Well, I did it. I conquered my childhood fear of talking bears and brought a vintage Teddy Ruxpin animatronic stuffed bear into my home. There were and still are plenty of his brethren both young and ...

When I worked at Worlds of Wonder, the startup that brought the hit plush talking bear Teddy Ruxpin to market in the 1980s, I didn’t fully feel the impact he had on kids because I didn’t have any.

I was cleaning out my parents' attic the other day and I happened to stumble upon an old Teddy Ruxpin doll that I used to have when I was a child. The small, t-shirt clad bear seemed stoic about his ...