiled an improved update.
Last year’s View-Master was much more than a simple revival of the classic kid’s toy, which offered up a number of rudimentary scenes through a plastic headset. Rather, it was a full-on collaboration with Google, presenting a child-friendly adaptation of the Cardboard VR concept.
We found the View-Master to be an impressive piece of kit, with a decent design and some strong educational content – albeit with a couple of basic faults.
Now Mattel is looking to address some of those flaws with a new and improved model. At the New York Toy Fair this weekend past, the toy company unveiled the View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer 2.0.
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This time around, Mattel has included a headphone jack, which was one of the glaring omissions the first time around. It also has an improved mounting system that will accept a greater range of smartphones, including older 4-inch iPhone models like the iPhone 5.
There’s now a focus wheel that enables the fine adjustment of the lenses, which Mattel claims have also been enhanced.
Related: Google advancing from Cardboard to plastic with proper VR headset
As Toyland points out, the result of such refinement is a $10 price bump, but that still only means that the final cost will be $40, or around £28.
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Expect to see the View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer 2.0 to hit shops some time this autumn.