Furby is an American electronic robotic toy created by Tiger Electronics – a subsidiary of Hasbro.[1] Originally released in October 1998, it resembles a sugar glider-like creature and went through a period of being a "must-have" toy following its holiday season launch. More than 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. Overall, its speaking capabilities were translated into 17 various languages.
Furbies were the first successful attempt to produce and sell a domestically aimed robot. A newly purchased Furby, or a Furby that has been reset, starts out speaking entirely "Furbish" – the unique language that all Furbies speak – but is programmed to start speaking English words and phrases in place of Furbish over time. This process is intended to resemble the process of learning English.[2]
Four years after the toy's end of production, Hasbro introduced an updated Furby in 2005 called the Emoto-Tronic Furby. This updated Furby has voice recognition and more complex facial movements and was sold until 2007. Furby with black and white LCD eyes and a mobile app was released for the holiday season in 2012. Another updated Furby with color LCD eyes, known as Furby Connect was released in 2016. The last new generation was released in 2023.
History
Initial creation
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 1998 American International Toy Fair held in New York City.[3][4][5][6]
The product officially launched on October 2, 1998.[7] Furbies originally retailed for about US$35,[8]
Types
First generation (1998–2002)
The main reason for their popularity[14] was because of apparent "intelligence", as reflected in their ability to develop language skills.
Furbies can communicate with one another via an infrared port located between their eyes. Furbies start out speaking entirely "Furbish", a language with short words, simple syllables, and various other sounds. They are programmed, however, to speak less and less Furbish and more and more English as they "grow". According to the variant, it knew 9 languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, Greek and Portuguese).
There was a common misconception that they repeated words that were said around them. This belief most likely stemmed from the fact that it is possible to have the Furby say certain pre-programmed words or phrases more often by petting it whenever it said these words. As a result of this myth, several intelligence agencies banned them from their offices.[15]
A simple electric motor and a system of cams and gears close the Furby's eyes and mouth, raise its ears, and lift it off the ground in a faux display of mobility.
Technology
The original Furby source code[31] was written in assembly language for the 6502 microprocessor.[32]
The first Furby model was based around a 6502-style Sunplus SPC81A microcontroller,[33] which had 80 KiB of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM. Its core differed from the original 6502 in the lack of the Y index register. The TSP50C04 chip from Texas Instruments, implementing the linear predictive coding codec, was used for voice synthesis.
Security concerns
On January 13, 1999, it was reported the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States banned Furbies from entering NSA's property due to concerns that they may be used to record and repeat classified information, advising those that see any on NSA property to "contact their Staff Security Officer for guidance."[34][35][15] It was thought within the NSA that Furbies had an artificial intelligence chip that could "learn" from things the user said. The NSA theorized that if employees discussed confidential information around the toys, that information could be repeated at a later date.[36]
Roger Shiffman, the owner of Tiger Electronics, stated that "Furby has absolutely no ability to do any recording whatsoever," and that he would have gladly told the NSA this if he was asked by anyone from the spy agency.[37][38]
Furbish-English phrases
"Furbish" is the Furbies' language, with simple syllables, short words, and various sounds. A newly purchased Furby starts out speaking entirely in Furbish. Over time, the Furby gradually replaces Furbish words and phrases with English.
The voice commands the 2005 Furbies respond to include:
Furbies may say these Furbish words:
- 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.
- 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)
Film adaptation
Bob Weinstein announced in November 2016 that a Furby film adaptation is to be produced by The Weinstein Company (TWC).[43] The film was written by Daniel Persitz and Devon Kliger, and will contain both live action and animated characters.[44] In regards to the film's narrative, Hasbro executive Stephen Davis stated that "we think that this can resonate as a four-quadrant film. It can't just be a 90-minute commercial."[44][45] TWC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 19, 2018.[46] On May 1, 2018, Lantern Capital emerged as the winner of the studio's bankruptcy auction.[47] On July 16, 2018, it was announced that TWC had shut down, and that its assets had been sold to the newly created
See also
- Virtual pet
- Companion robot
- Hatchimals
- Tamagotchi
- Simlish
External links
- Furby.com (Archive)
References
- Harley Jebens. Hasbro Financials GameSpot, 2000-04-28, retrieved 2025-07-30^
- Sherry Turkle, Cynthia Breazeal, Olivia Dasté, Brian Scassellati. Encounters with Kismet and Cog: Children Respond to Relational Artifacts MIT, 2004-09-30, retrieved 2009-04-20^
- David Banks. Furby Co-Inventor Richard Levy