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[The New World of Teddy Ruxpin] Guests Of The Grunges (with voiceover and animatronic program)

by: YES! Entertainment

Publication date: 1998

Topics: 1990s, Teddy Ruzpin, animatronic

Language: English

Around 1998, YES! Entertainment Corporation, Shoot the Moon Products Inc, and Alchemy II Inc worked together to produce a new iteration of the Teddy Ruxpin animatronic teddy bear. In this version, there were six VHS movies, which were abridged re-releases of the original 1980s movies. In this release, there was a "TV Talk Box" that hooked up to both the VCR and the Teddy Ruxpin toy.

The VHS tape contained an alternate audio track, which appears to have been hidden in the VHS hi-fi track. The audio track was sent to the Teddy Ruxpin toy to allow him to provide a voice over discussing what was going on on the tape. It also contained programming data hidden on the edge of the video frame to tell the Teddy Ruxpin animatronic to move around. This combined together to give the illusion that the Teddy Ruxpin animatronic was interacting with the content on the screen.

If the tape is played in a normal VCR with no "TV Talk Box", we get the regular tape audio, as well as the Teddy Ruxpin voiceover played on top of each other through the TV speakers. However, if the "TV Talk Box" is hooked up, the TV speakers will only receive the regular tape audio. Meanwhile, the voice-over audio and the movement data will be sent to the Teddy Ruxpin toy over the left and right channels of the stereo audio cable.

In order to accurately capture all of this, this upload contains a complete version of the video with only the regular tape audio playing, a complete version of the video with both the regular tape audio and the Teddy Ruxpin voice-over playing on top of each other, a single mono audio recording of just the voice-over, and a single mono audio recording of the movement data. Both audio tracks were recorded directly from the cable that supplies the information to Teddy Ruxpin.

The video content is an abridged version of the Teddy Ruxpin cartoon from the 1980s. This one shows the meeting with the "Wooly Whatzit" from "The Treasure of Grundo" again. However, while The Treasure of Grundo had the group head to the wizard immediately, this one detours to show them visiting the Grunges instead. The Grunges make a vegeyable soup with powerful added vitamins. Unfortunately, the soup is mixed improperly, and the Prince overdoses on "Vitamin Z". It transforms him into a giant angry monster who proceeds to destroy the Grunges village and fight the Wooly Whatzit before falling into the water and turning back to normal.

The beginning and end is capped off with a live-action Teddy Ruzpin talking about how to make and keep friends. He also mentions a recipe for friendship chocolate chip cookies.