Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was great. Welcome back to The VHS Corner. Today we're taking a look at the Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes that I had when I was a kid. Like with my post on the Disney Sing-Along Songs, I'm going to go in the order that I got the tapes in. Unlike with that post though I'll only be talking about the tapes I owned, because we actually only rented one of the Teddy Ruxpin tapes, that we didn't end up owning, once so there's not much else to say about it. If you want my full reviews on the 12 original Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes, head on over to the Review Basement as all of those reviews are up there. Without further ado, let's get into it.
The first Teddy Ruxpin VHS tape I ever got was Volume 2, Guests of the Grunges. It was really early on in either 1988 or 1989. I watched it on endless rotation with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, and Disney Sing-Along Songs: The Bare Necessities. To this day this is still my favourite Teddy Ruxpin tape. In fact, when Vincent from The Grundo Gazette sent me digitized copies of all of the Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes two years ago, I put this one on as soon as it had finished downloading. As soon as the Hi Tops Video shoelace logo appeared on my screen, I was immediately transported back to when I was a kid, sitting on my living room floor, in front of our old tube TV with my parents, and then later my sister after she was born. The first six tapes of this series had live action bookends where Teddy would talk to the viewer and at the end show them the bonus gift that was included in the cassette box. For Guests of the Grunges it was a recipe card for Teddy's Friendship Chocolate Chip Cookies. While I don't have the tape anymore, I do still have the recipe card and I keep it with my Teddy Ruxpin books.
The next tape I got was actually released before Guests of the Grunges. We had rented The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin from both West Coast Video, which doesn't exist anymore, and Rogers Video, which still exists but not as a video store, and eventually Rogers Video was selling off their copy, so my parents bought it for me since we rented it all the freakin' time. I'm not even kidding you. We rented this tape so much. For those of you who don't know, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin is a live action TV movie that used animatronic puppets for the characters and it aired on the ABC Weekend Specials in 1985. The movie was supposed to be the pilot episode for a live action TV series adaptation of Teddy Ruxpin but the movie turned out to be so costly that The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin became an animated series in 1987 and ran for 65 episodes. When I watched this tape for the first time in years when Vincent sent it to me, I teared up a little when the Children's Video Library balloon logo appeared on screen with the accompanying music. Because, again it was so connected to us renting tapes from Rogers Video because the Rainbow Brite tapes we rented also opened with the Children's Video Library logo, but that's a topic for another time.
Before I get into the remaining three Teddy Ruxpin tapes that I owned when I was a kid, I just wanted to show you what I meant when I said the Hi-Tops Video shoelace logo and the Children's Video Library balloon logo. To me these two logos are as nostalgic to me as the Walt Disney Home Video logos or the '90s Paramount Pictures logo are and any time I see them I'm instantly transported back to my childhood. Back to the tapes.
These final three tapes I'm gonna talk about are ones that I got all at the same time, so I'll be talking about them in volume order/release order. First up is volume 4, Take a Good Look, which features the first standalone episode of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin ever as well as the first episode of the series following the five episode pilot story arc. We got this tape sometime before 1993 as it was before we moved out to the log farmhouse we lived in from 1993 until 1996. Unlike with Guests of the Grunges, which I got practically brand new, this tape was a second hand buy or a former rental as it didn't come with the special bonus gift which was a journal. It was still fun watching Teddy talk about it after the episode though.
Next is volume 5, Grubby's Romance. This episode is one of my favourite episodes of the entire series. And it's my second favourite episode next to "Guests of the Grunges". I think Grubby and Karen was my first on screen couple since Riker and Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation weren't exactly a couple during TNG's run, except when an episode's script needed them to be, but that's a story for another time. Anyway Grubby and Karen are the first on screen romantic couple I ever saw as I don't think I'd even seen Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse at this point. Like with Take a Good Look this tape was another second hand/former rental buy as it didn't come with the pen pal postcards that were originally included as the special bonus gift.
The final Teddy Ruxpin VHS I ever got was volume 9, Tweeg Gets the Tweezles, which is another favourite episode of mine. The is the first and only Teddy Ruxpin tape I had as a kid where the live action bookends weren't filmed for it and there was no special bonus gift included. Instead the tape ends with a preview of the only live action Teddy Ruxpin tape within the 12 volume series itself, volume 7 Come Dream with Me Tonight, which is actually quite similar to the Barney and the Backyard Gang videos that were starting to come out on VHS around the time these tapes were coming out. I think I'm going to do a separate look at Come Dream with Me Tonight another time, maybe in tandem with Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies, the final book and tape set to come out when the original Teddy Ruxpin came out in 1985. The song from that tape that is the preview at the end of the Tweeg Gets the Tweezles tape is "This Lovely Night", the final song on the audiotape for Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies. I didn't have Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies when I was a kid, so this VHS tape was my first exposure to that song and it's one of my favourite Teddy Ruxpin songs ever.
As I mentioned earlier, Vicent Conroy, the man who runs the fansite, The Grundo Gazette, sent me digitized copies of all 12 Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes, as well as the 2000 VHS, Teddy Ruxpin: The Movie, which is the first five episodes of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (released across the first three original VHS volumes) edited together into movie form, and the 1985 VHS of the live action TV movie, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, two years ago. I've watched all fourteen tapes and I love seeing the tapes that I didn't own when I was a kid as much as I love rewatching the ones I DID own when I was a kid. I will be forever thankful to Vincent for sending those my way at the start of the pandemic.
Some of these tapes were re-released in 1998 by Yes! Entertainment to go with the Teddy Ruxpin TV Video Pack which connected the Yes! Entertainment version of Teddy Ruxpin to a small device that also connected to the TV so that when the tapes are playing the Teddy Ruxpin toy provides voiceover commentary, similar to his narration with the audiocassettes and audio cartridges that came with the books depending on which version of Teddy you're talking about. I've only ever seen the TV Video Pack in action on the Grundo Gazette YouTube channel. Vincent did a video focusing on the TV Video Pack almost three years ago at the beginning of the website and the YouTube channel. So go check out the Grundo Gazette on YouTube if you're a Teddy Ruxpin fan. All four of the tapes I owned as a kid were re-released for the TV Video Pack in 1998, so that's pretty cool.
Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for tonight. I will be back sometime tomorrow though for my review of Ms. Marvel as the finale drops on Disney+ tomorrow. So stay tuned for that. But until then have a wonderful night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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