Tickle Me Elmo: The 1996 Toy Craze That Turned Christmas Shopping Violent

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

On December 14th, 1996, a Walmart clerk in Fredericton, New Brunswick pulled a red plush toy from a box during a midnight sale and was trampled by about 300 people. He left with a pulled hamstring, a broken rib, and a concussion. The toy was Tickle Me Elmo, and this episode follows its strange route to the shelf. Inventors Ron Dubren and Greg Hyman first built the giggling, vibrating mechanism into a monkey called Tickles the Chimp. Tyco Toys liked the technology but not the chimp, lacked the plush Sesame Street license held by Hasbro, and briefly developed a Tickle Me Taz before the rights came free.

Tyco launched in July 1996 with 400,000 units and steady sales. Rosie O'Donnell featured the doll on her show in early October, and on the day after Thanksgiving the entire inventory vanished. An order for 600,000 more could not cross the supply chain in time. A toy priced at $28.99 sold for up to $1,500 through classified ads, and the episode traces how its maker spent the next decade trying to manufacture that frenzy on purpose.

• Someone in Denver reportedly paid $7,100 for one doll, and Bob's Pharmacy won a Los Angeles radio charity auction on December 20th with a bid of $18,500.
• Two women were arrested after fighting over a doll in Chicago, and adults in New York City chased delivery trucks down the street.
• The 2001 Tickle Me Elmo Surprise hid a real-time clock, and on January 9, 2002 five dolls announced prizes, including a $200,000 grand prize.
• The 2006 TMX, designed with inventor Bruce Lund, cost $40, took six AA batteries, and could fall over, roll, pound the floor, and sit back up.
• TMX was kept behind nondisclosure agreements and a sealed box showing only Elmo's eyes until a Good Morning America reveal, and it lifted Mattel's third quarter earnings by 6 percent.