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Teddy Ruxpin is coming back and he's got emoji-like eyes

The talking bear from your 1980s dreams (or nightmares) is all spiffed up and will be back for 2017.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
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The new Teddy Ruxpin is coming in 2017.

Wicked Cool Toys

Oh sure, kids of today laugh at our 1980s innovations. Just because Frogger on the Atari 2600 looks like it was drawn by a kindergartner and we actually watched "Manimal," today's Gen Z's think we were all loons. Well, they're right, and they're about to find out just how right, because Teddy Ruxpin is back.

You remember Teddy Ruxpin. He came out in 1985 as a kind of stuffed bear robot with a cassette player in his butt, and he'd move his eyes and mouth in sync with whatever the cassette said. Some kids thought it was cool and comforting, some kids thought it was creepy. But whatever you thought of Teddy Ruxpin, you can now start planning to buy him for the new generation.

Teddy actually made a comeback once before, but vanished around 2010. This new version from Wicked Cool Toys still has the moving mouth and eyes, but uses Bluetooth technology, a 4GB hard drive, and an optional free app to read stories and sing songs. Squeeze his paw to switch to another story, and squeeze his foot for a singalong.

While Teddy was on display at the Dallas Toy Fair this week, don't start planning those holiday gifts yet. He won't actually be available until August 2017.

But it's the eyes, with their 40 full-color animated expressions, including emoji-like hearts, stars, and snowflakes, that will haunt our dreams until then.

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Here are just some of Teddy's new animated eye styles.

Wicked Cool Toys