Okay, Mouseketeers! It’s time for a five-mile hike. So get your 1984 Motorola Dynatac 8000X cell phones (you remember how big those were, right?), throw them on your back for use as a weighted backpack, and let’s hit the trail! And by ‘let us’ I mean ‘you’. I’ll be on my sofa.

While you’re getting ready, doing stretches and what-not, have a look at Mickey. He is ready to go with Tyco! Tyco has a long history of toy manufacturing. It all started in the 1920’s but ended when they were bought out by Mattel on March 27, 1997. But before that happened, Tyco purchased the Illco Toy Company, in 1992. We saw an Illco toy on this site not long ago (just a little side point here).

One of the most popular products Tyco produced was this fun little Backpacking Mickey Phone:

Mickey gives us the Thumbs Up! for hiking adventure. Again, I’ll be on the sofa.

This phone has no animation, although at first I thought it did, as his left arm (with the ‘thumbs up’) moved slightly. But after a closer inspection, I found no plug-in ports or battery compartments to facilitate movement of any kind. There also weren’t any special speech or ring-tone settings.

By removing the receiver we find the maker stamp; that it was manufactured in Hong Kong; by the Walt Disney Company.

The Mickey base has no function. The entire mechanics and circuitry of the unit is in the hand-held receiver. It plugs into the phone jack directly and merely hangs on Mickey’s back. This is likely why there are no animation/speech functions. So Mickey is just there for his dashing good looks! Much like me, wherever I go.

For a nice overview of my Disney-themed phone collection, please check out the earlier post entitled, you guessed it: Disney-themed Telephone Collection. From Minnie to a Dalmatian pup, and including little rubber toy Mickey phones, it doesn’t have it all… but close to it!