“The Missing Princess” is the longest story of The World of Teddy Ruxpin Adventure Series and concludes the story arc set out in “The Airship”. The story describes Teddy Ruxpin and his friends’ quest to find the Treasure of Grundo, and the search and rescue of the titular missing Princess Aruzia.

The story first appeared in the 1985 Worlds of Wonder Teddy Ruxpin talking toy and was not released again until the 2006 BackPack Toys iteration.

While many of Teddy’s stories usually present a “value” readers can take from it, this story is particularly unique as Teddy presents an extended message of children’s safety at the end.

“In this adventure, children learn the importance of safety and taking good care of themselves.”

The story picks up almost immediately after the events of “The Airship”, with Teddy, Grubby, and Gimmick flying the Airship in search of the Treasure of Grundo. They quickly run out of the firewood they had been using to fuel the hot airbag, and are forced to land in the middle of the Great Desert.

The desert proves no place to find firewood, but Gimmick ends up tripping over something that turns out to be a lump of coal. He determines that this will make a good substitute for the firewood they’d been burning, if they can find enough of it. Grubby finds plenty coal in a nearby cave, and the trio set to work digging it up and carting it back to the Airship.

As the sun begins to set, the three friends attempt one last haul. They begin to hear strange sounds, and despite Gimmick’s insistence that no creatures could possibly live in such a climate, they soon find themselves surrounded by strange, bipedal creatures made entirely of mud! The creatures are irate that the trio had been stealing their precious coal, and even though Teddy offers to compensate them for it, they are marched away to stand before the muddy creatures’ leader.

The mud king demands that Grubby--have many appendages--shall be “put to work”, while Teddy and Gimmick are carted away and jailed. As Teddy and Gimmick begin to wonder what kind of creatures these must be, a voice behind them replies, “They’re Mudblups”.

Teddy and Gimmick are introduced to their cell mate: Prince Arin, the son of King Nogburt. He explains that his sister, Princess Aruzia, has been kidnapped. Arin had been searching for her when the Mudblups captured and imprisoned him. The new friends begin to think of how they might escape their cavernous confines.

A Mudblup guard arrives with food, which he spoons out to the prisoners. Upon tasting it, they lament it is unequivocally awful. Suddenly, a loose part of the ceiling falls into Gimmick’s plate, revealing a speck of sunlight. Together, Teddy, Gimmick, and Arin manage to dig their way through to the floor of the Great Desert.

The three make their way back to the Airship, resolving to go back and rescue Grubby. Gimmick comes up with a pan and, leaving Prince Arin to guard the Airship, he and Teddy return to the Mudblup Caves, this time with glowing lanterns in hand. Having lived their whole lives in the darkness of their tunnels, the Mudblups scatter when confronted with the bright light, clearing the way for Teddy and Gimmick to call out for Grubby as they make their way through the underground halls.

They find Grubby working in the kitchen, and he confesses that he had made them his specialty for lunch: Roasted Root Stew. Together, the trio head for the safety of the Airship.

Once safely in the air, Teddy introduces Prince Arin to Grubby, and the friends announce that they are postponing their search for the Treasure of Grundo so that they can help Prince Arin find his kidnapped sister. With no obvious leads, the group head north to look for clues.

Running low on water, Grubby spots a waterfall, and the Airship lands. When they arrive at the falls, the group find a huge, furry, purple creature bathing beneath them! When Teddy asks politely if they might get some water, the creature barks at them to leave. Grubby is decidedly less polite, and insists that they need water if they’re ever going to find Princess Aruzia. The creature softens at the mention of a missing princess, and become enraged again when he learns that the princess was in fact kidnapped. The creature resolves to take the group to see the Wizard of Wee Gee, who may be able to lend some clue as to where the princess is being held captive. They also learn that the creature is named the Wooly What’s-It.

Wooly proves too big to fit into the Airship, so the band walk through the jungle to the Wizard’s fortress. Wooly waits outside while the rest sit down at a huge table. The Wizard asks everyone to concentrate and begins to conduct a seance, despite Gimmick’s scientific reservations.

A pointer on the table begins to move, pointing at various letters on its surface, spelling out, “G-U-T-A-N-G-S”. The Wizard tells the group that Princess Aruzia is being held by the evil Gutangs. The Gutangs live high in the Treacherous Mountains in the ancient Hard to Find City, the Gutangs have aircraft of their own to thwart any intruders. Grubby becomes anxious at the mention of the Treacherous Mountains and Hard to Find City: that’s where the Treasure of Grundo is purportedly hidden! A glass dome on the wall near the table beings to project pictures of Princess Aruzia in the Gutangs’ clutches. After getting directions from the Wizard--who insists that no one has ever been able to scale the Treacherous Mountains, the group set off to save the princess.

Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick, and Prince Arin fly the Airship to the Treacherous Mountains and land while they devise a plan to rescue Aruzia. Teddy asks Grubby to make an extra batch of Root Stew, much to Grubby’s puzzlement. The group enter the Hard to Find City in the middle of the night. They begin to make their way through the City, overpowering the Gutangs they encounter and disguising themselves in the large Gutang helmets. Our heroes continue to make their way through the City until they arrive at the Guard House. Using their disguises, our heroes are able to walk right by the other Gutang guards and finally find Princess Aruzia.

A brief reunion between Arin and Aruzia is cut short as the group disguise her in a helmet and begin to make their exit. Dawn arrives just as the group board the Airship and begin to lift off, and a blaring alarm rings through the City to signal the princess’ disappearance.

As the Airship lifts off and heads away from the City, the Gutangs begin launch their aircraft in hot pursuit. The small aircraft begin circling the Airship, firing arrows and rocks, one of which the propeller clean out of the Airship. WIth no way to navigate, the Airship begins to drift back to the Hard to Find City.

Teddy instructs Grubby to bring the Root Stew, which Grubby loads into a sling and begins firing at the pursuing Gutang airplanes. Blinded by the stew, the pilot’s plane begins to plummet to the valley below. Grubby loads a sling for Arin and he and Teddy begin firing at the ensuing craft, taking them out one by one. Meanwhile, the Gutangs continue launching more planes until suddenly the Wooly What’s-It appears on the launching platform, having scaled the Mountains himself!

Wooly begins to smash the Gutang airplanes and chasing their pilots away, leaving Teddy and Arin to to fend off the planes which had been launched. A final plane circles the Airship, but Grubby informs them that they are all out of Root Stew! Desperate to fend off the last plane, the group begins to despair. Then the plane circles by the launching platform, and Wooly jumps out onto the craft, sending it plummeting into the valley below.

Our heroes land the Airship and hurry to where Wooly lies, unmoving. The Gutang pilot, seeing the group coming, scurries away. Wooly rouses to consciousness, seemingly unharmed, and smitten by Princess Aruzia. Aruzia thanks the group for saving her, and Teddy remarks that it’s time to get her and Prince Arin home.

Navigating purely by memory, Prince Arin is able to guide the Airship and its crew through Grundo until the familiar parapets of King Nogburt’s Castle can be seen on the horizon.

Teddy and Aruzia sing the closing verse of “Come Dream With Me Tonight”.

The final eight minutes are spent with Teddy and Grubby informing listeners of special child safety tips. Some of it is put to song ("When You're In Charge"). At the conclusion, Teddy and Aruzia sing a duet of “Let’s Keep the World Safe For the Children”.

• This story marks the first appearance of The Mudblups, Prince Arin, the Wooly What’s-It, the Wizard of Wee Gee, the Gutangs, and Princess Aruzia.

• Teddy Ruxpin was appointed the National Spokesbear for Missing and Exploited Children. This is most likely the reason for the lengthy informational segment at the end of this story.

• This story features an almost eight-minute segment of children’s safety tips at the end: a first of its kind for the World of Teddy Ruxpin Adventure Series. Years later, other stories would be crafted to deal with safety issues, such as “Fire Safety with Teddy Ruxpin”, “Water Safety With Teddy Ruxpin”, and “Safe at Home with Teddy Ruxpin”.

• While in this version he’s known as the Wizard of Wee Gee, the character would later be known as the Wizard of Grundo in "The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin" animated series.

• The Wizard is presented here as a purely mystical creature, able to conjure images of Princess Aruzia and her captors to help the heroes find her. In "The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin" animated series, the character would become more of a trickster, using conventional means to offer the illusion of magic to profit from his customers.

• Much of this story’s plot was woven into “The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin” ABC live-action special. It also became the basis for the first five episodes of "The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin" animated series.

• Much like “The Airship”, much of this story’s plot would be reworked almost entirely for the 2006 version of the Teddy Ruxpin talking toy. The story would be split into the stories “Captured By Mudblups”, “Wooly and The Wizard,” “The Missing Princess,” and “The Treasure.” These versions would incorporate the expanded story presented in “The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin” ABC live-action special.

• Aside from its standard introduction of "Come Dream With Me Tonight", this story is noteable for not featuring any story-driven songs. Instead, two songs, "When You're In Charge" and "Let's Keep the World Safe for the Children" are reserved for the informative segment once the story is over.

“The Missing Princess” is a story from the World of Teddy Ruxpin Adventure Series and is a re-imagining of parts of the 1985 version of “The Missing Princess”. It was released for the BackPack Toys Teddy Ruxpin talking toy.

The story expands the original version of “The Missing Princess” to include elements of the 1985 “The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin” ABC Live Action Special. It uses soundbites from that production to expand the narrative regarding the search for the Treasure of Grundo and Tweeg’s efforts to foil that plan.

Like every entry in the BackPack Toys series, two books were issued for “The Missing Princess”: one picture book and one containing the entire text of the story. The picture book is noted for not only using some of the original art of the 1985 edition of “The Missing Princess”, but also updated many of its character models to conform more closely to their later renditions, such as Grubby’s appearance becoming more rounded and less angular and bug-like. Meanwhile, several pages of brand new art were created to accompany the expanded narrative.

The voice of Leota the Woodsprite introduces the title of the story before Teddy begins to sing (“Come Dream With Me Tonight” (Introduction)).

Teddy briefly recalls he and Grubby’s encounter with Newton Gimmick and their flight aboard the Airship as they searched for the Treasure of Grundo. He describes meeting Leota and how she helped them fix the steering problems with the AIrship. Teddy then recalls how they’d been captured by the Mudblups where they’d met Prince Arin who had been searching for his kidnapped sister, Princess Aruzia. After escaping the Mudblups, Teddy and his friends decided to abandon their search for the treasure and instead pledged to help Arin find his lost sister. They then met the Wooly What’s-It who took them to see the Wizard. The Wizard explained to them that Princess Aruzia was being held in the Hard-to-Find City atop the Treacherous Mountains by the evil Gutangs. That just so happens to be where the Treasure of Grundo is supposed to be hidden.

The Airship arrives at the Treacherous Mountains, and the group lands at the foot of the mountains so they can devise a plan to rescue Princess Aruzia.

Meanwhile, Tweeg is still wallowing in his misery, convinced he will never be able to scale the mountains. Suddenly, he spots the Airship, and Tweeg moans in a fresh wave of despair as he realizes Gimmick is about to get to the treasure before him. L.B. notices that the Airship is landing, and that’s when Tweeg suddenly gets a new idea.

As they plan their rescue mission, Teddy and Princes Arin make slingshots while Grubby whips up another batch of Root Stew. As night falls, the crew prepares to cast off and Tweeg and L.B. sneak aboard the Airship. Together, they all fly up to the top of the Treacherous Mountains (“Wishing”).

The Airship lands near the Hard-to-Find City. Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick and Prince Arin sneak into the City, and once they’re out of sight, Tweeg and L.B. sneak in themselves, hoping to find the treasure.

The four heroes sneak through the City. As they encounter Gutang guards, they overpower them and steal each guard’s helmet and armor. They disguise themselves in the armor and continue through the City and eventually locate the guardhouse.

Disguised as Gutangs, the four walk right past several other guards and eventually find themselves in the room where Princess Aruzia has been locked in a cage. They group overpowers the remaining guards and remove their helmets. Princess Aruzia is overjoyed at being reunited with her brother.

Disguising Princess Aruzia in another helmet, the five make their way out of the guardhouse and back toward the Airship (Wishing).

• While largely following the original version of “The Missing Princess”, this version incorporates the conclusion of the original version of “The Airship” with the introduction of Leota the Woodsprite while adding other elements from “The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin” ABC Live Action Special.

• New art was drawn to accommodate the expanded story. Artist Maggie Parr would create several pages of new work. Additionally, work was done to allow the characters to conform to their more “rounded” iterations as seen in the later Adventure Series books. Of the 16 pieces of art used in the book, only four can be considered “original” works from the 1985 version of “The Missing Princess”. Additionally, art from “The Airship” and “Captured By Mudblups” can be seen during the recounting of those stories at the beginning.

• While the original version of “The Missing Princess” recounted the entire adventure through to its conclusion, this version expanded the story so that the entire arc is told in five entires. The rest of these stories can be found in what would collectively be known as “Treasure Series 1 and 2”. This version of “The Missing Princess” uses the song “Wishing” from the original Adventure Series story “Tweeg and the Bounders”.

• The cartridge containing this story also contained its immediate sequel, “The Treasure”.