Shoppers horrified by 6ft Buddy the Elf robot that's 'scariest thing they've ever seen'

The Buddy the Elf animatronic is on sale for $199 - about £156. It moves and speaks some of Will Ferrell's favourite lines from the 2003 movie

A 6ft animated Buddy the Elf costume has been blasted by shoppers with one claiming its scarier than any halloween outfit.

The animatronic is on sale for $199 - about £156 - from Home Depot in the USA and stands a whooping 6ft 5inches tall.

But although it appears to do everything it says it will, including speaking some of Will Ferrell's favourite lines from the 2003 movie, it's appearance has left shoppers unimpressed.

The item, which the company says is new for this year, eerily moves its body from side to side, and the mouth moves up and down as it delivers some classic "cotton-headed ninny muggings" lines, and asking “Hey, what’s your name? My name’s Buddy.”

The Gemmy Industries made the figure and it is available on homedepot.com and according to the product listing, it collapses for “easy storage” and “adds the right holiday touch to your indoor space”.

Videos of the Christmas decoration both in store, and other of the huge item being unboxed at home, have met with fierce critique. Many have mentioned how scary the huge moving doll looks and how the face fails to resemble Will Ferrell.

One person said: "I swear, some Christmas decor is scarier than some Halloween decor & this proof." While another asks: "I now honestly wonder how Will Ferrel will feel about this."

One viewer added: "Cmon now, it’s 2024, we had better animatronics in the 80’s." And another said: "I’d honestly buy this thing and use it as a Halloween decoration, it’s kinda funny how bad the face looks." Another said: "And what gets me is that this is actually one of the better heads I’ve seen on one and its still terrifying."

Elf hit the big screen in 2003 and has become a Christmas classic. Will Ferrell starred as Buddy, a human raised as an elf in Santa’s workshop who returns to New York City to meet his biological father, played by the late James Caan. The movie inspired the 2010 Broadway musical Elf: The Musical and NBC's 2014 stop-motion animated television special Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas.