“Me love you.” Every Furby owner remembers this phrase and probably looks back on it with dread.
I wish I could say I owned this fascinating, eerie toy, but my mom didn’t buy me one because of the horrendously high price it was going for. From what my friends told me, however, I didn’t miss out on much.
Furbys debuted in the late 90s as the new intelligent toy: a quirky, owl/hamster-looking animal that speaks its own language and has social interaction capabilities. What consumers ended up getting was frustration, really creepy noises in the middle of the night and plenty of wasted money.
During Christmas 1998, Furbys flew off the sales racks, even though some were priced at over $100. Tiger Electronics released the toy hoping it would start a revolution of “gigapets.”
For its time, the Furby had some cool functions: It could talk, sneeze, eat, even sing and dance.They came in a variety of colors to match the owner’s personality. At first, Furbys would start out only talking in “Furbish,” their native language, but would eventually learn more English phrases as time went on. Each Furby also had an infrared port between its eyes, which was supposed to help it communicate with fellow Furbys.
I remember feeding one once. I pressed my finger on its tongue and it hummed, “Yuuuuuummmmmmm.” I cringed.
Creepy.
However, the Furby excitement was short-lived. I think it ended when kids started realizing that the Furbys’ big, omniscient eyes weren’t so cute anymore. Instead of only interacting when you pet it or something, it would randomly speak, usually when you slept. It didn’t help that they looked oddly like Gremlins, either. One of my friends threw hers against the wall after endlessly cursing it and hearing it mumble in Furbish for too long.
If there is anyone out there who actually still wants an old Furby, you can try to adopt one, although there are currently none up for adoption. Maybe one will be available in another five years.
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, you can still hear a Furby hum, “Doo-do-doo-doo-doo. Hee hee hee!” Hopefully you have a baseball bat under your pillow to protect yourself.
Photo courtesy of sodahead.com
This is how Furbys were intended to be: fun-loving, playful creatures.
Photo courtesy of drivec.tumblr.com
However, most people remember them like this.
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