Irritating toy/fad that encourages children to stay at a low literacy rate. Elmo's literacy lessons leave much to be desired.

Only good for target practice.

All those who bought one are a bunch of idiots!

this lasted a minute and it made a few people a pretty penny in their pocket off of people to impatient to wait until the next shipment into the store.

Elmo is awesome! Great character, one of my favorites from Sesame Street. This is a nice doll for little children.

Elmo was a cute fuzzy doll that giggled when tickled. I think the regular price was about twenty dollars. It was amazing that one Christmas this little doll became THE thing for little kids to have. My goodness it was nothing to read the paper and see ads for this little guy for hundreds of dollars. I would hope no one would want a toy so bad they would be willing to fork out that kind of money for something that a small child will probably play with for a short while only to end up on the playroom floor with the other must have toys.It makes me wonder if the child really wanted that toy or if it was a parents obsession to be able to say they managed to get one.

At my old school a couple ra's got together and had a program called Tickle me Elmo taste test. They advertised free food (besides elmo) so I dropped by. The program was basically what you'd imagine - a bunch of different ways to cook and prepare the elmo doll. One was cooked like a lobster and dropped into boiling water, one was stuffed like a pig with an apple in its mouth, one was treated as an eel and chopped up and cooked on a frying pan, another was put on a stick with vegetables and grilled over the fire...the whole thing was pretty odd and scary.

There are more annoying toys out there.

I received 2 of these for Christmas the year it was really popular and expensive. You can believe I cashed in on one of them...ha ha. I got permission from the person who bought it for me of course, and I bought that person a gift with part of the funds as well for a thank you...I still have my other Tickle Me Elmo..they really are adorable..I love them...

So shoot me, I think these things were cute. If I had the room I'd collect toys.

When people are spending up to six HUNDRED dollars on this, You know it's pure evil.

These things were so popular that it really was scary. You had a large number of parents that would have done anything to put that happy little doll under their tree. Every couple of years something is put on the shelves that people are overly desperate to get a hold of. It's insane.

This little guy is as cute as any other mechanical toy. My question relating to the fad part is - what did the makers of Tickle me Elmo give Rosie for her insanely successful endorsement? It may have been just as spontaneous and unsolicited as it appeared to be but there was something a little fishy about that whole marketing circus that followed IMO. If nothing else, it really proves how willingly some consumers can be led around by the nose as they strain to keep up with their next door neighbor.

. . . do kids really need vibrating dolls?