The Furby is an electronic toy created in 1998 and became one of the most popular toys of its time. It can interact with other Furbies, learn English, and be personalized through low-level conditioning. The high demand led to aftermarket costs and a resale business, with some Furbies being considered rare and valuable.
The Furby® is an electronic toy created by Tiger Electronics in 1998. The toy was produced until 2000 and has since become one of the most popular toys of its time. It was an extremely popular example of home animatronics, building on the earlier popularity of toys like Teddy Ruxpin®. After a period of non-production, a new generation of Furby® was released in 2005, featuring a number of significant advances in technology.
The Furby® is a strange creature, not unlike an owl in appearance. It has a number of different parts that can move, giving it a semblance of life and emotion. The Furby® begins its life cycle speaking exclusively in an unintelligible language known as Furbish, but over time, as it interacts with more, it begins to speak more and more English and less Furbish. A Furby® is able to interact with another Furby® via an infrared port in its head. This allowed two Furbies® to have a speech without external stimuli.
People might shape their Furby® in some way by giving it certain sets of physical stimuli. When a Furby® said a certain English phrase, the user could stroke the Furby®, which reinforced his desire to say that phrase. This form of low-level conditioning meant that to some extent people could personalize their Furby®. It also made the Furby® appear to be a somewhat intelligent creature, and many misconceptions arose as a result, including the belief that a Furby® could actually hear words and repeat them in the manner of a parrot.
The Furby® was a new toy when it was released and it became an overnight sensation. As a result, during the 1998 holiday season, demand greatly exceeded supply, which led to a dramatic increase in aftermarket costs for Furbies. The Furby® originally retailed for around $35 US Dollars (USD), but during the holidays it wasn’t uncommon to see them for more than $100 USD, and in some cases as much as $300 USD.
An entire business has grown up around the resale of the Furby® and different Furbies® have been assigned varying degrees of rarity and desirability. People have turned to eBay en masse to find Furbies®, making them one of the first large-scale targeted uses of the relatively new market. The Furby® boom continued beyond the 1998 holiday season, though it eventually slowed slightly and supply increased to meet the high demand.
Some of the phrases a Furby® might say are things like: “Do you want to play?”, “Show me a dance.”, “Tell me a joke” or “Very nice, I like it”. As mentioned above, some Furbies® are considered rarer than others, and collectors can pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the rarest. The rarest of all, the Bejeweled Furby®, is valued at more than $100,000 USD and only five exist.
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