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GRUBBY
Teddy Ruxpin's best buddy
Teddy Ruxpin's best buddy
One of the best things about the World of Wonders Teddy Ruxpin is the ability to link together with Grubby so that they both
can animate and tell the story. Grubby connects to Teddy by way of the Worlds of Wonders 4 wire connection cord. This
was a special cord designed to fit exactly the receptacle in Teddy and Grubby. This same connection from Teddy also
outputs to the answer box and the Projector. Grubby uses 4 "C" type batteries but can do nothing without Teddy Ruxpin.
Many of the Grubbys on the market are in very good condition. They did not sell that well when they came out a year after
Teddy Ruxpin. Parents had already had some experience with the costly Teddy Ruxpin which malfunctioned like
clockwork. Trips to the Grundo hospital were expensive. Grubby himself was just another stuffed animal unless you could
keep Teddy going to power him. Grubby was also quite large and heavy for small children to carry around. The fact that he
was carried often by one of his back legs is evidenced by the number of Grubbys I get with broken off back legs. His neck
was also somewhat unstable and once the support piece broke, Grubbys heavy head compressed the wires running to his
eyes and mouth causing him not to animate. Grubby had his own speaker and when Teddy was used alone, Grubby was
heard "talking" during the story through Teddys speaker. When functioning properly, when it is Grubbys turn to talk, his
voice should come from his speaker and no sound should come from Teddy while Grubby is talking. When they sing
together, you should have a stereo effect with both Teddy and Grubby supplying their own voices through their own
speakers,
can animate and tell the story. Grubby connects to Teddy by way of the Worlds of Wonders 4 wire connection cord. This
was a special cord designed to fit exactly the receptacle in Teddy and Grubby. This same connection from Teddy also
outputs to the answer box and the Projector. Grubby uses 4 "C" type batteries but can do nothing without Teddy Ruxpin.
Many of the Grubbys on the market are in very good condition. They did not sell that well when they came out a year after
Teddy Ruxpin. Parents had already had some experience with the costly Teddy Ruxpin which malfunctioned like
clockwork. Trips to the Grundo hospital were expensive. Grubby himself was just another stuffed animal unless you could
keep Teddy going to power him. Grubby was also quite large and heavy for small children to carry around. The fact that he
was carried often by one of his back legs is evidenced by the number of Grubbys I get with broken off back legs. His neck
was also somewhat unstable and once the support piece broke, Grubbys heavy head compressed the wires running to his
eyes and mouth causing him not to animate. Grubby had his own speaker and when Teddy was used alone, Grubby was
heard "talking" during the story through Teddys speaker. When functioning properly, when it is Grubbys turn to talk, his
voice should come from his speaker and no sound should come from Teddy while Grubby is talking. When they sing
together, you should have a stereo effect with both Teddy and Grubby supplying their own voices through their own
speakers,
Grubbys servo motors are much quieter than Teddys due to all the extra padding around the motors inside his head. The
connection from Teddy to Grubby is surprisingly complicated with many little things adding up for him to function properly.
For this reason, Grubby is difficult and time consuming to troubleshoot. Also, alot of Teddy's component connections on his
circuit board are connected with Molex connectors, making him somewhat "plug and play" when testing individual parts of
his circuitry. Grubby on the other hand, is entirely directly soldered, there are not connectors used
connection from Teddy to Grubby is surprisingly complicated with many little things adding up for him to function properly.
For this reason, Grubby is difficult and time consuming to troubleshoot. Also, alot of Teddy's component connections on his
circuit board are connected with Molex connectors, making him somewhat "plug and play" when testing individual parts of
his circuitry. Grubby on the other hand, is entirely directly soldered, there are not connectors used
Personally I have for my own personal Teddy/Grubby connection directly connected Teddy to Grubby by directly soldering
Teddy's circuit board to Grubby circuit board eliminating the cord altogether. That also means they don't come apart, which
makes that solution a inconvenience for kids. Both Teddy and Grubby's connection receptacle is made of 4 sections with a
metal contact (3 of them) rising at different levels to correspond to the sections on the plug. The audio is on the very
bottom. This plug has to "click through" a the metal contacts which is why the directions tell you to plug in the cord until
you hear several clicks. When one or more of these contacts bend, it makes it very difficult to plug in the cord or get the
cord out. Personally I recommend that you leave the cord plugged into Grubby at all times. You can't use Grubby without
it anyway and it protects a least Grubby's connection from wear and tear. Grubby's connection is much more time
consuming to fix due to having to take him completely apart, take the old solder off the circuit board and re solder the
connection back on. Teddy's connection port is very easy to access and since he has molex connections it is easy to
remove and replace if it breaks. Do watch out for "replacement cords" that are not World of Wonder. Several people have
sold plain "audio" cords as Teddy Grubby connection cords on Ebay. These will not work. In fact they have only 3 wires
instead of 4. You can manage to make some connection, causing several movements of Grubbys eyes and mouth but the
plug isn't even long enough to reach the bottom of the receptacle where the audio is so there will either be no sound or just
loud feedback. Original World of Wonder Teddy Grubby cords are beige in color and they have 4 distinct areas of
connection corresponding to the wires inside. There were "replacement" cords you could order from Worlds of Wonder
(the card came with Grubby), that were black in color but they were not that popular. Over the years I have only seen 1 of
these. Most of the black "replacement cords" are plain audio cords. When in doubt measure and visually check the plug for
the 4 connection areas.
Teddy's circuit board to Grubby circuit board eliminating the cord altogether. That also means they don't come apart, which
makes that solution a inconvenience for kids. Both Teddy and Grubby's connection receptacle is made of 4 sections with a
metal contact (3 of them) rising at different levels to correspond to the sections on the plug. The audio is on the very
bottom. This plug has to "click through" a the metal contacts which is why the directions tell you to plug in the cord until
you hear several clicks. When one or more of these contacts bend, it makes it very difficult to plug in the cord or get the
cord out. Personally I recommend that you leave the cord plugged into Grubby at all times. You can't use Grubby without
it anyway and it protects a least Grubby's connection from wear and tear. Grubby's connection is much more time
consuming to fix due to having to take him completely apart, take the old solder off the circuit board and re solder the
connection back on. Teddy's connection port is very easy to access and since he has molex connections it is easy to
remove and replace if it breaks. Do watch out for "replacement cords" that are not World of Wonder. Several people have
sold plain "audio" cords as Teddy Grubby connection cords on Ebay. These will not work. In fact they have only 3 wires
instead of 4. You can manage to make some connection, causing several movements of Grubbys eyes and mouth but the
plug isn't even long enough to reach the bottom of the receptacle where the audio is so there will either be no sound or just
loud feedback. Original World of Wonder Teddy Grubby cords are beige in color and they have 4 distinct areas of
connection corresponding to the wires inside. There were "replacement" cords you could order from Worlds of Wonder
(the card came with Grubby), that were black in color but they were not that popular. Over the years I have only seen 1 of
these. Most of the black "replacement cords" are plain audio cords. When in doubt measure and visually check the plug for
the 4 connection areas.
