Illiops are 'evolved' you might say through years of story editing and rewriting.

Illiops actually didn't even start out as illiops, they were originally called Spungids. Their creation was by purpose, but the path they followed from then on was a circuitous one. Mid-year in 1963. Ken Forsse got together with some close friends to create a children's story. In the past Ken Forsee had been involved with an attempt to create a puppet show, this served as the starting point. Ken brought in a author by the name of Bud Bankson who penned a story called 'The Adventures of Simian Greep.' One of the minor characters in this original story was named Teddy Ruxpin. Bud Bankson's interest in the story was later purchased by Ken in 1965. Over the next decade not much happened with the story until the late 70s. In 1978 Ken formed 'Brown Squirrel Productions', named for what else, a brown squirrel that had run across the backyard during a meeting. Simian Greep was removed and Teddy Ruxpin was brought in to replace Greep, mainly I've been told because Ken feared Greep sounded too much like geek. By the beginning of the 80's his partner had sold his interests off and Ken was part of AlchemyII. With additional work by the writers at AlchemyII and later at Worlds Of Wonder the final iteration of of the illiop named Teddy Ruxpin came about. Since about 1985 illiops haven't changed all that much. Currently Teddy Ruxpin by Backpack Toys and the only changes are his size and the elimination of tapes. He still retains his voice actor from his debut, a Mr. Phil Baron.