ActiMates were a series of interactive toys released by Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 in February, 1997, which were in the form of licensed dolls which could interact with certain episodes of their respective television series on VHS videocassette which were bundled with the dolls.

Microsoft released seven characters including Arthur, his sister DW, the four Teletubbies

Teletubbies

Teletubbies is a BBC children's television series targeted at pre-school viewers and produced from 1997 to 2001 by Ragdoll Productions. It was created by Ragdoll's creative director Anne Wood CBE and Andrew Davenport, who wrote each of the show's 365 episodes. The programme's original narrator was...

 and Barney

Barney & Friends

Barney and Friends, also referred to by HiT Entertainment as Barney the Friendly Dinosaur, is an independent children's television show produced in the United States, aimed at children from ages 1-8...

. The company discontinued the dolls in 2000. The dolls could interact with the TV and the computer (the Teletubbies could not interact with the PC). The toys were marketed as educational tools and gave positive affirmations for correct answers from the user. They could also be played without the packs for the VCR and computer.