Care and Maintenance of Teddy Ruxpin talking bears.

Care and Maintenance

These are primarily aimed at the original full size Teddy Ruxpin's, however much here can be also applied toward the TeddyII,TeddyIII TeddyIV.

Caring for the plush fur.

Worlds Of Wonder recommended mild soap and a soft cloth for cleaning. My preference for the soap is Woolite® and I use a soft bristle toothbrush in addition to a damp terry cloth. Gund also has a product called 'Bubble Gund' which I've been told works well also

Put 2 drops in a small cup (like a Dixie® Cup) and fill it with cold water. Dip the cloth and the brush in the solution. Make sure to take care when you use the brush on his muzzle because the material is thin. I've also cleaned the actual plush fur doing this with good results. Make sure to blot off the excess soap and then repeat the whole thing again with plain water. (ALWAYS make sure not get water inside!!) Then take a hair brush and a hair drier and blow-dry the fur on cool to warm heat. Remember you don't need to style it. Just dry it. Don't cook the plush with the drier.

Regular brushing of the fur also helps appearance by helping to remove dust. Occasional vacuuming is also a good idea.

Cleaning the costumes is done in a similar way. As always, Woolite® is a good choice. I soak them for a per the bottle's instructions and then do any additional washing by hand. The Santa and Tux costumes I've not had to clean, and I'd wager they are FAR more delicate so take due care! Drying is quite easy as I use the good ole' clothes drier on either cool or warm, and a softness sheet just for good measure. As the costumes age you might find that 'pilling' becomes a problem, I use a handy clothing shaver to carefully remove the pilling.

Caring for the tape mechanism.

]_-=Cassette type=-_[

Reasons to clean tape player,

Poor or muddy sound.

Poor animation performance even with new batteries.

Carnivorous operation of tape player.

Cleaning the tape transport is quite easy and most people should be able to manage it without difficulties.

Get some denatured Alcohol (Isopropyl) and a cotton swab like a Q-Tip . Dip the tip into the liquid and soak the cotton. Take your Teddy Ruxpin and set him on his belly, being careful not to place too much weight on his muzzle or otherwise you may damage the internal mechanism. Pull up the door and remove the cassette.

Tape Transport. -Image-

Looking into the top of the drive you will see a black rubber roller (Snub roller), and small shaft about 1.5mm in diametre (Capstan), and a squarish head with a couple of small stripes across it surface (The tape head). Ferrous Oxide shears from the tape surface while playing and can accumulate on all these items, causing poor performance. Any brown-red build-up should be removed by wiping the cotton swab against them. If there is a great deal of oxide formation you may need to clean with more than one swab. Keep in mind that the snub roller will shed some rubber of it's own, so don't rub so hard that you only get a black deposit on the tip of the swab, you should only be getting a red-brown shade.

Caring for the rest of the bear.

For the most part other than batteries, there isn't much else you can maintain on a Teddy Ruxpin. Regular exercise is a good idea with most any version of Teddy Ruxpin. One of the most common problems I've found with them are servo motors being frozen. This is primarily caused from lack of use that allows the grease to migrate to the commutator, and thus keeps the motor from getting any power. One note: the later small versions don't seem to benefit from use since they use and entirely different animation mechanizm.

Unless you KNOW what you're doing, don't attempt to repair one. It takes a fair amount of skill to not only repair one, but to make it look as if it has never been repaired afterwards.

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Make CERTAIN to follow the instruction for use of Woolite®!!!

I take no responsibility for any damage that you may cause to your collection. I do these very same things and I never have had a problem.

Teddy Ruxpin and all related characters are registered trademarks and the sole Intellectual Property of Ken Forsse.

The preceding was created for fan appreciation and enjoyment only and not for commercial purposes as per Fair Use laws. Any copyright infringement is purely unintentional and not the intention of this web page. Errors should be noted and emailed so that they can be corrected. Thank you.

3/23/14