Trivia / LeapFrog

• Acting for Two:
  • From "The Letter Factory" to "Code Word Caper", Kevin Schon voiced both Mr. Frog and Mr. Websley.
  • Sandy Fox voiced both Lily and Bammy. The latter only appeared in "Talking Words Factory".
• Bad Export for You: Live in a country that falls under the "other" region? You can only buy apps for your Epic or LeapPad via gift cards. Those living in the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand can pay for apps using a credit card, but those who live in the "other" region do not have the option. Additionally, the app store is far more limited to those living in countries who fall under the "other" region, with a lot of highly desirable third party apps walled off.
  • LeapFrog Academy. Which is initially only available to the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand or Canada. The good news is, subscribers from other countries are now welcome as of December 2018. The bad news is, for people outside the six countries, the only payment option for the rest of the world is PayPal as opposed to direct credit card subscription available in the six regions (which isn't so bad since PayPal is available worldwide), but also the app for iOS, Android and Kindle itself is still not available worldwide, leaving your only options of accessing the service to either using a compatible web browser on a Mac, Linux or Windows PC, or using a Leapfrog Epic device (who will automatically download a neutered version of the Android app^note The version released on the Epic does not support Google Cloud Print and thus could not print offline activity pages if you subscribe on the same account as the one you used for registering your Epic). We should point out that manufacture of the first generation Epic has been discontinued two years ago due to the release of the Academy Edition, which itself is not sold outside of the aforementioned six countries ^note and forget about importing- it incorporates an anti-theft technology which requires you to call a number which is available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but not elsewhere, which of course acts as a frighteningly effective Region Coding mechanism as few people would want to make an expensive IDD call to unlock their device- if you live outside the six countries and want to use Leapfrog Academy without being bolted down to your PC, well, hope you didn't sell off your old Epic and that it's still in working order. And even then you will still need to return to your PC to print the offline activity pages.
  • Additionally, the latest batch of pink Violet toys are, due to a misguided marketing gimmick, "online exclusive", which means they're only available from the VTech^note VTech has bought over LeapFrog in 2016, but is letting them exist as a separate subdivision marketplace store. They have changed their policy as of 2018 and do ship overseas now, but yeah, expect to pay international shipping which is not cheap. And some goods still cannot be shipped internationally.
  • On that topic, the rest of the world aren't getting the special Scout and Violet Leap Start devices either, they're only limited to the generic Green and White models (and later, a pink and purple model that's devoid of any Violet markings). Again, can be imported officially assuming you're willing to put up with pricey international shipping costs.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: The Violet toys are voiced by the same voice actor that voices Scout (11 year old Charlie Ibsen. See him interviewed by a San Fransisco Chronicle reporter here). In fact, the My Pal Scout and My Pal Violet actually shared an identical voice set to cut costs (this was possible because the toys never mention their own name). The other toys only made minor tweaks to the voice set, but Scout and Violet still sound identical on these toys.
  • Also, in the Learning DVDs, Tad and Leap are voiced by females (Julie Maddalena and Cindy Robinson respectively).
• He Also Did: Porchlight Entertainment, the production house which helped make the first few DVDs and video releases, also did work for Jay Jay the Jet Plane and would go on to make The Secret Saturdays. Yes, really. They went from this to THE SECRET SATURDAYS.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Most of the core characters have at least changed voice actors once. Heck, Even Scout and Violet aren't voiced by Charlie Ibsen where the DVDs are concerned. The Read With Me Violet toy is also voiced by a proper girl and not by Charlie Ibsen.
  • Due to Tony Pope's passing in 2004, Phil Proctor voiced Professor Quigley in "Math Circus" and "Code Word Caper". Then Doug Byrd took over from "Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory" to "A Tad of Christmas Cheer"
• Same Language Dub: The UK versions of the toys are voiced by different actors as well.
• No Export for You: Good luck with getting a desired third party app for your Epic or LeapPad if you don't live in any of their supported regions. A lot of highly desirable apps are only available to the main six regions the company has a presence in. Other region countries only get a handful of third party apps, with the rest all being in-house apps.
  • The Academy Edition of the Epic is so far only sold in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And forget about importing one, it features a ridiculous anti-theft system that doubles as a bothersome region coding scheme that requires one to call a phone number and provide your device’s serial number and a code on the purchase receipt to unlock the device on first use. Thing is, there are only phone numbers for the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Live elsewhere? Unless you’re willing to spend upwards of US$30 or so on an IDD call to one of the numbers, you’re inevitably ending up with an expensive piece of paperweight. Also, if you buy online, you may not receive the required unlock code with the purchase due to the absence of a receipt...^note Amazon, which will ship the device overseas via the Amazon Export store, typically sends the code on a separate e-mail, but yeah, aside from the expensive international shipping, you're expected to handle the IDD call on your own, they will not unlock the device for you before sending it to you.
• Not the Intended Use / Periphery Demographic: Some of the toys, like the Didj, Leapster and LeapPad, are essentially embedded Linux devices, making them an attractive target for hardware hackers. The LeapFrog Epic for instance is nothing more than an Android device running off an off-the-shelf MediaTek system-on-chip, and since the kernel sources are available upon request, anyone with at least some experience with Android development can turn it to a regular tablet with none of the LeapFrog bloatware installed, once they can work around the device's security.^note Technobabble: The biggest hurdle at the moment is that the Epic's preloader (read: bootloader) is restricted, preventing any chances of installing a kernel image other than the one that is Leapfrog-authorized, unless you manage to self-sign the ROM. Fastboot mode is also nerfed, ruling out "fastboot oem unlock" as used on several other devices.
  • It is however possible to just make do with the included ROM and use hacks like Xposed along with modified configuration files to achieve a similar result though, as shown in this video.
  • The bootloader restrictions were finally overcome in 2020 when members of the XDA-Developers forum released an unlocked preloader/LK binary and released an unofficial build of LineageOS to the first-generation Epic.
  • The second-generation LeapPad Academy fared much better as it came bootloader-unlocked out of the box, making it trivial to flash a generic system image (GSI) onto it. Here's a video of an Android 14 ROM booting on the Academy.

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