Furby Review

Furby 

A Furby (plural Furbys or Furbies) is an electronic robotic toy resembling a hamster or owl-like creature which went through a period of being a "must-have" toy following its launch in the holiday season of 1998, with continual sales until 2000. Over 40 million Furbies were sold during the three years of its original production, with 1.8 million sold in 1998, and 14 million in 1999. Its speaking capabilities were translated into 24 languages.

Furbies were the first successful attempt to produce and sell a domestically-aimed robot. A newly purchased Furby starts out speaking entirely Furbish, the unique language that all Furbies use, but is programmed to start using English words and phrases in place of Furbish over time. This process is intended to resemble the process of learning English.^[1] In 2005, new Furbies were released, with voice-recognition and more complex facial movements, and many other changes and improvements. The Emoto-Tronic Furbies (Furby, Furby Baby, and Funky Furby) continued to be sold until late 2007, when these toys became extremely rare.^{[Furby 1]} An updated Furby is being sold as of September 2012 for the holiday season.

 

History

Birth of the Furby

Dave Hampton and Caleb Chung spent nine months creating the Furby (in addition to nine months spent designing the toy). After two attempts at licensing the concept, they invited fellow toy and game inventor Richard C. Levy to join their efforts to sell Furby. Levy brought Furby to Tiger Electronics and Tiger's Roger Shiffman bought the rights to it. Furby's first public appearance was at the American International Toy Fair in 1998.^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}

Furby toy from McDonalds

Furbies originally retailed for about US$35,^[6] and upon release, Furbies sold extremely well. Catapulting demand for these toys during the 1998 holiday season drove the resale price over $100, and sometimes as high as several hundred dollars. Furbies sold for over $300 in newspapers and in auctions. Nicknames were given to them, and sellers assigned rarity values to them. Some people continue to call their Furbies by the terms 'wedding Furby', 'tuxedo Furby', 'snowball Furby', 'biker Furby', among others. All, of course, were dubbed rare by sellers, because they were so hard to find at the time. In a sure display of the demand for the toy, some sellers scammed people out of a great sum of money, without even having first given them a Furby. Parental battles, arguments, and fights increased rapidly as supplies dwindled, and when retail supplies ran out, parents turned to the Internet, where Furbies could be purchased for two, three, or more multiples of their retail price. During one 12-month period, a total of 27 million Furby toys were sold.^{[Furby 2]}

2005 revival

2005 saw the reintroduction of Furby with the release of the new Emoto-Tronic Furby. The increasing emotional realism of the Emoto-Tronic Furby has given birth to a number of Furby-oriented special interest groups. These communities seek to integrate aspects of the Furby experience into human society. The most visible of these groups include Furbish-to-English translators and Furby adoption agencies. In addition, there is a subculture of Furby furries.

2012 revival

On April 12, 2012, it was announced that Hasbro will be making a new line of Furbies, which was released in September 2012.^[7] As of December 2012 there are sixteen colors. They are teal, white, black, purple, tangerine-tango, yellow, aqua, navy blue, plum, pink, pink/teal, orange/blue, Black/pink, blue/yellow, teal/purple, gray/teal.^{[Furby 3]}

Furbish is the Furbies' language, with simple syllables, short words, and various sounds. A newly purchased Furby starts out speaking entirely Furbish. Over time, the Furby gradually replaces Furbish words and phrases with English.

• wee-tah-kah-loo-loo: Tell me a joke.
• wee-tah-kah-wee-loo: Tell me a story.
• wee-tee-kah-wah-tee: Sing me a song.
• u-nye-loo-lay-doo?: Do you want to play?
• u-nye-ay-tay-doo?: Are you hungry?
• u-nye-boh-doo?: How are you?
• u-nye-way-loh-nee-way: Go to sleep now.
• u-nye-noh-lah: Show me a dance.

Furbies may say these Furbish words:

• doo?: What? (Furbies say this when called)
• doo-dah: Yes. (Furbies say this in response to a command before doing it.)
• boo: No. (Furbies say this when they do not want to carry out a command.)
• yoo?: Why will you not play with me today? (This usually means the Furby is upset.)

Software (App)

The Furby app let me interact with the device in some fun ways. It's a free download, compatible with an iPad, iPod touch and iPhone with iOS 4.2 or later. There are four features of the app: pantry, deli, translator and dictionary. The app runs upside down so that the mic of your iPhone or iPod touch is always pointing toward the Furby; this is important because the app communicates with the Furby by transmitting high-frequency sound codes.
Click to EnlargeThe pantry has an assortment of items to feed Furby, which done by tapping on the food item, pointing the phone at it and then flicking the food item to the little creature with your finger. The pantry randomized and slightly changed every time I opened the app. Furby has likes and dislikes, and it will make it very clear by saying "Ewww" or a prolonged "Yum."
When I fed Furby a hot pepper, it chomped it down, and then pixelated flames appeared in its eyes. When I fed Furby puzzle pieces, it bounced back into our phone as a completed puzzle after Furby munched on it for a few seconds.
The deli allowed me to make a sandwich or a burger by swiping through six rows of different breads and ingredients. Once I made the choices, I pulled down on the center of the iPhone's screen to combine all the ingredients into a sandwich and flicked it toward Furby to feed it.
Click to EnlargeUsing the translator, I pointed the bottom of our iPhone at Furby to "listen" to it and the phone wrote out Furbish and its English translation. It was reassuring that Furby was not saying "I must feed on your soul" like I had thought when I was a kid.
The dictionary feature is there for saying things to Furby in Furbish. I never really got a sense that Furby responded to specific words but I'd like to think that telling it "may-may" (which means love) produced different results than saying "boo" (bad).
When I spoke to Furby, it responded with funny answers; I was almost convinced that it understood what I was saying.

A Different Kind of Toy

The anticipation of reviewing a Furby brought back nostalgic and terrifying memories from my childhood. To my surprise, I loved the new Furby, until it came time to torture it so that I would be able to cycle through all its personalities. (More on that later.)
When I first powered up the Furby with four AA batteries, it had a generic personality that spoke only Furbish. Some of the interactions included playing music, petting it on the head, hugging Furby, speaking to it, tickling its belly and tugging on its tail. Like the old Furby, I could feed it by pressing on its tongue, but feeding Furby through its new iPhone app was way more fun.
The glowing LCD eyes really gave Furby an added element to its personalities. For example, I could tell Furby was cranky by the fact that one of its eyes would squint at me. When Furby sang, music notes or rainbows would appear in its eyes. When Furby was happy, its eyes would turn into little crescent moons.
Hasbro has addressed some of the complaints about the original Furby. Where the old model practically required a sensory-deprivation tank to fall asleep, the new Furby will do so after being ignored for about two minutes in a semi-quiet room. The fact that there wasn't a huge process to "make it stop" made us want to play with it more.

Battery Life

Hasbro says that the four AA batteries should provide about 10 hours of active play. Fortunately, Furby's personality will not reset when it comes time to change the battery. In my hands-on time, I played with Furby for about four hours, and the batteries were still going strong. While it may seem contradictory to the notion of Furby being a toy-as-a-pet, I wish it had a power button.