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A Furby is an electronic soft-toy made by Tiger Electronics which went through a brief period of being a "must-have" toy following its launch in the Holiday season 1998. Quickly selling out at stores, many people would wait in line for hours to be the first in the door on a day when a store expected to display a new shipment. Though it retailed for about thirty dollars, the demand for these toys during the 1998 holiday season drove the resale price over one hundred dollars and sometimes as high as several hundred dollars. There were 27 million Furby toys sold for a 12-month period.
The plural of Furby is Furbys.
The main hook was their apparent "intelligence" and learning ability as they developed their language skills. It was thought, falsely, that they repeated words said around them; this lead to several intelligence agencies banning them from their offices. They can also communicate with one another via an infrared port. Furbys start out speaking entirely in Furbish, a language with short words, simple syllables, and various other sounds, but are programmed to speak less and less Furbish and more and more English the more they "grow". The Furbish phrase "WHOA! Me deep sleep!" would translate into English as "Whoa! I slept for a long time!"
Simple electronically-powered motors close the Furby's eyes and lift it off the ground in a faux display of mobility.
In appearance, the Furby is a cross between a mouse, a cat, and a bat or owl.
They are still popular with many hackers as they can be dissected and made to do interesting things.
In 1999 the Furby babies line was introduced. Furby babies are smaller than the original and can't move their feet, but switch to speaking English quicker. A new version of the Furby is due to be released in the fall of 2005. The new Furby will be larger than the original, and have the ability to converse in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and Italian among other features.
External links
- Official site (which will redirect to a page hosted by Hasbro)
- NSA bans Furbys from premises
- The "infamous" Furby Autopsy
- Anatomy of a Furby dissection drawing (in an old medical style) by artist Kelly Heaton.
- CNN article about the upcoming Furby