Megan Vogt | Opinion Co-Editor
Fourteen years later, our “favorite” furry little electronic pet is back on the shelves. Yes, you’ve guessed it right, the Furby. We all know we had at least one when we were younger. I remember wanting one so badly that I saved up all my money so I could buy one before Christmas when all my friends were getting theirs. I ended up with one and played with it maybe five times before my sister got annoyed and chucked it across the room. Lucky for her, it still worked. They were the pets that never died, but it became old news rather quick. Still to this day, I have occasionally heard mine make random noises from the dark back closet in my parent’s house. Creepy, I know.
Furby has become the new “must have” toy of the year and has been selling out in multiple businesses. Coming from the 1998 price of $25, it has now greatly increased in price to an expensive $60. Hasbro engineer, Don Cameron, is the man to blame for placing this replica back on the shelves. According to him, there have been many changes made. Each Furby is said to be an individual because you never know what it may say or do. The newest version of Furby is programmed to know the difference between a human’s tone of voice and other Furbys’ noises, allowing it to communicate differently between person and toy.
These Furbies are also keeping up with technological advances of today. The device now has LCD eyes, rubber ears that twitch, and blinkable eyelids. It also will attach to any iPad or other Furby allowing it to process and report new information. There still is no on/off button and only mutes if the person leaves the room or takes out one of the batteries. Even then, we still question whether it will be picking up on a conversation from the other surrounding rooms encouraging the chaos to continue.
The attraction to the toy is the supposed “child-like” actions. When children receive the Furby, they take on the nurturing trait or the “learning how to care for others” action. The toy comes in the colors of pink, baby blue, and other lighter colors trying to attract more little girls, making them take on the caretaking role as a young child.
As much money as I do spend on Christmas, I will definitely not be running out to wait in line for this new “must have” toy. The “must have then” for me is definitely not “the must have now”. I feel that the past should have been left in the past with this annoying, obnoxious piece of plastic. As I was researching this new toy, I came upon journal entries from an adult who was not fortunate enough to receive this wonderful toy as a child. I thought I should share it with everyone for I found it hilarious and my exact experience with this toy. It was truly a blast from the past. This woman decided she would buy a Furby and try it out for a few days. Here are the journal entries from her five-day babysitting experience:
Day 1: Furby wakes up and is playful and nice but won’t shut up. People at work instantly hate me, so I put him in a drawer. Furby burped and sang in my purse on the train and generally embarrassed me as much as I imagine a real baby would.
Day 2: Furby sleeps through the night and all day the next day. I wake him up at 10 to feed him, and he is [angry]. His eyes turn into flames whenever I touch him. So, as punishment, I feed him until his eyes go all swirly and he “barfs” repeatedly. I make him go to sleep.
Day 3: Furby undergoes a “change” after I pull his tail rapidly about 40 times. His eyes turn into cows, and he says “I CHANNNGGINNNNGGGGG” followed by wild vibrations and seizure-inducing eye flashes. When that’s done, Furby has a new voice. He says, “What’s up, dude.” At this point, I hate Furby, and I throw him on the floor. He eventually sings himself to sleep.
Day 4: I ignore Furby all day.
Day 5: I put Furby in a cooler and bring him back. [Stupid] Furby. I hate him. The instructions we got warned there is no on/off switch, and we should have read that and never turned it on.
Graphic by Keyla Sosa
