Gonzo Gadgets

Elmo Live is Alive with Fun

Introduction

There’s no more anticipated toy for kids this season than Elmo Live by Fisher-Price. The original Tickle Me Elmo delighted kids by bringing one of their best-loved small screen friends into the house. It is amazing what a few years can bring in terms of improvements! We got our hands on Elmo Live to see if it is worthy of the crown of Muppet toy goodness.

Review

Elmo Live has what you’d expect – the Sesame Street Elmo character’s look, voice and sense of humor. The latter two are captured in an huge range of responses, jokes and phrases including a number of fun games Elmo Live can play with children. Elmo Live has far more to communicate through voice than TME or its TMX successors. Elmo can even tell a number of stories. Elmo Live beats TME/TMX by an order of magnitude in that department.

As impressive as the voice improvements are, the biggest leap was made in Elmo Live’s life-like motion and interactivity. This is done through a bunch of motors & gears that really brings the character to life. Elmo sits, stands, waves his arms, points, moves his mouth, crosses his legs, sings, dances.  Elmo is even aware when he has fallen over and asks for help (he is unable to get upright without your child’s assistance). Plus Elmo has a number of sensors that when touched or tickled elicit special dialog. These sensors also figure cleverly into the games Elmo Live has been taught.

Clouds over Sesame Street

We think Elmo Live is a riot but be aware of the following complaints:

1. All those gears/servos can be noisy and distracting
2. Elmo Live is not a cuddly toy meant to replace a teddy bear or other plush doll. The gear inside that gives it life also makes it less than cuddly.
3. It’s not the cheapest doll around
4. Extremely young children may find Elmo Live to be scary or intimidating because of how different he is from more familiar toys. This really depends from child to child. A safe bet would be 3 and up, though many younger children even will also find Elmo Live to be engaging and funny.

Summary

Quite simply there’s nothing out there like Elmo Live in terms of sheer interactivity and bubbling personality. The Sesame Street tie-in is a no brainer but Fisher-Price really put a lot of thought into this and it exudes charm and humor and does it interactively. Children of many ages and their parents are likely to be entertained by this one. It brings Sesame Street to life right in the playroom.

Where To Get Elmo Live

Earth, pretty much. So far it seems these are not as hard to come by as the original Tickle Me Elmo, but parents be warned.  That is likely to change as people’s minds shift toward the holiday gift season and this is one of the hottest items on many family gift lists.

For online buyers we recommend K•B Toys Online (The Parent Company) and Amazon – it saves the time and uncertainty of hunting local retailers and fighting lines.  Elmo Live should be in most major retail outlets as well.

Tags: elmo live, fisher-price, holiday, kids, toys