#furby 2001

[neomechanical]

[siliconosaurus]

2001 McDonald’s Shelby Happy Meal Toy

[angel-furby]

source: Flickr

[archimer]

In 2001 Tiger / Hasbro was asking the big questions: What if Furby was a hamburger

[bugblast]

NEW updated furby speculative evolution chart!!! :] click 2 zoom in or read under cut

SHELBY (2001) Evolving throughout Paleozoic Era, mainly Permian Period. ~275 MYA. Related to clams and horseshoe crabs. Lives on coasts.

FURBY (1998-9) First appeard in late Triassic period. ~220 MYA. Similar to early mammals like Morganucodon, with Lystosaurus-like beak and reptillian parietal eye (infared sensor). Lives on sandy beaches.

FURBY (2012) Like some birds, evolved to have brighter colors in response to tropical environment and abundance of species. Ears are made of cartilage, and larger eyes as a result of having no natural predators. (It's literally called Furby Island).

BOOM (2013) Different coat patterns evolve through selective mating. Holes in ears for wider range of hearing.

PARTY ROCKERS (2013) Experimental subspecies with differing beak, ear, and eye proportions. Honestly probably boardering on extinction.

EMOTOTRONIC (2005) Emerged during early Cretaceous period. ~105 MYA. Similar to Repenomamus in size in order to compete with dinosaurs. Thick, leathery skin replaces beak, and forms toenails for rougher terrain. Lives in lush tropical forests.

FUNKY (2006) A selection of Emoto-tronics that developed brighter colors, and tails developed from selective mating.

CONNECT (2016) Antenna forms for advanced communication. Beak size shrinks to compensate for larger eyes, ears, and increased brain size. Almost like aliens.

FURBY (2023) Glowing ears fromed from gradual absorpsion of antenna. More advanced communication and higher level of conciousness. Beak continues to shrink and eyes continue to enlargen.

FURBLETS (2023) Smaller subspecies, exchanged bioluminescence for higher range of motion. Can fold ears over body for protection.

[furbyfashionistas]

i used to frequent the geocities/angelfire-based furby webrings for my homeschooled kid special interest time back in the day. i love seeing how the furby fandom has always been this die-hard and adorable and i'm trying to track down some of my favourites i remember from that era.

this was a crocheted furby clothing business someone set up around 2001-2002! i like to imagine this was just somebody's mom or grandma's adorable side hustle.

[furby-junkie]

In my previous post about a prototype Furby, I said I emailed the voice actor. He replied with some information about the Furby he voiced.

Reply

Hiya,

I'm afraid you've reached the limit of my memory. I do remember the job you're talking about, but it was before I was using Google calendar/email, so those records are long gone.

As I recall, the prototype was being developed by Tiger Toys, and the recording session was several days long in 2000 to capture the many interactive responses they had planned. This was the early days of the internet, and I believe they'd planned sort of a Teddy Ruxpin on steroids kind of thing. I don't remember ever seeing the prototype or if it was ever produced, but it sounds like what would have been called an I-Furby. I don't remember them calling it that. I vaguely recall maybe a temporary commercial with a mockup, but I could be confusing it with the regular Furby spots. I was told the project had been shelved some time after we recorded. I have a lot of the scripts from jobs I did in the early 2000s, but I don't think Furby is among them.

I was able to locate a letter I sent on March 14, 2001 that talks about the project. I've pasted it below. Hope it helps you get to the bottom of it!

Letter

Jeff Jones, Sr. VP of Marketing

Tiger Electronics

980 Woodlands Parkway

Vernon Hills, IL  60061

March 14, 2001

Dear Mr. Jones,

I tried to catch up with you during the Toy Fair, but you were too busy.  I hope you had a successful trip to NYC and that things now are as calmed down as you’d like.

After what I was told was an exhaustive search, I was the one chosen to work with Sandy Schneider and Mark Stebbeds on the now defunct Crigit/Furby2000 project.  I absolutely wanted to maintain contact with Tiger, and now that Sandy is no longer there, I was told to contact you.

As the enclosed CD should show (Track 3 especially), I can provide a HUGE variety of character voices and dialects, and as the sessions in NYC proved, I’m fun and efficient to work with.  I am from the Midwest (moved to NYC from Bloomington, IN) and would be happy to meet with you next time I’m out there, or on your next visit to New York.  The Furby2000 concept sounded really great, and it certainly seems Tiger’s toys are moving in the ever-more-interactive direction.  When further concepts are developed and you are seeking a voice to assist in bringing the character to life, I hope you’ll again consider me.

Sincerely,

Kevin Kolack

----

He also mentioned that recording for the prototype occurred in July, 2000, in Manhattan, but he was informed in December that year, that the project was cancelled.

Despite Kevin being told this, Sega Toys displayed Cregit at the 2001 Tokyo Toy Fair in March, with the intent of releasing it in October that year (in Japan). Cregit does not appear to have been released, however, as no listing photos of it have been documented.

[pop-punk-furbies]

Helloo

These are my furbies!!

punk: he/him, 1998 black cat furby

Billie cool dirt: he/him, Furby boom zig zag

Wormwood: he/they, 1998 skunk furby

GirlsGoGames: She/they, custom

Oggy: any, 1999 primary color furby baby

Grilled cheese: He/she/they, Shelby 2001

Land mine: They/them, Shelby 2001

I share my furbies here and just talk abt furbies in general on this acc!!

Main: CasualFr1days

[stevebattle]

Walking Poo-Chi (ウオーキングプーチ), Sega Toys, Tokyo, Japan (2001). Walking Poo-Chi is a robot dog in the KOKO-ROBO series of robot toys. Compared to the original Poo-Chi, "Walking Poo-Chi has a differently-shaped muzzle (including the lower jaw) that looks more rounder and less blocky. Its ears are elliptically-shaped, and the top part of its paws is covered in translucent, colored plastic. … Walking Poo-Chi can express happiness (heart-shaped eyes) and sadness (crescent-shaped eyes). Walking Poo-Chi can also show the same eye expressions as Poo-Chi. Walking Poo-Chi can also say "Hello!" and speak Japanese." – Walking Poo-Chi, furby-junkie.

[furbymother]

My name is Autumn aka The Furby Mother.

All of my original Posts are tagged #furby mother (for the most part, sometimes I forget . . .)

MEET THE FURBTRIBE—

Kiddo, 1998 mute “skunk” furby

Wesson, 1998 “witches cat” furby

Bianca, 1998 “leopard” furby

Orchid, 1998 “snowball” furby

Pashmina, 1999 “tiedye” furby

Mystik the Realm Seer, 1999 “lamb” furby with MSA

Chester, 1999 “wavy stripes” furby baby

Sero, Jester Furby Special Edition 1999

2001 “lilac” interactive shelby

Peachy King, his royal highness 2005 “red velvet” emototronic

Parfait, 2005 “passion fruit” emototronic

Pigeon aka “Pidge”, 2005 “sleepy pink” emototronic

Princess Pudding, 2005 “sleepy pink” emotoronic furby baby (parents are peachy king and parfait)

Gizmo, 2012 furby

80-HD, 2013 boom with shaken furby syndrome

Moi Moi, 2023 “Coral” Furby

Kewpie, 2023 “Purple” Furby

Reignbeau Razzmatazz, 2023 Furby Rainbow Edition

Lumen Glowstarr, 2024 Furby Glow in the Dark Edition

Trueh Mooh, my chocolate cow themed long furby

Furblets: Mello-Nee, Ray-Vee, Pix-Elle, Luv-Lee, and Oh-Koo, + 2 unnamed furblets

THATS THE FURBTRIBE…. FOR NOW!

[catstorm]

Today I Furbed: How 2001 McD Furbys Work

The European 2001 Furby and Shelby toys have always been really cool to me. Today I opened up Shelby to show you how they work.

Each toy has a metal bar on the right foot and two rubber prongs on the left. You can press a button to make them say one or two phrases, and if you put them toe to toe with each other, they play a song together with slightly different harmonics depending on the toy.

What's really happening for the special song is that the rubber prongs need a conductive material to touch them both at the same time to complete the circuit, which triggers the song to start playing.

While one might assume that you need two toys to make this happen, you can actually accomplish this without a second toy by using a metal tool to connect the prongs yourself. For example, this paint spatula will activate them just fine.

Now here are the internals.

On the circuit board are two metal strips that correspond to the prongs. You can see how if they are connected the circuit will be completed. This is really smart toy design.

[siliconosaurus]

2001 McDonald’s Furby Happy Meal Toy

[superbfurbz]

Michal David’s “Furby A Shelby” (2001): A potential English translation? 😮

Hey Furby fans! If you know of someone who has in fact done this before, please let me know so I can properly credit and reblog/report on it! I did try looking around online for a few days but was unable to turn up anything else on my own.

Some of you may be familiar with the several unofficial-to-official Furby-centric and Furby-inclusive music albums that have been released over the years; some from the USA, some from Europe, and some from Latin America. With a little digging around, you can find much of this music available online, mostly on YouTube and Spotify... but did you know that two of these albums were released exclusively in Czechia? Furby wiki frequenters may already be acquainted with the titles: Cesta Kolem Světa - Music Party (Around the World - Music Party) 2001  and 22 Dětských Hitů (22 Children’s Hits) 2002

Fortunately for us, 22 Children’s Hits can be listened to in its entirely on YouTube here. For Music Party, well... it gets a bit tougher.

On the Furby fandom wiki page for Music Party, there is a single comment from 2018 where a Furby fan bemoans their inability to listen to this album in full. Even when browsing Czech merchant sites in attempts to outright purchase the CD or cassette, it can be difficult to come across. Neither English translated lyrics nor the original Czech lyrics for any of the songs don’t seem to be listed anywhere. The album features several odes to various toys/family entertainment properties. Only a single song from the album is available to listen to online, and I believe it is thanks to the fervor and tenacity of the Furby fandom that it is so. That song is “Furby A Shelby”! You can listen to it in the embedded video below.

So, what about that translation? Hand over the goods, old man. Recently, I have made a friend in Czechia. I was sharing Furby related things with him when he remarked how excited he was to see someone from outside the country who had heard of a Czech musician in any capacity. A bit later, I found myself unable to resist... I asked my friend what it would take to listen to the song and translate the lyrics into English for me, so I could finally know what Furby and Shelby were up to after all these years! Below the readmore is the translation from my friend. He did mention he found himself unable to keep the rhyme scheme intact, but it still paints a clear picture of what the song is about. Please be kind, he did this without being a professional translator, from the generosity of his heart. I hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading!

Furby: Hello I am Furby! Shelby: And I'm Shelby! Both: And well, since we are here, we will sing and have a nice trip around the world Furby: I lived and sailed on a cloud in the skies I ate, I drank, nicely growing fat Then I became the victim of a miracle I fell to the ground like a bug Shelby: I also soared the skies Like Furby, I met the same fate Before I came to, I was on my feet I walked the land on my feet Chorus: Pals Furby and Shelby, each one wants to go somewhere else But they still walk with each other around the world Pals Furby and Shelby, each one wants something Just not to wander alone Furby: Mistakenly I read I was in Mexico I wanted to wear a sombrero right away However there was no escape from the sun So I got a heatstroke really fast Shelby: I landed on the biggest cactus It stabbed me in the butt! Lucky I didn't fall on my mouth My smile was gone for good Chorus: Pals Furby and Shelby, each one wants to go somewhere else But they still walk with each other around the world Pals Furby and Shelby, each one wants something Just not to wander alone Furby, Shelby! (2x) Chorus: Pals Furby and Shelby, each one wants to go somewhere else But they still walk with each other around the world Pals Furby and Shelby, each one wants something Just not to wander alone (3x)