The Faded Fobs is the first Teddy Ruxpin VHS tape where there's no live action Teddy at all and no bonus gift included either. It's also the third in succession of tapes I didn't own or rent when I was a kid. But unlike The Treasure of Grundo and Teddy Outsmarts M.A.V.O. this tape has only two episodes, neither episode is the start of a new arc, and neither form an arc with each other. They're just two standalone episodes that just happen to be in sequence with each other being that "The Faded Fobs" is episode 11 and "The Medicine Wagon" is episode 12.
I don't remember seeing these two episodes when I was a kid because they weren't ones I watched on VHS, since I didn't have this tape and my dad never taped either of these episodes on the two blank tapes that he filled with Teddy Ruxpin episodes for me when I was really little. But when I did my watch through of the series when I got the Complete Series DVD box set, I discovered these episodes and they're among some of my favourite episodes of the series. "The Story of the Faded Fobs" as this episode is called in the book and tape set for the toy, is one I owned as a child and listened to all the time back then, but I never owned "The Medicine Wagon". But I have an MP3 of the story. So when I got the DVD set and watched the episode, I was actually amazed at how little they changed when adapting the book into the TV show. Just because Tweeg is in almost the entire story and interacts with Teddy, Grubby, and Gimmick. Whereas "The Story of the Faded Fobs" was such a small scale story that they needed to not only add scenes with Tweeg and L.B., but also expand upon Teddy and Grubby going to pick Strawberries. And even then, the story itself wasn't changed all that much.
I do want to point out that the TV episode makes Teddy and Grubby look completely incompetent when they're trying to figure out why Rainbow Falls dried up, while the book at least makes them smart enough to know that they need Wooly right away rather than trying to figure it out on their own. Here though, they do one thing, but it makes them dizzy and so they decide to go get Wooly. Which is great, but definitely isn't up to Teddy and Grubby's usual quality of quick thinking and decision making. Especially since in numerous episodes before this, they had great ideas that worked pretty well, including getting the crystals back from M.A.V.O. in the episode right before this one.
Also I had to rewind the tape and rewatch a scene when the tape was over. During the episode, Grubby and Teddy had put Strawberry juice on the Fobs to try and get their colour back until they find a way to make it permanent. Well the juice is sticky and a Fob gets stuck to Grubby's hand, so when he tries to get the Fob off, the Fob is tossed out of frame, and I had to make sure that Grubby hadn't just punted a Fob out of the story. But, there were five Fobs before that scene and five after that scene, so there was no cruelty towards Fobs in this episode.
The only thing that really ties these two episodes together is the ongoing storyline of Tweeg reading the M.A.V.O. handbook and trying to complete his Evil Deeds Checklist. Which is funny because he really isn't that good at being evil. Like in the first few episodes it just seems like he's an incompetent villain, but still a villain. But as the series progresses, you find out that he's just REALLY bad at being evil, probably because the Grunge side of him is inherently good and so it's struggling with the evil nature of Tweeg's Troll side. Besides I love scenes between Tweeg and L.B. because they're so sarcastic and play off of each other so well. In fact I'd say they play off each other better than most villains did in the '80s and '90s.
Overall, this was a pretty good tape. The episodes on it are both filler episodes, but as I've said before, even the filler episodes of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin are great because they open up the World of Teddy Ruxpin pretty well. Also, I was wrong and we do see the Reducing Machine again in "The Faded Fobs". I had forgotten that Gimmick used the Reducing Machine instead of the Portable Reducing Machine to enlarge the Strawberry that ended up rolling out of Gimmick's House and across the valley only to roll off a cliff and right onto Tweeg's head.
As I said, there's nothing to say about the tape as there's no live action Teddy intro and outro, and no bonus gift included to talk about either. It's just the two episodes, though "The Medicine Wagon" has it's title card removed even though it's just the two episodes. I almost prefer having the title cards just because people weren't necessarily always going to look at the back of the VHS box to see what episodes are on the tape. That's just me though.
That's it for today folks. Next week I'll be reviewing Volume 9, Tweeg Gets the Tweezles, which is the final Teddy Ruxpin VHS tape that I owned when I was a kid and then I'll be going into uncharted territory for the final three volumes of the series. I've also got a comic book review coming your way probably tomorrow, and then a movie review for you on Saturday, where I will be watching another Netflix Original Movie. So long for now!
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