tickle me

Last Friday Robyn brought in her Xmas gift. She got the new Tickle Me Elmo. For a 21 year old - I thought that was a strange gift. :-) But then again...it's Robyn...anything goes with her. She brought it into work just for me as I had mentioned that I saw it at Toys R Us during the Xmas season and didn't know what the big deal was. So she cleared my desk and we demonstrated the product for the rest of the work crew. Well - let me tell you...that thing is so COOL! He laughs, spins around, waves, screeches "again again", falls down, slaps the ground and stands back up (not necessarily in that order). I was remarkably impressed with the way he did extended dog (to stand back up). :-) We tried out all 3 modes. As each mode progresses, the Elmo gets more demonically possessed. It was hilarious. I giggled and tickled him each time he prompted me too. This toy is definately fun to play with but the potential for it to be annoying is high.

I took a verbal survey of robotic toys that intrigued us techies. Top contenders were:

• Sony dog - it has voice recognition
• Raptor - it has AI
  
• Elmo - for small children
• Honda robot - for those who wanted to really SPLURGE on a toy

Though I would KILL for that Teddy Bear in the movie AI!! He'd be the ulitimate gift for me!