Furby
It's from 1998, before you were born.
- Maker
- Tiger Electronics / Hasbro
- Type
- Electronic creature
- Debuted
- 1998
- Note
- Rumored (wrongly) to be an NSA spy risk
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About
As of 2026, it's 28 years old.
Furby hatched in 1998 as a big-eyed, owl-meets-gremlin robot that spoke gibberish 'Furbish' and gradually 'learned' English (it didn't, really — it was scripted to seem like it did). Forty million sold in three years, and they were the holiday must-have of 1998–99.
Furby was so unsettlingly lifelike that the U.S. National Security Agency reportedly banned them from its premises, fearing the toy could record and repeat classified conversations. It could not. But the legend of the spy Furby endures, as does the horror of one switching itself on in a dark closet at 3 a.m.
Chatty, creepy, and impossible to fully turn off, Furby is the toy that blurred the line between plaything and tiny haunted roommate.
Furby through the years
Furby debuts
Becomes the runaway holiday hit of 1998.
Banned by the NSA
Spy fears (unfounded) get Furby barred from the agency.
