Everyone seems to have a story. A haunting. A terrible wailing creature whose howlings wouldn’t cease even after being shoved into the darkest pits of the closet or basement. A hammer held high overhead before smashing down on the fragile plastic skull of the toy, cracking it apart. Greasy gears rusting, long rendered motionless. A feverish pitch across the room, smashing against the wall. Breathing heavily in relief as parents slept soundly and the menace stuttered into a long, whirring death.
Although the Furby was released in 1998, 90s nostalgia as a whole has latched onto the Furby. The toy was once snatched from the shelves of Toys-R-Us and Walmart, nestling into the nuclear family as massive, clunking computers were also slowly incorporated into households and the internet wafted into a new age. Since the meeting of these two creatures of code, tales of horror have spread online as rampantly as the contagious Furby craze did when the toy was initially released. The first thing people think of when they think of the Furby now are vague notions of them being evil, gremlin-like creatures.
Despite the haunted allegations, Furbys have still managed to worm their way into the hearts of “weirdos” and outsiders, those who defy a conformist world. Tumblr teens and queer people have forged a kinship with the rejected electronic companion, fostering a Furby renaissance online, crafting art and customs and even creating the infamous long Furby. Even a cursory glance at people’s customized creations reveals the depth of artistic talent and love poured into this hobby.
In the summer of 2020, I bought my first Furby Buddy so that I could lengthen it into a three-foot-long spaghetti noodle of an acquaintance. I removed the bean bag stuffed inside, attached the articulated doll armature to let it hold poses, then sewed a long tube of fabric for the body. I was immediately endeared to my long Furby creation, and started collecting more Furbys to customize, learning how to remove the pelt from the robot to wash its fur, how to crochet a carrier, how to carve the beak and eyelids into unique expressions and how to remove eyechips with the melted end of a hot glue stick and a short stay in the freezer.
Furbys became my creative outlet, encouraging me to experiment with new artistic mediums and connect with a community when I felt I had none.
However, even with a flourishing online Furby fandom, it is definitely still a frowned upon niche. Carry a Furby around today and strangers will be quick to tell you a tale of the death of its kin, gushing at the gory details. Most commonly heard, both online and off, is the tale of someone swearing they turned their Furby off only for it to continue making noise and functioning. Ironically, original Furbys have no “on” or “off” switch—the batteries have to be either shoved in or pried out.
The Furby has been mythologized as an evil robot, incapable of cuteness, void of any endearing feature. Fear of them went so far as to cause their banishment from the Pentagon out of fear they would record confidential information. Initiated by Hasbro’s London shredding event where 20,000 bootleg Furbys were rounded up and destroyed, the legacy of Furby destruction lives on through hydraulic press crushings and other bizarre torture methods. But so too survives the joy they initially intended to inspire. Old Furbys are renewed and revived, given the love its creators meant for it to receive.
After many different re-releases and redesigns of the Furby, the most recent iteration appeared in 2023, and is currently on store shelves. While no Furby has surpassed the success of the original—the 2005 film having flopped, and the 2016 app no longer available—Furby is still beloved by its niche of fans and will hopefully connect with current kids who find them at their local Targets and toy stores. The potential of Furbys to be more than their perceived freaky factor is evident looking at the joy they bring the creatives who have dedicated their time to restoring and customizing them.
While the Furby community may be cringe, they are also free, expressing themselves and following where their creativity takes them.
Evelyn Labbe is a first-year exploring academically.
Featured image courtesy of Evelyn Labbe.
