| Product: |
Tickle Me Elmo |
| Date: |
03/12/06 (492 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fun, furry toy, entertaining idea
Disadvantages: Has some glitches, doesn't always work fully
I bought one of these recently for my son's first birthday. I have to be honest and say it's not everything I thought it would be, but it's a very fun toy, and has got lots of laughs, from all generations of the family!
From what I understand, Tickle Me Elmo has been around for about ten years, and the TMX toy is the new version of it. After much pondering, my husband concluded it must stand for tickle me ten, and that sounds about right!
We bought our one from Toys R Us, where it cost £34.99, quite expensive for a character toy, but we wanted to treat our little boy. If I had not seen an advert for it earlier that day, I'm not entirely sure we would have bought it, as the packaging is quite unhelpful. It came in a square box with no window or opening to see what's inside, and no picture of the toy on the outside! All there is is the name of the toy and no description of what it does. The only real clue as to what is inside is a lift up flap which activates a sound of elmo giggling and saying how ticklish he is in here! Quite amusing, but still not helpful.
When we opened the toy on his birthday, it was really simple to start up (all 6 batteries included), just an 'on' switch on his foot, and let the tickling begin! Having expected (maybe naively) this toy to actually be 'ticklish', I was quite disappointed to find out that there are only three large buttons under his fur that are tickly spots. There is one under his chin, one on his tummy and one on the top of his left foot. This limits the places you can tickle, understandable for an adult, but a little complicated for an infant, even for our 24 month old (there is an 18 month age rating). That said though, the laughing noises Elmo makes are very funny, and the more tickling you do at once, the funnier the laughing gets! He also moves about as you tickle him; to start off with he throws himself on the floor and waves his arm about, then he curls his legs to his tummy and wiggles his feet, then he straightens out and bangs his heel on the floor! When this all happens with the giggling mixed in, you can't help but laugh, and the kids really love it! He also has a few phrases like 'Give Elmo a break!', and 'Again, again!' After about a week of having the toy, both boys have got the hang of tickling his tummy. Sometimes, and I can't work out exactly why, the laughing just stops, it seems when you tickle it too much, and I'm sure this is a glitch. Also, the toy stands itself up, which is really amusing to the kids, but sometimes, and again, not consistently, he doesn't fully straighten up.
As for kid friendliness it is perfectly suited to my boys at 12 months and 24 months and I'm sure it would suit children a lot older, even grown up kids as me and my husband have found out!
I'd be interested to know the differences between this version and the older one, as from a friends description of their old one, it doesn't sound that different.
I would recommend buying this, but I would recommend considering others as there are many better quality toys of the same type about (Winnie the Pooh, for example). Also, I'm not sure if I would pay the price of £34.99 knowing what I know, but I am glad that we have this toy.
Summary: Would recommend, but consider other toys aswell as there are some better on the market
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