Fisher-Price Elmo Live
by Fisher-Price
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Our Price: $196.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $30.50 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Fisher-Price Elmo Live
Customer Review: Not worth the money
Summary: 2 Stars
My mom bought this for our 2 1/2 year-old son for Christmas and was very excited about giving it to him. I was less enthralled because I could see, just from the product description, that there wasn't going to be much he could really do with it. My suspicions were borne out as soon as Elmo Live came out of the box. First, my son was terrified of it. It took an hour before he would even approach the toy. Then, he made some attempts to play with it, but being 2 1/2 and with Elmo Live being so large, kept knocking Elmo over. When Elmo Live gets knocked over he won't do anything except say "help Elmo up please" until he gets picked up. Elmo spent most of his time playing with my son on the floor asking to be picked up. I don't understand why the toy wasn't designed so that it does something other than ask to be picked up if it's knocked over.
My son never did figure out how the different sensors worked to make Elmo do different things. He mostly just wanted to hug Elmo, but the toy is very hard and not very inviting for hugging - and also, that would usually result in Elmo falling over and then repeated requests to be picked up. Also, every time Elmo sits down to tell a "story" he would fall over - that little stool is ridiculous and has no purpose, as far as I can tell. We finally held Elmo in our laps and would press his feet or stomach to get different things to happen, but we quickly ran through the repetoire of what Elmo Live could do, and my son got bored and wandered away to play with something else. Some kind of USB interface to download different phrases and stories would be welcome and that technology has been integrated into other toys like this for some time. I have to agree with reviewers who have questioned why the manufacturers did not include technology similar to what Elmo Knows Your Name included. I think that would have made this toy far more engaging for my son.
The "play value" here is limited. The toy defines how the child interacts with it, when - as we all should know by now - the best toys are the other way around. My mom spent $60 on this thing and it just sits in the corner. Know what my son wants to play with? His Thomas train set, his Matchbox cars and his all-time favorite bristle blocks that cost me $15 for 60. Because those toys allow him to use his imagination and create different situations, and don't force him to passively sit and consume entertainment dictated by Elmo.
I never would have bought this toy in the first place, if it had been up to me, and I certainly don't recommend it. Your child will get far more fun and meaningful interaction out of a regular old Elmo doll without any fancy features. Fisher Price really disappointed on this one and it should go back to the drawing board.
Edited to add: It's now March and Elmo Live is broken, all he can do is move his mouth and clicking sounds come out, but no more talking. Also he can no longer move his legs. Sixty bucks for a toy my son played with 3-4 times before it broke - sure glad it wasn't my $60!
Customer Review: Elmo Live really is amazing...
Summary: 4 Stars
Got it for my 2 yr old's 2nd birthday. She LOVES Elmo. You can touch his foot & he'll tell one of 2 stories (if there are more stories than that, I haven't heard them). You can touch his back and he'll do something else. You can honk his nose and he'll make funny sounds. Or you can touch his belly and he'll dance & do other things. At first we were just touching his foot, b/c we didn't know he could do other things if "tickled" in other places (should've read the manual!). Then we realized he does other things OTHER than the same 2 stories.
Well, my 2 yr old daughter loves him, and will often go and touch his foot or try to squeeze his nose to make him talk. She loves pushing him over b/c he'll tell you that he's fallen down and "please help Elmo up." Then he thanks you for doing so, once you've helped him up. He does do many things. His animation is quite realistic (except that my 7 yr old noticed that you can hear the gears inside moving; she asked what 'that sound" was. My 2 yr old doesn't seem to mind.)
Only issue is for some reason, when we press his stomach it doesn't work. We tried changing the batteries but it still doesn't work. It must be defective or broken, which doesn't thrill me, b/c $60 is a TON of $ for one toy. I haven't tried to exchange it yet, but only because Elmo still dances even if we don't push his stomach. My 2 yr old hasn't asked to take him to bed, and I don't suspect she will. He's too hard to cuddle up to.
I normally don't buy expensive toys like this (my brother in law went halfsies w/ me or else I wouldn't have). But Elmo really IS captivating. Whenever my daughter gets tired of other toys, she always goes back to Elmo, and always delights in how he "talks to her." Would I get him again? Yes. I still would recommend him only because I've never seen a toy this realistic, and it's very satisfying to see my daughter so happy. She also likes to watch Sesame Street and the Elmo segments WITH Elmo. All in all, yes it's pricey, and perhaps not as durable as I'd like, but it's amazing. My 7 yr old plays w/ it too.
If you're looking for a really educational toy, look elsewhere. This one is good for manners and such (he says please and thank you a lot). But he doesn't count or do the ABCs or anything, or at least I haven't heard him do so.
Customer Review: Daughter loves Elmo, but durability is an issue
Summary: 3 Stars
We gave Elmo Live to our youngest daughter for Christmas; she was just shy of her 2nd birthday. She immediately loved it, even more than I expected! She learned very quickly which points to press on Elmo's body to make him do different things. He has to sit with her when she eats!
My problem is that it isn't very durable. Within 1/2 hour of first playing with him, his mouth wouldn't work and started making a terrible ratchety noise. And my daughter is not rough at all with her toys. Mostly she was just watching him, facinated. Luckily Amazon.com has a good replacement policy, and they shipped us a new one as long as we returned the defective one within 30 days.
So the new one arrives, and a day later Elmo's mouth isn't working correctly! I'm very frustrated, because in the meantime my daughter can't live w/o him. Yet she notices his mouth won't open to yawn or yell, which she know is supposed to happen. And it starts making that ratchety sound again, like there's a gear out of place.
So I contact the manufacturer, Fisher-Price, who will exchange it but I must first ship the broken one to them and it will take 4-6 weeks to receive the replacement. They didn't seem to care that two times we received a defective product . . . I just got the standard response. So I thought to replace it through Amazon.com again but now they won't exchange it anymore but they will give me a full refund.
Is anyone else having issues with Elmo's durability? I truly mean it when I say my daughter is not rough with her toys. She does nothing but give Elmo hugs and kisses . . . no throwing him, dropping him, etc. Even when she carries him she does it with her arms wrapped around him, not dragging him by an arm, etc.
I also agree with other reviews that they could have figured out a way to make him more cushy and more lightweight. With the technology available today, it seems rather behind the times that Elmo is is clunky and his mechanical movements are so loud.
Customer Review: The Not So Great Toy
Summary: 2 Stars
I purchase this toy first one month ago for my 2 year old daughter. After watching numerous videos on the product and reviewing all reviews, I thought she would love it and so I went ahead and purchase it. Well it has been her favorite toy over Backpack (from Dora). She likes to hug it and pull its hand. I noticed that the month stop working and it made a lot of mechanically noise when it was talking and when it tried to sit down. I looked at the toy and thought it must be because of one of the hands being loose. That will soon come to not be the case. I decided that since she love the toy so much and I am bothered by the mechanically noise, I would go out and buy the toy again. So, I did so yesterday. I purchase another Elmo Live to have the same issues. Not even 2 hours into having the toy and the same mechanically issues begin to happen, it would not open its mouth while it talked. Granted this is a BRAND NEW toy. I replace the batteries and that did not help. There is no physical damage to the new toy so I have to conclude that this is a known issue with the toy. There is no way that I could have gotten 2 defective toys within a one month period. I will try to return the new toy for another to see if I fray better. I will update on the result.
The toy is cute and the things it does - tell stories, tell jokes, dance, etc. is great entertainment. My daughter loves it and even take the toy to bed with her every night.
The toy does not have a longevitity in my opinion because of the issues that I faced with toy. I experience the come on and then quickly go off with the first toy but when I replace the batteries that was no longer an issue. Instead as stated above the mouth would not open when it is talking, very annoying hearing the mechanically noise of the toy trying to open the mouth or something.
Customer Review: Very repetitive
Summary: 3 Stars
I'll start out by saying Elmo is absolutely adorable and he is very entertaining.. for the first 15 minutes. It is amazing how he moves and you do feel like he's talking and interacting with you, until he does the same things over and over 20 times.
When my 3-year-old first saw him in the store, I couldn't get him away from it. They had one out of the box so you could see everything it does. He was mesmerized and was laughing hysterically every time he grabbed Elmo's nose. That said, every time we go to this same store with that same Elmo out on display, he walks right past him. Just like that ridiculously expensive interactive dog, Biscuit, and that new giant dinosaur by Fisher Price, both well over $100 a pop. They're amazing for 15 minutes, and then your child rarely, if ever, plays with it again.
This could have been a real gem if they had added the ability to say your child's name and add content via USB or cartridges. And why not? Fisher Price is no stranger to these things and they've had "Knows Your Name" products on the market for many years now from dolls to play phones. Why not Elmo? And why no expandable content? No matter how adorable, there's only so many times you can listen to "Fee fi fo fum" or the rap song. It's less repetitive than TMX, but that's not saying a whole lot.
I would almost, ALMOST, toss out this 3-star review and write a 5-star review if Fisher Price had learned their lesson from TMX and made this Elmo softer. My son can't cuddle with this Elmo. He can't hug him. Heck, he can barely carry him because he's so heavy and awkward and he'd probably get broken if he carried him anyway. If Elmo did all the things he does, but was more cuddly and inviting, it may be a different story. But right now, Elmo is just another $60 in the garbage.