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Collecting Furby Message Board
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A Furby
is an electronic toy made by Tiger Electronics which went through a
brief period of being a "must-have" toy following its launch in the
holiday season of 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.
In August 2005, Furbys were re-released, with voice-recognition and more
complex facial movements.
The plural of Furby is Furbies, and the name Furby apparently came from
the prototype which its discoverer David Hampton nicknamed 'Fur-ball'.
In appearance, the Furby is a cross between a hamster, a cat, and a bat
or owl.
The original Furbys were 6 inches tall. The main reason that many people
liked them was their apparent "intelligence" and learning ability as
they developed their language skills. It was thought, falsely, that they
repeated words said around them (the actual function was the ability to
have the furby say certain pre-programmed words or phrases more often by
petting it whenever it said these words); this led 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 (somewhat like Newspeak), but are
programmed to speak less and less
 Furbish
and more and more English the more they "grow". A phrase that Furbys
say, "Whoa! Me big 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. However, Furbys could
positively not walk, as some were led to believe.
They are still popular with many hackers as they can be dissected and
made to do interesting things. In particular, their advanced audio
capabilities and various sensory interfaces make them popular with the
circuit bending community.
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