Furby, 1998: The Toy That Talked Back

In the first week of December 1998, a Providence newspaper reported that two women had been hurt in a stampede at a big chain store in Illinois. The cause was a small furry machine with enormous eyes and a vocabulary of its own. Furby had been in shops for roughly two months, and owning one now meant queueing before the doors opened.

The toy was invented by Dave Hampton and Caleb Chung. A fellow toy inventor, Richard Levy, helped carry it to Tiger Electronics, a Hasbro division, which showed it at the American International Toy Fair in New York earlier in 1998 and put it in shops in early October. A magazine had already named it the hot toy of the year: Wired, in September, according to a contemporary newspaper report. The same report noted that Furby looked a lot like Gizmo from Gremlins.

A pet that learned your language

What set Furby apart from the electronic pets of the moment was that it answered back. It responded to touch, light and sound, and small motors moved its eyes, mouth and ears. It spoke Furbish, an invented language, and the Computer History Museum notes that this gradually shifted toward English as the Furby spent time with its owner. Hampton, who designed its language, has said he chose an invented tongue so the toy would not interrupt a child's own make-believe.

For parents the appeal was simple. Here was a gift that seemed to be paying attention, in a season when most toys on the shelf were content to sit there. A toy that reacts to touch, sound and light is a talking point in itself. For Tiger, the trouble was that it seemed that way to everyone at once.

The scarcity

By early December Tiger said it had shipped more than a million Furbys and expected to reach as many as two million by the end of the month, with extra loads flown in from China. One analyst blamed retailers for ordering light and late, leaving the manufacturer little lead time. On 27 November, the day after US Thanksgiving, a regional toy chain reported that each of its 19 stores in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts had sold its 200 Furbys inside an hour.

The stories that followed are the ones people still tell. In Lynn, Massachusetts, a crowd that had waited overnight turned angry on learning the store held only 30. In Denver, shoppers knocked over displays and trampled bystanders. In Arlington, Texas, they swore at staff once the shelves were bare. Online, individual Furbys changed hands for far more than the shops were asking. All of this comes from a single syndicated newspaper report dated 5 December 1998, so treat the details as one reporter's survey of a bad week, not a full tally.

The spy that was not

Then came the story that made Furby a footnote in intelligence history. The Washington Post reported on 13 January 1999 that the National Security Agency had issued a Furby Alert in December 1998 and barred the toys from its headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. Staff who had brought one to work were told to hand it to their security officer.

The worry was that a Furby might overhear something classified and repeat it. The Computer History Museum is blunt that the toy does not record its surroundings, which suggests the agency was guarding against a threat the product never posed. As publicity goes, it was hard to beat.

What came after

The Strong National Museum of Play reports that Furby sold more than 40 million units in its first three years, and the Boston Globe repeated the figure in 2023. According to the Boston Globe, Hasbro last sold Furby in 2016, and the toy returned in 2023, its 25th anniversary, after a six-year hiatus.

Furby was one of twelve finalists for the 2025 National Toy Hall of Fame, alongside Tickle Me Elmo, but both lost out on the induction in November to Slime, Battleship and Trivial Pursuit. Fashion in toys is rarely fair. If Furby's story reminds you of Cabbage Patch Kids in 1983, it should: the shape of a craze barely changes, only the product at the centre of it.

Sources

Where the facts in this post come from. Rankings and lists belong to the people who published them; the selection and the stories are ours.

1. One Hit Wonders, The Strong National Museum of Play — Toy Fair debut in 1998, more than 40 million sold in the first three years
2. Furby frenzy fueling face-offs, Providence Journal via Deseret News, 5 December 1998 — Shipping figures, store sell-outs, shopper incidents, Gremlins comparison, the Wired remark
3. Spy Agency Gets Ruffled Over Furby, Washington Post via Seattle Times, 13 January 1999 — NSA Furby Alert and ban at Fort Meade
4. How Old Is Your Furby?, Computer History Museum — Sensors, motors, Furbish shifting toward English, Hampton designed the language, Furby does not capture its surroundings
5. Hasbro is bringing back Furby, The Boston Globe, June 2023 — 2023 return after six years, last sold in 2016, five voice-activated modes, over 600 responses
6. Slime, Battleship and Trivial Pursuit join the Toy Hall of Fame, WISN, 6 November 2025 — 2025 inductees and Furby as a nominee that lost out
7. Here are the 12 finalists for the 2025 National Toy Hall of Fame, AP via Scripps News, 17 September 2025 — Twelve finalists, Furby and Tickle Me Elmo among them
8. Furby, Wikipedia — Inventors Hampton and Chung, Richard Levy bringing it to Tiger Electronics, early-October launch (cross-checked against the sources above)