It’s been ten years this month since I started the website. When it began it was just two pages long and very, very simple. I started it on a lazy afternoon on summer vacation, fascinated by the internet (as I still am today) and worried that there wasn’t nearly enough fan support for TR yet on the web. Ten years later, that simple two page website with it’s hideously mismatched colors and sloppy HTML design has led me to so many wonderful experiences. I’ve had the pleasure to meet my personal hero, the creator of Teddy, on not one but three occasions. I’ve interacted with Phil Baron, Teddy’s voice, and two very nice guys and wonderful animators in Jeff Wilson and Brian LeMay…. and a great artist named Maggie Parr. I’ve cooresponded with, and this is a rough estimate, about 200 fans and formed some lasting friendships out of those contacts. It’s amazing what a few simple keystrokes ten summers ago helped usher into my life.
And ten years has also led Teddy himself on quite a journey. When I started the site, a toy company called Yes! Entertainment (Founded by Worlds of Wonder’s own Don Kingsborough) had the rights to Teddy and were manufacturing a new Teddy with a red shirt replacing his old tunic… Teddy met the same fate at Kingsborough’s second toy company as he met at the first… and before long the remaining units were being sold in bargain bins and at closeout stores. We had some brief hope in 1999 when a company called Blue Steel USA released “Teddy Ruxpin: The Movie” which was basically just parts of the first five episodes spliced together…. although the cover art was great! In the early 2000’s, Teen angst megastore “Hot Topic” released some Teddy merchandise, a couple hats and some clothing, which quickly fizzled. Myself, I never quite thought Teddy belonged there to begin with… but it kept his image out there. In 2003 I visited Ken and had the pleasure of being able to choose Princess Aruzia’s eyecolor while he was updating some artwork… a very cool moment I’ll always remember. Then, on a sunny day in 2005, I got a call saying our dreams had finally come true… Teddy was again making a comeback. A year later, I opened a huge box filled with blue styrafoam popcorn and a brand new Teddy… he was about the same size as the Yes! version but even at first glance it was obvious he was of much higher quality. The tunic was back, and the storylines and artwork of the first few books were remasterered. I was quite literally catching up with an old friend. A friend for life came back to life.
In 2008, Teddy fans managed to be pleasantly surprised yet again, when Mill Creek Entertainment released the entire Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin TV series on DVD. News is that in the final year of this 3rd decade of Teddy’s existance, we will see yet a couple of more new Teddy products from BackPack Toys.
Teddy Ruxpin continues to be my friend, and his continued presence in the world some 23 years after his initial release gives me hope that a new generation will have a chance to adopt this friend for life as well. I hope in another ten years there will be even more history to add to the brief timeline I’ve given of the last ten years. The kids of the world need hIm now more than ever.
