I used to get confused between the Little Professor and Major Morgan. It was because they both had faces and keypads. I remember wanting both of them and writing them on the list I sent to Father Christmas when I was young, but I never received either. I knew that one of them played music and one of them played maths games. It was only when someone at school brought in a Little Professor to Toy Day at school that I realised I didn’t actually want one.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed maths. I enjoyed doing mathematics and arithmetic at school, (younger readers may be interested to know that “maths” is a shortened version of the word “mathematics”) and I loved my Speak and Maths. In fact the job I ended up enjoying most since leaving school relied heavily on maths. I just felt quite let down by the Little Professor. It promised so much, with his cheeky smile and bright colours, but it couldn’t compare to the Speak and Maths.

Little Professor didn’t talk. It just beeped. Plus, it was the opposite of a calculator. On a calculator you typed in some sums, pressed equals and the answer popped up. On Little Professor the sum appeared and YOU had to type in the answer!

Speak and Maths made maths fun by using a synthetic voice, fancy beeps and you felt like it interacted with you. Little Professor, although it tried to achieved the same, just couldn’t live up to the Speak and Maths. Nothing could top it in my eyes.

Having said that, Little Professor really has stood the test of time. It is one of the few 80s toys that they have continued to make. New, solar powered Little Professors are still available to buy online, still with the cheeky professor face on them. So maybe I’m wrong? Maybe, for me, the bar had been set too high by Speak and Maths?