'Tis the Shameless Season

By JEANNINE STEIN

Dec. 20, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Don’t pity the poor parent who’s desperately searching for the last Tickle Me Elmo doll in the Western Hemisphere.

Pity poor Janice Yates, associate vice president for Tyco Preschool, maker of Tickle Me Elmo, the phenom of the toy world.

Suddenly she’s everybody’s best bud.

“You get the schmooze line first,” says Yates, who these days is fielding phone calls from Elmo-crazed friends who will do almost anything to get one of those fuzzy, giggling orange creatures under the tree.

“People will say, ‘So what do you think of the possible merger with Mattel?’ And just when I think they’re serious, they say, ‘Can you get me a Tickle Me Elmo doll?’ ”

Such is life this time of year for people who work for toy makers and toy stores. The pre-Christmas shortage of immensely popular items means that these people are barraged with phone calls from friends, family, business associates and total strangers who will cajole, plead, beg and flat-out lie--anything--to get that toy under the tree. Besides Elmo, this year’s in-demand toys are the Nintendo 64 system and Holiday Barbie.

Not that this is different from any other year. Cabbage Patch Kids, Teddy Ruxpin bears, Nintendo Game Boy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers--they’ve all sent parents scrambling.

“I’ve never been so popular,” says Perrin Kaplan, corporate affairs director for Nintendo of America Inc. in Redmond, Wash. Shortages of N64 (retailing for about $200) have prompted calls from “people I haven’t heard from in a long time who say, ‘Hi, I know I haven’t talked to you for a while, and I wouldn’t normally call you, so please don’t think badly of me,’ and they go through this whole song and dance. Others,” she adds, “are just plain up against it and say, ‘You have to help me, this is a desperate situation.’ ”

With no N64s left to give (she grabbed some early for her own family), Kaplan directs callers to the company’s consumer help line, which tries to locate systems in other areas of the country.

“Definitely my heart goes out to these people because this is serious stuff,” she says. “We know people have looked everywhere. And there are no substitutes that are going to be good enough.”

Adds Tyco’s Yates: “Having a daughter, I know that you want to do anything and everything for your kids.”

Still, there are those who think nothing of taking advantage of someone’s willingness to help.

Lisa McKendall, director of marketing communications for El Segundo-based Mattel Inc., has received some “very creative letters” from people trying to secure a $40 Holiday Barbie.

“We get letters from people who say their dying wish is to have a Holiday Barbie. One was from a girl who said her mother was dying and her last wish was to have a Holiday Barbie.

“We do get legitimate requests [for donations] from organizations like the Starlight Foundation, and we try to fulfill those requests because we know there are needy people out there,” McKendall says.

Karen P. Morrissey, vice president of stores for the Pittsfield, Mass., Kay-Bee Toy Stores, recalls getting three calls in 20 minutes from a man identifying himself as a local doctor.

“I’m panicked, I’m just terrified,” she recalls. “I have three small children, my grandmother’s in intensive care. So I call him back and he says, ‘Thank you for calling me, I need a Tickle Me Elmo doll.’ Somehow he got my name. I let him know how upset I was that he would use his title in that manner. But he did apologize, and I did get him the toy. But I’ll never get over the panic I felt.”

Since it’s part of Morrissey’s job to deal with frustrated consumers (she fields 20 to 44 calls a day), she keeps a “tiny little stash” of popular toys in her office for “the real crucial customer service issues.”

Such as?

“Someone doesn’t automatically get one if they call my office and just want one. But if they’ve had some unpleasant experience [at a store], or if a store didn’t fulfill a commitment, then I’d send one. I got a call from a grandmother in Lafayette, La., who said all her grandson wanted was a Tickle Me Elmo doll. So we sent her one. Right now we’re filling 90% of the calls.”

But no one gets Elmo for free. The company pays shipping, but the customer must pay full retail for the toy, about $30.

“People just come out of the woodwork,” Morrissey says. “Everyone from my nanny to my in-laws to people I worked with three years ago. My kids’ school asked me to donate one for an auction. I just got an e-mail from one of my sisters, who wanted a stuffed Taz doll. We don’t carry Taz, so I went to the buyer and he found one. . . . My father even asked me for a Tickle Me Elmo when he heard that one sold for $7,500.”

Tom McClure, the product manager for Costa Mesa-based Playmates Toys Inc., which produces the popular Space Jam and Star Trek toys and figures, hasn’t felt any pressure yet from family and friends.

“They know better than to call me.”

But it’s a different story with a few business associates, who not only want to get their hands on the most coveted toys, but they want them to be free.

“Usually it’s these executive types, a very small minority of people, who have their assistant call me or my assistant, and they say they need some ‘comped figures.’ I think I’ve heard about three or four synonyms for the word ‘free.’ My favorite one is ‘accommodation product.’ . . . Up to a certain point it’s not a problem, but some people can get greedy. . . .

“Most people who ask apologize up and down,” McClure adds, “and usually they’re asking for next to nothing and they’re so thankful that you sent them something. . . . On rare occasions I’ve had to ask people for things, but I try not abuse the privilege.”

But as McClure knows, desperate people do desperate things. He may even be one himself.

“I’ve been so busy,” he says, “that I’m nowhere near having my Christmas shopping done.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ex-Stars in Toyland

Tickle Me Elmo, Holiday Barbie and Nintendo 64 are among this year’s hottest toys, but it seems like just yesterday that parents were hunting for Teddy Ruxpin. Here, a look at hot toys past.

1995:

* Barbie, Star Wars figures, construction toys (Legos, etc.), Hot Wheels

1994:

* Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Barbie, Lion King toys

1993:

* Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Biker Mice From Mars, Batman figures, Mortal Kombat video game

1992:

* GI Joe, Barbie, Troll dolls

1991:

* Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid figures, Barbie, Water Babies

1990:

* Video games such as Game Boy and Super Mario Brothers, Scattergories, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles