Teddy Ruxpin & Grubby
item # ??? by Worlds of Wonder

Well, now you know what happens to Teddy Ruxpin when he hangs out at the local bike shop for too long!

These are two of the Ruxpins that I currently own along with his friend Grubby. The other two cannot be shown here due to the extremely graphic nature of the images - they are only going to be used as parts to repair other Ruxpins. Luckily, they had signed their organ donor cards before they passed away!

The Bad Boy Ruxpin here is the second generation model with a plastic backing plate on the cassette mechanism and three servo motors. The Good Boy Ruxpin is a third generation. He also has a plastic backing plate, but only uses two servos. Both are now fully operational.

Grubby doesn't have a cassette deck of his own, although he does require four D-size batteries of his own. When connected to Teddy Ruxpin's auxiliary port (with a rare, proprietary cable), Teddy and Grubby read stories together and carry on a conversation. Unless someone has a spare cable, these guys are just going to have to communicate through telepathy for the time being!

	I also have the Picture Show projector that can be attached to Teddy Ruxpin's accessory jack. There were seven titles released for this (of course I don't have any of the media) - they were on blue cassettes and they came with ViewMaster-style reels that it would project onto a wall as Teddy told the story. This thing took me about six hours to refurbish. As is the case with most of my robots, the previous owner was kind enough to leave the batteries in it...
We just acquired two of the WoW/Playskool Ruxpins, but as usual, we have no way to test them. Instead of using normal cassette tapes like the original full-size models did, these later incarnations use a cartridge-style cassette that operates similar to an 8-track.
	I hit the motherload at the Thrift Store yesterday! A set of twelve hard cover books from WoW for Teddy Ruxpin. Now let's see... that only leaves what? 29 more to go. Of course, there were no cassettes to be seen, but hey... finding that many books all in one spot for so little was amazing in itself! Although... If anyone would like to send copies (or even originals) of the Ruxpin cassette tapes, who am I to say no ;)

   How It Works

The cassettes are recorded with the audio track on the left channel and the animation control data recorded on the right channel. This data is encoded in an eight channel digital proportion type system using groups of nine pulses separated by silence. It's the length of this spacing that determines the individual aspects of Teddy and, if connected, Grubby and the Picture Show. The first channel is unused. Channels 2, 3 and 4 control Teddy's eyes, upper jaw and lower jaw respectively. The fifth channel determines whether the audio is routed through Teddy, Grubby or both. 6, 7 and 8 are used to control Grubby's eyes, upper jaw and lower jaw. There are holes on the top of the cassette housing near the center that indicate that the tape being played is a Ruxpin cassette with data encoded on it. On standard audio cassettes, these holes would align with the Type selection switches and would select a High Bias Metal position. If these holes are not present, then the circuit ignores the right track, playing it as standard audio instead of trying to decode it - which would cause the Ruxpin to malfunction.

Year Released: 1985
Original Price: $70

Technical Specifications:
Power Supply:
    Original WoW Ruxpin - 4 x D batteries
    Playskool Ruxpin - 4 x AA batteries
    Grubby - 4 x D batteries

Dimensions:
    Original WoW Ruxpin - 14" tall x 11" wide - 2.59 lbs
    Playskool Ruxpin - 12" tall x 9½" wide - 1.59 lbs
    Grubby - 15½" tall x 8" wide x 18½" long - 4 lbs