Day 19: Tamagotchi, Buzz Lightyear, and Tickle Me Elmo
Sure, the Nintendo 64 was probably the hottest “toy” of 1996 but what else were kids asking for Christmas that year? I looked up the most popular toys from 1996 and found some commercials to go along with them. Welcome to 1996’s TOY EDITION!
“I’m head of the class
I’m popular
I’m a quarter back
I’m popular
My mom says I’m a catch
I’m popular”
If your parents didn’t want you to have a real, blood-filled pet for some reason, maybe you pressed for them to get you the next best alternative: a Tamagotchi. Generally, pets are not known for their appreciation of being forgotten and shoved down into the bottom of a toy chest only to be rediscovered every few months to be briefly interacted with. A Tamagotchi, on the other hand, lives for that - er, until its battery dies.
For the uninitiated, this keychain baby possessed all the technology of a Tiger Electronics handheld knockoff but with all the charm of owning a real life chicken. In Japanese, “tamago” means “egg” and “uotchi” means “watch”. Put those together and you get “egg-watch”, which doubles as a favorite breakfast pastime of mine and triples as something I don’t want to play with. But in the context of this interactive keychain doo-dad, it amounts to raising and caring for a digital creature and bearing the responsibility for making it grow. What kids mostly experienced with their own Tamagotchis was the sight of a skull icon that indicated their pocket pet was sick and about to die. And just like with a real world pet, if your Tamagotchi died due to your pre-adolescent negligence or stewing psychopathy, no big deal. You can try again, just as you can beg your parents for a new cat that moves because the last one stopped doing that. I never had a Tamagotchi growing up but I remember several kids did - for at least a week.
The first Toy Story movie hit theaters in November of 1995, which means it came to VHS in 1996, which means every toy aisle in America was full of real toys based on fictional toys, the most genius marketing concept ever conceived. There were Buzzes, Woodys, a buzz for more Woodys, and woodies for more Buzzes. There were vehicles for the characters that I’m pretty sure weren’t in the movie and a few that were. There wasn’t a license opportunity left untapped when it came to the franchise and I, age 11, didn’t care. I was probably a little too old to be interested in it and I only watched the movies for the first time in my late 20’s and yeah, they’re decent. But in 1996, you couldn’t take ten steps in Wal-Mart without seeing a stranded Buzz Lightyear some kid carried around the store until he found his mom to ask her if he could have it and she abruptly told him no and made him put it down.
Finally, Tickle Me Elmo. Up against the likes of the Nintendo 64, the Tamagotchi, and Buzz freaking Lightyear, I am surprised that a toy so vulnerable to torture was the biggest fad of the year. Uh-hahaha-hee-hee!
If you have not had the pleasure of tickling an Elmo because you see that as a violation of not only his rights but your own standards, then I’ll fill you in. You tickle Elmo, then he giggles. He might also vibrate or even verbally confirm the activity by saying “That tickles!” And that’s it. You don’t feed him, raise him from an egg, put a cartridge into him, or play Wave Race 64 on him - you just put hands on him and he cracks his ass up. He doesn’t even perform the neighborly gesture of tickling you back. He’s selfish and creepy.
Aside from the downfall of society and a general lack of respect now associated with millennials, Tickle Me Elmo is also responsible for a wave of “Tickle Me” toys for other characters like Ernie, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster. Worse, Tickle Me Elmo was a precursor and inspiration for the Furby, an electronic toy that is part hamster, mogwai, owl, and dark prince of evil.
People went crazy over Tickle Me Elmo dolls to the point of frenzied criminal acts. Two women in Chicago were arrested for fighting over the last one left in a store and in New York people chased delivery trucks on foot to intercept the dolls like they were robbing a train out of El Paso. During a midnight sale at one location, 300 people stampeded down an aisle after seeing an employee holding a Tickle Me Elmo box. The poor guy was trampled and sustained injuries to his entire body including a broken rib and concussion.
Uh-hahahahaha-heee-heeee!
