Yes! Entertainment Teddy Ruxpin

Since I opened the site I had not focused too much on the dolls and interworkings/product history of them, 1) because it is extensively covered at the Teddy Ruxpin FAQ and Mathue does a great job of maintaining that, and 2) Because I lacked knowledge of their internal workings, info on how to repair them, etc, which Mathue also covers nicely. However, with the creation of the new site I want to touch at least breifly on all aspects of Teddy, past, future and present, and have provided some light history and info regarding the different versions. For more in depth coverage, check out the Teddy Ruxpin FAQ.

After several years of inactivity, AlchemyII and Yes! Entertainment Corp, (founded by Worlds of Wonder founder Don Kingsborough) agreed to bring Teddy back to store shelves around 1996 (from here on ought I'll refer to this version as TeddyIII) Don Kingsborough had never been fond of Teddy's name or his outfit, and this time around he got his way in changing the outfit (I thank whatever stars may be lucky that they didn't try to fool around with a name change). Teddy went from his usual tunic and undershirt to a bright-red "Tee-Shirt" with a stripe and "blue jeans". It was not a popular move amongst fans. In fact I have yet to converse with a fan who liked the uniform change, and most tolerated it only because they were glad to have Teddy back.

My Yes! Teddy Ruxpin (a bad photo- a new one's on the way) with the beanie Teddy as well

Teddy this time around was smaller as well, following in the footsteps of Playskool who had also drastically reduced him in size. Yes! reverted back to casette tapes for this TeddyIII (Playskool had used cartridges) although Teddy Ruxpin 1 (The Worlds of Wonder version) and TeddyIII products are not interchangable meaning you couldn't use your Worlds of Wonder stuff with your Yes! Teddy or the other way around. I actually gave it a shot out of curiosity and TeddyIII eat my TeddyI tape. I dont know if this was a thing of random nature or if it has happened to others as well.

TeddyIII came with the usual Airship Book & Audio Cassette, this time around Yes! had contacted a new artist, Maggie Parr-(interview) to re-do the artwork in the books so Teddy could don his new Red Shirt in them. Much of the artwork in "The Airship" was completely re-done for this release. Teddy was also packaged with a small Teddy Ruxpin "beanie" (Beanie Babies were the toy craze at the time) Generally, this version was constantly behind in production schedule and seemed to have a longer history in internet rumors and speculation than it did when it actually hit store shelves. By the time Teddy was finally shipped to toy stores, Don Kingsborough had left Yes! Entertainment and it's my personal opinion that a lot of the passion for the Teddy product probably left with him. TeddyIII was generally hard to locate and the search for accessories (including a promised "Computer Pack" that never showed up anywhere) was even more futile. I personally enjoyed my TeddyIII while he worked, although I had serious reservations with the audio quality. His eyes and mouth moved/blinked a little bit smoother than the Playskool version I had owned, and in general consdering all the difficulties Yes! had with him, TeddyIII was a moderately successful version. The other gripe I had was the longevity. After only three years, my TeddyIII quit working in late 2002, while my WoW version, which I had recieved in 1985, kept talking almost two years beyond that before he finally was silent around Christmastime of 2004. Although TeddyIII was hard to find, he is the easiest to find currently of the three versions brand-new-in-box, obviously because he was released the latest. I personally could not recomend a purchase of a TeddyIII mainly due to BackPack Toys' release of TeddyIV, a much higher quality version.