Jack Maverik, who goes by the TikTok name 2 Magic 2 Millionaire, just posted this very disturbing video of a gift he got for Christmas. It's the stuff of nightmares! I had to know more so I did a little digging. Turns out it's a 20+ year old toy called "Yano the Storyteller." I couldn't find much about it online other than folks selling theirs on sites like eBay. I did find this old commercial, and this description from a man named Keith who writes a blog about toys and videogames:
Yano was made in 2001 by The Original San Francisco Toymakers Ltd. Some searches on Youtube have shown that this toy was just as terrorifying to kids in 2001 as it would be now. It reads stories out of a chip that is inserted into the bottom of the toy. It runs on several C cell batteries. One video mentioned that the kid's parents used to threaten them with Yano if he did not eat his vegetables or something. Other people have made amusing videos using creative lighting to highlight how creepy this toy can be and other people have modded it and used it's robotic face for their own uses.
