Hasbro Toots

Hey kids! It's a candy! And a noisemaker! It's a candy noisemaker!

Hasbro announced that its latest product, Sound Bites, "The toy-candy sensation that delivers sounds 'inside your head,'" will begin hitting store shelves nationwide following a test market campaign in five US cities.

Sound Bites is actually a holder for your standard lollipop. When someone bites into said lollipop, says Hasbro, "sound vibrations travel through the teeth to the inner ear, where they are heard just like normal sounds." The tones are audible primarily to the user. Sound Bites holders have four buttons that lollipop lickers can use to play the sounds.

Six versions of Sound Bites will initially be available - the "musical" Bites Rockin' Guitar, Rockin' Drum and Rockin' Saxophone and the special effects versions Space Wars, Wacky Toons, and Wacky Voices.

Sound Bites will sell for US$9.99 in a box that includes a Sound Bites holder and two lollipops (batteries included).

Bandai has licensed the musical lollipop holder from Hasbro and will be distributing the product in Japan next month under the name Silent Shout, Hasbro announced.