Teddy Ruxpin

Teddy Ruxpin is an animatronic children's toy in the form of a talking bear-like 'Illiop.' A cassette deck is built into its back: the user inserts a story tape, presses play, and the bear 'reads' the story aloud while its eyes and jaw move in sync. Worlds of Wonder, the Fremont, California company launched by ex-Atari executives Don Kingsborough and Mark Robert Goldberg, shipped it in September 1985 at about $70. It became the best-selling toy of 1985 and 1986, drove roughly $320 million in fiscal-1986 sales, and over eight million units were produced before the company's overreach on Ruxpin inventory helped push WoW into bankruptcy in 1988.

The cassette is the interface. A standard compact cassette carries two tracks: narration audio on one, and on the other a control data stream — described in collector teardowns as a pulse-position-modulated 'eight channel digital proportion system using groups of nine pulses separated by silence.' The data channels drive servo motors in the bear's head (three in the first generation: eyes, upper jaw, lower jaw), and can route audio between Teddy and his companion Grubby so the two toys hold pre-recorded conversations. The cassette shell itself is read by the toy: Ruxpin tapes have holes in the housing that align with the deck's bias-sensing position, so the bear can tell a Ruxpin tape from an ordinary one — on a plain tape it simply plays the audio and keeps still.

Ken Forsse, a former Disney animatronics designer who had worked on the Hall of Presidents, developed the bear at his company Alchemy II, Inc. with Larry Larsen and John Davies; ex-Atari designer Larry Lynch re-engineered it down to the $70 price point. The platform spun out Talking Snoopy, Talking Mickey Mouse, Talking Mother Goose, Baby Teddy Ruxpin, and Julie (1987, with voice recognition), plus accessories including Grubby (1986), the Picture Show cassette-driven slide projector, and the Answer Box quiz system. The Science History Institute holds a 1985 Teddy Ruxpin in its permanent exhibition.