Book set:The Talking Mother Goose Presents Hector Nursery Rhymes | Little Boy Blue

In the mid-1980s, Worlds of Wonder Inc., introduced an animatronic talking bear Teddy Ruxpin. Soon, other talking animals followed. The toys came with book sets which included a cassette tape recording of a popular story and a hardback book of the same story. Children learning to read could easy follow along with the recording of the story, associating letters and words in print with the sounds they heard in the recordings. Although the technology of the toy may seem quaint by today's standards, these talking animals must have convinced many parents that the technology that could teach literacy was indeed a great thing. The talking bears and other animals, however, lasted only a few years. Production on all the animals halted in 1988 when WOW filed for bankruptcy.