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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2011 10:00:48 GMT -7
I've seen several, myself. The kind blueoctopede has (she kindly put up some photographs so I could see it) has a bolt where the battery compartment and cover would be, to keep Teddy on the display, whilst there's one on eBay in the US at the moment where wires go directly into the compartment (through Teddy's bottom - ouch!) and it appears from the pictures that the battery cover is still there on that kind. It's looking like there are a few differently-constructed variants out there... I've sent off a message to Toys 'R' Us UK - I really hope that there's somebody there who might have worked there for a long time (or can put me in touch with someone who does or did) and might know something.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2011 15:52:10 GMT -7
Update time!
I've just gotten the weird Teddy working!!
I purchased a universal power adapter set, which turned out to have the right tip to fit the jack on his battery compartment, and I just now realised that the tips also fit the cable from a universal battery-pack that I have (this battery has a USB port on it, and comes with a USB cable with one end that accepts universal power adapter tips). I don't have access to a wall socket right now, so I gave him a quick go with the battery-pack, and he instantly started functioning, just as I'd suspected he would (the never-there volume/power wheel was indeed set to on, and seemingly to most of his full volume, just as I thought it would be). However, since the battery pack doesn't have the same mAH as a set of "C" cells, he drained it in seconds, so I just hooked him up to the USB port on my computer. He ran perfectly from that, too.
His weirdness level has only increased further, however - his voice, and every sound that comes out of him, is noticeably higher-pitched than it should be! (I was expecting the opposite, due to his age, since I know that when the tape deck belt decays it makes him sound old and slow. Moreover, I expected him to sound slow due to the voltage I was using.)
Another strange thing is that he's happy with five volts, even though I would have expected him to at least be sluggish and malfunctioning (or not working at all) with this voltage. I was expecting him to demand six, since that's what four 1.5V "C" cells add up to.
Beyond that, another odd point is that the type of power plug he takes is one that looks exactly like what you would find on a pair of headphones. This isn't a common thing, as far as I know, although thankfully my power adapter kit had a tip for it.
In spite of having a metal tape player, his sound-quality is absolutely appalling. And I mean it is *seriously* bad - I've never heard worse on any device ever. This is lending credence to the theory that he's from a British store display, I think. I don't think the tape heads have ever been cleaned, and the sound-quality is much, MUCH worse than I would expect from even a very, very, very large amount of normal use at the hands of a child (he definitely was used by a child at some point, as the previous owner said he was a childhood toy, and he looks quite care-worn; However, I don't think that that was his origin, or the reason why the sound-quality is so very bad).
A good point is that two of his three servos are working. His upper jaw is stuck, currently. He also has a very bad case of eye-flutter - he just doesn't stop blinking. However, this could all be because I was running him on five volts instead of six, and because the tape heads blatantly need cleaning (which I will do tomorrow). Does anyone know if too low a voltage will cause strange animatronic behaviour? (I'm guessing that it does, since the late-WoW Teddys have a warning label in their battery compartment that suggests trying fresh batteries if he animates strangely.)
Anyway, that's the latest news about this very strange bear. The mystery continues!
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Post by kaylathehedgehog on Nov 3, 2011 20:16:03 GMT -7
Well, two out of three servos isn't bad at all.
Strange about the sound quality, though.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2011 22:38:48 GMT -7
Sticky servos are, unfortunately, quite commonplace with these things. I have a like-new Grubby whose top jaw is stuck. However, the fluttering is most likely due to the tape heads not being cleaned, though it's true that when Teddy's batteries get low, his servos go all wacky and he pretty much moves non-stop, and not at all in sync with his voice (quite disturbing for a child, now that I think about it.)
Was there any luck after cleaning the tape heads?
Not sure about the sound quality. It seems like whoever had him last was quite the tinker-er. I wonder if they attempted any internal "improvements." Also, I'm not sure how high his voice is, but I have two theories:
The first is the size of the belt on the tape deck. If it is too small/tight, it may run faster than normal. Also, it may have something to do with the voltage your feeding him, but I would think if he had that much problem with the voltage, he would just not work at all.
Secondly, I've had conversations with Mathue over at the TRFAQ. I had recently taken a Teddy out of his box to find his voice noticeably higher than that of the other Teddy's I'd owned. Mathue told me that (at least in some Teddy's, if not all) there IS some kind of mechanism that controls the speed of playback. Not sure how adventurous you are about tinkering with him yourself, but it's worth noting.
Hope "The Mystery Unravels" soon!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2011 23:02:16 GMT -7
Well, two out of three servos isn't bad at all. Strange about the sound quality, though. I'm hoping that it might be easier to get the middle servo unstuck once I apply the correct voltage. Wish me luck! However, the fluttering is most likely due to the tape heads not being cleaned, though it's true that when Teddy's batteries get low, his servos go all wacky and he pretty much moves non-stop, and not at all in sync with his voice (quite disturbing for a child, now that I think about it.) The non-stop moving matches what he was doing. At one point his lower jaw was doing the same, but that stopped once I got him connected to a USB port instead of the battery-pack. It didn't go well. The tape player chewed up the cleaning tape! I'm guessing that that's due to the cloth in the cleaning cassette not being as tense as in a normal audio tape. There's still plenty of the tape-head cleaning fluid left - is there some better way of doing this that doesn't involve the cleaner-cassette? Going on what I've seen of the labels and manuals for store displays, and, indeed, for any type of tape deck, sound quality deteriorates with use, hence the need for tape-head cleaning. That's probably the cause of that issue. From what I'm seeing, he's actually never been opened before! (And with any luck I won't have to do so now myself, either.) It looks like he's always been like this. I had thought about this, too, but I'm doubting it's the voltage, since five volts should be too low, and I would have expected slower playback, if anything. I have one of those MP3 adapter tapes meant for cars, here. I'm going to give that a try at some point and see if it sounds any different. (I suspect it will.) I'm also going to try him on a lower voltage (3V or 4.5V - the universal adapter can do both of those, as well as the 6V he actually needs) and see what effect that has, just out of curiousity. I'm not that adventurous, haha! I know that the mechanism you describe is present in the "Teddy II" model in the form of a potentiometer in the tape deck (there's a video on YouTube that demonstrates it here - the part about the potentiometer is around 3:10 and is hilarious). I wonder if there's something similar in the larger models? I also wonder if some were just set up a bit wrongly at the factory. Aside from your high-voiced Teddy, I've only seen one other one like that mentioned (somewhere on YouTube, and apparently it only did so under certain circumstances), apart from my own, so I guess it could happen - they did make millions of them, after all! Hah! Me too. I've sent a message to Mattel UK, now. They were Teddy's European distributor, so I'm hoping that I might be able to get some information from them. ;D EDIT: Oh, this is weird. He doesn't sound as high-pitched with the tape that came with him (The Wooly What's-It). Odder still is that I know that there's nothing wrong with the tape that I tested him with (The Airship, of course ), because I recorded that onto my computer last week and it's as clear as a bell and at the correct pitch.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2011 9:29:24 GMT -7
Ok, six volts helped the eye-flutter a bit, but not completely. The upper jaw is still very much not moving (I'll keep working on that). The sound-quality is fine after a couple more attempts at cleaning the tape-head. It's really beautifully clear, now. So, basically, he's fully working but has a facial tic.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2012 1:49:14 GMT -7
I have a further update on weird-Teddy - I hope nobody minds me posting after my own previous post like this...
I fixed a great deal of his eye problem by carefully running a pin around the rims of his eyes - there was some matted up fur mixed with the old adhesive on the inside that this untangled, and in one instance, a piece about the size of half of a little-fingernail fell out! The eye-flutter is now less bad. I still haven't gotten his upper jaw unstuck.
I've also learned that the issue of his audio being a bit too high in pitch may be related to the tape and/or the tape-door not sitting quite right. I don't think there's a lot I can do about this!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 13:01:24 GMT -7
Sorry for another post responding to myself. It seems that Weird-Teddy just keeps getting weirder! It's a short one, this time, though. His eye-flutter and general behaviour is changed (again) by using digitised tapes, instead! I'm beginning to wonder if there's some sort of audio input issue with him that causes the twitchiness he has, because now, this way, it stops and his eyes, in particular, no longer constantly move. He also opens his eyes fully much more often, this way. He will also animate to Grubby's audio data! I'm not using any lossy formats for the audio, here - it is as it was when I recorded it. He is so very strange... I do like that I can run him completely off of a computer, though. Right now, he's performing There's Rhythm Everywhere, from Grunge Music, whilst hooked up to a USB port for power, and a headphone jack for audio. ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 13:26:45 GMT -7
That's awesome, having a Teddy Ruxpin that you can run off your computer. I'd love it if the next Teddy Ruxpin came with software so you could run him on the computer and/or a mobile unit like an iPad or iPod. That'd be even better.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 13:45:28 GMT -7
I'd love it if the next Teddy Ruxpin came with software so you could run him on the computer and/or a mobile unit like an iPad or iPod. That'd be even better. It's best to do these things without dependence on software where possible, and using platform-and-CPU-agnostic software where it can't be avoided, in my opinion - any other approach invariably excludes folks like me who don't use Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X! (I use Linux on ARM-based systems, primarily, myself.)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 13:58:08 GMT -7
That's a good point. I was thinking how most MP3 players and iPods need some basic programs to run the USB interface between the the computer and the mobile device. Same with digital cameras.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 14:05:12 GMT -7
Really? My experience has been that the vast majority don't, funnily enough, at least these days. It used to be a real menace, even as late as a few years back, though!
It seems that things are changing, though, and people are being more forward-thinking about this stuff now, which is good for everybody (part of the reason is probably because it makes some things easier for the businesses concerned, as well, I would imagine). ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 14:33:36 GMT -7
Yeah. All the MP3 players I've ever had, and the iPod I have use very basic programs to install the drivers for the device onto the computer, so the system can read them. Plus, the iPod needed iTunes downloaded and installed as well. Anyway, for Teddy's purposes, it would be easier to have him portable, but still have some way to plug him in to recharge the battery. Even if it was just to plug him into the computer to charge him up that way.
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