The TR Masters

[IlliopMom]

Hi, all!

So there have been some questions here and in other fandom circles regarding the state of the original Teddy Ruxpin masters. I'd like to confirm that they all still exist, both cartoon and book/tape series. All safe in a air-conditioned facility in LA.

Just wanted to clear it up for anyone wondering.

[vilicles]

THANK GRUNDO THEY'RE SAFE!

[Lachlant1984]

Hi.

I'm very pleased to hear that the archives still exist, I'm quite interested in the archival and storage and retrieval of media, being a student of library studies right now, this is something that interests me, I've already studied maintaining a digital repository. IlliopMom, do you know if the digitized masters are still in existence? I ask because you probably know that the story of The Treasure, released for the 2006 BackPack Toys Teddy Ruxpin was not made available for the 2017 WCT Teddy Ruxpin, understandably, people were upset about this, including myself. I actually E-mailed WCT to ask about that story, and I was told that the original material for that story was lost, very saddening indeed. If you say that the original archives are safe and still exist, then I'm thinking someone's been telling lies, could it be that there's been some miscommunication between Alchemy and WCT? What was going on behind the scenes there? Very odd.

[Lachlant1984]

A friend of mine just offered some possible suggestions as to why I was told that The Treasure wasn't available, one thing he suggested is that WCT were told by Alchemy they couldn't divulge what content was available to them, this is all related to non disclosure agreements and the like. Alchemy II may not have told WCT everything regarding what material was available and my friend also suggested that Alchemy may have told WCT to say that story wasn't available. There are just so many variables at play here, it's so hard to know exactly what's going on.

[Billy Tooma]

Alchemy II has the masters stored in a climate-controlled facility in the Los Angeles area.

[Lachlant1984]

Yes, that point was clearly made, but it doesn't answer the question I had about availability of stories for certain versions of Teddy Ruxpin.

[Billy Tooma]

If the masters are preserved then any and all of the stories are available should a licensed agent desire to release them with the consent of Alchemy II. WCT’s response to you was likely a brush off (which is unfortunate), but, and I’ve never had the interaction with them like “Vilicles” has, they have never seemed entirely knowledgeable of TR-related stuff.

[vilicles]

I have only ever interacted with WCT very briefly on two occasions and I really have no knowledge as to how their business is conducted. But from my experiences, I can tell you that they don't appear to have a very firm grasp on Teddy's "mythology": that is, they don't seem to realize how expansive Teddy's world really is. Teddy is a pre-packaged product that they didn't have to sink any money into for original content (they just used the pre-existing stories). When I mentioned that the TV series had a very "Lord of the Rings" feel to it, they gave me blank stares and nodded politely. I suspect they have never seen it, and it makes no difference to their business of toy distribution if they ever see the series or not.

To be clear: WCT was very kind to me and I do not mean this to reflect badly on them or the people that work for them. This is just my experience as a loyal Teddy fan having spoken with them very briefly.

Another thing to keep in mind--and I am not privy to these conversations, either--is that much of BackPack Toys' "The Treasure" uses clips of audio from "The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin" Live Action Special, which may be owned in whole or in part by ABC (the broadcaster who originally aired it). It's possible that content was licensed for the BackPack Toys release, but no license was worked out for distribution with WCT's Teddy, which may be why we got the traditional story of "The Airship" instead.

[Lachlant1984]

The traditional story of The Airship? Vincent, re you saying that your WCT Teddy Ruxpin came with the original version of The Airship that was supplied with the WOW/Playskool/Yes version of Teddy Ruxpin? If that's what you mean, then I really would like to know about that please, because the version of The Airship that was on my WCT Teddy Ruxpin was basically more or less the same as what included with the BackPack Teddy Ruxpin, though some of the passages of text were removed. Your remarks about WCT's understanding of the whole Teddy Ruxpin world, surprise me to some degree, but also they don't really surprise me, yes, that's a contradiction but I follow what you're saying. I have not had any really bad experience with WCT in the times I contacted them, I felt they were kind to me as well, but it's just unfortunate that issues I brought up with them were not addressed I'm afraid. I'm vision impaired as you may or may not know, when I use my iPhone, I use the VoiceOver screen reader supplied with the iPhone. VoiceOver allows you to control the iPhone using touch gestures and it reads out the contents of the iPhone's screen. Sadly, the Teddy Ruxpin app does not work with VoiceOver at all, I contacted WCT several times about this and gave them what I consider to be valid reasons why the app should be accessible to VoiceOver users, but sadly they did nothing to address he problem. I understand the app was developed by a third party developer for WCT, but it does upset me that the app was not made to be accessible. Your comments about The Airship surprise me, can you please elaborate further on that/ Thanks.

[IlliopMom]

I think he means that the Airship story arc on the WCT Teddy is not fully complete due to possible license issue. No WCT Teddy comes with the original 1985 Airship story.