Chapter 287: Ruxpin-Hobbes II
The mixed feelings of the Ruxpin team aside... the Ruxpin-Hobbes combo had really shed some light on both toys.
A lot of parents had actually breathed a sigh of relief when the whole Ruxpin-Hobbes dynamic had been covered.
Teddy Ruxpin is the only one with all these advertisements and whatnots after all and their kids had pretty much been baited.
It didn't help that show-and-tell days had come around the curriculum and that Ruxpin commercial has urged children to want it as a show-and-tell item.
Ironic, that the commercial was about Teddy Ruxpin breaking the show and tell norm of teddy bears yet it was actually the one that's ubiquitous now.
Anyways, that Ruxpin price tag was still putting a lot of parents off, and with Hobbes being available... at least they have a cheaper toy to turn to.
Even if some kids clamored to only want THAT talking toy... couldn't their parents just be smart about persuasion tactics and highlight Hobbes some more?
In any case, Hobbes did fill a demand for cheaper alternatives and it may not be a talking animatronic... it is still a real-ification of an established character like Hobbes.
If they think about it, wouldn't it be much better for their children to be explorative and silly like Calvin?
Offering up a teddy bear that tells bedtime stories by itself seems to cut down bonding time between them and their kids too.
Of course, these were just the opinions of the parents that were ‘pro’ to the Hobbes toy while there are still plenty of others that side with Ruxpin.
Without doubt, the Ruxpin supporters were the rich types and the Hobbes supporters were the poor to middle-class types.
There's just no denying that these two toys had actually spurned a lot of attention to objects that would otherwise not have been that relevant at all.
Perhaps it's just one of those events that blow up out of proportion due to many factors lining up and coming into play.
Ruxpin-Hobbes indeed!
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There are always inexplicably mundane things that stand out to people.
This whole Ruxpin craze was just one thing and the Hobbes alternative was just piling unto another.
Of course, these were the type of mundane happenstance that is quite inspirational to people.
One of those inspired people happens to be a man named Ty Warner.
Ty had just come back from a long excursion in Italy and as soon as he was just settling back into the States, he had been greeted by this unexpected disturbance in the toy market.
"Ruxpin-Hobbes. Isn't that quite the curious development?" One was a simple stuffed toy while the other is a toy stuffed with engineering wonder.
Father Warner's attention was piqued. "What? Are you interested in going back to being a toy salesman again?"
"I was always planning to..." Ty admitted but he also felt inspired. "... but I think I'm more determined to do it now."
"Just don't repeat the same mistake you've made before." Father Warner reminded his son of the Dakin incident. "Who in their right mind would sell products that are in direct competition to the company that hired him?"
"That would be me, your son." Ty reminded with scorn. "I'm also a son that seduces the girlfriends of his father."
Father Warner had no comment but he had a comment on another topic. "Just hope that Dakin hadn't ratted your deplorable practices out to the other toy companies. Your chances of being hired would probably be abysmal if that was the case."
Ty was silent at that. He had a different idea for his comeback to the toy industry after all.
Why would he need to be hired by other toy companies when he could start his own?
Of course, due to his Italy trip and his experience in Dakin, he inclined a stuffed toy company.
He internally vowed that his stuffed toys would be more successful than both these Hobbes and Teddy Ruxpin toys combined!
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Aside from a random Dakin-former salesman, the Ruxpin-Hobbes phenomenon attracted the attention of a company called Tiger Electronics Ltd. or Tiger Toys.
As of current, Tiger Toys is known for its most noteworthy products: the 2-XL robot and the Tiger's Talking Learning Computer.
As for why the Ruxpin-Hobbes thing was interesting to Tiger Toys… it’s as follows:
For one, Hobbes was a stuffed tiger. Of course, it may just be the ‘tiger’ part in their company name that drew their attention to the toy.
The other thing is Teddy Ruxpin. A smart innovation that clearly drew a lot of its cassette integration and engineering genius from their 2-XL.
The brains behind Tiger Toys were intrigued enough that they might just try their way into this phenomenon.
Why not make a stuffed toy like Hobbes and then fill it with engineering genius that will surpass what Teddy Ruxpin could ever be?
This was still on their drawing boards but who knows what will come of it?
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With random fellows and random companies being inspired by the Ruxpin-Hobbes debacle, it made sense for not-so-random fellows and not-so-random companies to be inspired as well.
In fact, Michael Eisner and Disney have kept track of this toy industry upset from the get-go.
And as it turns out... both toys seem to have a connection to the Disney company that he's managing.
Hobbes was more of a Creed-intersection thing through the Tigger property... but Teddy Ruxpin could have actually been theirs.
Eisner wasn't really clear as to why the Disney-loyal Ken Forsse had separated himself from Disney but there really is some oversight when this designer opted for non-Disney cooperation.
Eisner has another qualm to add to the previous management. It had already made oversight with the Back to the Future and Zemeckis matter... with this Teddy Ruxpin and Forsse thing to add to it.
To be fair, Disney's toy operations feel a bit lax. Maybe it was high time to innovate in that field.
“Would it be possible for us to release Talking Mickey Mouses as well?” Eisner pondered but he was sure to make it happen… eventually.
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Of course, the Ruxpin-Hobbes thing was also noticed by the Anti-Creed Alliance.
Unlike Worlds of Wonder and the others... they had much more inclination to direct more of their attention to the true minds behind Creed Toys.
Anyways, Hasbro, the toy powerhouses in the Anti-Creed, had pretty much been dedicated to improving itself and they'll just take this Creed Toys’ Ruxpin-Hobbes move as something to learn from.
After all, lollygagging and pestering the Creed threat seems to have headed nowhere and they were more focused on much more effective moves for their next course of action.
Still, as separate as they may be from the others, an inquiry about the whole Ruxpin-Hobbes combo had popped into some people's minds.
Was it a coincidence or planned? They knew a bit more insider Creed news than others and it made them wonder.
Be it Sullivan Creed or the shockingly young Alexander Creed... the decision that led to this enviable strategy could only be any of these two.
If it was Alexander Creed that greenlit this whole thing, then that would really be a terrifying thought to think about!
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As blurry as the consensus on things was... it was clear that Creed Toys had benefited a lot from all of this Ruxpin-Hobbes nonsense.
The usual Creed-dominated comic book stores aside, Stuffed Hobbes was popping off in other places.
It was a sales surge and it was fortunate that Creed Toys had steadily paced their Hobbes production and distribution to match it.
The whole manufacturing process was sped up and it is expected that these high quantity releases should still be viable as long as the Teddy Ruxpin side of things would still be a prominent toy in the eyes of society.
Alexander, the mastermind that people want to punch, was sure that Teddy Ruxpin would still rise and Hobbes should be able to hitch unto that momentum.
Truth be told, he didn’t really plan things to be some sort of Ruxpin-Hobbes phenomenon. He just knew that Teddy Ruxpin was costly and Hobbes could really take advantage of that. Anyways, who was he to complain when good fortune came his way?He just needed to milk it some more.
After Ruxpin, Worlds of Wonder would continue to innovate with the Teddy Ruxpin property.
Their relevance should still be peaking for a couple more years since there is still Grubby. That weird-looking octopus slash centipede and its link function with Teddy Ruxpin will take things up a notch.
At that Grubby craze, Alexander would introduce Susan “Susies” Derkins and her stuffed bunny, Mr. Bun. The Calvin and Hobbes strip would grow along the Teddy Ruxpin franchise as well.
Ruxpin and Hobbes. Grubby and Mr. Bun. Wouldn't that just be fitting?
If people at WoW and Alchemy knew of his plans that anticipate all their plans, they'll probably cough up blood from the unfairness of things.
Alexander also knows that they'll go full force in the Ruxpin property by making a 65-episode-d animated show called 'The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin'.
To match that, animated clips of Calvin and Hobbes could also be made as an intermission between shows or whatnot... but that is still an idea for consideration.
At some point, Teddy Ruxpin would be dried out like any other toy. Perhaps this was why he didn’t just outright plunder Teddy Ruxpin in the first place.
In any case, ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ was good enough for now and Creed Toys' stuffed toy entries should live on with the continued syndications and the relevance of accompaniment.
Alexander also had to take into account that a lot of unexpected things could happen and these kinds of expectations go awry. Still, the prospects of their entry into the stuffed toy industry were bright and the Creed brand had pretty much become established themselves in the toy industry again.
There's no denying that Stuffed September has really been quite “stuffed” as he thought it would be.
Of course, at the very end of it... Alexander was back answering some assignments with Milla in the living room.
"I get why it's called Stuffed September now." Milla said as she erased a mistake in the drawing she's making.
"It's pretty straightforward, isn't it?" Well, not really due to quite the kerfuffle that the month has been... but it was stuffed with stuffed stuff.
"It is." She actually has Hobbes and Ruxpin to prove it. Alex didn’t really mind 'Talking Teddy' being bought. "It's going to be October tomorrow... what are you going to call it?"
"I'm not really sure." Alexander thought on it but nothing really comes to mind yet. "A couple of important things are going to happen though."
"Yeah, I’m looking forward to it." Milla didn't doubt that and was just wondering what Alexander and his company were going to do next. There's a high chance that it was going to be fun and she’ll have new toys to keep for herself.