Buzz
Place: Walmart Supercenter, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Time: December 14, 1996. Individual Affected: Stock room staff member Robert Waller. Harm Sustained: Fractured rib, strained hamstring, and a head injury.
Reason for hospital visit: Tickle Me Elmo.
The 27-year-old warehouse employee was on a late-night shift amid the holiday chaos when eager customers noticed him holding the laughing, shaking toy. The resulting chaos left him with injuries resembling those from a small car crash. His jeans were ripped at the crotch, and the final thing he recalled was a white Adidas shoe striking his face before he blacked out.
Throughout North America, both shoppers and retail employees reverted to their most basic instincts in the pursuit of Tyco’s most coveted holiday toy. Tickle Me Elmo merged the charm of Sesame Street’s standout character—a three-and-a-half-year-old monster with endearing speech patterns—with an innovative design that let him be “tickled” until he seemed breathless.
It was irresistibly cute and incredibly scarce: Tyco, expecting only moderate success, ended up hiring private jets to expedite shipments from China; John Gotti Jr. made news for a clandestine Elmo retrieval at a Queens Toys "R" Us; bomb threats were directed at Tyco; an Elmo vanished from a New York City police station; a toy designer transporting parts through airports was mistaken for the Unabomber.
As Hasbro reintroduces the toy for a new generation of children this winter, we gathered the creators, designers, marketers, and industry experts who contributed to making Tickle Me Elmo one of the most iconic success stories in toy history. They shared insights on how the fluffy red monster became a cultural sensation—one that parents would go to extreme lengths to acquire.
I: TICKLISH
Tickles the Chimp. Courtesy of the Strong, Rochester, NY
Ron Dubren, who combined a passion for art with a background in clinical psychology, had spent 15 years creating board games and toys. A mutual acquaintance introduced him to the late Stan Clutton, who worked as an inventor liaison for several companies. While Clutton often listened to Dubren’s ideas, his response was typically a polite "no." This is common in the toy industry, so it was a significant moment when Dubren—known for games like Babble On—finally received a "yes" from Clutton for his prototype: a laughing primate called Tickles the Chimp.
Ron Dubren (Co-inventor): One day, I was at the park observing children tickling each other. It reminded me of my own childhood—how much I enjoyed tickling and being tickled. There’s a natural escalation of laughter until it becomes uncontrollable. I thought this concept would translate perfectly into a toy.
Patricia Hogan (Curator, The Strong National Museum of Play): There was already some innovation in integrating electronics into plush toys. For example, Teddy Ruxpin had a cassette player in his body, allowing him to narrate stories to children like a substitute librarian.
Dubren: I’m not entirely sure why I chose a chimp. Perhaps it’s because I associate chimps with laughter, or maybe it’s a childhood memory of J. Fred Muggs on the Today show. I can’t say for certain.
Mark Johnson-Williams (Electronics Designer): I had been designing for Tyco for many years. Talking dolls had existed for decades, activated by pulling a string. What set this apart was finding the perfect sound and personality to bring it to life.
Dubren: At that time, sound technology was becoming more affordable for toys. We were starting to use sound chips, but creating one was still too costly. As a result, the prototype relied on a cable connected to a computer.
Johnson-Williams: Later, I developed the program for the circuit board that controlled the motor. I had prior experience with a talking Cabbage Patch Kid.
Dubren: I reached out to [co-inventor] Greg Hyman, a sound engineer who had recently lost his business partner. Initially, we envisioned a chimp that could tickle you, but it wasn’t practical. Greg and I collaborated on a prototype to pitch to companies, but we faced rejection from 12 different firms.
Dubren, who often describes the toy industry as “the failure business,” remained undeterred. In 1994, he approached Clutton, who was then the vice president of marketing at Tyco’s Preschool division.
Dubren: When we presented it to Stan, his first response was, “This would work perfectly as an Elmo, but we don’t have the licensing rights.”
Janice Yates (former Associate Vice President of Marketing and Development, Tyco Preschool): We held the rights for plastic toys, while Hasbro owned the rights for plush toys.
Dubren: The meeting with Stan was brief, lasting around 15 minutes, before he directed me to Gene Murtha, another executive at Tyco. Gene was familiar with the division that managed the rights to Looney Tunes. I met him that same day.
Gene Murtha (former Vice President of Marketing, Tyco): I was immediately drawn to his concept. It reminded me of Curious George in a way.
Dubren: He examined it and remarked, “This would make an excellent Tickle Me Taz.”
What remains of Tickle Me Taz. Courtesy of the Strong, Rochester, NY
Murtha: I didn’t mention it to Ron directly, but I believed it would be an excellent flagship product for our Looney Tunes license, which we held at the time.
Yates: The idea was that when you tickled it once, it would laugh. A second tickle would make it laugh even harder, and a third would send it into uncontrollable hysterics.
Dubren: The progression was crucial. The laughter intensifies with each tickle, creating a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Murtha: We considered creating a Tickle Me Tweety, but Warner Bros. was heavily promoting the Tasmanian Devil at the time, backed by research showing his popularity. Boys were drawn to his rough demeanor, and Tweety had already saturated the market with an abundance of merchandise.
Johnson-Williams: No one wants to look after a Tasmanian Devil. You wouldn’t want to be his friend.
Murtha: We developed a functional Taz prototype, complete with electronics. We even had someone mimic his distinctive grunting laugh. When we presented it to Warner Bros., their reaction was lukewarm, simply saying, “Yeah, fine.” They missed the chance to secure the Tickle Me license for their property.
Despite Murtha's excitement, Taz never got the chance to become the year’s most sought-after toy.
Hogan: Tickling doesn’t seem like a natural fit for a character like Taz.
Yates: Taz’s wild personality suited the concept, but during the evaluation process, Tyco chose not to renew the Warner Bros. license.
Murtha: Back then, Tyco didn’t have email. Communication was done through fax machines. I recall being in the New York office after hours with Stan and a few others. I passed by the fax machine as it printed a notice about Tyco ending their agreement with Warner Bros. I suggested to Stan, “Why not make Tickle Me Big Bird?” He replied, “No, it should be Tickle Me Elmo.” By then, they had secured the Sesame Street license.
Dubren: Martin Scheman, Stan’s boss and former Tyco president, proposed securing the Sesame Street license to develop standout products for TV promotion. Marty approached Stan, saying, “I need a flagship item,” and Stan replied, “I’ve got just the idea.”
Yates: We had an established partnership for producing plastic toys under the Sesame license. Over time, the relationship expanded, and we were invited to bid for the plush toy segment, eventually becoming the master toy licensee.
Ann Kearns (former Vice President, Licensing, Sesame Workshop): StoryMagic Big Bird was our first major hit. Though it was relatively simple in terms of technology, it became a massive success. Before Elmo rose to fame, Big Bird was the show’s main star, embodying the essence of a 6-year-old, while Elmo represented the quintessential 3-year-old.
Sesame Workshop
Dubren: Stan called me and said, “Guess what?” That’s when I coined Elmo’s Law: Anything that can go right will go right.
Yates: Once the concept was returned to us, we all agreed that Elmo was the perfect fit for it.
Murtha: I was thrilled to hand it over to Stan. The project was already 70 percent complete. I transferred the internal development costs, ranging from $50,000 to $100,000, to Stan’s profit and loss statement.
Bruce Maguire (CEO, Freeman PR): Elmo hadn’t been widely featured in toys up to that point.
Yates: Elmo was beginning to take center stage on Sesame Street around 1995. His popularity was growing rapidly among both parents and children.
Kearns: Initially, we didn’t produce many Elmo products, but by the early 1990s, we started receiving calls from parents saying, “My child adores Elmo and wants to sleep with him.”
Dubren: Back then, the Sesame Street license was considered somewhat dull for toys. It was seen as too educational, which often spells trouble for toy sales.
Johnson-Williams: The character needed enough screen time for people to actively seek him out.
Murtha: Elmo’s design transformed the character, giving it a soft, affectionate vibe.
Yates: Elmo’s personality was a natural fit for the laughing and giggling concept. It couldn’t have been more ideal.
II: GOOD VIBRATIONS
Courtesy of the Strong, Rochester, NY
The transformation of Tickle Me Taz into Tickle Me Elmo began in early 1995, with plans to unveil it at New York’s Toy Fair in February 1996. Dubren and Hyman licensed their idea and were set to receive royalties, though the final product would differ significantly from Tickles the Chimp.
Dubren: I don’t feel possessive about it. Many aspects were altered, refined, and enhanced.
Johnson-Williams: My lab, located near a busy street with large windows, was once filled with Elmo skins lacking electronics. It looked like a toy factory had blown up. Passersby would stop and ask, “What’s going on here?”
Murtha: The additions they made next were absolutely incredible.
Yates: We invited our advertising agency to evaluate the concept. Bob Moehl attended the meeting. When he saw the toy, the room fell completely silent.
Maguire: It was a product line review. I recall being present when they announced, “This will be our flagship item.”
Bob Moehl (Advertising): As the advertising expert, I argued that promoting a sound-based toy on TV was a waste of resources. Television thrives on motion. The toy needed to move.
Yates: He commented, “It’s cute and fantastic, but television relies on visuals.” Then he left.
Maguire: Bob suggested, “It’s wonderful, but can you make it shake, like Santa Claus’s belly?” That small adjustment made a huge difference.
Dubren: I believe someone recalled seeing a shaking monkey toy that had been available in the market.
Neil Friedman (former President, Tyco Preschool): The product line review coincided with my joining the company. That mechanism became the third key feature.
Jerry Cleary (former Vice President, Sales, Tyco Preschool): Combining the laughter and shaking, I felt we had something truly captivating.
The secret to Elmo's success: a vibrating sound box.
Johnson-Williams: They presented me with a shaking, noisy monkey, showed me Elmo, and tasked me with creating a toy that incorporated all those features.
Yates: I recall people placing their old flip phones on the table during meetings. The phones would vibrate and shake when ringing, and that’s when the idea clicked.
Dubren: My wife saw Tickles the Chimp and suggested, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if it shook?” I replied, “Yes, but no one would invest that much money into it.”
Like most licensors, Children’s Television Workshop—later renamed Sesame Workshop—was extremely protective of its intellectual property.
Yates: Sesame had significant concerns. They worried parents might think Elmo was having a seizure if he shook. It took several meetings to convince them otherwise.
Kearns: I don’t remember that specific concern. She might have discussed it with someone else. What I do remember is ensuring the shaking only occurred during the giggles, stopping immediately afterward. There was no reason for the body to move without the laughter.
Johnson-Williams: Janice and I discussed how to make the motor start slowly, gradually increase, and then reach full power.
Dubren: They conducted tests with mothers, and no one seemed bothered by the price increase to $30 instead of $20 due to the motor.
Yates: We carried out informal studies, and no parent believed Elmo was having a seizure.
Johnson-Williams: This is standard for every licensor. I recall one instance where production halted for a Minnie Mouse toy because her bow had nine polka dots. Disney insisted, “No, she has 11. Redo it.”
Dubren: The vibration was the key, creating a delightful surprise. It’s what makes people laugh along with the toy.
Hogan: Most of us have memories of tickling or being tickled. It’s enjoyable yet slightly uncomfortable, creating a tension that adds to its charm. Elmo captured that perfectly.
Johnson-Williams: I flew the prototype back to present it to them. They’re seasoned toy professionals, so they didn’t exactly applaud.
grac_rahi via eBay
For Tickle Me Elmo to succeed, many factors had to align, but a crucial one was ensuring parents and children could see Elmo in action before committing to the $29.95 price tag.
Yates: Martin Scheman pioneered the “Try Me” retail concept, where products are displayed in packaging with pre-installed batteries, allowing customers to press a button and see a demonstration. This was a crucial element for Tickle Me Elmo.
Murtha: I wouldn’t say he invented it, but he perfected it. We relied heavily on the Try Me approach because Tyco Preschool wasn’t investing in TV advertising.
Friedman: I insisted the factory include batteries so it could function as a Try Me product.
Maguire: As you walked down the aisle, you could squeeze his hand, and he’d laugh right there on the shelf.
Johnson-Williams: This was a fairly novel concept. When I programmed it, I theorized that most people’s attention spans last less than eight seconds. Tickle Me Elmo had to deliver its punchline within that time, or people would lose interest and walk away.
Dubren: The Try Me feature showcased everything the toy could do. It laughs, the laughter escalates, it starts to shake, and you instantly understand its appeal.
Yates: You could try it out in stores without draining the batteries. The engineering team warned us about battery consumption for a toy with both sound and a motor. They were worried about the batteries dying in stores if the toy operated in full mode.
Johnson-Williams: Once you brought it home and removed the pull cord, it would operate in its full mode.
While Johnson-Williams focused on perfecting Elmo’s laughter and shaking, his work was occasionally interrupted by calls or visits from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to his office in Half Moon Bay, California. He was under suspicion of being the Unabomber.
Yates: I was on a flight to San Francisco carrying a bucket of parts to meet Mark. At the airport, I was questioned because I had wires, batteries, and tapes with me. When they asked who I was meeting, that’s how they learned Mark’s name.
Johnson-Williams: The FBI had a list of around 10,000 suspects, and one way to get on it was by ordering a large number of electronic components. They were casting a wide net to catch the Unabomber.
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Dubren: The media latched onto the story, portraying him as the creator of Tickle Me Elmo. It became a bit awkward.
Johnson-Williams: There were some strange coincidences. He was reportedly spotted in Utah around the same time I was there filming a toy commercial. Once, he threatened to blow up San Francisco, and I happened to fly into San Francisco shortly after. Every few weeks, the FBI would call with questions.
After an 18-year manhunt, the FBI arrested Unabomber Ted Kaczynski on April 3, 1996. While this was a relief for Johnson-Williams, the pressure mounted for Tyco Preschool’s team, who had never been tasked with delivering such a high-stakes product.
Murtha: That division of Tyco was often treated as an afterthought. During a crucial meeting, four or five of us met with Dick Grey, the CEO, at Gramercy Park. He essentially reprimanded and criticized us.
Cleary: I believe he was pushing us, which was part of his role. The conversation revolved around who would handle the promotion.
Murtha: We presented Elmo to him, confident we had something unique, and wanted to manage the advertising ourselves. He refused. I thought we’d lose our jobs.
Cleary: He essentially told us we were clueless. Eventually, they changed their minds.
Murtha: This was around the time Neil Friedman joined as president of Tyco Preschool. He had a sharp marketing sense for understanding consumer preferences.
Cleary: Elmo was nearly complete when Neil joined the company, but he excelled at promoting it.
Friedman: It wasn’t finished. The packaging still needed to be designed, and there was more work ahead.
Maguire: Amanda Friedman, who wasn’t yet his wife at the time, designed the original Tickle Me packaging. Many of us formed lifelong friendships while working on it.
The launch of Tickle Me Elmo began at the February 1996 Toy Fair in New York, the annual event where companies and buyers preview upcoming products.
Yates: I recall attending Toy Fair while heavily pregnant. I presented it to buyers and held meetings. The feedback was positive, but it wasn’t, “This is a phenomenon.” It was more like, “It’s cute, great.”
Johnson-Williams: They placed a bunch of them on a wall for display.
Maguire: The main attraction at Toy Fair was Tyco’s RC Cars line. Media tours would eventually lead to Tyco Preschool, where Elmo was showcased. It was likely one of the first animated plush licenses alongside Big Bird. They probably thought, “Oh, they’re just repeating what they did before.”
Johnson-Williams: My wife’s friend, who usually disliked everything I created, was a bit of a grump. But when she touched Tickle Me Elmo, she smiled. That’s when I knew it would be huge.
Maguire: Al Roker from the Today show was there, and he adored it. This was before his gastric surgery, so he was a bit heavier at the time. He laughed, his belly shook, and Elmo laughed along with him.
Ellie Bagli (Senior Vice President, Freeman PR): Al was being his usual self, and Elmo was doing his thing. It made for a fantastic visual.
Maguire: It gave Elmo a level of life and energy that had never been seen before.
Yates: Neil was at a baseball game when he bumped into a Toys "R" Us buyer. The buyer exclaimed, “Oh, my God, Neil. We just got the first sales report, and this thing is selling like crazy. You need to ramp up production.” It had only been on shelves for three or four weeks.
Friedman: We were tracking its performance from the moment it launched. It wasn’t because of a chance encounter. Buyers were calling us immediately. It was selling far beyond what any $30 plush toy typically would at the time.
III: THE TICKLE MONSTER
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Thanks to Elmo’s popularity and the innovative Try Me packaging, Tickle Me Elmo had a strong launch when it arrived in stores in July 1996. However, without today’s viral marketing, a toy’s best chance for massive success was through TV exposure to kids—and their parents.
Yates: The Today show featured a segment on the season’s hottest toys. Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric were seen playing with the doll and having a blast. It was fantastic publicity.
Maguire: Bryant wasn’t known for being warm, so his reaction was a big win for us. You wouldn’t expect him to have Elmo on his lap, but it made him seem more relatable.
Bagli: He held onto it the entire time. I don’t think anything like that has happened before or since.
Yates: Freeman PR was behind getting Rosie [O'Donnell] involved.
Maguire: Ellie’s show began taping almost immediately. Rosie would create a game show vibe and hand out products to her audience.
Murtha: The timing was ideal. It was September, and kids were heading back to school.
Dubren: It also benefited her show. She was just getting started at the time.
Yates: You couldn’t simply send items to Rosie. It all depended on whether she liked them. If she didn’t, they wouldn’t make it on her show.
Bagli: It was early October. We had sent one to her son, and she mentioned on-air that he had flushed it down the toilet. I immediately called Tyco and said, “Grab every Elmo we have and some red tissue paper.” An hour later, her show called back, saying, “This is fantastic. Can we get enough for the entire audience?”
Murtha: She eventually invited Neil Friedman on the show, and he delivered an excellent pitch. Elmo also did a fantastic job selling himself.
The packaging, the character, and O’Donnell’s endorsement catapulted Tickle Me Elmo into the spotlight. As the holiday season approached, the media highlighted scenes of shoppers gathering anxiously outside toy stores, reminiscent of “Depression-era bread lines.” Unlike many dolls and plush toys, Elmo was a “gender-neutral” gift, equally desired by both boys and girls.
Hogan: If it had been a plastic doll, most boys likely wouldn’t have been interested.
Murtha: In September, we were projecting sales of 100,000 units. Just a week after Rosie’s endorsement, we were forecasting a million.
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Bagli: It was essentially sold out from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas.
Maguire: Suddenly, demand skyrocketed, and Tyco was scrambling to figure out how many more units they could produce before the year ended.
Murtha: You plan for 100,000 units, and a week later, it’s a million. There’s no way to meet that demand in time.
Cleary: I was on calls with Hong Kong three nights a week. The molds could wear out during high-volume production, so we were constantly figuring out how to create new ones.
Friedman: The plush material wasn’t the issue. The challenge was producing the internal mechanism. We were making new molds every single week.
Yates: We ultimately decided not to run the full TV campaign and pulled some of the later ads. It didn’t feel right to keep promoting the product when we were struggling to meet the overwhelming demand.
Maguire: The irony of the motor is that it was designed for TV, but they never actually needed TV advertising.
After Black Friday, Tickle Me Elmo became the most sought-after holiday gift. The shortage sparked a media frenzy about chaos in toy aisles. John Gotti Jr., son of the late mafia boss, was spotted entering a Toys "R" Us after hours and leaving with several Elmos; Cartier Jewelers offered a free Elmo with the purchase of a $1 million necklace. A Toys "R" Us manager pushed out a pallet of Elmos and watched in horror as parents ripped into them, ignoring safety. He broke down in tears.
Yates: People called the Tyco offices with threats, demanding more Elmos. There were bomb scares and warnings like, “I’ll blow the place up.” It was overwhelming.
Dubren: People acted wildly, but that’s typical during the holidays. A child laughing with their parents doesn’t make headlines.
Kearns: Did it make us uncomfortable? A bit. We didn’t encourage it, but there was nothing we could do to stop it. It was purely driven by demand.
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Yates: The media kept claiming it was all part of our plan, calling it brilliant marketing. It wasn’t.
Dubren: That kind of thing never happens intentionally. Companies are in business to sell products. The real issue is avoiding excess inventory.
Maguire: The media ran negative stories, suggesting it was all staged. Sometimes they build something up just to tear it down. Everyone assumed there were stacks of Elmos hidden away. Tyco was a public company—there was no room for such games.
Friedman: Plan a shortage? No one does that. You can’t just decide you want a million units. You have to order chips and other materials, which can take up to 60 days.
Cleary: You have a duty to the shareholders. Creating a shortage would be the last thing we’d consider.
Moehl: We simply underestimated how quickly it would take off. In the toy business, nothing drives success like scarcity.
Yates: Neil played a huge role in securing more inventory, pushing production to its limits. We went from 400,000 units to shipping a million.
Dubren: Stan thought Neil was out of his mind for pushing so hard, believing it was way beyond reasonable.
Maguire: Neil wanted to go full throttle, while Tyco as a whole preferred caution. Big toys have bankrupted companies before—Teddy Ruxpin took down Coleco. You can’t oversaturate the market. Neil managed to persuade them.
Friedman: It was entirely my call.
Dubren: Initially, they shipped them by sea, but eventually, they started airlifting them.
Friedman: We regularly air-freighted them in, supplementing the shipments arriving by sea.
As Christmas approached, it became clear that not everyone who wanted a Tickle Me Elmo would get one. The toy phenomenon had turned into a cultural symbol of shoppers’ determination to secure the coveted plush. To avoid thefts or altercations, Toys "R" Us would call raincheck holders with vague messages that their “item” was ready. In stores, they received pre-wrapped packages to ensure a quick, unobstructed exit.
Dubren: It really hit me when I was on a flight to Chicago in early December and saw Tickle Me Elmo on the front page of The New York Times business section. It was a surreal moment.
Maguire: Harvey Weinstein from Miramax reached out and sent us a stack of Oscar-nominated movies on VHS. The Letterman show team called and swapped sweatshirts with us. Even Brett Favre called Neil.
Cleary: Al Gore called. I joked with my secretary to tell him I’m a Republican.
Murtha: Jill Barad, the [former] CEO of Mattel, walked by my office one day and spotted Elmo. “Oh, my God, you have an Elmo!” I ended up giving her mine.
Maguire: Some folks at Nintendo traded us N64s, the other hot toy that year, for Elmos.
Dubren: The internet was still new back then. Most people used dial-up, but a few were already selling Elmo on eBay.
Yates: I was on a train home from New York one evening when Stan asked me to do a radio interview. I took the call and did the interview. When I looked up, everyone on the train was staring at me. “You work for that company? Can you get me an Elmo?” I genuinely felt like my safety was at risk.
Maguire: Sometimes you had to say no to well-meaning people, like charities, who wanted Elmo. You became the gatekeeper for this toy.
Cleary: We aimed to distribute it fairly. But we also used it as leverage with retailers who were slow to pay. We’d say, “We need to resolve this, or we can’t allocate any product to you.” Suddenly, everyone paid their bills.
Murtha: We transformed Tyco Preschool from being the underdogs in New York to, “Oh, those are the guys behind Elmo.”
Maguire: When Tickle Me Elmo sold out, parents couldn’t return home empty-handed, so they bought any Elmo-related toy they could find.
Kearns: It created a halo effect for the entire Sesame product line. There was always another Elmo item on the shelf—T-shirts, books, and more.
Maguire: They could have sold ten times as many if they had the inventory.
Murtha: Mattel was in the middle of acquiring Tyco and merging Tyco Preschool with Fisher-Price when Elmo launched. I’d argue the entire purchase price of Tyco [$737 million] was recouped within two to three years thanks to Elmo.
IV: ELMO GETS EXTREME
Courtesy of the Strong, Rochester, NY
By the close of 1996, Tickle Me Elmo had secured his spot among the most iconic toys of the 20th century. Over 1.2 million units were reportedly sold, elevating Tyco to a status rivaling Hasbro and Mattel as a top provider of must-have holiday items. Unlike fleeting fads, Elmo’s popularity wasn’t fading anytime soon.
Dubren: I think it took until the following June for Toys "R" Us to fulfill all their 1996 rainchecks.
Friedman: I won’t share the exact number, but we sold well over a million in 1996. In 1997, we sold even more—so many that we surpassed the previous year’s total in just the first quarter.
Cleary: We sold one million Elmos in 1996 and four million in 1997.
Kearns: It might have been the first instance where a toy performed better in its second year than its first.
Yates: It was an exhilarating period, but Stan brought me back to reality. He wanted to know our plans for the following year.
Maguire: It unexpectedly turned into a franchise.
Yates: We launched Sing and Snore Ernie, which came close to matching Tickle Me Elmo’s success.
Friedman: After the craze, the most notable trend I noticed was people walking into toy departments, picking up plush toys, and squeezing them to see if they’d react. We focused on bringing soft toys to life, which became a major part of our efforts.
Kearns: Ernie was a big hit in Europe. Interestingly, Elmo wasn’t even on Sesame Street in Europe back then.
Yates: We expanded the line with Baby Tickle Mes, including Cookie Monster, Ernie, and Zoe.
Kearns: There was no Tickle Me Oscar. The toys always had to stay true to the characters’ personalities.
Cleary: We sold 4 million Baby Tickle Mes. The demand was so high that we couldn’t keep up.
Gina Sirard (former Vice President of Marketing, Fisher-Price): One of my key strategies at Fisher-Price was to keep people wondering, “What will Elmo do next?”
Bagli: You have to hand it to them. Every year, they introduced a new Elmo. Chicken Dance Elmo even won a Toy of the Year award.
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Yates: There was also a Toss and Tickle Me Elmo.
Dubren: You’d throw him in the air, he’d laugh, and when you caught him, a motion sensor would make him stop laughing.
Cleary: Elmo as Elvis was another hit.
Yates: Rock and Roll Elmo was also Greg Hyman’s creation. I stayed until 2008, and there weren’t any real flops.
Girard: Pogo Elmo didn’t get the warmest reception. It was the only one that didn’t become a massive hit.
Dubren: I’ve been told that, to some extent, it saved Children’s Television Workshop at the time. The success extended to the entire franchise.
Maguire: As government funding for public television declined, private sector revenue from royalties filled the gap. Suddenly, you’d see the characters on applesauce and snacks.
Kearns: Any non-profit faces constant challenges in generating income. A success story like Tickle Me Elmo was a huge boost. [Workshop founder] Joan Ganz Cooney once said it allowed them to expand internationally.
Under Mattel’s Fisher-Price brand, Elmo continued to make yearly appearances through 2006. For his 10th anniversary, the company introduced TMX Elmo, or Tickle Me Elmo Extreme, a doll that had to be seen to be believed.
Dubren: TMX was incredible. I wish I could claim I designed the mechanism, but I didn’t.
Bruce Lund (Owner, Lund and Company): We had initially presented the mechanism for Elmo’s fifth anniversary. Later, one of us revisited the idea and wanted to push it further into extreme laughter.
Sirard: It didn’t work out for the fifth anniversary. When he revisited the concept, we added features like slapping the ground and rolling over.
Lund: We used a similar concept in a toy called Baby Go Boom—not identical, but an earlier version. Baby Go Boom could transition from standing to sitting, then lying down, and back up. Eventually, we figured out how to make her stand again, which led to Somersault Sara.
Gabriela Arenas (Vice President of Licensing, North America, Sesame Workshop): TMX aimed to capture how a 3-year-old laughs when tickled—rolling on the floor, giggling, and having fun. The mechanism perfectly captured that.
Kearns: I recall Fisher-Price creating a mock-up to show us, and we couldn’t stop laughing. It was an obvious yes.
Lund: Fitting the Elmo skin was a challenge. The mechanism works fine alone, but the fur creates friction.
Maguire: We managed to recreate the frenzy, which was massive.
Kearns: Gina Sirard was the mastermind behind keeping the whole project secret. Retailers bought it without even seeing it.
Sirard: We created ads featuring Elmo in silhouette.
Maguire: After 25 years with Tyco, it was the first time they made me sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Lund: There’s a certain satisfaction in seeing people amazed. It was a straightforward mechanism, but many thought it was a mechanical wonder.
Sirard: The main goal was to make Elmo appear as real and lifelike as possible.
Lund: Once, we temporarily misplaced a sample, and Fisher-Price wasn’t happy. We eventually found it. They insisted on keeping everything completely secret.
Maguire: We borrowed a page from Steve Jobs’ playbook and kept the product under wraps until it hit stores.
Bagli: Only about 20 people worldwide had seen it before its debut. We kept it a secret until the big reveal on Good Morning America.
Lund: It was truly a stroke of marketing brilliance.
Bagli: The packaging resembled a metal briefcase with a warning: “May Contain Uncontrollable Laughter.”
Lund: We shipped samples in diamond-plate metal cases with foam inside, like an attaché case, to protect the valuable prototypes. That design inspired the final packaging.
Kearns: They designed packaging where only the eyes were visible through a small flap.
Lund: It was also practical because there was no on-shelf demo, so the batteries wouldn’t drain.
Maguire: Diane Sawyer kept it in a small vault.
Bagli: While most holiday sales began on Black Friday, this launch pushed it forward by two months. We dubbed it the Elmo Effect.
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Maguire: People queued outside Toys "R" Us, grabbing 10 at a time to resell on eBay.
Bagli: It felt like tracking election results. First, the East Coast numbers came in, then the West Coast.
Arenas: It created a must-have frenzy among consumers.
Maguire: The toy industry was struggling that year, but suddenly, people flocked to big-box stores in September, turning it into a strong year. Everyone gained from TMX Elmo.
Hogan: I think the appeal was stronger for adults who grew up with Tickle Me Elmo and now had their own kids. It was over-the-top and hilarious.
Lund: Mattel reported that it sold more units on its first day than any other toy in history up to that point, excluding video games.
Sirard: I remember receiving hourly calls from Walmart. It was unbelievable. I believe the number was 250,000 sold that day. I’m not sure if any product since has matched that.
After numerous variations—including backpacks, international releases, and more—Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Street license returned to Hasbro in 2011. Their Love2Learn Elmo helps kids with potty-training, and a smaller version of the original is also available. Sesame Street, now airing new episodes on HBO, still regards Elmo as its most successful preschool licensing achievement.
Dubren: Ironically, a tickle-me baby toy was released the same year as Tickle Me Elmo. But it had no TV promotion or iconic character.
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Bagli: People still use Tickle Me Elmo as the benchmark. They ask, “What’s the next Tickle Me Elmo?”
Lund: After TMX, people approached me saying, “Why didn’t you bring it to us?” But what would they have done with it? Made a teddy bear? Who cares? It’s Elmo that makes it special.
Dubren: There have been big toys before, but this went beyond the usual toy craze. It felt more human than Furby or Tamagotchi. It became something even adults noticed.
Kearns: It became what the industry calls “feature plush.” While there were talking toys, this one wiggled, giggled, and vibrated.
Murtha: I’ve worked on many successful projects—Strawberry Shortcake, Trivial Pursuit, Cabbage Patch—it’s what you strive for. When it all comes together, all you can say is wow.
Dubren: Tickle Me Taz likely would have faded into obscurity quickly.
Kearns: It was the perfect combination—the right character paired with the right mechanism. No one wants to cuddle Taz.
Dubren: It’s straightforward. It brought people joy. Even if it only lasted a few moments, those moments are what make life special.
Kearns: At the time, my sister-in-law was undergoing intense radiation and chemotherapy for cancer. I’d visit her and talk about our work. Once, I brought a Tickle Me Elmo, and her face lit up with a huge smile. Despite all the tubes and treatments, she smiled. Even the doctors and nurses played with it. It showed me Elmo’s charm reached far beyond preschoolers.
She passed away. I still have her doll. Everyone loves Elmo.
