Furbys are electronic, interactive furry creatures. They were the must have Christmas toy of 1998. However, it is unclear which came first: children’s desire for Furbys, or the media hype, that they were the must have Christmas toy. And whose yearning for a Furby was greater, the child or their parents.

The Birth of the Furby

The Furby took nine months for Dave Hampton, Furby’s designer, to create. (A previous nine months was spent designing the Furby). That was the amount of time between Tiger Electronics showing an interest in his interactive creatures, and the time they hit the shop shelves. Furby’s first public appearance was at the International Toy Fair in 1998.

Furbys flew off the shelves in toyshops. Parents battled, there were arguments and fights as stocks dwindled. When stocks ran out, parents turned to the Internet, where Furbys could be purchased for twice, three times or even more of their market price, and they were also sold to the highest bidder on eBay.

What Were They Fighting Over?

Original Furbys are around 6 inches (15 cm) tall, with six different fur patterns, and one of the four options of eye colour, an all-in-one body and face, small feet, and over-sized ears, and they have their own name, there were 24 names. The basic fur colour designs and names have been added to over the years. The most important feature was their computer chips.

Furby 'n' Chips

The computer chips made the Furby one of the most technologically advanced toys of its time, and some would say the most annoying too¹. The chip enabled the Furby to be programmed with hearing, learning, speech and motion capabilities. There is about 80K (Kilobytes) all together. Roughly shared as: 50K for the speech, 20K for the movements and 8K for the program.

Furbys hear due a microphone inserted on one side of their body. When this picks up sounds, they are amplified and sent to one of Furby’s chips. The Software then decides what, if any response to make. The amplifier was designed to be more responsive to selective sounds, such as clapping hands.

Furbys can determine between light and dark. This is achieved by the three electronic devices in between and above Furby’s eyes. One of those is a CDS (Cadmium Sulphide) Cell², this is used to measure the changes between lightness and darkness, as Furby's surroundings become lighter or darker, a message is sent to the chip, and Furby responds accordingly: Waking up if it gets lighter, or going to sleep if it gets darker. One of the other two sensors is used to transmit Infrared data, and the other works as a receiver of infrared data. These are also how Furbies communicate with each other.

Furbish

Furbys were programmed with a selection of words and phrases, which was spoken in a language called Furbish, the official language of Furby's. With three different pitches of voice, they did not all sound the same, here is a translation of some of their mutterings.

• 'Noo-Loo' - happy
• 'Ah-May Koh Koh' - pet me more
• 'Dah May Lah' - big hug
• 'Mee Mee A-Tay' - very hungry

It was also programmed to simulate learning some English³ pre-programmed words and phrases too. With patience, repetition and determination, in a similar way to teaching a budgie to talk, it may be possible to stimulate your Furby into exhibiting these words and phrases more rapidly. However, unlike a budgie, a Furby cannot learn new words, they can only repeat the words and phrases they were pre-programmed to say.

The Trouble With Furbys

Furbys were designed to be child-like, in that they will chat and play for a short while, then go to sleep, as if they had tired themselves out. This is more noticeable when two Furbys are placed near each other, and interact via their Infrared devices.

They seemed to have a mind of their own, you could not control them. They decided when they woke up and chatted inanely, and when they went to sleep. When you wanted to play with your Furby, it didn’t want to play. When you wanted it to go to sleep and be quiet, it decided it wanted attention.

They needed regular feeding. When your Furby says 'Kah a-tay' (I’m hungry), you needed to feed it, with pretend food. The ideal way of doing this is to depress its tongue with your finger. If your Furby said 'Koh-koh', it wanted more food. Failure to feed will cause a Furby to become ill. One of the symptoms of illness is sneezing, and it will even tell you by saying 'Kah boo koo-doh' (I’m not healthy) and then you would have to spend time nursing it back to health with extra bouts of feeding pretend food.

One of the main problems was simply that the Furby had no on/off button, the only civil way to silence their inane mutterings, was to remove the batteries.

True, False and Unclarified

There have been a number of stories circulated over the years about Furbys, lawsuits and various bannings.

Waner Brothers Lawsuit. One of first was in December 1998, when it was reported that Hasbro, Tiger Electronics' parent company, had paid a seven figure settlement, and an agreements to redesign the Furby, to Warner Brothers, the makers of The Gremlins Films, over the similarity of Furbys to Gremlins. All parties involved deny this. Lawsuit False

Furbys banned from the Pentagon. There are two different stories concerning the banning of Furbys from the Pentagon. One says that Pentagon staff banned them because they talked too much, and the other says, staff banned them due to concerns that the Furbys could repeat confidential information. Banned for talking too much: Un-clarified. Banned on the possibility of repeating confidential information: True Another unanswered question is: Just who would want to take Furbys into the Pentagon in the first place?

Airlines banned Furbys from flying on their planes. Airlines classified Furbys as PEDs (Personal Electronic Devices) and as such, were under the same strict rules as other such PEDs. They were banned from being used and had to be turned off during specific times, as the Furby had no off switch, the batteries had to be removed. Airlines ban: Misconception, they were not banned from flying, they were banned from being used, and had to have batteries removed.

A Furby saved a couple’s life A couple fell asleep, after enjoying a candle lit romantic dinner. While they slept, the candles set fire to the curtains; their Furby saying ‘Ahh, bright light’, awaked them, allowing them to escape and raise the alarm. Life-saver Un-clarified.

Subliminal messages⁴ There has been claims the Furbys were programmed with moralistic subliminal messages, such as: ‘I obey the law’, ‘I respect the law’ and ‘I love God, country and community’. Furby’s designer has strongly denied this. Subliminal messages: False

Disposing of a Furby

If you possess a particularly sadistic streak, or if you have found the ownership of a Furby such a traumatic ordeal, that you feel witnessing its destruction will be ideal therapy, there are a couple of options:

• Build a bonfire in your garden, and place your Furby on the top. It is advisable not to leave the bonfire unattended while it is lit, your burning Furby may try to extract revenge, by rolling off the bonfire in a ball of flames, which could start fires other parts of your garden.

• Microwaving your Furby. As a microwave cooks from the inside out, the electronic parts of your furby would be burnt out and destroyed in a very short time. However, this is likely to damage and destroy your microwave as well, which would much delight your Furby, so this method is best avoided.

• Picking your Furby up by its over-sized ears, and unceremoniously dumping it in the wheelie bin, just before the wheelie bin is upturned and emptied into the refuge truck, your Furby will then be compressed, along with the rest of the rubbish.

Less cruel ways, but still therapeutic include:

• Dig a small, but deep hole in your garden, place your Furby in the hole, and fill the hole in, thereby burying it. Warning: If you have a dog, you should shut your dog inside your house, so that the dog does not see where you buried your Furby, and dig it up again

• Look around to see if you have lots of unwanted items. Unwanted gifts, or things that seemed a good idea to buy at the time, or you were simply drunk when you bought them, that are no longer required, take them along with your Furby and sell them at a boot fair, or do it the US way, and have a garage sale. Alternatively, donate your Furby to a charity shop.

• Remove the batteries and put your Furby in the loft of your house. In years to come, when you are a grandparent, you can get it down from the loft and entertain your grandchildren, showing them what electronic toys used to be like.

McDonalds McFurbys

In March 1999 McDonalds teamed up with Tiger Electronics to create McFurbys, their latest Happy Meal toy. These were small plastic Furbys in a variety of colours. Some featured limited sound effects and/or movement capabilities. There were a total of 80 to collect. These were available in eight sets, with 10 McFurbys in each set. All the different sets of Mcfurbys had slightly different movements and/or sound effects. Such as: In set six, the McFurby’s body colour is black, green, orange blue or teal, (two of each, with a different colour tuff of hair on the top of their head) which when you pushed their tail, their ears fall down and cover their eyes. A year later the McFurbys were back at McDonalds. This time they were cute plush keyrings, and there were just 12 to collect.

Furby's Re-born 2005 Version

Watch out! There is a new Furby about. If it is not in a toy shop near you, it will be, by the end of the year⁵.

With advancements in technology, the Furby has evolved into a more advanced toy. The new Furby is larger than the original, in order to house the multi-motor system. Which has a wider range of motions, emotions and reactions. Also, with six times more memory than the original, it has a larger vocabulary capability. And with many more facial expressions, this is said to make it more cute, clever, fun, and lifelike. Best of all, the new Furby has an on/off switch!