Furby Fanatics: It's Almost Time
June 08, 2005 | by Nino Marchetti
Little fuzzball from Hasbro more advanced then before, goes limited pre-sale on June 13 with early August full release.
Yes boys and girls, Furby is back. Hasbro first broke the news that they were bringing back the Gizmo gremlin look-alike in February. Today they announced more details on the pending release, including a pre-sales event for dire hard Furby fans.
This pre-sales event, according to Hasbro, will involve 1,000 of the "evolved creatures". Those eager to get their hands on the small furry monsters which terrorized so many in the late 90s will get their chance on the toy company's sales website Monday June 13 at 10 a.m. EDT. The lucky 1,000 will receive their Furbys shortly after July 15, which is approximately two weeks before the rest of us will probably not line up to buy one. Also accompanying the 1,000 fur balls will be a certificate of authenticity.
In regards to what makes Furby 2.0 more advanced then its predecessor, Hasbro said that the new one features "Emoto-Tronics". This "ultimate combination of advanced robotic technology, puppetry and realistic lifelike reactions and movements" will allow the Furby to react based upon how a child (or childlike adult) interacts with it. As an example, Hasbro said that voice recognition would allow the little pseudo robot to "listen" to his owner and respond based on the toy's mood.
Furbys can speak, dance, sing, tell jokes, play games and express their moods in a variety of ways. A fully flexible beak, expressive eyes, and movable ears and eyebrows make it possible for the creature to smile, laugh, frown and even produce an awe-filled gasp.
The new Furby, according to Hasbro, retains the bi-lingual speaking element that made it so popular seven years ago. It has also enlarged its vocabulary, speaking hundreds of programmed words and dozens of phrases in English and "Furbish", which is the toy's native language. Worldwide, it will be available in English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
The toy is larger than the original to accommodate a multi-motor system that doubles the toy's animation features. It will initially be available in white, black and white, gray and pink, and brown and pink, with additional colors to follow later in the year.
For more Furby facts, check out Hasbro's website.
Post Your Comment...Comments
fungku on Jul 11th, 2005 at 12:07 PM:
I agree. Anything that sparks the minds of young ones is a good thing.
tommy.c on Nov 17th, 2005 at 3:35 AM:
furbys kick ass im 18 and want one for christmas !!! one question tho do they take in wat u say and can learn to say it ??? this is really wat i want from the toy !!!
fungku on Nov 17th, 2005 at 12:55 PM:
The hasbro site says it "learns" english, so I'd assume that there is a possibility that it would take in what you say and learn to say it.. but who knows how it does that. Do you have to say it 500 times before it learns it? No clue.
eecue on Dec 15th, 2005 at 7:15 PM:
I have take apart the furby and here is what it contains:
http://eecue.com/log_archive/eecue-log-505-New_Fur...
Comment on this article
Please keep your comments relevant to this article. Email addresses are not displayed, they are only required to verify you are human.
When you submit your comment, an email will be sent to your email address with a confirmation link. Once you have clicked on that confirmation link your comment will be posted.
HTML is not allowed.
RSS Feed
Rick Scarbrough on Jul 10th, 2005 at 6:55 PM:
Technotoys may spark the curiosity of the young minds of the future. This could open up a greater emphasis on science and math.