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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 5:24:39 GMT -7
Yeah, right now it'd be more viable, financially to bring Teddy back to tv, or in a movie, rather than do all the production work, writing, recording, illustrating and marketing that comes with a toy like Teddy Ruxpin. Especially in such an unstable economy. Even a company with vast resources, like Hasbro, or Mattel, if they spend all that money on the development of a new Teddy Ruxpin toy and storyline, and it doesn't sell very well, that company could find itself in some financial trouble. Though, considering that Playskool is a subsidiary of Hasbro, I think Hasbro should be the one to make the new Teddy toy if one is ever made. I totally see your point, but the suggestion that Teddy Ruxpin won't come back in a toy form breaks my heart like you wouldn't believe. All the writing and recording has already been done, it was all done in the 80's, I think there's enough backlog of stuff to at least make a start, but apart from that you've got some good points there. I'll stop now because I really don't want to start fighting with people about this. Bye for now guys.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 4:21:39 GMT -7
Well, I've looked at Dr Eeyore's site and indeed what you people are saying is true, she isn't taking repair requests until next year it would appear, so I'm currently feeling a little bit lost. When my eBay bought Teddy Ruxpin started developing problems in late 2010 I contacted Dr. Eeyore on the advice of blueoctopede on YouTube and was told what was wrong with My Teddy Ruxpin involved replacing the servo motors. At the time I was completely against sending him overseas for various reasons, it just seems a bit silly to send the thing overseas for repairs, but that's the way it must be I guess. As I say I did look at Google last night to see if I could find anyone here in Australia who could fix it, but didn't find anything particularly promising sadly, now I wish I'd acted sooner, guess who feels like a bit of an idiot now. Dr Eeyore's sight points to someone I believe called Whitney(?) Green, so I might try and contact that parson, or send Dr Eeyore an E-mail just to confirm the situation, though this seems completely unnecessary, or contact the YouTube user applesocks89 who's given name I'm certainly not going to divulge here for obvious reasons and maybe take up his offer of repairing my Teddy Ruxpin for me should that be necessary, I just don't exactly feel too comfortable or confident in doing that. So for the moment it looks like this is where things stand right now.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 3:42:38 GMT -7
As much as I would like to see another Teddy released - I'd only like to see it done if it's done properly, which in this current climate would be difficult. I don't say this to discourage anyone - only as a plainly stated fact. The toy will always be close to our hearts - especially those of us who were lucky enough to have one during our childhood or, in some other cases, a rough time during adulthood when Teddy brought in some much needed light. I believe it could be all of this for a new generation as well, but only if it's done properly. The Yes! version was poorly designed, executed and marketed and clearly failed in that mission. The BackPack version suffered from the decline of the economy and lack of marketing. While I'm glad these versions happened - hopefully to bridge the gap between the WoW version and the real 'second coming' of Teddy the toy that would happen with a new manufacturer that has the necessary resources to do it right from top to bottom - if companies continue to over-saturate the market with new versions which don't quite take off, it only hurts the viability of the property in the long run. I certainly hope Teddy comes back to Toy Stores - but I'm willing to wait for the right circumstance, where Teddy will officially be introduced to a new generation of kids and adults. That leaves us with the storyline, which needs to be continued. All of us are hungry for Teddy's next adventure. I believe the best way to move the story forward in this economy and digital age is by a visual medium. Television or the big screen being the favored choices. Ken has written a wonderful treatment for a new film or TV production that blends Teddy's classic formula of friendship, humor, and adventure. I wouldn't read too much into the statement on the DVD packaging about Teddy the toy being available. As I said before, this was partly due to the fact that this release has been in the works for awhile. Things slip by editorial reviews, especially things that are still technically true - There are some remaining BackPack Teddies still available at different outlets. It could also be the product of someone who was simply misinformed. That was very well said Josh and I agree with pretty much all of your points. And I see your point about the packaging for the new DVD's but do you know exactly how long this thing has been in the pipeline? I too want to see another version of Teddy Ruxpin come out, and as you say it should be done by a company with the necessary resources like say Hasbro, or Fisher-Price, or Mattel to name a few. I see your points about the DVD, but if as you say the synopsis was written by someone who was misinformed, surely people like Ken Forsse and co would step in and correct them, don't you think there's already been enough time for the synopsis to be corrected if need be, that is if the statement about Teddy Ruxpin toys still being available is untrue? OK, what you say about the BackPack Toys remaining stock of Teddy Ruxpin still being available through some outlets may be true in the US for example where Teddy Ruxpin was most popular, but just how many toy stores still carry the product? If the stuff about Teddy Ruxpin still being available is untrue then the synopsis needs editing in my opinion. Also the videos were released when the toy was around, in 1998 you had the interactive VHS tapes for Teddy Ruxpin then in 2006 you had the DVD's when the BackPack Toys Teddy Ruxpin came out, so do you see my point? I don't hate the Teddy Ruxpin cartoon, but I care far more about the toy than the cartoon, and to see these DVD's being released without an accompanying toy release is kind of sad in my opinion and very frustrating for die hard Teddy Ruxpin fans like myself, I could rant and rave about this for hours and hours and hours, but I'm not going to. I'm really hoping that something does come of this, but only time will tell now, because there's no information apart from that synopsis, and as you so rightly say, the synopsis isn't much to go on with.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 3:29:22 GMT -7
In Canada we have Teletoon Retro, which airs classic cartoons from the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s. Teletoon is basically the Canadian version of the Cartoon Network. We have Cartoon Network here in Australia too, I assume it's the same as the American version. My best friend who's also a Teddy Ruxpin fan and likes the cartoon more than I do has Foxtel I think, or at least his family did, he's never told me that Cartoon Network broadcast episodes of Teddy Ruxpin, so that leads me to believe they do not.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Apr 1, 2012 3:20:48 GMT -7
I was looking at this lady's web site the other day and I thought it said she wouldn't be available until January 2013 because of some family issues. I have a Teddy, possibly two, coming to me that I'm getting from Ebay and I think they are in need of some therapy. I'd like to either try to do the repairs myself or get a family member to help me using online tutorials. What do you guys think? I basically have no vision at all, so I'm not sure if I could do it, but I'd love to learn how if it was possible. I'll have to look at Dr Eeyore's site myself and perhaps send her an E-mail to confirm this, it's not that I don't trust you retrobear, but it's always best as I've learned the hard way to go directly to the source for information. If indeed it's true that she's out of commission until January next year as you suggest then I might have to look for other options, I've already pointed one out, but I'll just have to see what becomes of this and what happens next.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 31, 2012 18:14:54 GMT -7
Ive gotten a teddy fixed by dr. eeyore years ago and he came out perfectly. also 800 dollars is definatley a typo i onley remember it being 100 or less. That'll teach me to ask questions directly to the person concerned right off the bat rather than going by word of mouth won't it, I think I've learned my lesson from this. Well, I'll see about E-mailing Dr Eeyore and ask her how much she'll charge and how I should get my Teddy Ruxpin to her should I chose to ask her to repair it as opposed to talking up applesocks89's offer, I need to think about this.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 31, 2012 18:08:23 GMT -7
I hope $800 was a typo.... It's actually under $100. The toys went for about $100 brand new in 1985... I don't find her services unreasonably priced at all. The spare parts alone are probably worth $20, and I'm sure the labor takes at least a couple of hours on each unit. I'm sorry that you don't have a service in your area. Like anything - the cost of these services are based on supply and demand. You make a very good point in your post about the availability of parts - they're also scarce, which drives up the cost. That's also why a lot of us want to get these repaired while there are still parts floating around. Carpe Diem! - as they say Well I guess I should really contact her and ask her directly what her price is for repairs, as I say I heard that through Word Of Mouth, not directly from her. I've made a few videos of my Teddy Ruxpin on eBay, but by an interesting coincidence the YouTube user applesocks89 only this morning sent me a personal message via Facebook, offering to repair my Teddy Ruxpin believe it or not, he's posted a lot of Teddy Ruxpin related videos to YouTube, I'll need to think very hard about taking up his offer or not, I'm just not sure. I don't think I should say too much more here because I really don't want to upset or offend anyone.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 31, 2012 17:19:50 GMT -7
I know of the work Dr Eeyore does courtesy of YouTube users like blueoctopede and a few others too, I have an original Teddy Ruxpin that's in need of some repairs, I actually was in contact with Dr Eeyore and she was able to explain what was wrong and what needed to be done to repair the toy, but as she's also a nurse I understand she's pretty busy. I understand she's also got tutorials on her website if you want to fix your Teddy Ruxpin yourself, I've looked at them. I really understand how important her work is to people who love Teddy Ruxpin and the other associated toys, so I feel guilty about saying what I'm about to say, but here goes. I understand from a fellow YouTube user that Dr Eeyore charges something like $800 for repairs to these toys, now I don't want to dissuade any of you from using her services or buying restored toys from her if indeed that's what she does, but I personally cannot justify paying that much to get my Teddy Ruxpin restored, I also live in Australia and it's just a bit too much to ask to have to send Teddy Ruxpin to America just to get it repaired, I'm also not really confident enough to open Teddy Ruxpin up myself and repair him, my skills aren't that great and the fact I have a severe vision impairment doesn't help, however I know of blind and vision impaired people who know how to repair common electronic devices like computers and stereo systems etc, but I personally just don't think I want to try repairing my Teddy Ruxpin in case I do even further damage. Last night I went onto Google and typed in Teddy Ruxpin Repairs Melbourne Australia as that's where I live, sadly I didn't really get any promising results, this saddens me. Maybe I should bite the bullet and send Teddy off to Dr Eeyore, but the suggested price she charges makes me shudder. I guess the reason why she charges so much is due to the specialty of the work she does, in this day and age it wouldn't bee too easy to find replacement parts for Teddy Ruxpin, I'm thinking in particular about the motors and the main circuit board for instance, I know I've seen people selling sets of eyes for Teddy Ruxpin on eBay, so I know that's not too big of a problem, but I'm sure you realise that as time goes on it's unfortunately going to become harder and harder to source good quality spare parts for Teddy Ruxpin toy related repairs. Cassette tape players and the associated media isn't really produced on a mass scale these days, especially since Sony has effectively dropped support for the cassette tape as I understand it, so it's quite an unfortunate situation really. I can to some extent understand why Dr Eeyore charges the amount she does for repairs, but personally I cannot justify paying that much money, plus extra for freight to America, international freight can be pretty costly, especially if you're sending something via a courier service like UPS or FedEx for instance. So there's my 2 cents worth, I'd be interested to hear what the rest of you have to say.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 31, 2012 16:51:41 GMT -7
Hmm, interesting. i've bought quite a bit of Teddy Ruxpin stuff, mostly tapes, from one particular eBay seller in America, I think their eBay user name is something like Dunker5709 or something like that, I may have got it wrong. Their tapes are very expensive I know, however they usually come with the book, sometimes they're complete in box, Teddy Ruxpin Love Songs didn't come with the Tuxedo however, but that doesn't bother me too much. The reason I buy from them is I know what i'm getting form them, they ship internationally which is very important given that I live in Australia, and their tapes are generally in good condition, OK, sometimes tapes don't play well on one side, but I think that issue may also be with my Teddy Ruxpin. I don't know where they source their stock from, but they carry other talking toys and other Worlds Of Wonder tapes too, I think they also sell Worlds Of Wonder talking toys, at least some of them, I suspect they restore them before selling them on eBay. As I say their stuff's a bit pricey, very pricey in fact, but at least I know what they're selling me, they've even refunded me on many times because they've overcharged me, probably on freight fees.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 31, 2012 2:09:50 GMT -7
I've remembered another Teddy Ruxpin related dream I had, this one happened in 2010, I was listening to my James Reyne cassette tape in my Worlds Of Wonder Teddy Ruxpin, a song called Heaven On A Stick was playing, and the song was playing an octave lower than it normally should, the tape also sounded very distorted, but then that's the case with the plastic tape player based Tedyd Ruxpin toys as some of you will know.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 30, 2012 3:17:09 GMT -7
May I please make some corrections to the list of songs in regard to what tapes they are from? Here goes. A Quieter Place To Be is not featured on Quiet Please, neither is I'm someone I Can Count On, Two Hands Are Better Than One is from The Story Of The Faded Fobs, it's not on The Day Teddy Met Grubby. And I Love You isn't on Teddy Ruxpin sings love songs as far as I know. I Am Proud To Be Me is also from The Faded Fobs and is not on The Day Teddy Met Grubby. Wishing is on Tweeg And The Bounders, Be A Good Neighbour I believe is on Tweeg Gets The Tweezles, not Tweeg And The Bounders. Let's Keep The World Safe For The Children was from The Missing Princess originally, however it could very well have been on Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies volume 2, I don't have that particular tape.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 30, 2012 2:45:47 GMT -7
Actually I've remembered a Teddy Ruxpin dream that I had in early 1993, I was playing with a Worlds Of Wonder Teddy Ruxpin, I know it was because of the volume control at the back, Teddy Ruxpin was missing one eye and appeared to have a bandanna or some kind around his head, when I turned Teddy Ruxpin on, the loudspeaker made a loud clicking sound very similar to my Realistic Pro-38 radio scanner that was given to me in early 1993, the scanner is from the very late 80's, and when you turn the unit on the speaker pops as the unit powers up.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 30, 2012 2:33:41 GMT -7
Hi. I read this thread a few weeks ago and found it really interesting. I had 2 dreams about Teddy Ruxpin that I can remember, they both happened in quick succession, one dream that I had featured the YouTube user Tweeterman287 who had the Teddy Ruxpin musical pillow case that the YouTube user redilliop has mentioned in his Teddy Ruxpin related video, apparently it plays one of the songs form Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies, I'm assuming it plays Come Dream With Me Tonight, and sounds like a really early electronic handheld game toy type thing, well anyway that's exactly how it sounded in this dream I had, and indeed it played Come Dream With Me Tonight as you'd expect. In the second dream I had I was watching a YouTube video where someone had put a Hunters And Collectors cassette tape in Teddy Ruxpin and a song called True Tears Of Joy was playing, the Teddy Ruxpin featured in this video must have been one with a metal tape player because Teddy's eyes and mouth were moving whilst the music was playing, also the tape was playing a bit slower than it should have been, the song was playing a semitone lower than it's supposed to. I made a video about this on YouTube, because I only have True Tears Of Joy on CD, I rigged up my YES! Entertainment version of Teddy Ruxpin to my stereo system and played the song off the CD, because we're not allowed to post links to things like Teddy Ruxpin related YouTube videos as per the forum rules I won't post the URL here, but the video is on my YouTube page.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Mar 30, 2012 2:20:10 GMT -7
Hi everyone, some of you will recognise my username because it's the same as my YouTube username. I became aware of these posts to this forum some weeks ago thanks to the YouTube user teddysonicfan90. I should start out by saying that I am far more interested in the Teddy Ruxpin toy rather than the cartoon, OK, I like the cartoon, I don't hate the cartoon, it's Teddy Ruxpin after all, however I much prefer the story books and tapes just because I do. Josh, I totally understand all your points about the financial climate and people not wanting to invest in anything right now, but that deeply saddens me if it means we won't see another Teddy Ruxpin toy, I can't begin to express how much that could potentially break my heart if nobody chose to make a new Teddy Ruxpin toy in the future, I've read the synopsis for this upcoming DVD box set and noted the sentence at the end saying that Teddy Ruxpin "is still available as a new-and-imporoved talking doll toy", of course we know that's no true because BPT don't make Teddy Ruxpin anymore and haven't since 2010 as we know. If planning for this DVD started around the time BPT were still producing Teddy Ruxpin the synopsis would be true, but if indeed that's when planning started, surely there's been enough time for the synopsis to be edited and that final sentence removed should no manufacturer chose to develop a new Teddy Ruxpin, if no new version of Teddy Ruxpin is forthcoming why does the synopsis hint at a "new-and-improved toy?" Also I should point out teddysonicfan90 that even if a new version of Teddy Ruxpin does become available they couldn't resell the original cassette tape based World Of Wonder version, Sony stopped producing cassette tape players last year and I don't know if they still make cassettes anymore, I believe it's still possible to buy cassette tapes, but that won't be the case for very much longer, cassettes have been around since the 1960's ad major manufacturers are migrating away from the format and have been doing so for years. I hope Image Entertainment release these DVD outside of the American Region 1 system, I'm in Australia and we use PAL DVD region 4, it would be wonderful to see region 4 versions of this box set available here, also, I'd love to see the cartoons being available for download on iTunes and other download services. I'm wondering if it's worth someone contacting Image Entertainment to see if they can shed any light on what they're referring to in the last sentence of the synopsis. I know realistically it's not looking good for a new Teddy Ruxpin toy, and that seriously upsets me, it really really really does, if they're going to mention that Teddy Ruxpin is still available in the DVD synopsis I want to see some substance to the sentence.
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