I've been hearing lately the slow churn of hype about this new and improved Furby. It made me remember the great Furby Frenzy of 1998 when these little guys first appeared on the toy scene. Suddenly visions of brawling mothers and  mad Walmart dashes appeared  in my memory. I thought to myself, "looks like the toy companies are running out of ideas, why not bring back the best selling toy of all time?" The unfortunate truth about the first Furby is that it was very limited in its abilities which meant after the initial "awe, it's so cute," it was a rather useless toy. I initially assumed the same would be true of the new Furby. What I soon found was quite contrary to my assumptions.

    At the urging of my 6 year old daughter and partially my own curiosity I purchased one of the little guys. She was hooked after hearing it  ask: "you, me, friend, hmm?" Upon her replying yes it exuberantly repied "Yayyyyyyy!" I couldn't believe how lifelike it was as its ears, eyes, and body moved, especially in comparison to the old Furby's.  Although impressed initially I expected this thing would be a one trick pony just like the previous version but I was blatantly wrong. I observed my daughter interacting with it for several days and was constantly impressed by its new found range of abilities and expressions. It continually impressed as it interacted, sang songs, told jokes, danced, and told stories. My daughter wouldn’t put it down which is definitely in contrast to the Furby’s of old that became boring quite early on. There is even an upgrade for us the parents, it has an off switch which means no late night singing from this rascal.

    The only problem I see with the new Furby is where to get them. In a quite similar fashion to 7 years ago they are becoming scarce at the local department stores. I’ve even read recently that there will inevitably be a shortage due to the computer chip used as Furby’s brains being highly sought after in the industry of interactive toys. I would highly suggest to anyone reading this to survey your children now and get one early before they are completely out of stock.