Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2012 19:23:08 GMT -7
Before I start, please accept my apologies if a thread like this already exists. I did use the forum's search facility (set to scour the last 50,000 days of posts, just to be sure!), but it doesn't seem to work very well, and it brought up no relevant results.
I was just wondering what your favourite Teddy Ruxpin stories or song-collections (from the toy-line, rather than from the animatronic movie or the TV series) are, and why - no matter whether they're the ones from the first three Teddy models, or the heavily-revised ones from the BackPack Toys version.
I know that a lot of people are probably going to say this one, but I think my favourite of them all has to be the original version of The Airship. Not only is its story nicely self-contained (as many of the tales for the first three Teddy models are) and good at firing the imagination, but it also had to do the job of simultaneously selling the concept, the characters, the universe, and the technology, and I think that it did a marvellous job of that. Listen carefully to how Teddy introduces himself, everyone else, and everything, and breaks into a song quite early on in the story - you can see how The Airship is meant to exhibit all of his, the series', and the technology's best qualities, all in one go. It just has this magical quality to it that really lives up to the story's subtitle of "Discover a Whole New World".
My other two particular favourites would have to be Wooly and the Giant Snowzos, and Teddy and the Mudblups.
Wooly and the Giant Snowzos was one of the book-and-tape sets that were given to me when I got my Teddy Ruxpin (who is a "Teddy II") for Christmas in 1991. I always loved how atmospheric it was - the sound effects and the way that everyone ends up sheltering in Wooly's house both work very well to create the feeling of being stuck out in the middle of a storm. I really loved the tale of Wooly's origins, too, and I'm pretty sure that that was the first time in any work of fiction that I encountered that method of telling an origin-story to a character who doesn't remember where they came from. I love the song "Don't Believe Everything You Hear", since it's so well-written. I also greatly appreciated Wooly and the Giant Snowzos for the fact that its accompanying book had all of the text for the story and the songs written in it, rather than the pictures-with-short-captions approach that all of the other book-and-tape sets that I'd encountered before then had taken.
Teddy and the Mudblups was my favourite story from the time when I briefly had an original-model Teddy Ruxpin (who had to be replaced, and then ultimately returned for a refund, after failing to work properly - a couple of years later, I got my Teddy, as mentioned above). The Mudblups became staple bad-guys of my childhood thanks to this story, and I really liked Teddy's solution to escaping from their clutches. Listening to it again now as an adult, I can better appreciate the story's moral about using your imagination, as I can easily see that it's covered both by Gimmick's idea for using the Airship's airbag as the "Pliable Habitat", and by Teddy's clever escape plan, as well. Clearly, though, it had an impact on me, as I do have quite the imagination! Accordingly, I really like the song "Warm Up Your Imagination", from this one, for the same reasons that I like "Don't Believe Everything You Hear" from Wooly and the Giant Snowzos.
I was always a bit disappointed that there was no Teddy II release of Teddy and the Mudblups, but then again, I recently discovered that All About Bears was released by Worlds of Wonder (not PlaySkool, interestingly enough) in French for this model, so perhaps there are more Teddy II book-and-tape sets out there that we don't yet know about!
Anyway, what are your favourites and why, people?
I was just wondering what your favourite Teddy Ruxpin stories or song-collections (from the toy-line, rather than from the animatronic movie or the TV series) are, and why - no matter whether they're the ones from the first three Teddy models, or the heavily-revised ones from the BackPack Toys version.
I know that a lot of people are probably going to say this one, but I think my favourite of them all has to be the original version of The Airship. Not only is its story nicely self-contained (as many of the tales for the first three Teddy models are) and good at firing the imagination, but it also had to do the job of simultaneously selling the concept, the characters, the universe, and the technology, and I think that it did a marvellous job of that. Listen carefully to how Teddy introduces himself, everyone else, and everything, and breaks into a song quite early on in the story - you can see how The Airship is meant to exhibit all of his, the series', and the technology's best qualities, all in one go. It just has this magical quality to it that really lives up to the story's subtitle of "Discover a Whole New World".
My other two particular favourites would have to be Wooly and the Giant Snowzos, and Teddy and the Mudblups.
Wooly and the Giant Snowzos was one of the book-and-tape sets that were given to me when I got my Teddy Ruxpin (who is a "Teddy II") for Christmas in 1991. I always loved how atmospheric it was - the sound effects and the way that everyone ends up sheltering in Wooly's house both work very well to create the feeling of being stuck out in the middle of a storm. I really loved the tale of Wooly's origins, too, and I'm pretty sure that that was the first time in any work of fiction that I encountered that method of telling an origin-story to a character who doesn't remember where they came from. I love the song "Don't Believe Everything You Hear", since it's so well-written. I also greatly appreciated Wooly and the Giant Snowzos for the fact that its accompanying book had all of the text for the story and the songs written in it, rather than the pictures-with-short-captions approach that all of the other book-and-tape sets that I'd encountered before then had taken.
Teddy and the Mudblups was my favourite story from the time when I briefly had an original-model Teddy Ruxpin (who had to be replaced, and then ultimately returned for a refund, after failing to work properly - a couple of years later, I got my Teddy, as mentioned above). The Mudblups became staple bad-guys of my childhood thanks to this story, and I really liked Teddy's solution to escaping from their clutches. Listening to it again now as an adult, I can better appreciate the story's moral about using your imagination, as I can easily see that it's covered both by Gimmick's idea for using the Airship's airbag as the "Pliable Habitat", and by Teddy's clever escape plan, as well. Clearly, though, it had an impact on me, as I do have quite the imagination! Accordingly, I really like the song "Warm Up Your Imagination", from this one, for the same reasons that I like "Don't Believe Everything You Hear" from Wooly and the Giant Snowzos.
I was always a bit disappointed that there was no Teddy II release of Teddy and the Mudblups, but then again, I recently discovered that All About Bears was released by Worlds of Wonder (not PlaySkool, interestingly enough) in French for this model, so perhaps there are more Teddy II book-and-tape sets out there that we don't yet know about!
Anyway, what are your favourites and why, people?
