The Tyco Garfield Telephone, commonly called the Garfield Phone, is an analogue handset stylized as Garfield, a cat from the 1978 comic strip of the same name. Manufactured by Tyco Toys, it was first released in 1984 as part of Tyco's Personality Phones product line.
This article will cover all versions of the Garfield Desk Phone. Please see the Garfield Wall Phone article for that model.
Origins
In 1976, cartoonist Jon Davis released a comic strip called 'Jon', which focused on Jon Arbuckle, a socially awkward cartoonist and his interaction with his pets. Within a few years it became clear that audiences were more interested in Jon's snarky, gluttonous cat, causing Davis to shift focus to the cat as the main character, renaming the comic strip 'Garfield' after his grandfather, with the first comic published in June 1978.
The cartoon was immediately popular, and over the years underwent development as a cartoon television series, clothes, movies, and merchandise, however one of the first of these was the Tyco Garfield Telephone.
Used under fair use. Source: GoComics.
Incorrect claims it was released in 1978
While researching this article, I found about 50% of online sellers and articles claimed that the Garfield Phone was released in 1978... Yet this makes no sense to me, as Tyco did not expand into toys beyond trains and slot cars until many years after that date. Others vaguely attributed it to "early 1980s" which is closer but not quite right. So I investigated it further.
The packaging for these Garfield products always says "Copyright 1978 United Feature Syndicates", sometimes adding additional years. Clearly this is the copyright for Garfield, not the phone! The Garfield character is owned by United Feature Syndicates, who first released it and copyrighted it in 1978.
Are people just seeing the 1978 Garfield copyright on the packaging and just assuming this refers to the product release date?
To further verify this, I went back to look at the 1978 - 1986 Tyco Catalogs, which were released each year for retailers to order stock, and which contain every single item sold by Tyco that year, together with model numbers, description, and whether they're new or not. And sure enough, the Garfield phone does not appear in the 1978 issue. Nor the 1979, 1980, 1981, etc. Tyco were not selling this stuff then!
Finally in 1984 we see the first mention of the Garfield phone, model 1205 with "New!" indicating this is the first year of release, however the version which most people see as the Garfield Phone was'nt released for a year or two after that (1985-1986).
1984 - Garfield Personality Phone
Model No. 1205
- Pulse Dial only (emulates rotary dial)
- Eyes open when lifting handset
- Original design which may be unfamiliar
The handset in this version looks unusually wide, apparently to blend in with the Garfield model, but I can't imagine trying to hold this thing, it looks very unwieldy.
Also... does'nt Garfield look a bit strange here? Different than what we normally see for the Garfield phone?
Yes, this is the 1st generation that wouldn't stick around for very long. A year later in 1985 Tyco would release model 1201, which is the design commonly referred to as a '1978 Garfield Phone'.
1985 - Garfield Personality Phones
Model No. 1201
- Tone Dial Model
- Compatible with MCI, Sprint, long distance services
- Much improved Garfield styling and appearance
- Smaller, more ergonomic handset
This is the 2nd Generation of the Garfield phone, and it looks much better than the original!
The biggest improvement of all, beyond the better Garfield design, is the thinner and easier to hold handset, potentially a result of them dropping the older Pulse dial support, and going for Tone Dialing technology only.
Pulse dialing is what rotary dial phones used (making a pitter patter noise when you dialed and taking very long to complete the full number), whereas tone dialing simply sounded an audio tone to communicate the number dialed back to the phone company. Beep Beep Boop Boop!
A tone dial only phone was a gamble, since most phone networks, homes and businesses did not finish converting over to tone dial until the late 1980s, so this may not have worked for a good portion of customers.
1986 - Garfield Desk Phone Improved
Model No. 1207
- Switchable between pulse or tone dial
- Compatible with any telephone system
- Last number redial in pulse mode
No doubt seeing their gaffe, Tyco finally came up with a model that combined both Pulse dial (for those on the older phone system) and Tone dial compatibility, while maintaining that smaller more ergonomic handset.
But with the Garfield Phone being on the market for 3 years now, they needed to spruce things up a little... time for an all new model!
That incident... you know the one!
I may cover this in some detail in the future, however there are plenty of other sources for this information, and so for the moment I'll just link you to a popular YouTube video on the subject. Needless to say, it's only added to the nostalgic draw towards this piece of 80s kitsch, and at least stopping some of them from ending up in landfill, or worse!
Availability and Collectability
Unlike many super popular collectables, the Garfield Telephone (both this desk version, and the wall version) is quite easy to come across, and will not cost you too much money, so long as you're not looking for a NIB (New in Box).
Loose phones are available for around $50-80 USD every day, however whether they work or not is a question, since most people would'nt have the ability to test them immediately. Converting such an older analogue phone to work using modern VOIP and similar phone technology, or even using a mobile phone network to make calls is absolutely possible, but I'll look into that another day.
Ultimately what we have here however is a wonderful piece of 80s nostalgia which is still as cool today as it was on release, and which most people would be able to access today without spending too much money. Love it!