Today in 1998, the debut of the Furby.
This toy became a legit 90s phenomenon, one so popular that it actually raise some concerns in the national security community.
The papa of the Furby is David Hampton.
A lifelong tinkerer and designer, he started coming up with the idea for the toy after encountering another 90s toy hit, the virtual pet, at a toy fair.
Hampton liked the idea of looking after your own little buddy, but as he put it, you couldn’t pet a virtual pet.
So he started creating a physical virtual pet, one kids could play and interact with.
It had all kinds of sensors under the hood, not to mention moving eyes and ears.
Hampton’s son came up with the name; originally the inventor was going to call it Furball.
By any name, it was a hit; consumers bought like 40 million Furbys in its first three years, and that still wasn’t enough to meet demand.
There were stories of people shoving, tackling and sometimes even biting each other to get Furbys during holiday shopping (!)
The kids who got those Furbys got way into their new buddies.
Furbys spoke their own language, Furbish: kids not only spoke the language back to their toys, they started speaking it to each other.
Any toy that becomes that popular that fast sees a backlash, and there was one for the Furby.
But unlike a lot of toys, part of the Furby backlash came from intelligence officials in the US government.
They were concerned this electronic, interactive toy might be a surveillance tool, or might disrupt airplanes during takeoff or landing.
For a time, the US National Security Agency banned Furbys from its headquarters, and the Federal Aviation Administration said passengers should keep Furbys off when flying below 10,000 feet.
The manufacturer had to put out a statement explaining that “Furby is not a spy.”
The security concerns went away in time; so did the Furby fad.
But you still probably should keep your Furbys off on a plane.
Not for safety reasons, but because hearing Furbish will probably creep at least a few passengers out.
It’s National Name Your Car Day.
If you’re into toy cars, then you may want to head to Newfield, New Jersey.
The Matchbox Road Museum is home to over 50,000 Matchbox cars, plus mini helicopters, boats, construction vehicles, motorcycles, buses and even a few celebrity dolls.
We could (and probably should) do a whole episode about the celebrity doll thing.
How Old Is Your Furby? (Computer History Museum)
New Jersey’s Matchbox Road Museum Is Die-Cast Car Heaven (The Drive)
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Photo by Cristina Mª Granados Roas via Flickr/Creative Commons
