All right, who among my watchers had a Teddy Ruxpin?
Teddy Ruxpin was a hot toy in 1985, at least for kids whose parents had money. My parents didn't, so my stuffed toys needed me to talk for them (which we did). :3
For those who don't know (ie, anyone under 30), Teddy Ruxpin was a plushie with a tape player inside. Teddy had special story tapes he could play that would 'animate' his mouth and eyes as he 'read' the story to you.
For those who cannot see the video, just think of those animatronic characters one might see on a Disney ride ...or the robots from FNaF (same thing).
As I watched the above video, I thought to myself,
"I can see the initial appeal of this toy, yet I don't think there's much value in it. The toy's fun to watch, but only for so long. I mean, Teddy comes with a book with colorful pictures to look at, as well he reads it to you---not much interest in the bear itself, as an object. Kids would be better off just watching the cartoon" ...but what do I know?
Another thing about Teddy Ruxpin is ...he's not really a bear. Yeah, in Teddy's universe, Teddy is an 'Illyop' ...that I think is some kind of alien creature which, if his overall character design is any indication, is loosely related to the Care Bears. ^^
Now, for those who want to buy a Teddy Ruxpin to get it to move its mouth to (say) some dirty song lyrics one has on cassette, you'll be out of luck. Teddy would play the tape, but he won't animate to tapes that aren't his own (Teddy's official cassettes have 'signals' in them that activate his electronics). Granted, one could encode cassettes to trick Teddy into animating to them, but ...why? XD
Anyway, Teddy Ruxpin had a very short-lived animated series, which inspired this sketch o'mine. I've seen only a few episodes---it's harmless, but existed only to sell books and tapes (low production standards and minimally entertaining to anyone over 7 or 8, IMHO). That said, I like Teddy's voice in the series--it's very soothing ...except when the script requires the actor to sing (ugh!). ^^
