Viewmaster as the peak of e-waste

April 5, 2026 @ 05:35

Before we in my household had any proper VR headsets, we had the Viewmaster. No, not the old fashioned picture viewer thing, the "modern" remake that used your phone to put you in new and exhilarating places like space and Africa.

My family had a few phone VR headsets. A Google Cardbard, some Tzumi Dream Vision thing, and my Viewmaster. Unlike the others, the Viewmaster had a leg up in that the back shell was translucent and allowed for it to do AR as well as VR. The downside was that you had to hold it to your face at all times because that's important for nostalgia or whatever.

I really liked this thing! It used little "reels" made to mimic the look of the classic Viewmaster reels, but instead of slotting it in and looking at the pictures you would use the aforementioned AR features to look at it and scan it in before it takes you off to the mystical site of the... Statue of Liberty.

That "pass card" thing on the left is the same shape in all packs. They get you to touch it to the screen as some form of DRM so you can't just google pictures of the spools and play them, but it literally is the same shape for every single one.

ANyway, I had a few kits and they were pretty cool at the time! I tried to use it again recently only to discover that not only does my phone not fit in the recepticle anymore, the apps also don't work on modern phones.

_{Fun side note, that QR code with the headset on it is used by other non-Viewmaster apps to determine how to render the app or something. Most phone VR headsets have one and it does... something!}

It's kinda disappointing though. Phones kept getting bigger to the point they outgrew some of these devices and phone VR kinda just died down. Proper all-in-one VR is also not the largest yet but I'm hoping it takes off with the Steam Frame. At least Google had the foresight to make it out of cardboard so the bulk of the headset can be recycled, but the Viewmaster really hasn't had much for it since they killed the apps in... 2019??? Damn, I see why considering I only learned this past year.

It's a sad fate for many devices and peripherals, but not unexpected for strange and more niche things like this.