Teddy meet Gabby :)

[tdickensheets]

Wow! I wonder what they saying?

[herdmentality]

I love the history of Gabby the fact that Gabby came out first with ripped off tech then got removed even his tales were hard luck stories, he was so happy to be living in that car and always having farmer grumbles after him trying to put him in the zoo poor Gabby.

[late2theparty]

I have a Gabby that I found at Goodwill packaged together with a Teddy. His mouth is somehow detached from the mechanism and I have not yet gotten into diagnosis and surgery, but will give it a try.

[DollyPrince]

I once had Gabby Bear in my collection.... He is very sweet!

Gabby Bear looks like a character from a Japanese animation.. The figures from this animation are made by Bandai! And so is French version of Gabby Bear!
I wonder if there is a Japanese Gabby Bear... I have not seen him. Only Teddy Ruxpin and Mother Goose...

I cannot wait until I have a Teddy Ruxpin again.. Then I will have him take pictures with Funny, my Italian talking bear!

[late2theparty]

Curiosity getting the best of me, I took Gabby Bear apart yesterday to see what makes him tick...or more correctly not tick. As he came as part of a consist I got at Goodwill with a Grubby and Playskool Teddy, I was initially unsure who or what he was except he was in bad shape with a broken mouth and loose part rattling in his head. Research determined his identity.
To get into Gabby's head, his fur can be opened from the back just like Teddy. The head is two plastic sections, front and back, held together with 4 screws, and attached to the body at the neck with the equivalent of one of those plastic slide-on ties used in electrical wiring. The animatronics mechanism is held in place within a plastic case held in place with two screws at the base of the head. The mechanism is primarily plastic and of a low quality. I can see why the few of these I have seen since discovering what he was all had broken mouths. The mouth is attached with the same low grade plastic which breaks very easily. Kids being kids who would sooner or later try to hold the mouth open, any moderate obstruction or pressure would easily snap in. But the upside from a repair standpoint is that this brittle low grade plastic can be very firmly glued back together with super glue and holds well. The mouth works off a rubber wheel in the same way as Teddy's, but the eyes operate by an offset moving a handle mechanism which is gear driven, while both the wheel working the mouth and gearing working the offset are driven by a can motor that sits on the outer edge of the plastic case and drives an internal rubber wheel by friction. There is no sign of a potentiometer in the head, which is of course necessary to the work the motor as a servo. That may be contained in the case in the body that holds the tape player and presumably the circuit board. I haven't gotten at that yet, as it seems pointless if the animatronics can't be fixed.
Its uncertain whether I can get this guy operating. Its pretty clear that while his head had never been opened before, its also clear that when his mouth was broken someone had shoved fingers (or more likely a screwdriver) into the head, probably thinking they could somehow fix him that way. The results were a lot of damage to the case and the breaking off of the plastic mount for the can motor. And some of those broken plastic pieces aren't there and certainly must have fallen out in Gabby's travels after his injury that brought him to Goodwill. So further surgery is going to require some thought and ingenuity. His "badge"...the on-off knob the would be on his chest...is also missing, as are his blue shorts.
Gabby has a certain goofy charm in appearance. And from what I've been able to research, the stories seem to have been rather good ones for kids. But in terms of construction he is a poor cousin to Teddy Ruxpin. He was born as a rip-off and certainly rushed to market using materials that were not very durable and without sufficient testing. Yet from what I have been able to find in researching him, initial sales were good. The odd thing I did discover was in an article from one of the Chicago papers in 1985 discussing both Teddy and Gabby. This piece indicated that Teddy was selling for $80, while Gabby was selling for $75. Gabby's books and tapes were about $5 cheaper as well. But in examining the mechanisms in these two, Teddy was well worth the additional $5.

[DollyPrince]

Interesting, thank you for the information.

I did not know Gabby Bear was so expensive..
I find that Teddy Ruxpin's motors freeze over time, more often than Gabby Bear. Neither mine nor any I have encountered Online have had such a problem...

There is an interesting fact about Gabby Bear, not many people know it...
After he was removed from stores, he was sold again briefly under a different name, My Talking Bear. The tag, on which "Select Merchandise" was written, was changed. I do not remember the new company name.. I saw it on YouTube a long time ago.
My Talking Bear looked the same as Gabby, but his tape was very different... It was an adult male voice reciting traditional fairy stories, with background music .. It had two sides. I remember a female voice saying something like "Turn this tape over for more adventures with your talking bear" at the end. I am not sure if any other tapes were made.

My Talking Bear's tape is very similar to the tape for my Italian cassette talking bear. There are also two sides, each with three stories. The background music is similar.

My Italian bear was also sold under many names. Teddie Talkins, Tell Tale Teddy, and Funny (in Italy).
There is also a another cassette talking bear, Jabbee. He was also sold as Mr. Bear.

It seems this was common...

[late2theparty]

I had seen information that after Gabby was pulled he reappeared under a different name. I was also surprised find him to be as costly as that article stated.

I continued the repair work on and off and got his tape player working although still dragging. There is a small pot in the circuit similar to those found in Teddy, which can be adjusted externally. Right not it doesn't have any effect on tape speed. But my experience with these players says that just running tapes through seems to have a healing effect. After these players have sat unused for a long time that isn't too surprising. I managed to create a substitute for the missing motor mount with epoxy putty and a hose clamp. Clunky for certain, but yet it works well. The expoxy putty surprisingly adheres to the plastic very firmly without any problem. And testing the broken mouth now in place and working fine. The eyes are another matter. The mechanism involved in a lever to the eyes that works up and down, and is turned by a second lever on a pivot. that second lever would seem to run back to an offset (I use that term but it isn't correct and I can't seem to remember the proper term for one of these parts that turns on an axle and would push that second lever as it spins. Unfortunately, the brittleness of the plastic (poor quality to begin with and age has certainly had its impact as well) had the pivot end of the lever to the eyes crack (that plastic it like glass.) And actual shape of the second lever is an unknown as it broke and is only about 1/4 there. So this problem remains for further thought and experimentation.
Of course whether the actual circuitry still works is an unknown as I have no tapes for this guy. So why I am going throught this process? I guess because it presents a challenge...as Edmund Hillary said - "Becaue its there." HA!

[BeachBear]

Heya,
It's interesting to hear of your endeavours, and great to hear that you've managed to wrangle the mouth back into working. I have never owned a Gabby, nor seen one in person, but his construction, as opposed to Teddy's is very interesting. If you could, I'm sure the board, as well as me, would love to see some photos, do you think you could share what his internal mechanics look like?

[late2theparty]

A couple of photos sent here as a test to make sure they do post...

[late2theparty]

...and they did not. I'll have to figure this out.

[late2theparty]

Windows 10 seems to be a case of the big print gives it to you, and the little print takes it away.  Nonetheless, after some minor frustration, here are some photos of Gabby Bear's inner workings.  A second post will include more.
The first photo shows the mechanism after its removed from Gabby's head.  There are only 2 wires into the head and these run the can motor, which is why I have to assume the board controls the servo action.  The mouth operates in the same way as Teddy's on a rubber wheel. If you were to open the case, you'd find another rubber wheel on the other end of the axle which the motor turns by friction, as well as gears that run the offset near the top, which operates levers that move the eyes.  You'll see ont of the levers running across the top to the eyes.  The second will be seen in picture 3.



Picture 2 shows the mount which I had to make to hold the motor to the case, as the original had been broken off and must have fallen or been pulled out of the head.  I firmed the motor into the mount with a common hose clamp.  not pretty, but it works.

Picture 3 shows the home-made upper lever which will hopefully make the eyes operate. This lever is moves by the offset that is run by nylon gears in the case.  It locks into the upper lever at the pivot and cases an up and down motion by the upper lever that will move the eyes.  Right now the upper lever is cracked at the pivot so I need to come up with a fix if the eyes are to work.
 

 

[late2theparty]

Just a little more on Gabby Bear's construction...REmoving Gabby's fur seems more difficult than opening Teddy as the fur is glued at the rear base of his head, and you can't easily find the start of the stitch.  The and the neck is part of the head sections and there is a plastic clamp around the nect t to hold them together.  The sections can be wiggled free without breaking that clamp.  Here's the two head sections you find are held together with screws when the fur is removed.


The tape player, circuit boards, and the battery box are in a single plastic case.  its a two section case held together with screws at the corners. The case simply slides into Gabby's body from his back...no screws or other fasteners hold it in.  It just fits snugly.  When out, there is a plastic protrusion from the case into the neck.  A plastic ring or hose slides onto the case at this point and Gabby's animatronicts case siled into the upper end at the neck to hold it in place in the head.

[DollyPrince]

Oh! Very interesting! Thank you for uploading the pictures!

It is tempting me to repair my Italian bear..

[kaylathehedgehog]

Very nifty indeed. Thanks for sharing these.

[late2theparty]

Finished Gabby Bear today, save for sewing up the seam at the back of his head.  While making a serviceable mounting for the motor and getting his mouth to operate was not too difficult, getting his eyes to operate was a different challenge. While that lever at top shown in one of the photos works the eyes, the rest of whatever the mechanism was had broken off and was lost.  A second lever back to the motor was obvious. But making and putting that in shut the eyes, they did not then reopen.  After some trial and error, I got them to operate by installing a compression spring between the top of the upper lever and the top of the case of the mechanism about midpoint on the lever....light gauged short spring and the eyes work pretty well now. This may not be at all the actual internal design for the mechanism that operated his eyes, but it works.  So don;t mess with success.

I would say that if you are going to try to repair or restore a Gabby Bear, have a tube of super glue and a stick of epoxy putty on hand, as well as a lot of patience  and determination.  If the plastic is as brittle as was the case with mine (and I have to think its a common issue) you may and probably will find yourself having to make some parts to bring him back among the living.