The Worlds of Wonder logo.
Worlds of Wonder was an American company that produced toys, consumer electronics and video games. It was founded in 1980 by former Atari employees. Worlds of Wonder filed for bankruptcy protection in 1988 and finally ceased all operations in 1990.
The best-known product manufactured by Worlds of Wonder was Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic talking teddy bear which was the best-selling toy of both 1985 and 1986. The toy had an audio tape cassette player built into its back. Its mouth and eyes moved while it appeared to read stories. The rights to Teddy Ruxpin were later sold to Hasbro.
In 1986, Worlds of Wonder produced a talking Snoopy toy. The toy functioned in the same manner as Teddy Ruxpin and appeared to be able to read stories about the Peanuts characters. The voice of the talking Snoopy doll was provided by the American actor Cam Clarke. Who would later voice Snoopy in the animated version of Snoopy!!! The Musical.
The thirteen episodes available on cassette of The World of Snoopy (Worlds of Wonder) are:
- Rock-A-Bye Snoopy
- Snoopy and the Great Pumpkin
- Snoopy at the Dog Show
- Snoopy Goes Camping
- Snoopy Hits the Beach
- Snoopy, Spike and the Cat Next Door
- Snoopy's America
- Snoopy's Band
- Snoopy's Baseball Game
- Snoopy's Birthday Party
- Snoopy's Land Of Make Believe
- Snoopy's Show and Tell
- Snoopy's Talent Show
A Woodstock plush was also released as a companion to Talking Snoopy. A Charlie Brown that would appear to help the Talking Snoopy to tell stories, functioning the same as the Grubby doll (made to accompany Teddy Ruxpin) and Goofy doll (made to accompany Worlds of Wonder's Talking Mickey Mouse) was also planned to be released, but due to Worlds of Wonder's bankruptcy it was never made. The cassettes were coded with lip sync for Charlie Brown, which will be noticed if a WOW companion doll, like Grubby or Goofy, is plugged in.
Videos[]
This commercial for the talking Snoopy toy opens with the lines, "He's been an author, a flying ace and Joe Cool. And now... finally... he's ready to talk". The commercial features a clip of the talking Snoopy doll telling a story about trouble that the "round-headed kid" had with the Kite-Eating Tree.
