Series Generation One Furby!

October 1998 started it all. Tiger launched their long awaited Furbys to the general public with less then a year of developing time - an unusually short amount of time for toys. He was long awaited since toy fair 98 and became an instant hit as soon as they hit the shelves. People didn't even know what they were, but once news caught on they were out, people stood in long lines outside of stores from then till Christmas at several stores hoping to get their hands on, what was at the time, very rare Furby.

Furbys sold for over 300 bucks in the newspapers and in auctions from people that just wanted to make big money off of parents who wanted their kids to be happy. Nicknames were given to them and sellers assigned rarity values to them. If you were watching it then, you will remember the terms 'wedding Furbys', 'tuxedo Furby', 'snowball Furby', 'biker Furby' among others. All, of course, were dubbed rare by sellers, because they were so hard to find at the time. There were some sellers that scammed people out of a lot of money then, some didn't even give them a Furby. Due to problems in Furbys mechanics, many of them had flaws and thus the buyer wasted a lot of money on something that didn't even work. Still, they took off and became the major hit of 1998 holiday season.

Now that the hype has slowed down, there are many Furbys out there. However the most sought after and the best looking IMO are the original fur colors released in late 1998. Every now and again you can see them in the stores, but that is rare. And if you do see them they are not likely to have the original electronics. They will have the electronics that have "Deep Sleep Mode" in them.

How do you know if you've got a Furby of the original generation and electronics? They don't have deep sleep mode. Looking the manual you will notice this is not in there for the originals. Deep Sleep was added with generation 2 and up when it was found kids wanted to sleep with Furby but he woke up too easily. He also woke up real easy when being carried. So Tiger added this feature. Making the original 6 released before generation 2 more rare.

There is also even more rare versions of Generation one floating around out there. The very first Furbys to reach the stores in the last 2 weeks of October were different then the shipments starting in November. It is much less obvious on the differences. The batches released in the last 2 weeks of October had some flaws in their mechanics which were fixed quickly by November. The ones that are rarest are the ones that arrived first in the stores in October. If you think you have one there is a couple of characteristics you should know that will tell you which you have. The first batch Furbys have ears that click when you move them back and forth manually. This is a obvious loud clicking because the gears aren't moving so they are clicking across each other. This was changed in the next batch so that Furbys gears didn't get jammed so easy if someone were holding or hugging Furby and restricting the movement of his ears. They also had tongues that looked more realistic, having a line down the center and little 'bumps' all over it. I see these tongues on other Furbys now and again, though. My experience has been that when restarted the default name seemed to be Toh-Loo Kah, but I have nothing to back me up other then experience. The gears also seemed louder and more grinding sounding then later versions.

By the way if you have a Furby whose ears click loudly when you move them back and forth by hand, indicating you have one of the first batch, I'd be interested in purchasing this Furby from you. Email me with the Furby colors and how much you'd be willing to sell him for if you desire to. I don't guaranty I'll buy, though. :)

Another characteristic that went into the second and third runs but was fixed in mid December runs were that when you pet Furby, you could hear a clicking sound. Some louder then others. The first batch it was so bad that Furby would say "Loud sound" when pet, instead of responding to being pet.

One good thing about the originals is they weren't as sensitive to sound. Some Furbys in later versions will say 'loud sound' when there is no obvious loud sound. This can be troublesome if you are trying to get two to talk and he keeps 'hearing nothing', thus interrupting the flow of conversations. The originals that I dealt with never did that.

You can still find them now and again in the stores, mixed in with other generations. Often times when ordering from kbkids.com the different language Furbys will be of the original 6 colors.

Since then there have been so many new Furbys and products in relation. So many generations. Tiger is flooding the market to the point were I worry about Furby remaining successful. Even with so many generations I think the original colors are the best looking and I'm sure many people would agree.

If you arrived here from another site not on mimitchi.com be sure to visit my main page and my main Furby site!