My mom called in for a newspaper ad because I was eager to save up money for some reason. There was a phone interview that I had (I was about 8 so I was a little nervous). They decided to bring me in for an in-person interview and I was accepted. From there they would periodically (every 1-2 months) contact me via email and tell me they were going to send me something in the mail or that I should come in to an interview building for a group discussion.

These group discussions had a few of us (7-8 kids my age) sit around and one person would "represent" the company and she had a lot of toys she'd show us. If we didn't like them, they'd ask what we wanted for it to be better. If we did like them, we were asked why we liked it. Standard stuff. There was a one-way mirror on one of the walls where people listened to us, but they were very friendly and upfront about the whole thing.

The deliveries, like the VideoNow, were a bit odd. We'd be sent the device and then 5 or 6 discs per week. It doesn't seem to have taken off as portable MP4 players have gotten cheaper.

I was actually brought in to test toys but I ended up being an alpha tester of Skype. The program was very different back then and IIRC there wasn't any form of video chat. We had been partnered up with someone else from the program to chat with, but the mics they sent us were pretty shitty and an unusual jack size so myself and a few other people were unable to use them. There were a few more meetings after that but they either ended the program or I was politely fired/cut.

Here's what I can remember testing:

• Xevoz (buildable, customizable action figures that never really took off)
• Skype
• VideoNow (B&W and Color) and its various equipment
• Some kind of lazer tag-like game*

*I remember specifically asking if there was a way they could have something like "radar" when we were talking about it and the lady asked me if they couldn't do that, what would be a good alternative. I told her it would be really cool if you could point the gun and see if someone was a "bad guy" or not. A year or so later I saw a commercial for a toy that had that exact feature.

Overall there was a dumb amount of paperwork and I must have gotten ~$150 over a few months. I'll ask my mom about it later because she coordinated most of my trips there and the stuff I got but I was in it for less than a year.

Edit: clarifications