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Hawk remembers...
I never had one, but oh man! I remember in 96 the Tickle Me Elmo furor that swept the nation. ...  More »
Posted on 08/09/09

Manufacturer:

Tyco

When someone brings up 1996, some might think of the Olympics, others might think of elections, but for a good portion of retail workers, moms, pops, grandparents and great many would-be gift givers, 1996 was the year of Tickle Me Elmo.  It had been over a decade since the last true doll craze, the 1980s juggernaut, the Cabbage Patch Kid.  Of course, there were Beanie Babies and a good number of other “popular” toys, but they couldn’t match the speed and velocity that skyrocketed sales of the Tickle Me Elmo over the holiday shopping season that year.

The idea started out innocently enough, as with an observation inventor Ron Dubren had on day while in his local park.  He was watching kids who were tickling one another until they had the giggle-fits.  Common enough as the event was, he saw through the moment to grasp onto something that children might truly enjoy – a toy that would bust into giggle-fits when it got tickled.  He created a prototype inside a monkey, but toy companies just weren’t buying into it and Dubren faced rejection after rejection until one day Tyco showed some interest in the idea.  Too bad they couldn’t make any dolls at the time. 

Then, one fine day, Tyco got the rights to produce a line of Sesame Street dolls.  They immediately got Dubren and his idea in on it, and soon the giggle-doll idea went directly into the belly of an Elmo doll.  Elmo was a favorite with the new generation of Sesame Street viewers.  Child-like, cuddly and red, Elmo was a relatable image to kidlets around the country.  The Tickle Me Elmo doll was created a variety of unique reactions to being tickled.  Sometimes he’d say “Oh, no!  That tickles!”  Sometimes he’d just giggle.  But other times, you’d really get him good and he’d erupt with a volcano of giggles guaranteed to give the giggle fits to any toddler within four feet.  (Your distances may vary.)

It was up on store shelves just in time for the holidays in 1996 and the reaction from parents was instant.  It was doing well enough on its own before talk show host Rosie O’Donnell featured the Tickle Me Elmo doll on her program, which set sales on fire for the doll.  Soon, the Tickle Me Elmo doll was a permanent fixture on television sets, bringing the new doll into craze-status.  As storage supplies began to dwindle, the panic meter for parents went into the red zone.  Mob scenes started to take place when stores were opening their doors.  Profit-minded individuals also seized the opportunity to make a buck or two by picking up the dolls, turning them around to make 10x the profit.  The little red guy, for a short while, was going for $2,500 on the black market!

Once the shopping season was over, so was the craze.  Unlike the Cabbage Patch Kid craze that never reached such highs but whose popularity reigned throughout the 80s, the Tickle Me Elmo doll faded into regular toy status.  The pandemonium, however, is etched into many a memory.  The item remains popular and there have been a number of other interactive spin-offs, including Rock ‘N Roll Elmo, Country Elmo, Baby Tickle Me Cookie Monster, Tickle Me Ernie and Baby Tickle Me Big Bird.  More recently, a new generation of Tickle Me Elmo, called TMX, was unleashed upon the public in 2006.  Fan reaction was high, but not nearly to the levels of the original just a decade before, leaving the original to go down in retail history as one of the biggest toy crazes in retail history.