Tickle Me Elmo: Difference between revisions

|inventor=Tyco Preschool

'''Tickle Me Elmo''' is a children's [[Stuffed toy|plush toy]] from Tyco Preschool, a division of [[Tyco Toys]], based on the character [[Elmo]] from the children's [[The Muppets|Muppet]] television show, [[Sesame Street]]. When squeezed, Elmo chortles. When squeezed three times in a row, Elmo begins to shake and laugh hysterically.

The toy was first introduced in the [[United States]] in 1996 and would quickly become a [[fads and trends|fad]]. The doll's short supply, due to the unexpected demand, led to a secondary market where [[Scalper|scalpers]] would sell the plush toy for hundreds of [[United States dollar|US dollars]]. Some instances of violence were reported over the limited stock amidst heavy consumer demand. ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' reported that the toy, which retailed for [[United States dollar|US$]]28.99, had been advertised in newspapers and the Internet, asking up to $1500 by the year's end.<ref name=People/>

Tickle Me Elmo was invented by Ron Dubren and Greg Hyman, two veteran toy inventors.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} In 1992, it was presented to Tyco Preschool as "Tickles The Chimp," which was a toy monkey with a computer chip which laughed when tickled. At the time Tyco didn't have rights to make ''Sesame Street'' plush, but did have ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' plush rights so it was worked on for several months as Tickle Me [[Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)|Tasmanian Devil]]. A short time later, Tyco lost rights to do ''Looney Tunes'' but gained the rights to ''Sesame Street,'' thus starting Tickle Me Elmo. The invention was originally introduced under [[Cabbage Patch Kids|Cabbage Patch]] at [[Hasbro]] Industries.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

Neil Friedman, who was then president of Tyco Preschool, recalled years later that, "When you played with [Tickle Me Elmo] for the first time, it brought a smile to everyone's face. It was a magical surprise."<ref>{{cite article|last=Greenwood|first=Chelsea|year=2009|title=Child's Play: Mattel's Neil Friedman Has Built a Career out of Toying Around—And Making Kids Smile|url=http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-203927063|others={{subscription required|via=[[Questia]]}}|journal=[[Success (magazine)|Success]]|accessdate=11 June 2014}}</ref>

==The 1996 Elmo craze==

Tickle Me Elmo was released in July 1996, with a supply of 400,000 units.<!---<ref name="desperate"/>---> The dolls sold well, but remained widely available until the day after [[Thanksgiving]], when they suddenly sold out.<!---<ref name="desperate"/>---> With the [[Economics of Christmas|Christmas shopping season]] approaching, Tyco Preschool ordered 600,000 more dolls from their suppliers.<ref name="desperate">{{cite news|last=Baca|first=Maria Elena|date=10 December 1996|title=Desperate shoppers not laughing at Tickle Me Elmo|newspaper=Star Tribune|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-62644967.html|others={{subscription required|via=[[HighBeam]]}}}}</ref> Promotion was helped by [[Rosie O'Donnell]], who had shown the toy on [[The Rosie O'Donnell Show|her popular TV show]] in early October.<ref>{{cite news|last=Cummins|first=H. J.|date=4 August 1997|title=Toy-craze sanity; First came Tickle Me Elmo. Then Beanie Babies and Tamagotchis. When kids go crazy over all these new toys, what's a parent to do?|newspaper=[[Star Tribune]]|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-62614085.html|others={{subscription required|via=[[HighBeam]]}}}}</ref><ref name="hot toy">{{cite news|last1=Reidy|first1=Chris|coauthor=Patricia Resende|date=13 November 1997|title=Tyco's Sing & Snore Ernie Looks Like It's The Hot Toy This Christmas|newspaper=[[Knight Ridder Tribune]] Business Review|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19983095.html|others={{subscription required|via=[[HighBeam]]}}; originally from the ''[[Boston Globe]]''}} "Elmo got his big break in early October of last year with an on-air plug from talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell."</ref> O'Donnell's "surprise plug" created unexpected demand for Elmo, resulting in shortages in the stores that sold it.<ref>{{cite news|last=Fisher|first=Eric|date=16 November 1998|title=Tickle-Down Economics|newspaper=[[Insight on the News]]|url=http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-55710722|others={{subscription required|via=[[Questia]]}}}}</ref>

The scarcity of the new toy provoked a "shopping frenzy".<ref name="frenzy"/> Two women were arrested in [[Chicago]] for fighting over the doll,<ref name="desperate"/> while in [[New York City|New York]] some people ran after delivery trucks hoping to get their hands on Elmo before it reached stores.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Riddell|first=Mary|date=20 December 1996|title=Spend! Spend! Spend! Ten Years Ago Shopping Was, Quite Simply, the Thing to Do: But Now It Has Been Restyled&nbsp;– as a Vice, a Sin, an Addiction|magazine=[[New Statesman]]|url=http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-19128765|others={{subscription required|via=[[Questia]]}}}} "In New York demented mothers chase lorries of toys in the hope of tracking down this year's must-have plaything: a furry 'Tickle Me, Elmo'".</ref> Someone allegedly purchased a Tickle Me Elmo for $7,100 in [[Denver]].<ref name="frenzy">{{citation|first=Harry|last=Mills|title=Artful Persuasion: How to Command Attention, Change Minds, and Influence People|location=New York|publisher=AMACOM|page=253|url=http://www.questia.com/read/119685238|others={{subscription required|via=[[Questia]]}}|year=2000|isbn=0-8144-7063-7|postscript=.}}</ref> A clerk working at a [[Wal-Mart]] store in [[Fredericton, New Brunswick]], [[Canada]] was among those injured by "Elmo-mania". During a Midnight Madness sale on December 14, a crowd of 300 stampeded down the aisle after spotting him being handed a box of the toys by another employee. Trampled, he suffered "a pulled hamstring, injuries to his back, jaw and knee, a broken rib and a concussion".<ref name=People>{{cite news|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20143226,00.html|title=Just Tickled|newspaper=[[People (magazine)|People]]|volume=47|issue=1|date=January 13, 1997|accessdate=11 June 2014}}</ref>

By the end of December, the entire stock of one million "Tickle Me Elmo" toys had been sold.<ref>{{cite news|doi=|last=Constable|first=Burt|date=11 December 1997|title=The Aftermath of a Craze: Tickle Me Elmo Revisited|journal=[[Daily Herald (Arlington Heights)|Daily Herald ''(Arlington Heights, IL)'']]|volume=|issue=|pages=|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-69036887.html|others={{subscription required|via=[[HighBeam]]}}}} "The company sold its entire supply of 1 million TMEs last year".

</ref><ref>{{cite news|doi=|last=Szaroleta|first=Tom|title=Tickle Me T-U, Tell Me More about Elmo|url=http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-267645614|newspaper=[[The Florida Times Union]]|date=16 September 2011|volume=|issue=|pages=|others={{subscription required|via=[[Questia]]}}}}

"[1996]: Tickle Me Elmo becomes the hottest toy of the holiday season. More than a million are sold that year alone."</ref>

==Further Tickle Me toys==

In early 1997, Tyco released new "Tickle Me" toys based on other characters from ''[[Sesame Street]]'' – first ''Tickle Me Ernie'' and ''Tickle Me Big Bird'', then ''Tickle Me Cookie Monster'' – but despite good sales, none of these toys achieved as much fame as Tickle Me Elmo.<ref name="hot toy"/> With the re-release of Tickle Me Elmo, ''Mini Tickle Me Cookie Monster'' and ''Mini Tickle Me Ernie'' were also put on the market.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

The "Surprise Edition" of Tickle Me Elmo, issued fall 2001, was an elaborate contest. Five of the "Surprise Edition" Elmos stopped laughing on January 9, 2002, and instead announced to the people squeezing them that they had won a prize. The grand prize was $200,000.<ref>{{cite news|last=Dean|first=Katie|date=11 October 2001|title=Elmo's Worth More Than a Tickle|newspaper=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|url=http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47368,00.html}}</ref>

===TMX===

In 2006 for the tenth anniversary of Tickle Me Elmo, [[Fisher-Price]] released a new Elmo doll called ''TMX'', meaning "Tickle Me (Elmo) Ten" or "Tickle Me eXtreme". The toy, which was designed by Bruce Lund of Lund and Co. Invention ([[River Forest, Illinois]]),<ref>{{cite news|last=Jedlowski|first=Jill|date=17 January 2007|title=Toy Story: TMX Elmo Creator Talks Business|newspaper=[[Daily Herald (Arlington Heights)]]|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-157884899.html|others={{subscription required|via=[[HighBeam]]}}}}</ref> was first announced at the [[American International Toy Fair]]. Rather than simply vibrating like the original, the TMX rolls around on the floor, laughing and smashing his fist on the ground, begging for the tickler to stop.<ref>[http://youtube.com/watch?v=o4x-VW_rCSE "Tickle Me Elmo X TMX Elmo"] (on Youtube).</ref>

The full look of the doll was not revealed until it debuted live on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[Good Morning America]]'' and arrived on store shelves on September 19, 2006. Toy experts said that the delay was unprecedented, with only a few people in the media allowed to preview the product, and only after signing [[confidentiality agreement]]s. The packaging was designed so that the doll could not be seen without purchasing it. The box includes a preview flap, but upon opening, only the doll's eyes are visible. It requires six AA batteries, and costs approximately $40. In a promotional clip, Jim Silver, co-publisher of ''Toy Wishes'' magazine said, "The first reaction I had was, 'Where are the wires?' Because I didn't think anything like that could move on its own.".<ref name="top secret">{{cite news|last=Barker|first=Olivia|date=1 February 2006|title=Meet 'Top Secret Elmo'|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-02-01-tickle-me-elmo_x.htm}}</ref>

<!--Image:Tmx-elmo.jpg|TMX Elmo-->

Toy analyst Chris Byrne told ''[[USA Today]]'', "This is a quantum leap forward, another breakthrough in the preschool plush category." Byrne believed sales would be high, but the reaction would not be as unprecedented. "The culture has moved beyond that, the whole hot-toy phenomenon." He cited the fact there has not been such a craze since [[Furby]] in 1998.<ref name="top secret"/> However, some members of the media expected a large response.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} [[Toys "R" Us]] stores and [[Amazon.com|Amazon]] had a pre-sale program for the doll, the first included elaborate in-store displays with a digital countdown to the doll's launch. Amazon took more presale orders than it could fulfill.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kotecki Vest|first=Erin|date=22 September 2006|title=Elmo Suckers Me to the Dark Side|newspaper=[[The Huffington Post]]|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erin-kotecki-vest/elmo-suckers-me-to-the-da_b_30043.html}}</ref> As with the original Tickle Me Elmo doll, demand for the new toy gave rise to some extreme acts. One person in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]], [[Florida]] was allegedly threatened with a gun to hand over a TMX toy. This was parodied on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', which said the man "was subdued by the new 'Gimmie a Reason [[Bert (Sesame Street)|Bert]]'".<ref>{{cite news | title=Tickle pickle: Your Elmo or your life! | date=25 September 2006 | publisher=New York Daily News | url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2006/09/25/2006-09-25_tickle_pickle_your_elmo_or_your_life.html | deadurl=yes}} {{Dead link|date=February 2012|bot=RjwilmsiBot}}</ref>

TMX and other toys helped Mattel's earnings for the third quarter of the 2006 [[financial year]] to grow by six percent and beat the expectations of [[financial analyst]]s.<ref>{{cite news|last=|first=|date=16 October 2006|title=Mattel Posts 6 Percent Rise in Profit|newspaper=AP Online|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1Y1-99173190.html|others={{subscription required|via=[[HighBeam]]}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=|first=|date=17 October 2006|title=Mattel Tops Expectations|newspaper=[[Cincinnati Post]]|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-152989624.html|others={{subscription required|via=[[HighBeam]]}}}}</ref> TMX also helped increase sales of other Elmo toys.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}}

In January 2007, Mattel announced it would release ''TMX Friends'', featuring Elmo, [[Ernie (Sesame Street)|Ernie]] and [[Cookie Monster]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Kavilanz|first=Parija B.|date=29 January 2007|title=Following T.M.X. Elmo, here come his friends|publisher=CNNMoney.com|url=http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/29/news/companies/mattel_elmo/}}</ref>

[[Playskool]] released the toy again as ''LOL Elmo''. Not a single image of the toy was revealed until the American International Toy Fair 2012; in the Hasbro showroom's [[Sesame Street]] section, there is a sign printed "Laughter Unleashed! Fall 2012". Above it was a video of kids giggling. The toy was released in September. It is also known as Tickle Time Elmo.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

==See also==

* [[List of toys]]

{{Portalbar|Muppets|Toys|1990s}}

{{reflist|30em}}

[[Category:Tickling]]