Today's Advent marks my last toy flop. Over the past 3 weeks, I've highlighted some toys that I asked Santa for that ended up being huge busts. This one wasn't so much a flop as it's an example of asking for one very popular thing and getting another thing instead. But that's okay because I really loved this toy!
The toy I'm talking about today really was actually pretty cool. Though when the batteries ran low, things got weird. And if you put a heavy metal cassette in it, things got insane! Yes- the year was 1986. But the toy I got from Santa wasn't Teddy Ruxpin. Instead I got the talking Fievel!
Let's go back a bit. In late 1985, Hasbro introduced the word to Teddy Ruxpin. This was a teddy bear that could play audio cassette tapes. As the tape played, Teddy's mouth and eyes would move as if he was alive and telling you the story. Every kid seemed to want one and boy was he expensive. That year, the toy was also impossible to find in stores.
In 1986, the Teddy Ruxpin craze was still going on. But by now, Hasbro was able to meet up with the demand. With 1985's shortages a thing of the past and considering that 86 was the year I finally got a Cabbage Patch Kid, I was certain that I was going to get a Teddy Ruxpin.
But when Christmas morning rolled around I found something different under my tree- a Talking Fievel doll!
While this wasn't what I had asked for, this wasn't a bad substitute. Fievel was the tiny immigrant mouse lead character from the animated movie An American Tail. I felt so horrible that he gets separated from his family that I wanted to save him and make him a part of my family.
Anyways, though I didn't ask Santa for Fievel, it was not a bad toy for me. Mostly because I didn't know that such a toy existed. Had I did, I probably would've asked Santa for it. Fievel was a great surprise under the tree! Though my friends all seemed to mock me for getting it instead of Teddy Ruxpin, I loved my Fievel.
While talking Fievel wasn't as popular as Teddy Ruxpin, Fievel had a major advantage- playability. See Teddy Ruxpin could only move it's eyes and mouth to the cassettes designed for him. If you put a Pat Benetar cassette into Teddy Ruxpin, he would play the music but he'd sit there all static. Not with Fievel!
You could put a Twisted Sister tape into Fievel and his mouth would move along to Dee Snyder. It was quite insane but so neat too! Unfortunately, Fievel's eyes didn't move. Had they, this whole thing would've been epic!
You also could speed up the tape to make anything you played sound like a tiny mouse was singing to it? Imagine Chip n Dale singing We're Not Gonna Take It! That's what this was like.
One problem with the talking Fievel was that the do used up a lot of juice. I don't remember what type of batteries he used. But to operate, the doll required a lot. 6 or 8 batteries, I think.
This meant that sometimes Fievel started to run out of power quite often. If you wanted to keep listening to music or books on tape and your family was out of replacement batteries, you had to make do. So Fievel would… talk. Slo...ooow...ly. That run-down effect soundly very creepy. It was a tad disturbing as you thought about it like Fievel was dying.
For 2-3 years, Fievel was my tape player. But by 1989, I had to say goodbye to him. A middle school student couldn't expect to survive bullying using a giant stuffed mouse as a Walkman. While I have no regrets upgrading to a sleeker, less plush model of personal stereo, I wish I had kept Fievel. Being a less popular toy in the 80's has made this cartoon icon quite collectible.
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