Waiting on Elmo ... hoping on hype
Top-secret 10th-anniversary "Elmo T.M.X." debuts next week; Fisher-Price promises Elmo will surprise everyone.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The top-secret 10th-anniversary Elmo, code-named "Elmo T.M.X.," will finally be unveiled to the world next Tuesday. But will it live up to the hype?

Fisher-Price, a division of No. 1 toymaker Mattel (Charts), has been extremely tight-lipped about the special Elmo. No one except a handful of company executives and a few toy industry analysts have seen the toy.

elmo_tmx.03.jpg
Fisher-Price has even tweaked its packaging to play up "top-secret" nature of Elmo T.M.X.

However, Fisher-Price promises that this Elmo will do something that has never been seen before in a plush toy, including the nine Elmos that have preceded T.M.X.

Chris Byrne, an independent toy industry analyst, who's seen T.M.X. ("Tickle Me 10, get it?"), said it's the funniest Elmo thus far. But that's all he'll say thanks to a confidentiality agreement with the manufacturer.

Jim Silver, publisher of Toy Wishes magazine, said he was looking for "the strings" on the prototype when he first saw what it does. "This is what the toy industry needs ... excitement and total innovation," he said.

To his point, the toy industry is struggling to expand its sales at a time when many more kids are shunning traditional toys in favor of consumer electronics like Apple's (Charts) iPod and portable gaming platforms like Sony' (Charts)s PSP.

According to the Toy Industry Association (TIA), total annual toy sales last year were $21.9 billion, down 0.2 percent from the previous year.

Can the furry red secret Elmo single-handedly turn things around for the industry this year?

Some industry watchers speculate that it will take more than a brilliant marketing ploy from Fisher-Price to maneuver that.

In the meantime, retailers like Wal-Mart (Charts), KB Toys, Toys "R" Us and others were confident enough in Elmo's selling power to offer their customers preorders of T.M.X. without offering them any details.

The retailers also plan to hold special Elmo events Tuesday at their stores to coincide with the launch.

Check out the hottest toys for 2006. Top of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.