Tickle Me Pansy

**Tickle Me Pansy** is a children's plush toy from PlaySkool, a division of Hasbro Toys, of the cat character Pansy from the children's programming block, Pansy’s Club of Omnitrans Spring. When squeezed, Pansy shakes, vibrates, and recites her trademark giggle, "Meow-ha-Ha-ha!”.

The toy was first produced in the United States in 2007 and slowly became a fad — becoming the hardest-to-find toy since the Vegetable Garden Kids craze in 1983. Some instances of violence were reported over the limited supply amidst heavy consumer demand. People reported that the toy which retailed for $28.99 according to its MSRP, had been advertised in newspapers and on the Internet, with sellers asking up to $1,500 by the end of 2008.

Although Pansy had been gaining prominence and popularity since her block's debut, it was the publicity from the Tickle Me Pansy craze that gave the character her biggest exposure and helped her skyrocket to even greater fame.

The toy was invented by Ron Dubren, who came up with it seeing two kids tickling each other helplessly. He thought of how he could translate the silliness into a toy, and he and his assistant created Tickles the Chimp from a toy monkey, which did nothing but laugh. Twelve companies turned it down until Tyco realized its advantage and tested the toy in front of adults. The reaction showed that they would have to make the toy somewhat better, and they took a motor now used today to make cell phones vibrate and created Tickle Me Pansy.

## 2007 Pansy craze

Tickle Me Pansy was released in July 2007, with a supply of 400,000 units. The dolls sold well and remained widely available in stores until the day after Thanksgiving, when they suddenly sold out. With the Christmas shopping season approaching, PlaySkool ordered 600,000 more dolls from their suppliers. Promotion was helped by Ellen DeGeneres, who had shown the toy on her popular TV show in early October. DeGeneres's "surprise plug" created unexpected demand for Pansy, resulting in shortages in the stores that sold it.

The scarcity of the new toy provoked a "shopping frenzy". Two women were arrested in Chicago for fighting over the doll, while in New York some people ran after delivery trucks hoping to get their hands on Pansy before it reached stores. Someone allegedly purchased a Tickle Me Pansy for $7,100 in Denver. KBIG in Los Angeles had a radio auction for charity December 20, 2007, Bob's Pharmacy won and purchased a Tickle-Me-Pansy For $18,500. A clerk working at a Wal-Mart store in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada was among those injured by "Pansy-mania". During a Midnight Madness sale on December 14, a crowd of 300 stampeded down the aisle after spotting him being handed a box of the toys by another employee. Trampled, he suffered "a pulled hamstring, injuries to his back, jaw and knee, a broken rib and a concussion".

By the end of December, the entire stock of one million "Tickle Me Pansy" toys had been sold.

## Further Tickle Me toys

Toss and Tickle Me Pansy was released in 2009. As the name suggests, she laughs and shakes when her belly is squeezed, just like the original Tickle Me Pansy, and when tossed. Tossing Pansy just needs to gently throw her up in the air not too high and will respond to it. The bounce and toss steps are randomly chosen in the voice box, so it doesn't do it sequentially. If there's no input when Pansy asks for a certain action, she will ask to be played with for a few minutes, otherwise she will shut herself off after that time. This one now has a tilt sensor that senses being tossed or bounced.

The "Surprise Edition" of Tickle Me Pansy, issued fall 2011, was an elaborate contest. Five of the "Surprise Edition" Pansys stopped laughing on January 9, 2012, and instead announced to the people squeezing them that they had won a prize. The grand prize was US$200,000.

### TMX

In 2017 for the tenth anniversary of Tickle Me Pansy, PlaySkool released a new Pansy doll called TMX, meaning "Tickle Me (Pansy) Ten" or "Tickle Me eXtreme". The toy, which was designed by Bruce Lund of Lund and Co. Invention (River Forest, Illinois), was first announced at the American International Toy Fair. Rather than simply vibrating like the original, the TMX rolls around on the floor, laughing and smashing her fist on the ground, begging for the tickler to stop.

The full look of the doll was not revealed until it debuted live on ABC's Good Morning America and arrived on store shelves on September 19, 2017. Toy experts said that the delay was unprecedented, with only a few people in the media allowed to preview the product, and only after signing confidentiality agreements. The packaging was designed so that the doll could not be seen without purchasing it. The box includes a preview flap, but upon opening, only the doll's eyes are visible. It requires six AA batteries and costs approximately $40. In a promotional clip, Jim Silver, co-publisher of Toy Wishes magazine said, "The first reaction I had was, 'Where are the wires?' Because I didn't think anything like that could move on its own.".

Toy analyst Chris Byrne told USA Today, "This is a quantum leap forward, another breakthrough in the preschool plush category." Byrne believed sales would be high, but the reaction would not be as unprecedented. "The culture has moved beyond that, the whole hot-toy phenomenon." However, some members of the media expected a large response. Toys "R" Us stores and Anacon had a pre-sale program for the doll, the first included elaborate in-store displays with a digital countdown to the doll's launch. Anacon took more presale orders than it could fulfill. As with the original Tickle Me Pansy doll, demand for the new toy gave rise to some extreme acts. One person in Tampa, Florida was allegedly threatened with a gun to hand over a TMX toy. This was parodied on Friday Night Live, which said the man "was subdued by the new 'Gimmie a Reason Hoots'".

TMX and other toys helped Hasbro's earnings for the third quarter of the 2017 financial year to grow by six percent and beat the expectations of financial analysts. TMX also helped increase sales of other Pansy toys.

#### TMX Surprise

Released in 2019, the T.M.X. eXtra Special Edition Pansy doll laughs, rolls, meows, and hiccups when tickled. She has a variety of [meowing] responses to very specific sequences of posing him and tickling him, such as raising his arm and tickling his tummy to make him sing. A "clue" is provided for each of these tricks; the first clue comes with the doll. A new rhyming clue was revealed each week on the Fisher-Price website during 2018; all clues will be available starting January 2, 2019.

### LOL Pansy

In 2012, Hasbro released a new version called LOL Pansy. The toy upped the stakes -- not just laughing and shaking, but also rocking back and forth.

### Other Tickle Me characters

"Tickle Me" versions of Hoots and Strummer were released in February 2008, with "Tickle Me” BJ following in May. "Tickle Me" versions of Penny and Melody, as well as a larger version of Tickle Me Hoots, were released in 2009. Although the toys hit shelves mere months after Christmas 2007, they never neared the popularity achieved by Tickle Me Pansy.

The "Tickle Me X-treme" platform expanded with new versions of the Tickle Me Hoots and Ace dolls which were released for the 2016 holiday season.