Renee Rosenow

With their gremlin like stature and bulging eyes, it is still a complete mystery to me as to why the Furby became a must have item of the late 90s. The Furby, or as I would like to call it, the owl on steroids, is an electronic pet with the capabilities to interact with their owners. Developed by Dave Hampton, a former Mattel programmer, the Furby was bought by Tiger Electronics and made its first debut at the 1998 International Toy Fair. Since their birth, Tiger Electronics has sold more than 40 million.

The Furby was designed to act like any other domestic pet. They need to be fed, which is done by stimulating their tongue with a spoon, finger or anything else you can fit it between their beak. They also need to be put to bed, which can be done by placing them in a dark room, petting their back or for the lazy Furby owner, manually shutting their eyes.

When you first open the box to bring the small robotic creature into this world, the Furby is already speaking. “Doo-Moh,” which of course is the furbish translation of “Will you feed me?” Furbish, the official language of the Furbies first language. After a few hours in the hands of their new owners the intelligent Furby begins speaking less Furbish and more English (a sign of growth). My younger sister, a Furby owner, although not fluent in Furbish was able to learn a few simple phrases in the Furbish dictionary. “May-Tah,” which translated into kiss and “Noh-Lah,” which meant dance, although the Furby could not perform any of these tasks, they were more than capable of shouting out the short syllable nonsense that in short was the Furbish language.

After the initial success of the Furby, Tiger Electronics introduced two new lines of Furbies including Furby Babies and Furby Friends. In the late 90s you could find a Furby at every toy store for around $35, but at the height of their success in the holiday season of 1998, Furbies were being sold at auctions for more than $200. Their demand over the past 10 years has since dropped but are still being distributed today. In 2006 the latest of the Furby family was introduced, “Emoto-Tronic Funky Furby,” the groovy little creature that can sing and dance. Although most production and distribution of the Furby is outside the U.S., a few Web sites such as eBay offer the Furby for sale.

Kloek is a senior public relations major and copy editor for The Spectator.