Although it hits retail on Thursday, you might want to get your pre-order in now given the way these things tend to go scarce near the Xmas rush. We're talking about Elmo Live of course, the singing, dancing, and story telling robot with wobbly red limbs and interactive sensors scattered around the monster's face and ticklish belly. Available now for about $65 pre-tax at all the usual on-line shops for our tiniest consumers. We've dropped in the video after the break as a reminder of things to come.

[Via I4U]

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Sure, it seemed like after the years of hard drinking, petty crime, and run-ins with the law, Elmo had cleaned up his act -- but a shocking report out of Tampa Bay, Florida, says otherwise. A two-year-old's life has been turned upside down by vicious talk coming from his favorite toy, Elmo Knows Your Name. It seems that after a recent battery change, the PC-interfacing doll began spouting death threats of "kill James" at the toddler, with seemingly no explanation as to how the new phrase entered his vocabulary. The situation came to a head when the boy's mother heard her son repeating the twisted suggestion. Of course, what she didn't hear was Elmo's other threat: that he would "cut anyone who crossed [him] end-to-end with a Bowie knife," and, "dine on their internal organs." Fisher Price says it has a team of experts working on the case, and enough tranquilizer darts to put Elmo down, "For good."

[Thanks, Jordan]

Read - Toddler's Elmo Doll Makes Death Threats, Family Says
Read - Video of Elmo making death threats

We were warned that Elmo Live was pretty much a full-fledged robot, but we can't say we envisioned this. This critter sings, dances and does a decent job of freaking us out with his innate intelligence. Seriously, you've got to see it to believe it -- good thing the video's just one click away.

If you hadn't noticed by now, Elmo is rapidly on his way from being a creepy laughing toy -- and annoyingly difficult to find during the holidays -- to being a full-fledged creepy robot... and even more difficult to find during the holidays. The new Elmo Live, which Fisher-Price is announcing at Toy Fair 2008 this week, can mouth his words like a real-live Muppet, and can sit, stand and gesture as he tells stories, jokes, sings and play games. Of course, we're sure you can still tickle him and set him on fire, but the depth of interaction Elmo Live brings should surely bring the creepiness factor to whole new levels. Which is why this is potentially the best toy ever. Hopefully you can re-program him to drop kick your Pleo. Elmo Live will be out on October 14th for $60.

As you've probably already figured out, only one creation can emerge when you combine Elmo and Robosapien: ElmoSapien. This admittedly bizarre mishmash of toys combines WowWee's Robosapien RS Media and Sesame Street's famed Elmo (or his costume, at least) into one creature that somehow manages to look innocent and menacing simultaneously. 'Course, there's only so much a picture can show, so be sure and check out ElmoSapien's adventures on video after the jump for a hearty chuckle.

We spotted the SPC-101C face-recognizing bot from Speecys a couple weeks ago, but what we didn't know is that under that cold hard exterior is the ability to emulate joy with cold hard precision. Check out the video after the break. We've included video of a laughing Elmo as well for creep-o comparison -- we don't think SPC-101C even comes close, but you're always entitled to your own opinion.

[Thanks, Robert O]

To be honest, it didn't really take a video of T.M.X. Elmo being set on fire while laughing maniacally to give us nightmares about the fuzzy red doll, we find the pyro-free version to adequately creepy as well. Peep the video after the break, never have a restful night again.

[Via Digg]

If one of your stoner friends is planning on emulating something they might see in Jackass 2, and they'd rather not have a camera involved that happens to be as fragile as their spine, you might want to recommend the new SUV-Cam from Elmo. Not only is the camera unit waterproof, but it snakes away from the recorder unit for easier positioning and extra durability. The recorder features a 2.2-inch LCD and stores vids via SD card, but only boasts two hours of battery life, so we suppose Elmo figures you'll either be dead or worn-out by you xtreem tasks before you use all the juice. The best news is that the camera features a 440,000 pixel CCD, and records 25fps at a 704 x 480 resolution, so you won't have to trade off as much quality as usual to bring your camera to the action. Unfortunately, the SUV-Cam has a price to match its feature set: ¥88,900, about $761 USD. The device should be available (in Japan) on September 29th, so start planning your nefarious deeds accordingly.

[Via Digital World Tokyo]