Get ready, here comes the 90′s again.
Think back to 1998. Parents were lined up for hours at local toy stores desperate to secure the little robotic furballs we know as Furbys like Arnold Schwartznegger did in ‘Jingle all the way.’ Furby mania overwhelmed the holiday season that year. People were buying them only to resell them at triple the price on Classified newspapers and online. Well folks, this christmas, you’re going to see version 2.0 of 1998, only bigger and better.
That’s right, the new furby 2012 is coming to stores, soccer games and christmas mornings near you. And this time, the furby is even more interactive. The biggest change is the glowing LCD eyes. It’s through them that the new furby shows most of its emotion. If you tickle it, hearts will appear, feed it a hot pepper and you will see fire in its eyes. And, of course, like the original, it can close its eyes when its time to go to sleep.
Like the original furby, the 2012 furbies start out only talking in furbish, the native language of the creature. The more you speak, the more chatty it becomes — speak enough and will begin incorporating more English words into its speech. But until then you don’t have to thonk your head in puzzlement wondering what the furby is trying to communicate. That’s right, this time you have the 21rst century to help you, in the form of Apps. One app furby uses can tell you what those squawks and whistles really mean. It successfully translates Furbish to English. The app, which will be available for the iPhone and iPad when the new Furby hits shelves in September, communicates with the toy through a high frequency audio signal. The iPad app picks up the tone, which we humans cannot hear. The new app also allows you to feed Furby. You end up being able to flick different digital foods — chicken, sushi, a mini-hot dog –right into Furby’s mouth.
The designers and creators of the new furbies say, ”We did a lot to make sure Furby learned and grew too. It starts out sweet and naïve, but it can develop more richly than the first one did.” And like the original Furby, the new Furby lacks an on/off switch. What could be a parental nightmare. The Furby only turns off when it goes to sleep or when it is left unattended. There’s no volume switch to turn down Furby’s high-pitched voice. And that’s intentional, says Hasbro. “Part of that is figuring out what your Furby needs and what to do about it.” Furby can really help teach children responsibility.
The price, Hasbro says, goes to pay for all that technology. In an age where people pay 60 dollars for video games that are sometimes barely played with, there is no shortage of confidence that people will be willing to dish out 50-60 for a new furby 2012 that could be played with even more.
You can find all 6 of the initial colors of furby on Amazon.com or our Furby 2012 store. Closer to the holidays, the additional 4 colors as shown in the top picture will be available as well (the pink furby, purple furby, and 2 shades of light blue furby and electric blue furby)
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