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Post by htucker on Dec 29, 2016 14:54:16 GMT -7
Is anyone still active on this forum???
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2016 15:02:49 GMT -7
Tucker (may I call you Tucker?), the forum is active, but, it's the holidays, and things are quiet on here during the holidays, because we're all busy. pragmatism, welcome to the forum. The current status of this thread, is pretty nil. It was mainly a speculation thing for preserving the late Ken Forsse's work and the Teddy Ruxpin stories. Though most of us have digital copies of all of the original WoW Teddy stories, almost no scans. And personally, scans would be great. I discovered recently that the few Teddy Ruxpin books I owned from childhood were given away by my parents. Josh Isaacson, the founder and one of the moderators for this board, is trying to get scans to give to me so that I can at least look at the artwork for the books. So, if you'd like you can PM him and talk to him about it, if you're able to help that way
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Post by htucker on Dec 29, 2016 15:06:57 GMT -7
You can call me Tucker. That's fine. My name is Harrison though.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2016 15:08:45 GMT -7
Okay. I messaged you back by the way. Please enjoy the stories.
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Post by d.ruxpin on Jan 2, 2017 10:06:53 GMT -7
Harrison, the forum has been dying down for quite a while. However, it's starting to improve and with the hard-working staff and growing interest, I assume more people will be joining the TR forums soon.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2017 13:50:06 GMT -7
That's because people don't talk about the stories and characters. All they talk about is the toy itself. Which is nice, but, for some people, Teddy is about the stories, characters, songs, and the world that Ken Forsse created. Like myself. I was drawn to Teddy because of the characters and other stuff that make up the series. I firmly believe that if it weren't for all of that, Teddy would not have been as popular as he was. And, really, that's the same for any form of storytelling, whether it's books, movies, TV shows, or comic books. If the stories and characters aren't there, then the thing disappears really quickly and is never heard from again.
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Post by DollyPrince on Jan 2, 2017 21:17:06 GMT -7
I don't think that is the reason the forum was dying.. It is because of general lack of interest as Teddy Ruxpin becomes older and forgotten by today's generation.
Firstly, I am a toy collector, and personally I would not be here if it was not for Teddy as a toy, especially as an animatronic toy. I am very sure there are others here who are the same. Everyone here was introduced to Teddy from different parts of the franchise. So I doubt talking about the toy(s) is the reason the forum is not active. If anything, it kept conversation going up to now.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2017 7:20:28 GMT -7
Unfortunately, it's what's kept me away. I don't have any interest in Teddy's inner workings. I'm not an engineer, and I'm not a mechanically inclined person. I'm a writer, my area of interest is in storytelling, character development, and world building. So, when those aren't the subject of conversation, then I leave, because I feel like I don't have anything to contribute to the conversation. I'm also not a collector of talking toys either so, I also don't have knowledge in that area, because I'm not interested in that sort of thing. There are other reasons why I haven't been participating in most threads these days but, I won't get into it here. If you really want to know, then feel free to PM me and I will be happy to explain.
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Post by late2theparty on Jan 3, 2017 9:39:35 GMT -7
I guess its fair to say that I come to this thing from both sides of the equation. I initially got interested in all of this when one day I wondered whether or not my daughter's original WoW Teddy was still working as he had been when put away, wanted to get him fixed, was encouraged by Dr. Eyeore to give it a try myself, and became fascinated with his inner working. But from this I developed a real appreciation for the stories and music, which is all so very well done. And that's not only for Teddy, as the same observation applies to Mother Goose and Hector, Mickey Mouse and Goofy, and Snoopy. All of those tapes and stories are so very well done. Ken Forsee and company put a great deal of effort into creating something amazing, and it carried through to all the WoW toys. The forum does seem to put less emphasis on this aspect of Teddy Ruxpin and WoW, and it would be great if there were more disussion here on that aspect. But everyone comes here with a personal interest and perspective. Some actually are electronics people, some collectors, and some with an interest in the stories. I personally would like to see more emphasis on the latter and perhaps people here with that perspective might post more. I would guess there are members who have a lot of information on this, and sharing it would undoubtedly spur more discussion.
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Post by DollyPrince on Jan 3, 2017 13:40:40 GMT -7
As a disclaimer,
I was not saying that I do not appreciate the stories, they are fun to listen to and very well done. Personally I enjoy stories made for children more than those made for adults. I also love that there are so many tapes for the WoW toys, as they are not only fun to collect, but keep me entertained.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2017 14:55:00 GMT -7
That's what I'm talking about. We need more discussions about the stories, songs and characters that come from the toys. While I never owned a Mother Goose, Hector, Mickey Mouse, or Goofy talkers, I have a lot to say about the Teddy Ruxpin series. Not just the original book and tape stories, but, the animated series episodes, and the live-action animatronic movie as well. And, it would be nice to be able to have those conversations with others, which is why I joined the forum in the first place. Mainly because I didn't know anything about the toy itself.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Jan 3, 2017 17:44:16 GMT -7
Years ago I read an article in a now defunct magazine called Electronics Australia that talked about the preservation and duplication of old recordings and media, I can't remember too much about the article but it talked about cleaning and preserving old media, storing it and duplicating it. I've heard people say that cassette tapes are more durable and long lasting than reel to reel tapes. I'm sure if you look, you'll find articles on the Internet about restoring magnetic media. Certainly one thing to do is store magnetic media in a dry place away from dampness and moisture and away from magnetic fields of course. Digitising the media is also very important. I expect that when Teddy Ruxpin first came out the stories would have been recorded on reel to reel master tape, the stories were obviously digitised for the 2005 version of Teddy Ruxpin, but it's hard to know when the digitisation was done, for all we know it could have been done as early as 1997 or 1998 or so, because of course by 1998 digital audio technology had advanced compared to what it was in 1985. I wish I knew more about this so that I could say something more useful and helpful, but I can't, so I'd suggest browsing the Internet. You might even find forums about preserving magnetic audio or video media. I can't say that I've heard of mould growing on magnetic cassette tape media by the way, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I've just not heard of that happening.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Jan 3, 2017 17:49:38 GMT -7
I can think of a few YouTubers who'd know something about media preservation, I'm speaking of people like uxwbill and techmoan. I know they're not on this forum because I suspect they have no interest in Teddy Ruxpin, but I'm sure they know about media preservation, especially Techmoan. Just a thought I had.
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Post by lachlant1984 on Jan 3, 2017 17:58:56 GMT -7
BTW, I wonder if anyone has managed to somehow extract or dump the data from the BackPack Toys Teddy Ruxpin cartridges and back it up. In relation to your comments on the audio format used by the 2005 Teddy Ruxpin, I wouldn't be too surprised if they used some form of proprietary codec. For all we know they may have used OGG Vorbis or MP3, but it's equally likely that they may have used a format they developed for their own use.
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Post by DollyPrince on Jan 3, 2017 18:48:30 GMT -7
Oh, it would be very interesting if there was a Reel-To-Reel tape with Teddy Ruxpin or other WoW stories! Did you know there are demo tapes, I think from the studio? Noah Agrios has some of them. They are normal compact cassettes.
I heard that BackPack Toys Teddy's audio is in MP3 format. But this may have been an assumption by collectors. I am not sure how you would extract data from that version. Presumably with some kind of modification. Like PlaySkool version of Teddy, for that one you must take him apart and access the circuit board. It would be interesting if someone could make a kind of flash cartridge for BackPack Teddy. One could even add new stories to that cartridge. I assume the animation coding is the same as Playskool and Yes!, which were simple and easy to replicate.
Also, I also watch Techmoan sometimes!
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