Tickle Me Elmo dolls have been around for almost fifteen years. Tyco released the playful and ticklish after a very touch and go and quite confusing start. In fact, the original concept was for the toy to be a monkey. It was later redesigned as a “Tickle Me Taz” when Tyco still held the rights to produce Looney Tunes stuffed animals; just before the original release Tyco lost those rights, but did gain those of Sesame Street soon after and Tickle Me Elmo was born.

Since its debut, Tickle Me Elmo has been a kid favorite throughout America, even though it has never regained the popularity that it enjoyed in 1996. Nevertheless, a ten year anniversary version called the TMX which stand for Tickle Me Ten (X) or, more appropriate after the tenth year, Tickle Me eXtreme. No matter how one views it, this doll surpasses previous versions in all aspects.

After the release of the anniversary TMX, Mattel released the Special Edition TMX doll that has several different hidden messages. As a result, the sales increased and people spent hours trying to listen to all of the messages, probably in the hopes that it would be like the special release Elmo doll in 2001 where several people won $200,000. Nevertheless, this has been one of the more popular releases of the doll since the original in 1996. Thankfully though, there aren’t as many people committing crimes or acting recklessly in order to obtain these dolls.

If you have a TMX Special Edition Elmo and haven’t completely figured everything out, there are a lot of websites with a plethora of information on how to get the doll to say the secret phrases. However, if you are like most people, there is also a cheater website that gives you step by step instructions and videos of what you should do and what to expect – TMXSpecialEdition.com.