Durability: Fun: Educational: I bought this toy a month before Christmas because I had read that it needed to be programmed and I wanted to do it in advance so it would work correctly when it was opened. There was lots of misinformation about the “Knows your Name” feature. I thought you could play the names in the store. This is not true.
I had downloaded the manual and so I called the customer service number to ask if the dog “knew” my daughter’s name. I spelled the name and pronon-unced it.
The man assured me that it was on the list of over 3000 names the dog “knew” so I bought it. Later, when I tried to program it I found out that my daughter’s name “Olena” was not on the list. I called customer service to find out if the name coud be added and downloaded. This service is available for the Elmo and Dora Know Your Name toys, which sells for $15-$20 but not for Puppy Knows Your Name (and also Grows) for $40-$60. This is definitely a weak point, because that is part of the advertised appeal of the toy. I found a name that was similar and told my child that the dog had an “accent” but children are very attuned to names and she complains regularly “When will the dog learn to say my name?” However, it basically stopped another type of bickering when her older sister plays with the dog. It only belongs to one name.
I rate this as good. It also knows its own name, chosen by my daughter, which fortunately was on the list of names. It doesn’t liearn anything else, unlike Elmo, Dora and other toys in this line. Now for the other features.
Does it grow? Yes, it grows every day, then it shrinks back down to the original size. My children were delighted by this feature. The dog is not a plush toy. It is hard plastic covered with a loose stretchy fabric. I chose the retriever because the brown color looked like it would hide dirt more than the poodle, which is white.
The tail looks like it could break if it fell from a height, but after six weeks the toy is still in good shape. It has grown and shrunk at least twice. I put new batteries in it before I gave it to my daughter because the toy was in the store available to “Try Me”.
Week batteries apparently slow down the growth. It is still on the same batteries after six weeks which I rate as good. The songs it sings are catchy and my girls sing along. It wags its tail and looks cute. It doesn’t move around.
I just bought a used elmo knows your name doll for my daughter and I was not aware it needs a cd to program it. Well I cant get it from fisher price, its not available online thru them and I called and they cannot send me one either. Name Adding Tool 1.0 Name Adding Tool is a simple utility which can add your name (or any text you wish to add) to My Computer context menu. You can also assign an software (.exe) file with your text; so that when you click.
I rate all of these as good features. Overall this would a highly rated toy if I didn’t have a problem with the dog “knowing” my daughter’s name.
I rate Fisher-Price/Mattel customer service at zero for giving me wrong information about this. The same customer service rep assured me that I could call Customer Service and add a name if it wasn’t on the list, allthough he said this could take a month or more. “Knows Your Name” is part of the name of the toy.
This add-a-name feature is only available for the Elmo and Dora dolls. This is really a big mistake on the part of Mattel.
The fact that the toy incorporates the child’s name really personalizes the toy. If it also had some other customizable sentences this would be aa real winner. As it is, my six and nine year-old daughters like it. If you are sure your child’s name is on the CD they will probably like it. Durability: Fun: Educational: We got two, one for each of our daughters. One was growing, one wasn’t but there was no indication that anything was wrong with the it – it sang, interacted when petted etc. It only sang the song associated with it’s puppy stage Like somebody below noticed – it’s internal clock must slow down with low batteries!
On a whim I changed the batteries and the next day it grew up and it established the same cycle. The manufacturer should include a spare set of batteries and recommend replacement of the demo ones ASAP in order for growing cycles to work properly. Oh, and both girls loved them!
: From the “There’s Still No Cure for Cancer” department. “Knows Your Name Elmo,” a doll that can greet a child by name when it is unwrapped this holiday season, even before being taken out of its box. The new Elmo comes with a CD-ROM and a USB cable that lets parents download personal information about a child — like his or her favorite color or birthday — into the plush doll. The latest incarnation of Elmo can be programmed to speak a child’s name, tell stories, sing songs or even remind a child when it is time for breakfast. There is a list of more than 15,000 names to choose from to download. You people need to grow up. Nothing would be more amazing to a child, then to see/hear Elmo already knowing their name out of the box.
Mattel is very smart for making this toy, and it will be a bonanza, regardless of what anyone thinks. Unfortunately, you trolls that watch too much news, are some how creeped out by it. Most of you are just bandwagoning with the first comment anyway, just to look cool. (which is outrageously common in online forums), That’s called having a low self esteem, and having a closed mind, which seems to be the trend with American culture. (and i doubt any of you are parents anyway, so you really have nothing valid to say, even if this is a gadget site.
Perhaps you should all keep your idiocy to yourself, on things you know nothing about). I bet you’re the same people that said “Tickle me Elmo will be used by kids to get self gratification, because it vibrates, and that is sick man”. – Help us all. You paranoid retards need to take a minute to think about how much kids will love this, and how harmless it is.
(ADHD can be very debilitating though). Let the brainless, invalid, and ignorant responses, ensue. And i doubt any of you are parents anyway I’ve got three. Unfortunately, you trolls that watch too much news, are some how creeped out by it. Actually, I’d have to wager that you are the one that has been watching too much news. Contrary to what you may think, 99% of the discussions (Hello Fabian!) on this site have been very civilized and don’t deteriorate into flame wars. Until your post, everything else was relatively funny comments that would have been made online or at the office with colleagues.
ADHD can be very debilitating though I’m still trying to figure out how this ties into any aspect of the post or the ensuing discussion. The more I think about your post, the more I think you are just trolling around trying to stir stuff up.
I bought one of these for my daughter. Its a couple of days before her birthday, so I decided to hack it. Its very easy to do. The only real difficult part is that you need to really start practicing your elmo voice. The installer CD spends about 10 minutes copying over 15,000 names with very obvious file namesthen the phrase filesand then a file called “temp.inf” pops up in the program directory, containing a peculiar text file. Here is a sample of the temp.inf script file that defines the audio sequences. Its compiled and linked to audio files during the final elmo configuration process, executed randomly and contains variables: PL 016: PLAY ELMOLOVES YOU+50MSEC+#CHILDSNAME RTS With some crafty skills, this line could easy be changed to: PL016: PLAY ELMO ISWATCHING YOU+50MSEC+#CHILDSNAME RTS or how about: PL016: PLAY ELMO KNOWSWHAT+50MSEC+#PARENT2+50MSEC+DID LASTSUMMER RTS The possibilities are ENDLESS!
I bought this toy just a couple of days ago. It has 15000 names in its storage – memory on the disc to personalise it with your own kids name, right? So I bring it home, all excited about downloading her name.
Lo and behold, the disc – It doesnt have MY kids name! The kids name is Rose. But it DOES have that all too well known name, Saquanda, and Iran too oh and also Salmon, it has the name Salmon stored. Also that all too popular name Swchestertein, I kid you not. I am praying I get my damn money back. Thanks for reading.
Ok, here is my question I have been reading the blogs and read the hack page, but am wondering how people are accessing the HID if they are. Or are you just changing the file in the program on your computer then using the elmo KYN software to update the toy? I have been playing around with a few things, but some of the things that I input into the file on my computer get automatically changed when I use the software to update. Any advice on that? Basically, what I really want to do is make it so I can use more names and program it to say the names more often in the stories, and also make it play more than 3 items for the stories, games, and songs.