The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

the giant airship and sail into the sky. Let's

watch the crows so far below. Let's watch the

birds as they fly by. Hello and welcome to the

54th episode of Tooncast, brought to you by the

Geekcast Radio Network. I am your host, D .F

.G. and Mike, and today I'm joined once again

by Kevin, Optimus Solo Thompson. Hello. Hello.

How are you? I am doing pretty good. Yes, today

we will be talking about Teddy Ruxpin. Um, I

think we're just gonna get right into it. Uh,

I don't think there's really anything going on

that we need to bring up. The Adventures of Teddy

Ruxman is an animated television series based

on Teddy Ruxman, an animatronic teddy bear created

by Ken Forsy and distributed by toy manufacturer

Worlds of Wonder. It was produced for television

syndication by Deke with Atkinson Film Arts using

many of the same voice actors used in the book

and tape series that was made for the eponymous

animatronic toy. While some of these stories

used in the TV series were adapted from the books,

many were original and greatly expanded upon

the world established there. The series differed

from traditional children's animation in that

most of its 65 episodes were serialized rather

than traditional episodic form. In the United

States, the series was originally syndicated

by LBS Communications. Today, all international

distribution rights to the series are held by

Don Taffiner's D -T -D -D -L -T Entertainment.

Oh, well that's the history lesson. You know,

if you replace that D with a B, you'd have Bacon,

Lettuce, and Tomato Entertainment. Going into

the general memories, honestly, I remember the

toy more than I do the cartoon. Yeah, I never

had the cartoon, or I never had the toy. But

my cousin, I don't know which relative it was,

but one of my relatives that babysat me every

once in a while had the toy. And I do remember

listening to it a lot at their house, but I never

had the toy myself. But I remember the toy and

I remember listening to the stories in the toy

and all that stuff and thinking it was cool that

I could take it as part of his back and put tapes

on and stuff like that. But I don't ever remember

watching the cartoon as a kid. There is not very

many 80's cartoons that you'll hear me say that

about, but I honestly don't think I watched this

in 80's. And, you know, I have to make a note

about this because people are going to hear you

say that and they're going to be like, well,

why the hell are they covering it? Honestly,

it's because I remember the toy and I knew that

there was a cartoon series from the toy. That's

honestly why it's on the schedule. And, you know,

maybe when we do episode 100, maybe we'll have

some sort of 80s toys special or maybe there'll

be an episode of GeekCast radio podcast of that

or something. I don't know yet. But that's the

reason why we're covering it. I remember either

having the toy or my cousins had it or something

or I had the books on tape or something. I don't

know. So, yeah. As far as the characters, getting

into the characters and voice actors segment

here. The Adventures of Chilly Rexton features

a large menagerie of sentient species for its

character base. Um, Ileops, brown and bear -like

with kind dispositions. Octopedes, orange and

caterpillar -like with eight legs, each with

fully formed hands. Oh boy. Perluns, Humans who

usually are professional in nature a g -scientist

or doctor a wizard Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff

basically The main characters I remember I'll

go ahead I was gonna say the main the main three

characters for the protagonist Is Teddy Ruck's

been a young Iliop whose father disappeared and

hit When he was a child, he comes to a grundo

to follow a treasure map. Like other heliops,

he is kind and friendly. He loves adventure.

You have Grubby, who was an octopede about Teddy's

age. They're best friends. Noted for his large

appetite, he is fond of cooking and eating root

stew and other foods made from roots. And Newton

Gimmick. Wow, they have a character named Gimmick.

Usually referred to as simply as Gimmick. A bald

inventor with a slight stuttering problem and

a broad and otherwise questionable definition

of science. He is also someone of an absent -minded

professor. Watching some of these episodes in

preparation for this, because I did watch a handful

of episodes, I think actually, as weird as it

is, the Newton gimmick is probably my favorite

character. And I think the main reason is because

of the voice acting of the other ones. Now, I

realize some of the voice actors are somewhat

saying that some of them are kind of no names,

but the voice that went with Grubby just didn't

fit that character to me. It was a very low voice

coming out of this like, you know, whatever you

want to call it, insect. type character, and

it just didn't seem like it fit. And I thought

the voice acting of the guy who did Teddy Ruxman

was just bad. So it made it hard for me to like

those characters. I kind of liked the movie gimmick

a little better than the other characters. And

then the other one I remember is the purple -ish,

sinkish, uh, what's it? I can't remember what

it's named. There's something about it. Um, maybe,

uh, Tweek? No, not Tweek. I do remember Tweek,

but there was another one that was called something

like Who's It, What's It, or Purple, What's It,

or... I don't remember what it's name was, but...

LB? No, it wasn't that one either. I don't remember

who it was. Oh, let's see. Oh yeah, the wooly

What's It. Yeah, the wooly What's It. I like

him too. Or it. Yeah. But, I don't know. I like

the fact that the show was serialized instead

of episodic. But, I don't know, I just needed

some better characters, I guess. Oh, I completely

agree. Yeah. And again, and I'll probably say

this throughout this entire episode, the only

reason why I even watched the show was because

of the toy. Yeah. The show was a complete flop.

Oh yeah, yeah. It's not just because we weren't

watched a lot when we were kids or anything like

that. I mean, this was not successful at all

when it was aired. As far as the voice cast,

I recognize no one. I do recognize a couple.

You had John Stocker who did Newton Gimmick.

And then will Ryan who did grubby, you know,

I don't like him as grubby. Those are those are

the two that I recognize Maybe if I look at my

ball, no what they Will Ryan's a weird -looking

guy. He's done a he's done a few things and John

Stocker did a few things But those are the only

two I recognize. I don't recognize Phil Baron

who did Teddy Ruxpin I don't recognize hardly

any of the other ones but I don't know. The voice

acting in this show was kind of inconsistent

in the episodes I was watching, and it just seemed

like some of these voices just did not fit the

characters at all. Yeah. No, not really. Yeah.

Um, you know, and this show was pretty much done

in 87, and... Mm -hmm. Actually, although 87

was Turtle Mania. Well, the interesting thing

is that the Tidy Rocks man, I mean, this... It

was in 1987, whatever. In 1993, they tried to

make a comeback with The Doll, and they packaged

it with a companion line of cartoon video concepts

starring Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other

properties. It's kind of interesting how they

tried to kind of like piggyback on some of their

success. They're like, we can't make it on our

characters, so let's put The Doll and then have

tapes of other shows in it. Wow, that's sad.

We have no behind the scenes information. There

were some directors, there were some writers.

I honestly don't recognize any of them. Going

into the actual show, the plot summary here.

The Adventures of Teddy Rocksman follows a young

Teddy Rocksman as he leaves his home on the island

of Relonia with his best friend Grubby to follow

an ancient map where it leads him to find a collection

of crystals on the mainland of Grondo. With the

help of his new friend, Newton Gimmick, Teddy

and Grubby discover the magical powers of what

turns out to be an ancestral treasure as well

as an organization with ambitions to use it for

evil. Along the way, Teddy learns the long lost

history of his species and clues to the location

of his missing father. Sounds interesting, but

it was still a flop. Yeah, and another thing

that didn't help was basically that as the cartoon,

basically you had the toy. and the toy was like

mad crazy popular just kinda like the best thing

that you can describe or compare the toy to was

Furby it was like the Furby as far as getting

so popular so quickly but the problem was then

they're like let's do a cartoon and then the

toy did exactly what Furby's did which is become

a complete flop you had mad success and then

you had a complete flop and the problem was that

flop about the time the cartoon came out. So

it just wasn't good timing by then. Nope, not

at all. I honestly, until I go back and listen

while I edit this episode, I honestly don't remember

the theme song. I do remember the theme song.

The theme song is actually decent. It's kind

of odd that you could listen to the whole theme

song and almost not know what show it's for.

But it's still somewhat catchy. I will give it

credit. And the series' original music was done

by Andrew Huggett and George Wilkins. Going into

the legacy segment, as far as the toys, comics,

DVD releases and all that happy crap. Teddy Ruxman

is an animatronic talking bear which was created

by Ken Forsey with later assistance by Larry

Larson and John Davies. He was first produced

in 1985 by toy manufacturer Worlds of Wonder.

Teddy would move his mouth and eyes as he read

stories via a standard audio tape deck built

into his back. There was also a companion toy

named Grubby which connected to Teddy via a cable.

This allowed the two some minimal interaction

as well as there were some other non -animatronic

companion toys and characters such as the bird

-like fobs. A hand puppet with sock -like extendable

neck, and larger wooly wusset hand puppet, a

twig puppet, and an LB bounder puppet. Okay,

wait. Characters such as the bird -like fogs,

a hand puppet with a sock -like extendable neck?

oh my god it's not just Disney that has bad thoughts

when it comes to cartoons and toys oh god sock

like puppet with extended oh my god the sock

is growing the sock is growing yikes With the

strength of its line of two worlds of wonders

fortune rose well beyond its assets this culminated

in rather a spectacular tumble as the stock trades

by a company officers spooked the investors Attempting

to stem the tide Wow issued a non investment

trade bonds commonly known as junk bonds in an

effort to bully itself Although there was some

contention as whether the strategy would have

helped the attempt was made moot by the 1987

stock market crash. Worlds of Wonder eventually

filed for bankruptcy in 88 and went through a

series of layoffs. By 91, the company folded

and the remaining assets were liquidated. The

Chitty Rocksman tour line was picked up by Hasbro.

Wow! Hasbro! Which produced him until 1996 using

the redesign that had been implemented by WOW.

This design was smaller and used special cartridges

instead of cassette tapes. Unfortunately, this

cartridge system proved to be easily damaged.

In 1998, Yes Entertainment bought Teddy Rocksman

back to stores. For a third time, the toy's size

was largely in the same as the Play School version,

other than Teddy's clothes, but the biggest change

was Yes' return to using the standard cassette

tapes. This venture was short lived, however,

as the Yes Entertainment's corporate management

and financial troubles ultimately resulted in

alchemy... Alchemy 2, withdrawing the licensing

for Teddy. In 2005, Backpack Toys announced the

fourth version of Teddy Ruxman, which replaced

the audio tapes with digital cartridges. Teddy

is currently available via retailers and online

retail channels. Um, hmm... Uh, what? Okay, I

guess I'll go into the DVD releases. In February

2006, First National Pictures released two volumes

of the series, 11 episodes on DVD. Two additional

volumes were to be released to complete the series,

but for unknown reasons they were never released.

In January 2008, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired

the rights to the series. They subsequently released

all 65 episodes in three volume sets. On January

27, 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment released a

six -disc complete series box set. Featuring

all 65 episodes on DVD for the very first time.

I may want to get that. I don't know. The complete

series. I don't know. It's just one of those

things. It would be interesting to see a serialized

thing from start to finish, but I don't know

if I could buy it. It just depends on how much

it is. Last thing before we close this show.

Impact in popular culture. The Adventures of

Teddy Ruxpin was one of the very first western

cartoon shows to be seen by the population of

Bulgaria in the late 1980s. The influence of

this show can be seen in the text on the then

modern post -punk band Revue and their song Teddy

Ruxpin. Also, the very first underground music

shop to open in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia,

was and is to this day called Mavo. in reference

to the antagonistic organization in the cartoon

show. Yeah, that's not very interesting. Not

very interesting at all. Alright, um, yeah, so.

Wow, this is probably gonna be the shortest episode

of Tooncast ever, outside of the episode zero.

It's perfect though, because it's about as short

as the lifespan of the Teddy Ruxpin cartoon,

Android. And on that, end clip. What are your

final thoughts on Teddy Ruxpin sir? Basically

I mean it is what it is but the problem is with

Teddy Ruxpin is it came out in an era where there

was even for that genre way more better stuff

to watch I mean, it might be a great cartoon,

but there were so many better options as far

as voicing, animation, et cetera, et cetera.

So basically Teddy Ruxpin was a great toy. It

was a breakthrough toy that hadn't really been

done before. It was very popular, but maybe it

should have stayed a toy. Yeah. I honestly loved

the toy. And again, I can't remember if I actually

had one. or if it was my cousins I don't remember

I believe I had one I don't know I'll have to

ask my mom and I'll let everybody know in episode

55 but yeah I may want to get the series on DVD

but again it goes to price is what the complete

series set is going to cost don't really know

I actually have I just thought of this just now

Want listener feedback on what you guys think

about for the rest of the show? Us including

as the outro music the theme to the next episode

of the podcast so like starting this episode

We'd have the Teddy Ruxpin theme and then after

you hear this outro you'll have Like next episode

next week's episode will be the Wuzzles, so you'll

have the Wuzzles theme My problem is with that

ideology is that the intro for next week's episode

is going to be the exact same thing as the outro

for this week's episode as far as the music.

I don't know what you guys think about that.

You can email me tfg1mike at gmail .com and let

me know and we'll see where that goes. Do we

have anything else we want to say? No, I think

I'm good. Do you want to plug anything, anything

new going over on that, behind the actors of

Voice .com? Behind the actors of Voice .com?

I think the, nothing new for now, but I'll be

plugging something probably in the next couple

episodes. Okay, good deal. Thank you for joining

us here on Tooncast, there's a way to get in

contact with us, we'll leave feedback for the

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enjoyed this episode of TuneCast and wish you'll

join us next time when we will be reminiscing

on Oh Crap! Whoops. I said the wuzzles at first.

It's not. It's the Gummy Bears. So I'm gonna

put the Gummy Bears music as the outro to this.

Sounds good. I completely forgot. So yeah, next

episode is the Gummy Bears. For now, I am TFG1Mike

with... After the solo. Thank you for listening.

Until next time. Oops, that's the wrong window.

They are the gummy bears Magic and mystery are

part of their history, along with the secrets

of gummy berry juice. The legend is growing,

things are...