To be fair, the idea is to teach kids to work with such electronic devices as lights, motor, interrupters, voice box and batteries to create electrical circuits. Interestingly, this upsetting rendition is seemingly closer to the original toy’s inception. Four years before Tickle Me Elmo blew up, he was actually Tickle Me Chimp, then later Tickle Me Taz, after the Tasmanian Devil. That guy’s probably balding, too, as he hasn’t been in the spotlight for some time. So, with Tickle Me Elmo, the third time was the charm. After all that experimentation, it only makes sense that the fourth time would be this fur-less abomination. At least kids will likely still love him just the way he is.
