Worst... Elmo product...EVER

[mupcollector1]

Okay....so the age of Elmo's target audience (exculding myself of course) would be using a flashdrive because?

Well it does seem like more younger and younger people are owning cell phones now a days. I didn't have a cell phone in high school but everyone else did, same with a car. Plus I think Sesame Workshop released the current episodes on a flash drive. It's interesting how that's done, I'm not sure if you plug it in and up comes a built in player or something like that. Also when media technology was being developed with video game technology for example Game Boy Video, There was a couple of things that Sesame Workshop did with that. There's video player toys that play episodes, like a DVD player but in a toy. That's interesting. I know there was a Sesame Street record player in the 70s (I'd love to have that myself). Plus also in general there was cassette players made for younger kids. I had one that was like a toy karaoke machine.

It's amazing, certainly something I would have loved to own as a kid.

 

[Rugratskid]

Yeah I think so. I used to have a whole bunch of them as a kid. Even the early Telly plush I think was from Applause. In fact, I think the Elmo I had which looks very similar to that was made from Applause as well. It was one of the first Sesame Street lines from Applause I believe.

I have that Telly from Applause, I might have to find it though.

 

[Dominicboo1]

Well it does seem like more younger and younger people are owning cell phones now a days. I didn't have a cell phone in high school but everyone else did, same with a car. Plus I think Sesame Workshop released the current episodes on a flash drive. It's interesting how that's done, I'm not sure if you plug it in and up comes a built in player or something like that. Also when media technology was being developed with video game technology for example Game Boy Video, There was a couple of things that Sesame Workshop did with that. There's video player toys that play episodes, like a DVD player but in a toy. That's interesting. I know there was a Sesame Street record player in the 70s (I'd love to have that myself). Plus also in general there was cassette players made for younger kids. I had one that was like a toy karaoke machine.

It's amazing, certainly something I would have loved to own as a kid.

Yeah,but falsh drives? Why?

 

[mupcollector1]

Yeah,but falsh drives? Why?

School purposes for example. Which reminds me, when I was in college a friend of mine would bring his laptop to class to take notes with and I thought that was kind of cool so I did the same. I've even seen business people using more ipads then laptops.
But like you mentioned, preschool kids with flash drives. All I can think of is to save family photos and to share with people who have a computer. Other then that, I have no idea

Speaking of technology, I read this really interesting blog quote from Brian Henson somewhere and he said that Jim would have found the idea amusing that people use smartphones as a replacement for their brain. It kind of reminds me of those AT&T shorts Jim did in the 1960s, technology vs humans.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I've seen many bad Elmo products probably because I pay more attention to Classic Sesame then much of the newer stuff. That's just me. Although I can certainly say that Chicken Dance Elmo was kind of a bad idea. And that Tickle Me Elmo Extreme, How many versions of Tickle Me Elmo are there? I was quite surprised how big Tickle Me Elmo was. I didn't know until I heard crazy Christmas news stories of parents getting into fights in stores over getting the last doll.

 

[Dominicboo1]

School purposes for example. Which reminds me, when I was in college a friend of mine would bring his laptop to class to take notes with and I thought that was kind of cool so I did the same. I've even seen business people using more ipads then laptops.
But like you mentioned, preschool kids with flash drives. All I can think of is to save family photos and to share with people who have a computer. Other then that, I have no idea

Speaking of technology, I read this really interesting blog quote from Brian Henson somewhere and he said that Jim would have found the idea amusing that people use smartphones as a replacement for their brain. It kind of reminds me of those AT&T shorts Jim did in the 1960s, technology vs humans.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I've seen many bad Elmo products probably because I pay more attention to Classic Sesame then much of the newer stuff. That's just me. Although I can certainly say that Chicken Dance Elmo was kind of a bad idea. And that Tickle Me Elmo Extreme, How many versions of Tickle Me Elmo are there? I was quite surprised how big Tickle Me Elmo was. I didn't know until I heard crazy Christmas news stories of parents getting into fights in stores over getting the last doll.

True, but for College I might take a Kermit one if there are such things or Animal, or Fozzie, or even Grover, but not Elmo...even though I do love him.

 

[Drtooth]

Anyway, I'm not sure if I've seen many bad Elmo products probably because I pay more attention to Classic Sesame then much of the newer stuff. That's just me. Although I can certainly say that Chicken Dance Elmo was kind of a bad idea. And that Tickle Me Elmo Extreme, How many versions of Tickle Me Elmo are there? I was quite surprised how big Tickle Me Elmo was. I didn't know until I heard crazy Christmas news stories of parents getting into fights in stores over getting the last doll.

The singing dancing Elmo plush aren't terrible as they make money, and if that money goes back into Sesame Workshop, the more singing Elmos the better. Elmo Live was kinda a bad idea because it's technology the world wasn't ready for (or at least the US... I'm sure a real working Doreamon is within Japan's grasp). An Elmo doll that did that many things? Part of me thinks it's because it did too many things and there was just that much Uncanny valley of a robotic Elmo (vs. something that says a few recorded phrases and a song)... but the reality is that it was unveiled just before the recession hit and no one was going to spend 60 bucks on a kid's toy. It wasn't the gold mine it should have been, and SW lost out on money as a result. Had they waited a good few years or so, there would have been more potential consumers. Not to mention it wouldn't have that "too much too soon" element to the technology.

And... well... that and people don't buy toys anymore because they're not cheap little freakin' iPad apps.

But the thing that started this whole thread, "Elmo loves the Bears" is a terrible product. There has to be a better combination of plush toy and book than really flimsy story with gonkish redesign of a beloved character that's bound to give kids nightmares.

 

[Luke kun]

Anyone remember this Big Bird doll that had a tape player under-neigh his flat tale where the mouth and eyeslids would move timed to Caroll Spinney's voice, Big Bird's Storyland or Storytime, something like that. They were animatronic dolls like Teddy Rumpskin that 80s bear that reads stories to you and you follow along with a book. I think they made a Cookie Monster and Oscar but either they were rare, never made or my parents never bothered buying them for me as a kid. lol

I put Guns 'n Roses and Black Sabbath tapes in that Big Bird! I also had the Oscar one, which I would frequently put Journey and Genesis tapes in. And I did have the Cookie Monster one, put in Van Halen tapes in it.

 

[Luke kun]

Oh, and another thing: my sister had that Oscar the Grouch one, and still has it. She frequently puts in the Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack cassette in it, and I get a kick out of hearing Oscar sing "I'm a Mean Green Mother****er from Outer Space".