|
|
Post by corgiluver on Jul 7, 2016 10:54:46 GMT -7
|
|
|
|
Post by DollyPrince on Jul 7, 2016 14:46:33 GMT -7
I'm not sure... It looks a lot like a custom. There was someone online long ago who made custom Furby eyes, and they remind me of this Teddy.
Either way, both the Teddy and the shipping is overpriced. This shows how expensive vintage toys are nowadays....
|
|
|
|
Post by late2theparty on Jul 7, 2016 16:46:59 GMT -7
The color certainly differs from Grubby eyes. But these days with Photoshop its fairly easy to enhance any color, so I do suspect Grubby eyes. If so, likely just a manufacturing error. But even were it some unusual prototype, $ 12,000 is a bit steep. And you might still have to open him up and minimally fis the servos.  |
|
|
|
Post by kaylathehedgehog on Jul 7, 2016 17:26:51 GMT -7
Yeah, I also think it looks like a custom job. As it is, I wouldn't pay near that much for a Teddy, even if he were a rare one.
|
|
|
|
Post by corgiluver on Jul 7, 2016 20:52:47 GMT -7
I certainly would never pay $12,000 him. The seller also says in the description they think he belongs in a museum... so yeah, I think they've got their hopes a little high...
|
|
|
|
Post by illiopmom on Jul 10, 2016 13:38:18 GMT -7
That's definitely very odd. The eyes actually managed to look quite alarming.
|
|
|
|
Post by kaylathehedgehog on Jul 10, 2016 14:07:30 GMT -7
I wonder if it's the actual eyes that were customized. Grubby has blue eyes, it's true, but they're certainly not that shade of blue. His are more of a sky blue shade, whereas these are more of a turquoise shade of blue.
|
|
|
|
Post by DollyPrince on Jul 10, 2016 17:23:13 GMT -7
I wonder if it's the actual eyes that were customized. Grubby has blue eyes, it's true, but they're certainly not that shade of blue. His are more of a sky blue shade, whereas these are more of a turquoise shade of blue. Very likely true. From what I remember from past experience with restorations of both, Teddy and Grubby iris chips don't look that difficult to remove and swap out. I've seen beautiful custom work with Furby iris chips, creating colours that did not exist in any factory produced stock models, such as neon orange. The same was likely done to this Teddy Ruxpin. Also, the eyes are not as translucent as Teddy or Grubby eyes, which makes them look even more like a custom.
|
|
|
|
Post by BeachBear on Jul 11, 2016 6:52:17 GMT -7
I actually messaged the seller inquiring about the eyes a few months back... I'm currently on mobile to I can't add the correspondence now, but once I have access to my laptop I'll post the seller's response. (Unless someone beats me to it and asks the seller in the mean time) |
|
|
|
Post by BeachBear on Jul 12, 2016 20:09:53 GMT -7
New message from: ragapuss1 (889Purple Star) Hi, Thanks for you email,
I run the Teddy Ruxpin Hospital and Adoption Centre, here in the UK.
As well as repairing Teddy Ruxpins, we also buy and repair them. At any point in time we have up to about 25 bears that we have and awaiting repair. When they come in we just make sure they are complete and then store them until they are ready for repair.
In this case, when we started the repair he was not not working at all, and his eyes and jaw were closed, and the tape cassette was also non functioning. We started to dismantle him and found that he had Blue Eyes and not the normal Brown Eyes. We continued with repair and have him in fully working order.
We understand that there were 60 hand made prototype bears for pre-production. We believe that this may have been one of those bears, As you are aware Teddy interacts with "Grubby". Grubby has blue eyes. The alternative explanation is that during a mid life redesign changing from the metal cassette deck to the plastic deck they experimented with changing the eye colour.
The Teddy was originally developed in 1983/4 and RK Desgn in the USA actually did the development work. manufacturing was then undertaken in South Korea.
I have taken photos of both Teddy with Blue Eyes and also a Grubby.
The eye colours are completely different, Teddys are a lot lighter.
I have never seen a Grubby with lighter blue eyes, so they are not switched out.
From what I can remember when rebuilding the servos, the inside did not look like
factory made. However it looks as though the stitching on the back of his head was
original same colour red thread as per factory.
Because the Eyes, Mouth and deck were not working it really points to something
that was done in the factory, as you know it is rare to have virtually everything faulty
on a Teddy Ruxpin
Hope that helps
Regards   |
|
|
|
Post by DollyPrince on Jul 12, 2016 21:03:15 GMT -7
I still do not believe it. Real pre-production Teddies look quite obviously different. Usually thinner with completely different cassette players and larger eyes. This Teddy looks just like a production model. There were extremely early production Teddies made and released in 1984, which looked like regular production models, but they have brown eyes. The difference is, despite having metal cassette decks, they have a cassette recognition switch like the later plastic decks (which may or may not actually work). If this Teddy does not have this, he is not one of these early models. While it is possible he was an experiment, until I see proof that he is a genuine rarity, I still say he is just as (if not more) likely to be a custom.
The seller quite obviously thinks this Teddy is special (or just wants to scam people). But they got him used, the previous owner could have done the custom. The eyes look suspiciously opaque, and the pupils are a bit too small for WoW toys. Even Mother Goose, who has a similar eye colour, has larger pupils. The prototype Teddies also have such eyes. This could be because he was a quick experiment by WoW, which was done by hand, but is still suspicious.
Also, finding completely dormant Teddies is not impossible. I have restored a Teddy who did not speak or move. The motor for his cassette player had been dislodged.
|
|
|
|
Post by BeachBear on Jul 13, 2016 2:30:09 GMT -7
Yeah, I won't lie, the seller got rather miffed in later correspondence when I asked if there were any pictures of his mech, other features or paperwork that could confirm it as a prototype/test model. They never delivered any information/confirmation aside from what I have posted here, but were very helpful and I respect that.
I agree, it isn't uncommon to find a completely dormant teddy, perhaps it was just a fluke.
I would like to get pictures of the mechanisms though, otherwise this guy may just float into obscurity.
I'd hate to think that there may be some info on Teddy's production/history in this guy we may never know, but still, $10,000 is a little excessive...
|
|
|
|
Post by d.ruxpin on Jul 13, 2016 5:41:03 GMT -7
I don't believe it. The eyes don't even look right.
|
|
|
|
Post by corgiluver on Jul 13, 2016 13:18:20 GMT -7
I also don't buy that he came from the factory with those eyes. And I have repaired a couple teddies that had zero motor movements and non functional cassette decks, I agree it's really not that rare.
|
|
|
|
Post by kaylathehedgehog on Jul 13, 2016 15:13:48 GMT -7
I'll third the suspicions. I've seen pictures of the original prototype and the prototypes that were shown in some of the in-box manuals, and none of them have had blue eyes.
Until proven otherwise, I call shenanigans.
|
|
