When you gaze into the new Teddy Ruxpin, the new Teddy Ruxpin gazes also into you
“Teddy Ruxpin is not really alive, so don’t be scared.” You might want to keep those words—spoken by Jeremy Padawer, co-president of Wicked Cool Toys—in mind as you watch the following video, posted by YouTube’s Mommy And Gracie Show. It documents the toy company’s latest effort to delve deep into the nostalgia mines of the 1980s, unheeding of what they might ultimately bring back. Like, for instance, a new version of the beloved animatronic bear, complete with updated LCD eyes that seem to adorably pierce their way into the human soul.
To be fair, the new Teddy actually sounds like a pretty good educational toy, replacing older models’ chest-mounted cassette decks with an onboard hard drive for stories, and a Bluetooth connection so kids can read along on their smartphones and tablets. All of which is only slightly offset by the possibility of parents coming down the stairs one night, spotting Teddy staring at them out of the darkness—cartoon heart-eyes flashing insistently—thus forcing them to abandon their entire families as they go fleeing in terror into the night.
In Wicked Cool’s defense, it’s still early days for the doll—the fifth incarnation of Ruxpin since his creation in 1985. The company wasn’t even planning to unveil the new model—due out in fall of 2017—this year. But they changed their mind, according to Padawer, when they realized, “Teddy had to be unleashed.”