Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2013 21:26:43 GMT -7
Ever since I joined here, back in October of 2011, I'm sure some of you might have noticed that I've made and posted several finds and lists relating to the "Teddy II" model of Teddy Ruxpin.
Well, after a post by pika62221 a few days ago provided the final piece of the puzzle that I was missing, I was finally able to complete the work that I have spent years compiling.
I would like to present to you all, The Complete History of Teddy II, a timeline compiled from various news reports and catalogues, as well as supplemented by my own experience with toy-making, and some knowledge of mass-production that I have gained over the last several years.
It was an absolute pleasure to compile the story of the one Teddy Ruxpin model who, in spite of being the longest-lived and most widespread of all of them, has a history that has been fairly poorly-recorded.
I warmly welcome polite constructive feedback, and pointers with which the timeline can be improved.
Now, without further ado, here is The Complete History of Teddy II...
----------
1987 - Unknown date, post-July: Worlds of Wonder's financial problems began to become evident in the middle of 1987, with reports existing from as early as July that year talking about losses due to late products. It is possible that Teddy II entered the prototype stage at this point, as this model was designed to cut production costs.
--
1987 - October 28th: After a $43 million loss in its second fiscal quarter, Worlds of Wonder lays off 60 employees, including the Engineering Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. It is likely that the events from this point until at least January of 1988 delayed work on any products being made or revised at this time.
--
1987 - November 10th: Worlds of Wonder puts itself up for sale, and also cuts the wholesale prices of its products. It was noted at the time that this was to combat the losses from their second quarter results, which came in spite of Teddy Ruxpin's continuing popularity. It was reported that a distributor was offering the original Teddy Ruxpin model to stores at $30 a piece, at this time.
--
1987 - December 4th: Half of Worlds of Wonder's workforce is laid off, and the company begins to work on reorganisation and debt-repayment plans.
--
1987 - December 21st: Worlds of Wonder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. WoW's attorneys stated at this time that a new product line-up was definitely planned for the following year.
--
1988 - February 29th: Worlds of Wonder begins to rebalance its product line-up by offering lower-cost items, instead of relying solely on high-end items. At this point, a $30 light-up Teddy Ruxpin plush, in the vein of PlaySkool's Gloworms toys, is introduced. It is likely that this product was intended to keep Teddy Ruxpin on shelves and in the public consciousness while work on Teddy II was completed.
Squeezeable light-up Teddy Ruxpin (Photo credit: RecycledToys.com)
--
1988 - March 8th: Worlds of Wonder reported a large financial loss during the final three months of 1987. As well as high advertising costs, the action of price-cutting on existing inventory was said to have contributed to the loss. Considering that wholesale prices on Teddy Ruxpin had reportedly been cut to $30 during the affected period, it is probable that this would have shown further need for Teddy II, which was produced at a lower cost than the original model, to be released.
--
1988 - June 9th: It was announced that the majority of those owed money by Worlds of Wonder had agreed in principle to WoW's plans for running the business through until March of 1989. There is no doubt that cutting the production costs of their most popular products factored into this plan.
--
1988 - June 14th: Worlds of Wonder's new operating plan was approved by the US Bankruptcy Court. The reported linked here mentions the products that had been sold by Worlds of Wonder as of March 1988, and makes a note of the fact that WoW expected to continue to introduce new products. The lack of mention of Teddy II at this point would appear to suggest that he had not yet hit toy shop shelves.
--
1988 - Unknown date, any time after July, and likely to be closer to August or September in order to make it in time for the Christmas toy-buying market: Teddy II is introduced. As had been done with the original model, Worlds of Wonder marked the back-plastics of Teddy II with a year... This should have been the year that this version's design was finalised and put into production, but instead, perhaps due to the rush to get Teddy II on the market and return the company to profitability, they simply put 1985 - the year that the original model's design had been finalised and produced.
Worlds of Wonder Teddy II back-markings, photographed from my own Teddy II, who was one of the last produced by Worlds of Wonder
Teddy II was smaller, lighter, and cheaper to produce than the original model was, for several reasons.
Chief among these, the animation system was changed from Pulse Width Modulation and the use of three (or later, two) facial motors, to Frequency Modulation and the use of just one motor. This motor, unlike the motors of the original model, was not in direct contact with the facial features - instead, it ran a pulley system that moved them in response to different frequencies on the left audio channel of the tapes. This meant that Teddy II's eyes and mouth were far less likely to be damaged by being tweaked by wandering fingers whilst in motion, and, in turn, less of a likelihood of costs to repair broken toys being incurred by Worlds of Wonder.
Being run by a single motor meant that Teddy II needed only four AA batteries to run, and they lasted a substantial amount of time before they ran out. This was a boon for consumers, since AAs were cheaper than the C cells used by the original model. The use of AA batteries also meant that the toy did not weigh substantially more when batteries were installed, making it easier for its intended audience to carry, too.
In a curious move, and one that runs contrary to the cost-cutting of the rest of Teddy II, a proprietary continuous-loop cartridge tape format was designed for the revision. Whilst it used standard stereo audio tape inside, the form factor resembled a miniaturised 8-Track tape. There was only one programme contained on each tape, as had been the case with the original model of Teddy Ruxpin, but Teddy II's tapes marked the start and end of the content with a small metal strip, which told the toy to stop playing the tape when it ended.
It is possible that the custom tape-cartridge format may have been worked on before Worlds of Wonder's financial problems worsened, as designing and tooling a proprietary format such as this, even when it is derived from an existing standard, is not a cheap thing to do. This possibility is further suggested by the fact that the same tape format was also implemented in Worlds of Wonder's Mother Goose II design, which, like Teddy II, was picked up by PlaySkool after WoW's demise. That said, the cost of the custom format may have been offset somewhat by the fact that Teddy II's playback system involves only one button (which acts as a play/pause button) and no volume-control, however, and thus would have been cheaper to produce.
An unfortunate downside to the cost-cutting in the tapes and electronics department was that cross-talk between the audio and data channels on the tapes can be faintly heard during normal usage of Teddy II. It takes the form of a constant "Woo-OO-oo-OO" noise, that then raises and lowers in pitch when Teddy II is animating, according to what he is doing at that time.
In order to reduce printing costs, as well as the storage space and amount of packaging required, Teddy II's books were now paperbacks. The colours of the covers were changed from those available for the original model, as was the Teddy Ruxpin face on the logo, in order to aid consumer identification of the revised media that would not be compatible with the previous version of Teddy. The content on the pages inside the books remained identical to that of the hardback versions, even down to errors and omissions. They were available in all countries where Teddy II was sold in single-packs, and in North America they were also sold in double-packs, usually containing a story-tape and a songs-tape. Likely due to the fact that Worlds of Wonder were now operating under bankruptcy protection and were likely aware that they may not be around to support this model for an extended period of time, all stories that were part of the overarching Teddy Ruxpin storyline, with the exception of The Airship due to its status as a "killer app" for demonstrating the talking toy technology, were unfortunately dropped, and only the song packs and the stories that acted as standalone fables were converted to the new format.
The complete list of tapes for Teddy II was listed on the back of the book for The Airship, and is as follows;
The Mushroom Forest
Lost in Boggley Woods
The Do-Along Songbook
Gizmos and Gadgets
Grundo Beach Party
"Quiet Please"
Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies
Safe at Home With Teddy Ruxpin
Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies II
Wooly and the Giant Snowzos
Fire Safety With Teddy Ruxpin
Water Safety With Teddy Ruxpin
In addition to these known titles, a WoW-published Teddy II version of All About Bears has been sighted on eBay in both French and Italian (the Italian version can be viewed and heard in this video by astromariopion). It is not known whether the selection of non-English releases of Teddy II tapes by Worlds of Wonder was different beyond this, however.
Due to now having only one motor and less-complex electronics overall, Teddy's cosmetic design - most notably in his face and his size - was also changed. He was now considerably smaller than the original model in height and mass. Teddy's face now more closely matched that shown in the toy's accompanying book-and-tape sets, as well as spin-off media such as the animated television series, and his body and limbs were no longer anywhere near as chunky as those of the original model. Parts of his arms were under-stuffed, and parts of his legs were not stuffed at all, giving them a more floppy appearance, and allowing him to sit on a flat surface a bit more easily than the previous model. His tunic was also revised to be a part of the body construction, instead of removeable. Worlds of Wonder continued to use the same fabrics as used for the original model, with no changes to the colours or consistency at all, but Teddy II's cosmetic changes meant that far less fabric, internal foam, and polyester stuffing were used, thus further reducing production costs.
It's worth noting that the prototype version of Teddy II as seen in the picture below (a photograph of one side of WoW's box for Teddy II) has fully-stuffed limbs, but it is likely that this would have been done just to make for a cuddlier-looking image for promotional usage;
No further add-on purchases were ever produced for Teddy II outside of the book-and-tape sets, so this model did not get the outfits and tie-in items such as action figures that accompanied the original version of the toy. However, Worlds of Wonder did keep the Teddy Ruxpin Electronic Telephone on the market alongside Teddy II.
Worlds of Wonder continued to sell this version of Teddy Ruxpin until the company finally met its end, and the one-servo animation system and smaller form-factor became the standard for all Teddy Ruxpin models thereafter.
--
1989 - Unknown date, early in the year: A group of investors headed by a man called Eli Jacobs signed an agreement to acquire Worlds of Wonder's assets, and continue its operations.
--
1989 - March 9th: The investor group that took on Worlds of Wonder's assets named Joshua W. Denham, formerly of Mattel Electronics, as the president and chief executive who was to continue WoW's business operations. He was to replace Stephen J. Hopkins, of management-consulting company, Nightingale & Associates Inc., who specialised in turning around ailing companies, who had been filling these roles until Worlds of Wonder's reorganisation plan was confirmed.
--
1991 - Unknown date, but likely to be around February or March, to coincide with the typical toy-exhibition dates of the era: Worlds of Wonder issues their 1991 catalogue. Consistent with the continuing plans to run the business, they used it to introduce "The World of Teddy Ruxpin: Forest Babies", which had been salvaged from the time prior to WoW's financial troubles, and which are confirmed here by Josh Isaacson as having originally been intended to be launched alongside Teddy's ladyfriend, Amber, during the era of the original model of Teddy Ruxpin.
The known pages of this catalogue can be viewed below;
Cover
The World of Teddy Ruxpin and The World of Teddy Ruxpin: Forest Babies double-page spread
Teddy Ruxpin Electronic Telephone and Teddy II story/song twin-packs double-page spread (Note that the Teddy Ruxpin Electronic Telephone page shows an older publicity-shot of the toy telephone, which depicts it alongside an original model Teddy Ruxpin)
Mother Goose II double-page spread
--
1991 - Unknown date, after the publication of their 1991 catalogue: Worlds of Wonder finally closes down.
--
1991 - September 6th: Hasbro announced that they had signed a licensing deal with Alchemy II for Teddy Ruxpin. This deal also gained them the inventory of Teddy IIs that Worlds of Wonder had in stock when they went under, along with parts to produce more. This put Teddy Ruxpin under the banner of Hasbro's PlaySkool brand. The wording of the article suggests that Worlds of Wonder may still have been operating shortly before the time this deal was struck.
--
1991 - September through to the Christmas season: PlaySkool sells the last of Worlds of Wonder Teddy II toy and book-and-tape stocks in the blue packaging that would later be used for their own revision of Teddy II.
--
1992 - February 10th: Toy Fair 1992 begins, and PlaySkool issues their 1992 catalogue, in which the Teddy Ruxpin range makes its official debut under their branding. Teddy Ruxpin is labelled in this catalogue as being "NEW" to PlaySkool.
PlaySkool's The World of Teddy Ruxpin double-page spread
The catalogue image above shows the first known prototype of PlaySkool's revised version of Teddy II (though, notably, a WoW Teddy II is shown on the left-hand page, holding the toy telephone). This version resembles the artwork used on PlaySkool's Teddy Ruxpin boxes, and has stitch-separated fingers and toes, no thumbs, and brown pawpads on both his hands and feet. It is unlikely that Alchemy II would have approved this version for production, due to how it deviates from the look that Teddy Ruxpin is supposed to have, and this is self-evident in the fact that this version never made it to retail. It does demonstrate some fabric changes which would carry through to PlaySkool's production model, however.
--
1992 - Unknown date, but given the amount of time typically taken up by prototyping items and the subsequent bureaucracy of getting them approved by multiple parties and departments, probably at least two to three months after the publication of PlaySkool's 1992 catalogue: The final version of PlaySkool's Teddy II was finalised and sent to production.
--
1992 - Unknown date, but likely to have been any time from June to September, in order to get to market and be there in plenty of time for Christmas: PlaySkool releases its version of Teddy II to retail. Functionally it is identical to the version released by Worlds of Wonder in 1988, and it is compatible with all of the cartridge-tapes released by WoW as well as PlaySkool's re-releases of these, but cosmetically it is substantially different, due to having different fabrics and back-plastics. Just as Worlds of Wonder were supposed to do with their version of Teddy II, PlaySkool marked the correct year that they finalised the design and began the production of their version of the toy. They also changed the battery hatch - where WoW's version simply closed with a clip, PlaySkool's used a small screw. This was likely done to make it safer for some children, but would probably have made things a little trickier for responsible kids who were otherwise able to change the batteries by themselves.
The back-plastics of PlaySkool's version of Teddy II
The colour of plastic used for the back of PlaySkool's Teddy II revision was a different shade of red than that used by Worlds of Wonder. This was done to match the changes in fabrics that PlaySkool had opted for.
PlaySkool's Teddy II sported a very slightly lighter shade of brown for his fur, a noticeably lighter shade of brown for the fluffy hair at the top of his head, a very slightly brighter tone for the tan colour of his tunic, and a much brighter shade of red for his undersuit, than the Worlds of Wonder version had had. Additionally, the legs of his undersuit now ran all the way down to his ankles, instead of halfway down his legs as had been the case with WoW's implementation. The PlaySkool Teddy II also featured much larger, rounder hands and feet, and slightly beefier arms (which, in contrast to the Worlds of Wonder Teddy II, were always fully-stuffed) and substantially wider legs, making it just as well that Worlds of Wonder had never introduced additional outfits for Teddy II, as PlaySkool's changes would have rendered them very difficult for him to wear!
A comparison shot of the two revisions of Teddy II - WoW's version is on the left, and PlaySkool's is on the right
The tapes for PlaySkool's version of Teddy II remained the same as those of the Worlds of Wonder version, and at first had a similar tan colour for the plastics, as well as labels that were very similar to those of the WoW tape-cartridges. Later on, however, the colour of the plastic was changed to one that resembled the colour of mayonnaise, and the glossy sticker labelling was abandoned in favour of screen-printed text in the colours relevant to the individual book-and-tape sets.
Whilst they retained the paperback format and cover-colours of Worlds of Wonder's Teddy II books, PlaySkool gave the content of some of the books a much-needed overhaul from the original WoW versions, which all dated back to the time of the first model of Teddy Ruxpin. This entailed publishing the full text and song lyrics in the books that lacked them, to make them match the later titles where Worlds of Wonder had started doing the same thing themselves.
Unfortunately, PlaySkool did not publish any new book-and-tape sets for their version of Teddy II, and they did not convert the sets from the series' overarching storyline to the Teddy II format, either.
The version of PlaySkool's Teddy II introduced to France (and possibly to other continental-European countries, but at the time of writing this has not yet been verified one way or the other) featured a different outfit altogether. There is almost no chance that this was continued from work done by Worlds of Wonder, due to the fact that a revised outfit for a specific region would have increased WoW's production costs during a time when it was acting to cut them. This fairy-tale-inspired outfit was shown online in this video by blueoctopede, a still from which can be viewed below.
The French edition of PlaySkool's version of Teddy II
Other than the change from a tan tunic to a teal one with yellow buttons on a red strip under a fancy yellow collar, and what appears to be an oval PlaySkool logo badge on the side of the right-hand sleeve of his undersuit, everything else remains the same as described above. This marked the only time other than the later Yes! Entertainment model, which was introduced in 1998, where Teddy Ruxpin's main outfit was changed.
--
1994 - April 29th: Hasbro filed a trademark for something called "Tell Me Again Teddy Ruxpin", which was stated to be in the Goods and Services category, offering the following;
009. Prerecorded audio and video cassettes, compact discs, video discs, digital audio tapes, cd roms, and computer programs featuring children's stories and music, audio cassettes sold as a unit
016. Children's books and children's books
As is typical of trademark filings, these would have been catch-all sets of terminology, so it is not really known what this product-line would have been. It is possible that it was a new line of tapes for Teddy II, however.
--
1995 - April 6th: Hasbro abandoned the trademark for Tell Me Again Teddy Ruxpin. It is possible that it was abadoned because, at this point, it may have been known that the licensing deal with Alchemy II would not be renewed, as this occurred before PlaySkool's version of Teddy II finally left the market.
--
1996 - Unknown date: PlaySkool's version of Teddy II finally left store shelves. The non-renewal of the licensing agreement with Alchemy II finally concluded the Teddy II story, after the better part of a decade on the market, in 1996.
With a run across four different years with Worlds of Wonder, and across five more with PlaySkool, and thanks to its lower price at retail and greater reliability than its predecessor, the Teddy II model, in both its revisions, went on to become the most common and widespread Teddy Ruxpin model in some parts of the world, if not overall. Astonishingly, it was on the market for around triple the amount of time of the ground-breaking and highly-popular original model, eight times longer than the Yes! Entertainment version, and almost twice that of the BackPack Toys model, making Teddy II the longest-lived Teddy Ruxpin model to date.
----------
Well, after a post by pika62221 a few days ago provided the final piece of the puzzle that I was missing, I was finally able to complete the work that I have spent years compiling.
I would like to present to you all, The Complete History of Teddy II, a timeline compiled from various news reports and catalogues, as well as supplemented by my own experience with toy-making, and some knowledge of mass-production that I have gained over the last several years.
It was an absolute pleasure to compile the story of the one Teddy Ruxpin model who, in spite of being the longest-lived and most widespread of all of them, has a history that has been fairly poorly-recorded.
I warmly welcome polite constructive feedback, and pointers with which the timeline can be improved.
Now, without further ado, here is The Complete History of Teddy II...
----------
1987 - Unknown date, post-July: Worlds of Wonder's financial problems began to become evident in the middle of 1987, with reports existing from as early as July that year talking about losses due to late products. It is possible that Teddy II entered the prototype stage at this point, as this model was designed to cut production costs.
--
1987 - October 28th: After a $43 million loss in its second fiscal quarter, Worlds of Wonder lays off 60 employees, including the Engineering Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. It is likely that the events from this point until at least January of 1988 delayed work on any products being made or revised at this time.
--
1987 - November 10th: Worlds of Wonder puts itself up for sale, and also cuts the wholesale prices of its products. It was noted at the time that this was to combat the losses from their second quarter results, which came in spite of Teddy Ruxpin's continuing popularity. It was reported that a distributor was offering the original Teddy Ruxpin model to stores at $30 a piece, at this time.
--
1987 - December 4th: Half of Worlds of Wonder's workforce is laid off, and the company begins to work on reorganisation and debt-repayment plans.
--
1987 - December 21st: Worlds of Wonder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. WoW's attorneys stated at this time that a new product line-up was definitely planned for the following year.
--
1988 - February 29th: Worlds of Wonder begins to rebalance its product line-up by offering lower-cost items, instead of relying solely on high-end items. At this point, a $30 light-up Teddy Ruxpin plush, in the vein of PlaySkool's Gloworms toys, is introduced. It is likely that this product was intended to keep Teddy Ruxpin on shelves and in the public consciousness while work on Teddy II was completed.
Squeezeable light-up Teddy Ruxpin (Photo credit: RecycledToys.com)
--
1988 - March 8th: Worlds of Wonder reported a large financial loss during the final three months of 1987. As well as high advertising costs, the action of price-cutting on existing inventory was said to have contributed to the loss. Considering that wholesale prices on Teddy Ruxpin had reportedly been cut to $30 during the affected period, it is probable that this would have shown further need for Teddy II, which was produced at a lower cost than the original model, to be released.
--
1988 - June 9th: It was announced that the majority of those owed money by Worlds of Wonder had agreed in principle to WoW's plans for running the business through until March of 1989. There is no doubt that cutting the production costs of their most popular products factored into this plan.
--
1988 - June 14th: Worlds of Wonder's new operating plan was approved by the US Bankruptcy Court. The reported linked here mentions the products that had been sold by Worlds of Wonder as of March 1988, and makes a note of the fact that WoW expected to continue to introduce new products. The lack of mention of Teddy II at this point would appear to suggest that he had not yet hit toy shop shelves.
--
1988 - Unknown date, any time after July, and likely to be closer to August or September in order to make it in time for the Christmas toy-buying market: Teddy II is introduced. As had been done with the original model, Worlds of Wonder marked the back-plastics of Teddy II with a year... This should have been the year that this version's design was finalised and put into production, but instead, perhaps due to the rush to get Teddy II on the market and return the company to profitability, they simply put 1985 - the year that the original model's design had been finalised and produced.
Worlds of Wonder Teddy II back-markings, photographed from my own Teddy II, who was one of the last produced by Worlds of Wonder
Teddy II was smaller, lighter, and cheaper to produce than the original model was, for several reasons.
Chief among these, the animation system was changed from Pulse Width Modulation and the use of three (or later, two) facial motors, to Frequency Modulation and the use of just one motor. This motor, unlike the motors of the original model, was not in direct contact with the facial features - instead, it ran a pulley system that moved them in response to different frequencies on the left audio channel of the tapes. This meant that Teddy II's eyes and mouth were far less likely to be damaged by being tweaked by wandering fingers whilst in motion, and, in turn, less of a likelihood of costs to repair broken toys being incurred by Worlds of Wonder.
Being run by a single motor meant that Teddy II needed only four AA batteries to run, and they lasted a substantial amount of time before they ran out. This was a boon for consumers, since AAs were cheaper than the C cells used by the original model. The use of AA batteries also meant that the toy did not weigh substantially more when batteries were installed, making it easier for its intended audience to carry, too.
In a curious move, and one that runs contrary to the cost-cutting of the rest of Teddy II, a proprietary continuous-loop cartridge tape format was designed for the revision. Whilst it used standard stereo audio tape inside, the form factor resembled a miniaturised 8-Track tape. There was only one programme contained on each tape, as had been the case with the original model of Teddy Ruxpin, but Teddy II's tapes marked the start and end of the content with a small metal strip, which told the toy to stop playing the tape when it ended.
It is possible that the custom tape-cartridge format may have been worked on before Worlds of Wonder's financial problems worsened, as designing and tooling a proprietary format such as this, even when it is derived from an existing standard, is not a cheap thing to do. This possibility is further suggested by the fact that the same tape format was also implemented in Worlds of Wonder's Mother Goose II design, which, like Teddy II, was picked up by PlaySkool after WoW's demise. That said, the cost of the custom format may have been offset somewhat by the fact that Teddy II's playback system involves only one button (which acts as a play/pause button) and no volume-control, however, and thus would have been cheaper to produce.
An unfortunate downside to the cost-cutting in the tapes and electronics department was that cross-talk between the audio and data channels on the tapes can be faintly heard during normal usage of Teddy II. It takes the form of a constant "Woo-OO-oo-OO" noise, that then raises and lowers in pitch when Teddy II is animating, according to what he is doing at that time.
In order to reduce printing costs, as well as the storage space and amount of packaging required, Teddy II's books were now paperbacks. The colours of the covers were changed from those available for the original model, as was the Teddy Ruxpin face on the logo, in order to aid consumer identification of the revised media that would not be compatible with the previous version of Teddy. The content on the pages inside the books remained identical to that of the hardback versions, even down to errors and omissions. They were available in all countries where Teddy II was sold in single-packs, and in North America they were also sold in double-packs, usually containing a story-tape and a songs-tape. Likely due to the fact that Worlds of Wonder were now operating under bankruptcy protection and were likely aware that they may not be around to support this model for an extended period of time, all stories that were part of the overarching Teddy Ruxpin storyline, with the exception of The Airship due to its status as a "killer app" for demonstrating the talking toy technology, were unfortunately dropped, and only the song packs and the stories that acted as standalone fables were converted to the new format.
The complete list of tapes for Teddy II was listed on the back of the book for The Airship, and is as follows;
The Mushroom Forest
Lost in Boggley Woods
The Do-Along Songbook
Gizmos and Gadgets
Grundo Beach Party
"Quiet Please"
Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies
Safe at Home With Teddy Ruxpin
Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies II
Wooly and the Giant Snowzos
Fire Safety With Teddy Ruxpin
Water Safety With Teddy Ruxpin
In addition to these known titles, a WoW-published Teddy II version of All About Bears has been sighted on eBay in both French and Italian (the Italian version can be viewed and heard in this video by astromariopion). It is not known whether the selection of non-English releases of Teddy II tapes by Worlds of Wonder was different beyond this, however.
Due to now having only one motor and less-complex electronics overall, Teddy's cosmetic design - most notably in his face and his size - was also changed. He was now considerably smaller than the original model in height and mass. Teddy's face now more closely matched that shown in the toy's accompanying book-and-tape sets, as well as spin-off media such as the animated television series, and his body and limbs were no longer anywhere near as chunky as those of the original model. Parts of his arms were under-stuffed, and parts of his legs were not stuffed at all, giving them a more floppy appearance, and allowing him to sit on a flat surface a bit more easily than the previous model. His tunic was also revised to be a part of the body construction, instead of removeable. Worlds of Wonder continued to use the same fabrics as used for the original model, with no changes to the colours or consistency at all, but Teddy II's cosmetic changes meant that far less fabric, internal foam, and polyester stuffing were used, thus further reducing production costs.
It's worth noting that the prototype version of Teddy II as seen in the picture below (a photograph of one side of WoW's box for Teddy II) has fully-stuffed limbs, but it is likely that this would have been done just to make for a cuddlier-looking image for promotional usage;
No further add-on purchases were ever produced for Teddy II outside of the book-and-tape sets, so this model did not get the outfits and tie-in items such as action figures that accompanied the original version of the toy. However, Worlds of Wonder did keep the Teddy Ruxpin Electronic Telephone on the market alongside Teddy II.
Worlds of Wonder continued to sell this version of Teddy Ruxpin until the company finally met its end, and the one-servo animation system and smaller form-factor became the standard for all Teddy Ruxpin models thereafter.
--
1989 - Unknown date, early in the year: A group of investors headed by a man called Eli Jacobs signed an agreement to acquire Worlds of Wonder's assets, and continue its operations.
--
1989 - March 9th: The investor group that took on Worlds of Wonder's assets named Joshua W. Denham, formerly of Mattel Electronics, as the president and chief executive who was to continue WoW's business operations. He was to replace Stephen J. Hopkins, of management-consulting company, Nightingale & Associates Inc., who specialised in turning around ailing companies, who had been filling these roles until Worlds of Wonder's reorganisation plan was confirmed.
--
1991 - Unknown date, but likely to be around February or March, to coincide with the typical toy-exhibition dates of the era: Worlds of Wonder issues their 1991 catalogue. Consistent with the continuing plans to run the business, they used it to introduce "The World of Teddy Ruxpin: Forest Babies", which had been salvaged from the time prior to WoW's financial troubles, and which are confirmed here by Josh Isaacson as having originally been intended to be launched alongside Teddy's ladyfriend, Amber, during the era of the original model of Teddy Ruxpin.
The known pages of this catalogue can be viewed below;
Cover
The World of Teddy Ruxpin and The World of Teddy Ruxpin: Forest Babies double-page spread
Teddy Ruxpin Electronic Telephone and Teddy II story/song twin-packs double-page spread (Note that the Teddy Ruxpin Electronic Telephone page shows an older publicity-shot of the toy telephone, which depicts it alongside an original model Teddy Ruxpin)
Mother Goose II double-page spread
--
1991 - Unknown date, after the publication of their 1991 catalogue: Worlds of Wonder finally closes down.
--
1991 - September 6th: Hasbro announced that they had signed a licensing deal with Alchemy II for Teddy Ruxpin. This deal also gained them the inventory of Teddy IIs that Worlds of Wonder had in stock when they went under, along with parts to produce more. This put Teddy Ruxpin under the banner of Hasbro's PlaySkool brand. The wording of the article suggests that Worlds of Wonder may still have been operating shortly before the time this deal was struck.
--
1991 - September through to the Christmas season: PlaySkool sells the last of Worlds of Wonder Teddy II toy and book-and-tape stocks in the blue packaging that would later be used for their own revision of Teddy II.
--
1992 - February 10th: Toy Fair 1992 begins, and PlaySkool issues their 1992 catalogue, in which the Teddy Ruxpin range makes its official debut under their branding. Teddy Ruxpin is labelled in this catalogue as being "NEW" to PlaySkool.
PlaySkool's The World of Teddy Ruxpin double-page spread
The catalogue image above shows the first known prototype of PlaySkool's revised version of Teddy II (though, notably, a WoW Teddy II is shown on the left-hand page, holding the toy telephone). This version resembles the artwork used on PlaySkool's Teddy Ruxpin boxes, and has stitch-separated fingers and toes, no thumbs, and brown pawpads on both his hands and feet. It is unlikely that Alchemy II would have approved this version for production, due to how it deviates from the look that Teddy Ruxpin is supposed to have, and this is self-evident in the fact that this version never made it to retail. It does demonstrate some fabric changes which would carry through to PlaySkool's production model, however.
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1992 - Unknown date, but given the amount of time typically taken up by prototyping items and the subsequent bureaucracy of getting them approved by multiple parties and departments, probably at least two to three months after the publication of PlaySkool's 1992 catalogue: The final version of PlaySkool's Teddy II was finalised and sent to production.
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1992 - Unknown date, but likely to have been any time from June to September, in order to get to market and be there in plenty of time for Christmas: PlaySkool releases its version of Teddy II to retail. Functionally it is identical to the version released by Worlds of Wonder in 1988, and it is compatible with all of the cartridge-tapes released by WoW as well as PlaySkool's re-releases of these, but cosmetically it is substantially different, due to having different fabrics and back-plastics. Just as Worlds of Wonder were supposed to do with their version of Teddy II, PlaySkool marked the correct year that they finalised the design and began the production of their version of the toy. They also changed the battery hatch - where WoW's version simply closed with a clip, PlaySkool's used a small screw. This was likely done to make it safer for some children, but would probably have made things a little trickier for responsible kids who were otherwise able to change the batteries by themselves.
The back-plastics of PlaySkool's version of Teddy II
The colour of plastic used for the back of PlaySkool's Teddy II revision was a different shade of red than that used by Worlds of Wonder. This was done to match the changes in fabrics that PlaySkool had opted for.
PlaySkool's Teddy II sported a very slightly lighter shade of brown for his fur, a noticeably lighter shade of brown for the fluffy hair at the top of his head, a very slightly brighter tone for the tan colour of his tunic, and a much brighter shade of red for his undersuit, than the Worlds of Wonder version had had. Additionally, the legs of his undersuit now ran all the way down to his ankles, instead of halfway down his legs as had been the case with WoW's implementation. The PlaySkool Teddy II also featured much larger, rounder hands and feet, and slightly beefier arms (which, in contrast to the Worlds of Wonder Teddy II, were always fully-stuffed) and substantially wider legs, making it just as well that Worlds of Wonder had never introduced additional outfits for Teddy II, as PlaySkool's changes would have rendered them very difficult for him to wear!
A comparison shot of the two revisions of Teddy II - WoW's version is on the left, and PlaySkool's is on the right
The tapes for PlaySkool's version of Teddy II remained the same as those of the Worlds of Wonder version, and at first had a similar tan colour for the plastics, as well as labels that were very similar to those of the WoW tape-cartridges. Later on, however, the colour of the plastic was changed to one that resembled the colour of mayonnaise, and the glossy sticker labelling was abandoned in favour of screen-printed text in the colours relevant to the individual book-and-tape sets.
Whilst they retained the paperback format and cover-colours of Worlds of Wonder's Teddy II books, PlaySkool gave the content of some of the books a much-needed overhaul from the original WoW versions, which all dated back to the time of the first model of Teddy Ruxpin. This entailed publishing the full text and song lyrics in the books that lacked them, to make them match the later titles where Worlds of Wonder had started doing the same thing themselves.
Unfortunately, PlaySkool did not publish any new book-and-tape sets for their version of Teddy II, and they did not convert the sets from the series' overarching storyline to the Teddy II format, either.
The version of PlaySkool's Teddy II introduced to France (and possibly to other continental-European countries, but at the time of writing this has not yet been verified one way or the other) featured a different outfit altogether. There is almost no chance that this was continued from work done by Worlds of Wonder, due to the fact that a revised outfit for a specific region would have increased WoW's production costs during a time when it was acting to cut them. This fairy-tale-inspired outfit was shown online in this video by blueoctopede, a still from which can be viewed below.
The French edition of PlaySkool's version of Teddy II
Other than the change from a tan tunic to a teal one with yellow buttons on a red strip under a fancy yellow collar, and what appears to be an oval PlaySkool logo badge on the side of the right-hand sleeve of his undersuit, everything else remains the same as described above. This marked the only time other than the later Yes! Entertainment model, which was introduced in 1998, where Teddy Ruxpin's main outfit was changed.
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1994 - April 29th: Hasbro filed a trademark for something called "Tell Me Again Teddy Ruxpin", which was stated to be in the Goods and Services category, offering the following;
009. Prerecorded audio and video cassettes, compact discs, video discs, digital audio tapes, cd roms, and computer programs featuring children's stories and music, audio cassettes sold as a unit
016. Children's books and children's books
As is typical of trademark filings, these would have been catch-all sets of terminology, so it is not really known what this product-line would have been. It is possible that it was a new line of tapes for Teddy II, however.
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1995 - April 6th: Hasbro abandoned the trademark for Tell Me Again Teddy Ruxpin. It is possible that it was abadoned because, at this point, it may have been known that the licensing deal with Alchemy II would not be renewed, as this occurred before PlaySkool's version of Teddy II finally left the market.
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1996 - Unknown date: PlaySkool's version of Teddy II finally left store shelves. The non-renewal of the licensing agreement with Alchemy II finally concluded the Teddy II story, after the better part of a decade on the market, in 1996.
With a run across four different years with Worlds of Wonder, and across five more with PlaySkool, and thanks to its lower price at retail and greater reliability than its predecessor, the Teddy II model, in both its revisions, went on to become the most common and widespread Teddy Ruxpin model in some parts of the world, if not overall. Astonishingly, it was on the market for around triple the amount of time of the ground-breaking and highly-popular original model, eight times longer than the Yes! Entertainment version, and almost twice that of the BackPack Toys model, making Teddy II the longest-lived Teddy Ruxpin model to date.
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