The designers of this latest Elmo edition designed the doll so that it would appear as much like a real muppet as possible. They carefully designed the mechanics until they had something that was pretty realistic. In fact, they achieved their goal so well that they eventually had to take a little bit of the functionality out to bring the price down to something more parents could readily afford. The doll certainly doesn't suffer from the downgrade; you'll be amazed at all it can do.

The first thing you'll notice about the Elmo doll is that it looks just like the one on TV. There are many toys that suffer in the translation from TV screen to real life. Elmo makes the transition very smoothly. Just like you'd expect from watching his show, Elmo's fur is bright red and super soft. Keep in mind that Elmo does have motors inside of him, so this isn't going to be one that your children's sleep with at night! I was very impressed by Elmo's appearance.

Elmo comes packed with batteries already so you can literally pull him out of the box and get started. He is 'dumbed down' for display purposes at first, but you can release his full functionality by simply pulling a protective tag out of his foot.

To play with Elmo you'll just need to stand him up with his stool behind him (the stool is included). Then, you can either grab his nose, push his belly, or push one of his feet and he will start talking and moving around. Grabbing his nose results in hearing a honking sound or Elmo asking for his "nose back, please!" Pushing his belly can get him to dance. Pushing on his foot will result in some delightful (and motion-filled) stories. Elmo never gets boring because he has many different responses stacked away. I found his stories, jokes, and comments to be very funny and fun to listen to.

The only problem I found with the Elmo Live Doll is that his motor and movements can sometimes be quite loud. It's not so loud that you can't hear what he's saying, but you do find yourself wishing that the noise wasn't there. Still, for such an advanced and fun toy It's a small quirk that's easy to put up with.

It is also important to note that Elmo works best when standing on a solid surface. He is prone to falling over once he tries to sit down on his stool and cross his legs! Still, even when he does fall down it's entertaining! He will request that you pick him up and then he'll say, "thank you!"

The Elmo Live Doll is definitely one of the hottest toys out there for the Christmas 2008 season. It is also selling out incredibly fast since no one can wait to get their hands on the most interactive and life-like Elmo yet. Children and adults, young and old will get a kick out of Elmo for years to come.