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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 16:21:31 GMT -7
one criticism that got levelled at the BackPack Toys version was that it was some sort of nostalgia cash-grab, with no attention paid to how heavily-revised the accompanying stories were. You're right, and it really shows now that I think about it, I've seen the ads for it on YouTube, you are so right, it was a cash grab really, and that saddens me. I'll come back to your other comments at some point once I've worked out what to say about them.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 16:39:39 GMT -7
I understand your point about the synopsis editor possibly being misinformed Josh, and here's something that may back things up to some extent, you know I'm hoping very much for a new Tedyd Ruxpin toy as much as others on the forum, but now I'm going to make a statement that sounds like I'm digging Teddy Ruxpin's grave so to speak. Have any of you noticed on the Amazon page for these new DVD's they've written Phil Baron's name as Phil Baroni? Blueoctpede mentioned this to me the other day because she saw the same thing on the Image Entertainment website, it has all the same info and details as Amazon does. Now I know this is a very small thing, just a simple typing error possibly, but it does make me wonder if the editors are being a little bit sloppy perhaps, just a thought. Who knows if we will see this same typo on the DVD's when they come out. I guess it won't be long until we do find out because I'm sure YouTube users like blueoctopede, teddysonicfan90, applesocks89 and others will make videos about unboxing the DVD's and their fist impressions of them and then we'll get a better picture of what's happening here. I just thought I'd put that out there and see what the rest of you think.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 16:51:12 GMT -7
Trust me, you're not the only one who wants to see Teddy Ruxpin back on the toy store shelves. One more thing, using the old material would depend on how much was saved after Playskool had their time on Teddy Ruxpin. The artwork on the books were changed for Yes!, to incorporate the new tunic Teddy had, and the Backpack books were changed even more, even the dialogue, from what I've heard from The Airship on Youtube, was changed slightly, and depending how the tapes were recorded, the originals might not even exist anymore, since it's been 20 years since the Playskool Teddy came out, and things degrade over time. But, who knows, maybe we'll get something close to the originals in the future. I suspect the original recordings would have been made using very high quality studio grade open reel tape in the 80's when WOW brought Teddy Ruxpin out, somewhere around the world there is probably a great big archiving storage unit full of boxes and boxes of open reel tapes of the story recordings for Teddy Ruxpin, obviously at least some of that original source material was still available when BPT came out with their Teddy Ruxpin. Yes some dialogue was changed, but the dialogue that was added came from The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin, the live action TV show, so clearly there was and hopefully still is the original source material for that. All the original source material was most likely recorded in analogue form unless AlchemyII used a digital form of reel to reel tape and I believe such digital R2R formats existed, but the cartoons would of course have been digitised for DVD release and clearly some of the original Teddy Ruxpin stories were digitised for the BPT Teddy Ruxpin.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2012 18:10:35 GMT -7
Yeah. That's true. I hadn't thought about that. Well, either way, whether they have digitized versions of the original stories, or if they make whole new adventures, if a new Teddy toy is made, it will hopefully be done right and for fans and people discovering Teddy Ruxpin for the first time.
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Post by retrobear on Apr 1, 2012 18:56:33 GMT -7
I agree that probably the best way to introduce Teddy to new fans is to release a new movie. Hopefully, the movie would be a big success and they would release a new toy. I liked the idea about doing a new series and then re-releasing the original versions of the tapes in a digital format, like MP3 or something.
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Post by TRO Admin on Apr 1, 2012 19:07:32 GMT -7
I can't delve into specifics about the new TV/film treatment but it definitely takes things in a new direction while keeping the world we know from the WoW/Backpack stories and original cartoon recognizable. The BackPack version wasn't a cash grab. It was a faithful effort on all parts that sadly came on at a bad time. I worked for BackPack for a time during the initial release and their energy was sincere. They did tie in some nostalgia in their marketing but that was only good business sense. The BackPack stories weren't remastered simply to 'change things up' either. There was very little time between the day the agreements were signed forming the creative partnership between WoW and AlchemyII and the day they wanted Teddy on the market - and the stories didn't have time to be completely finessed back in the mid 80's. The BackPack versions were how Ken would have liked the story to be laid out originally, including the more streamlined artwork. I was lucky enough to be in the office when Ken was working on one of the remasters and got to choose Princess Aruzia's eyecolor (as her eyes had just been black dots in the original artwork) I'm sorry if my posts sounded negative at all in regards to BackPack. I hope that wasn't the impression anyone got because it couldn't be farther from the truth. While I am not privy to the business end of it - that is solely the concern of AlchemyII - I was definitely a witness to some of the creative side of that release and I can't speak ill of anyone's actions in that regard. The timing just didn't prove to be right. :/
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2012 19:16:26 GMT -7
Not at all Josh. It sounds like you had a great experience at Backpack Toys. That must've been quite an honour to get to choose the colour of Princess Aruzia's eyes. So, basically, the Backpack Teddy was Mr. Forsse's chance to make the stories the way he'd wanted to do them originally. Much like a Director's Cut of a movie, or the 1997 Special Edition of the Star Wars Trilogy. As you said, it was done at the wrong time, and the toy suffered as a result. Which is understandable. It happens from time to time with any form of entertainment. Not every movie is going to be successful, not every album released is going to reach Platinum, and not every comic book series is going to reach 100 issues.
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Post by TRO Admin on Apr 1, 2012 19:26:27 GMT -7
Yes - Director's Cut would be a good way of how I perceived Mr. Forsse's vision on the BackPack releases, for sure. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with BackPack in viral marketing. I did a couple of interviews for major news outlets and it was a dream come true to be associated with Teddy in that capacity. Like Teddy said - "if a dream's a good one." .... we all know the rest
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Post by retrobear on Apr 1, 2012 19:30:19 GMT -7
Thanks for getting that song stuck in my head, Josh. You are so lucky to be working so closely with Teddy's creators.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2012 19:34:42 GMT -7
You're right, and it really shows now that I think about it, I've seen the ads for it on YouTube, you are so right, it was a cash grab really, and that saddens me. I'll come back to your other comments at some point once I've worked out what to say about them. I think you've misread my post. Please don't say that I'm right that it was a cash-grab, when I actually said that those who claimed it was a cash-grab are wrong. I never said that the BackPack version was a nostlgia cash-grab, and I don't think that it was. I was pointing out that some who reported or reviewed that version treated it like a nostalgia cash-grab, without even paying attention to how incredibly different everything was. They ignored it so much, that it was not until I came to this forum that I even got a vague inkling that anything had been changed, and it wasn't until I was able to get hold of one for myself that I was able to see that it was all completely different, for better or for worse. Or, to put it another way: I was saying that changing things as BackPack's release did whilst still keeping the original stories as part of it, didn't stop ignorant members of the press (and so on) from claiming that said release was a cash-grab that it wasn't. Thus, to my mind, one way to avoid this happening again (if there is ever another talker) would be to release a new toy with an entirely new selection of stories, instead of the old ones, because even people that daft couldn't possibly get it so wrong if that was the case, haha...
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 2, 2012 2:10:38 GMT -7
I can't delve into specifics about the new TV/film treatment but it definitely takes things in a new direction while keeping the world we know from the WoW/Backpack stories and original cartoon recognizable. The BackPack version wasn't a cash grab. It was a faithful effort on all parts that sadly came on at a bad time. I worked for BackPack for a time during the initial release and their energy was sincere. They did tie in some nostalgia in their marketing but that was only good business sense. The BackPack stories weren't remastered simply to 'change things up' either. There was very little time between the day the agreements were signed forming the creative partnership between WoW and AlchemyII and the day they wanted Teddy on the market - and the stories didn't have time to be completely finessed back in the mid 80's. The BackPack versions were how Ken would have liked the story to be laid out originally, including the more streamlined artwork. I was lucky enough to be in the office when Ken was working on one of the remasters and got to choose Princess Aruzia's eyecolor (as her eyes had just been black dots in the original artwork) I'm sorry if my posts sounded negative at all in regards to BackPack. I hope that wasn't the impression anyone got because it couldn't be farther from the truth. While I am not privy to the business end of it - that is solely the concern of AlchemyII - I was definitely a witness to some of the creative side of that release and I can't speak ill of anyone's actions in that regard. The timing just didn't prove to be right. :/ You mean you actually were working for BackPack Toys to some extent Josh? Wow, what an amazing thing to have happen to you, it is the same the BPT Teddy Ruxpin didn't do as well as it should have. I know there weren't too many stories released for that Teddy Ruxpin sadly, I'm guessing the Global Financial Crisis was in some part to blame for that, right? Or am I simply missing something that should be staring me in the face that I don't understand. I guess I've quite down on the BPT Teddy Ruxpin because of a few reasons, chiefly the extreme lack of software available for it given how many tapes came out for the original Teddy Ruxpin in the 80's, but also it would have been great if they'd come out with a Grubby companion for it, I know on the original Teddy Ruxpin there's the socket that Grubby plugs into, but I don't believe there's any underlying hardware to support a Grubby toy for the BPT Teddy Ruxpin. BPT certainly tried with their version of Teddy Ruxpin, maybe I'm far too critical of them for things that as far as I know may have been beyond their control, but I just think they could have perhaps done more with Teddy Ruxpin given the technology that's around now compared to 1985. I looked at the BackPack Toys website in early 2010, as I say I suspect this is when they closed up shop, and from memory the only products they listed on their site were Teddy Ruxpin and the software cartridges and stories for it, do you know if BackPack Toys produced any other toys or children's products not relating to Teddy Ruxpin or other similar toys? One thing I was disappointed about with the BackPack Toys Teddy Ruxpin is that they for whatever reason omitted the important stranger danger message and the 2 songs that you'd hear on the original Missing Princess cassette tape, you know the 2 songs, When You're In Charge and Let's Keep The World Safe (For The Children), instead, the Treasure Series of 3 cartridges ends with Come And Discover, very well, but I still think that safety message should have been kept in as it's still very important, it's just as important now as it was in the 80's if not it's even more important now. The YouTube user redilliop has told me that in the 80's Teddy Ruxpin was the "official spokes bear" for some child protection centre of some kind, I'm getting way out of my depth here, I have no idea when that 'contract' was dropped, do you?
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Post by TRO Admin on Apr 3, 2012 9:06:30 GMT -7
Yes - in 2005 I worked for a time for BackPack in a marketing capacity. I still had a full time job so the word 'consultant' is probably more correct - but I got a paycheck and was for the first time 'officially' associated with Teddy as this website remains independent. It was a dream come true and one I hope repeats in June when I see if the series synopses I wrote for the new DVD gets used and my name in the credits Yes - In my opinion BackPack did well considering the circumstances, especially at first. The effort to bring Teddy back was faithful. Ken felt the software releases they did produce were the best ones and the ones most deserving of publication. There were a few that probably wouldn't have been re-released. New stories were talked about too and if BackPack would've stayed around I believe that would have happened. As far as unreleased merchandise goes - BackPack had planned on releasing a plush Teddy, as WoW did in the 80's. It was produced in limited quantities and I would imagine will some day pop up on Ebay or something when someone opens a shipping carton. Other than that what was released was what was planned. Teddy was the Spokesbear for the National Centers for Missing & Exploited Children in the 80's and did several public service announcements, which usually aired right after the initial run of the TV series. It was a great partnership and one I hope they bring back someday. That is also my charity of choice.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2012 16:18:29 GMT -7
There were a few that probably wouldn't have been re-released. Can you tell us which ones wouldn't have been re-released, please? I'm really curious about that! I found an old press-release that appears to be related to this here. It mentions that the plush toys were meant to be released in 2009, and that 300 songs were apparently available on iTunes at the time of the press-release. I'm guessing that the iTunes thing actually fell through - do you know why? It's worth noting that the PSAs (as well as the "next time"/"last time" stuff) weren't part of the broadcast package here in the UK, at the very least. This didn't just apply to The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, but to all cartoon series imported from the US - we didn't and don't have any regulations here requiring such content to be added to kids' shows, and at the time had some effective PSAs that were made here and contained more localised info, which is probably why nobody bought up the rights to also broadcast the Teddy Ruxpin PSAs here as part of the show. (I think that this was sensible, since advice between different countries often differs.) This also applied to the home-video releases, too. The first exposure for many Brits to these PSAs was either re-runs of old shows (mostly 90s ones, so not The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin) on satellite TV stations run on low budgets who buy up the huge worldwide syndication packages of a given studio's works (invariably, DiC's) from a particular period because that's the most cost-effective means of filling up their schedules, as well as via the internet as connection speeds climbed, and also via importing DVD sets that often get made on shoestring budgets (and made admirably well, I must add!) from what's usually transfers from broadcast masters instead of the original masters or the original film-stock (my understanding is that for many shows, there isn't much difference between a broadcast master and the original master - the broadcast masters usually have blank space in them for inserting ad-breaks, but that's often the only difference). Just a potentially-interesting point of note.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 3, 2012 18:27:03 GMT -7
I've been communicating with the YouTube user redilliop via Facebook over the past few days, he's been doing some research and has apparently concluded that the total running time of the new DVD's is longer than the earlier 6 set of DVD's but as we all know there were 65 episodes covered on the 6 pack and the same is true for the 10 pack as I understand it, so redilliop has suggested that maybe the 'protect yourself' clips etc are coming back, but of course this is all speculation at this point. I may have misread what he said, so if any of you are also on Facebook see if you can find and like BlueOctopede's page and you should be able to find the comments I'm speaking of.
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Post by TRO Admin on Apr 3, 2012 19:26:02 GMT -7
@cyborg...
I don't and never knew exactly what titles were in the pipeline. I know of a few of the originals that were planned for release but never got there, but I can't really speak to what might not have been included. I just vaguely remember general chatter that not all the WoW stories would make the cut. Of course there wasn't enough time and resources for that to be explored anyway.
The Press Release is from Stuart Goldman, which is an agent of sorts for the TV/Movie side of the license. They simply wanted to make a catchy press release there and at no time were any songs on Itunes. I do know that there has been talk between the creative forces about putting some music on Itunes. I hope we see that soon.
I would be EXTREMELY surprised if the Protect Yourself PSA's make it onto the DVD. I don't believe the Screen Actors Guild would allow any of those actors to appear without compensation, and I doubt they will fork out money to have them on there. A PSA is usually done cheaply with a simple agreement that it airs for a certain amount of time in exchange for the actor (usually) taking what amounts to an actor's minimum wage.
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