The Furby was $35 in 1998 and $300 by Christmas

If you were born between 1981 and 1996 there is a decent chance your parents stood in a line for this thing, or lied to you about why it was not under the tree. Here is what the Furby winter actually looked like, with the numbers, and what the same toy costs today.

October 2, 1998

Furby was invented by Dave Hampton and Caleb Chung and sold by Tiger Electronics, which Hasbro bought that year for $335 million. It was shown at Toy Fair in February, launched on October 2, 1998, and cost about $35. The pitch was simple: it spoke its own language, Furbish, and swapped in English words over time, so it looked like it was learning. Walmart ordered a third of the first production run on the spot. Tiger had six months to make a million of them and doubled the order to two million before Christmas. It was not enough.

The December

Tiger sold 1.8 million Furbies in 1998, and by the week before Christmas a CNN crew could not find a shopper who had one. The Indianapolis news that Black Friday found a line outside Eastgate Mall before the doors opened, a Target manager whose phone rang at eight every morning with people asking if the truck had come, and a KB Toys manager who put the limit at two per family so one household could not clear the shelf. On the resale market a $35 Furby went past $100 and then to several hundred dollars; newspaper classifieds and auction sites listed them at $300.

Then the NSA banned it

In January 1999 the Washington Post reported that the National Security Agency had barred Furbies from its buildings, on the theory that a toy which “learned” words might record and repeat something classified. The inventor pointed out that it could not record anything at all; the English words were preloaded. Some airlines added it to the switch-off list for takeoff and landing anyway. None of this hurt sales. Fourteen million went out the door in 1999, and more than 40 million in the three years it was in production.

What it costs today

Hasbro announced the comeback on June 22, 2023, and the new generation is on shelves. On target.com today the full-size Furby Vibes is $44.99 and the little Furblets run $9.99 to $14.99. No line, no two-per-family sign, and it ships in a week. Your kid will get one for the price of a sweatshirt and never know what it took.

Did your parents find one?

Tell us in the comments on Instagram. If you still have the original in a closet, with the tag, you are not sitting on a retirement fund, but you are sitting on a very good story.

Cubbie Club is a free membership that gets parents real deals from brands we have checked ourselves. See the offers →