In 1996 Fisher Price came out with the new tickle me Elmo doll. And it was considered one of the hottest toys on the market. The average price was right around $70-$100, but if you find one at Toys "R" Us. You will only pay $35-$40. What a difference a few years makes on a hot toy. When my wife and I first seen this at Toys "R" Us, we thought it was the cutest toy on the market. But, they just wanted too much money at the time when it first came out. So, we decided to wait until the price came down, and then it happened we finally saw it at a price that we thought was comparable to the toy.

Description

This particular doll is not one of those soft cuddly types. This comes in a very attractive looking box. It may look like it can be cuddled with, but underneath that furry exterior is a hard plastic body, that if it was dropped on a child or the child fell on it, they would get hurt. This has two big white eyes and an orange nose protruding out from the top of the head. This stands approximately 15 inches in height and will require six AA batteries to operate. If you do not use the alkaline battery, then be prepared to go through quite a few of the regular ones. It is better to use the alkaline type, because they are longer-lasting. Just make sure that you do not mix regular batteries with the alkaline type because they have a tendency to have a terrible reaction and end result. Plus, if you are wondering, this does have an on/off switch, because I know that this can become annoying and you might want to turn it off at some time or another

Features

When prompted, Elmo will laugh, rollover and standup, then start all over again by throwing himself back down and talking and laughing, and repeating phrases to your child, such as “again, again”, “give Elmo a break please”, and “I can't stop laughing”. Along with those sayings, a couple of other things that Elmo will say are “I got tickled” and “you tickled Elmo”. There are three tickle spots located on Elmo. The first one is under his chin, this next one is on his belly, and the last one is on top of his foot. After touching one of the spots, that is when Elmo will start doing his dance by slapping his belly and falling over, standing back up again and then falling backwards, Elmo will begin to kick his legs and flop his arms over the place and laugh hysterically.

Perfect Toy or Not

In order for this to be the perfect Toy I think that it would have to keep your child's interest for more than 20 minutes. But, the cuteness will soon wear off, after about the first 20 minutes, then your child will probably get tired of this toy, just as ours did. After the first 20 to 30 minutes, then the laugh and noise that Elmo makes might get kind of annoying. This toy is good for your child to sit and watch over and over again. But, just like a movie your child might watch over and over again, that soon will wear off and this toy will end up on the shelf. There is not much to do with this toy other than sitting and looking at it, your child cannot cuddle with Elmo. They can only sit and watch, there is only a little bit of interaction that takes place and that is by touching Elmo's sensitive spots.

Conclusion

We have found out that his the best way to make use of this toy, was to give it to your adult kids. So that your grandkids can take it home and annoy their parents, it is always fun to give your adult children a little bit of payback. I have found out that the children that are between the ages of three and four are the best candidates to have fun with this toy. My daughter is now eight years old, and only interacts with Elmo every once in awhile. Fisher price is usually known for making toys that children can interact with more than Elmo. Even though this is a good idea, and it only touches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to robotic toys. If they were to make this a little more interactive and more soft than hard it would probably last a lot longer on the floor than on the shelf. I can only say that I would not purchase another one of these, and I definitely would not pay full price.