Tickle Me Elmo, is a children's toy from Tyco-Prescool, a division of Tyco Toys. It was introduced in the United States in 1996, becoming that year's top fad. Bright red in color and based on Elmo, a Muppet character from Sesame Street, when squeezed, Elmo would chortle. When squeezed three times in a row, Elmo would begin to shake and laugh hysterically.
Tickle Me Elmo was invented by Ron Dubren and Greg Hyman, two veteran toy inventors. It was presented to Tyco Preschool as a laughing monkey. At the time Tyco did not 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 Tazmaian Devil. A short time later, Tyco lost rights to do Looney Tunes but gained the rights to Sesame Street, thus starting Tickle Me Elmo.
In 1996, the Tickle Me Elmo was the "must have" toy. Many parents literally fought other parents in North American toy stores to purchase one of the toys for Christmas. The short supply of the toy, due to unexpected demand, meant that stores hiked the price on the dolls drastically. Newspaper classifieds even sold the plush toy for hundreds of U.S. dollars. People reports that the US $28.99 toy fetched as much as $1500.[1]
Contents |
|
