Most Popular Christmas Toy in 1985
Always remember to wear orange during hunting season.
Teddy Ruxpin is an animatronic children's toy in the form of a talking bear. The bear's mouth and eyes moved while "reading" stories that were played on an audio tape cassette deck built into its back. It was created by Ken Forsse with later assistance by Larry Larsen and John Davies, and the first version of the toy was designed by the firm RKS Design. Later versions would use a digital cartridge in place of a cassette. At the peak of his popularity, Teddy Ruxpin became the best-selling toy of 1985 and 1986, and the 2006 version was awarded the 2006 Animated Interactive Plush Toy of the Year by Creative Child Magazine. A cartoon based on the characters debuted in 1986.
Technology
Conventional Compact Cassettes carried two audio tracks for stereo sound reproduction. Teddy Ruxpin cassettes used the left track for audio and the right track for a control data stream. The data stream controlled servomotors that moved the eyes and mouth and could also divert the audio signal to Grubby, the companion toy, by means of a proprietary cable. This allowed the two to engage in pre-recorded interactions. Grubby only worked with the initial WOW release of Teddy Ruxpin.
If a conventional audio cassette was played in Teddy Ruxpin, this would be detected and its right audio track would be ignored. Early versions of the toy used three servo motors, but this was reduced to two in later versions.
History
From his debut in September 1985 various toy makers have produced Teddy Ruxpin over the years. The first was Worlds Of Wonder from 1985 until its bankruptcy in 1988. The toy's rights were then sold to Hasbro,[9] and produced again from 1991 to 1996. Another version debuted in 1998 by YES! Entertainment with another version in 2006, produced by BackPack Toys. Presently Teddy Ruxpin is available from Wicked Cool Toys.
Shortly after his debut, Teddy Ruxpin was dubbed the "Official Spokesbear for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children" in 1985.
Worlds of Wonder
Teddy Ruxpin was first produced in 1985 by toy manufacturer Worlds of Wonder. They also released the companion toy Grubby and several other non-animatronic companion toys and characters. This included two different versions of the bird-like Fobs (one orange, one purple) that were hand puppets with a sock-like, extendable neck. Other hand puppets were the larger Wooly What's-It, three interchangeable Anythings (This, That, The Other), Tweeg, and L.B. The Bounder. Other items produced by Worlds of Wonder for Teddy Ruxpin were the Answer Box and Picture Show.
With the strength of its line of toys, Worlds of Wonder’s fortunes rose well beyond its assets. Stock trades by company officers spooked investors. Attempting to stem the tide, WoW issued Non-Investment Grade Bonds, commonly known as junk bonds, in an effort to buoy itself. Although there is some contention as to whether this strategy would have helped, the attempt was made moot by the 1987 stock market crash. Worlds of Wonder filed for bankruptcy protection and was liquidated in 1988. They went through a series of layoffs. The creditors continued to operate the company in receivership until finally closing its doors in late 1990.
Playskool
By 1991 Worlds of Wonder had folded and the remaining assets were liquidated. The Teddy Ruxpin toy line was then picked up by Hasbro, which produced him under their Playskool line until 1996 using the redesign that had been implemented by WoW. This design was smaller and used cartridges that resembled 8-track tapes, instead of cassette tapes. Unfortunately, this cartridge system proved to be easily damaged.
YES! Entertainment
In 1998, Yes! Entertainment brought Teddy Ruxpin back to stores for a third time. The toy's size was largely the same as the Playskool version. Yes! returned to using the standard cassette tapes. This venture was short-lived, however, as Yes! Entertainment's corporate management and financial troubles ultimately resulted in AlchemyII withdrawing the licensing for Teddy. During this production of Teddy Ruxpin, the original Hi-Topps videos were edited and released to work alongside Teddy using the Interactive TV & Video Pack. There was also a small Beanie Baby version of the toy that came boxed with the YES! Teddy Ruxpin in an effort to capitalize on the popularity of Beanie Babies at the time.
BackPack Toys
In 2005, BackPack Toys announced a fourth version of Teddy Ruxpin, which replaced the audio tapes with digital cartridges. Although Teddy Ruxpin is no longer produced by BackPack Toys, some remaining toys and cartridges are available via online retail channels.
Wicked Cool Toys
Wicked Cool Toys announced in early 2016 that they would produce a new Teddy Ruxpin in fall of 2017. This Teddy Ruxpin will not come with physical cartridges, instead being programmed with 3 stories inside of the toy. The rest of the stories will be available for purchase on a mobile app.