Furbies scare me...

[AnniChu]

For some reason ever since I was little I've been TERRIFIED of Furbies. Don't ask me why, I just am. And I'm not talking about I find them a little creepy, I'm talking about I-can't-even-go-into-a-room-that-has-a-batteryless-Furby-hidden-in-the-closet-without-almost-peeing-myself terrified. Most of my friends know this, and they'll occasionally tease me about it. Let's just hope that none of them are heartless enough to buy me one as a surprise gift...

I know that they're harmless, it's just a robot with fur after all. I love most robots, and I took a robotics class last year. I've even tried looking pictures of furless Furbies, hoping that once I saw how these things work I wouldn't be so mortified of them. That was a very... VERY... bad idea... If you haven't seen a de-furred Furby before, consider yourself lucky. In my opinion, they look like evil spawns of the underworld.

If you find Furbies fun and cute, good for you. I'm glad you find enjoyment out of them. My question is... Does anyone else find those little guys scary, or is it just overreacting about a children's toy?

 

[TamaFoxx]

I've even tried looking pictures of furless Furbies, hoping that once I saw how these things work I wouldn't be so mortified of them. That was a very... VERY... bad idea... If you haven't seen a de-furred Furby before, consider yourself lucky. In my opinion, they look like evil spawns of the underworld.

OMG! Sorry that I'm laughing here, but: you took the words right out of my mouth!!!

Seriously, they look creepy, but REALLY creepy without fur! The first time I've seen that, I thought: ... and that's a toy for kids? - They should hide those pics!

But nevertheless, when they first came out with the Furbies, I had one... uhm, I still have it, tbh, and it was fascinating, but after time... they scared me in a way. I don't know what it was, because I really enjoyed the idea behind it, but something on them is really scary. I'm not sure if it's the eyes, or the way they move <.< maybe because you expect something else? Or maybe it's even the voice. I'm not sure. But I wouldn't buy another one ^^°

Yet, the second generation seemed... nice. I just call it "nice", because they used to scare me even more. Weren't they bigger, than the first generation? But I think, they didn't last too long over here. They disappeared pretty fast <.<

 

[AnniChu]

OMG! Sorry that I'm laughing here, but: you took the words right out of my mouth!!!

Seriously, they look creepy, but REALLY creepy without fur! The first time I've seen that, I thought: ... and that's a toy for kids? - They should hide those pics!

But nevertheless, when they first came out with the Furbies, I had one... uhm, I still have it, tbh, and it was fascinating, but after time... they scared me in a way. I don't know what it was, because I really enjoyed the idea behind it, but something on them is really scary. I'm not sure if it's the eyes, or the way they move <.< maybe because you expect something else? Or maybe it's even the voice. I'm not sure. But I wouldn't buy another one ^^°

Yet, the second generation seemed... nice. I just call it "nice", because they used to scare me even more. Weren't they bigger, than the first generation? But I think, they didn't last too long over here. They disappeared pretty fast <.<

I'm glad someone agrees, I showed some of the furless Furby pictures to my sister and she thought hey looked cool! And idk what I find so creepy about them... The older ones do remind me of gremlins a bit...

 

[[redacted]]

I've had multiple furbies (and I still do have them) and I only find one creepy. I have almost had to defur mine because she was having internal issues due to overheating. I don't find furless furbies creepy though, I'm not sure why however!

 

[Jhud]

Most people are afraid of furbys actually, there's a stigma against these toys. I never was afraid of them nor I am now- as a kid I had a furby I remember turning on randomly at night and honestly it never bothered me lol.

It's actually considered weird to NOT be afraid of them nowadays.

I'm not afraid of furless furbys either, but seeing them does make me feel uneasy if only because I have a deep fear of broken toys (toy gore).

 

[AnniChu]

Most people are afraid of furbys actually, there's a stigma against these toys. I never was afraid of them nor I am now- as a kid I had a furby I remember turning on randomly at night and honestly it never bothered me lol. It's actually considered weird to NOT be afraid of them nowadays.

I'm not afraid of furless furbys either, but seeing them does make me feel uneasy if only because I have a deep fear of broken toys (toy gore).

Toy gore... Ha, I like it.

Now that I think about it... toy gore has always bothered me too. I mean, I'm not terrified of it, but I definitely couldn't sit through a video of, "What's inside Teddy Ruxpin!?" without feeling pretty nervous.

 

[Knighttchi's Ballad]

I've come across maybe one or two pictures of a furless furby and never thought much about it. But looking it up now, they really are terrifying and just because their eyes are so big and round and staring, *shudders*. Actually just the eyes mechanism alone is creepy.

I think I've always found deliberately breaking toys - especially human-like and animal ones - to be creepy. It makes sense since it is practically the same as watch a living thing die with the added association of innocence and happiness. Although, it wouldn't bother me to see a stuffed toy with broken seams, especially if that toy is being repaired. It seems to be quite common in repairing old teddy bears to take out all the stuffing, wash the fur, and then fill it back up again.

 

[TamaMum]

I always found the Furby a little creepy. (Never even considered fur vs furless)

There is still one Furby in our house.
The batteries are removed and it sits high up on a shelf in a wardrobe.

It will stay there until I own a dog who will want to play with it as a chew toy after which it can be thrown out.
(Sadly, the last 2 dogs were all creeped out by Furbys... so is the current one)

 

[Iza]

I find furbies a tiny bit creepy too.

However, I laugh very much every time I watch this video:

//www.tamatalk.com/IB/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png

(welcome to my beautiful country, lol)

 

[complete_tama_fanatic]

I've never had a problem with Furby. And even though in my opinion they're a bit underwhelming compared to something like Tamagotchi, I still have a soft spot for them... Call me crazy if you want, but I even have a couple of them sitting next to my bed.

Also once I purchased a lot of broken Furbys off of eBay to fix them up; of course I had to yank their skin off to fix them, and to be honest I don't think the Furbys were too happy about being bald. They were pretty happy about being fixed (Even though they went to sleep right after. "Me sleep again")!

@CTF@

 

[Penguin-keeper]

And idk what I find so creepy about them... The older ones do remind me of gremlins a bit...

I wonder if the phenomenon of people finding Furbies to be creepy is related to the "Uncanny Valley", as a result of the original version's quite realistic eyes, combined with the nose-like shape of their beaks?

The Uncanny Valley is the name given to the way that the human brain can find imagery that looks somewhat "human" to be creepy when it falls short of looking real - it's the point between the brain understanding that something isn't real because it doesn't look real, and the brain feeling that something is wrong because something looks realistic but not realistic enough. It usually applies exclusively to things like human-looking toys, robots, and animated films. A good (and fittingly festive) example of this would be the movie The Polar Express, where CGI is used to create an animated film about realistic-looking human characters, but for various reasons they never look real, with their faces being a particular problem for a lot of people. The Uncanny Valley effect affects some people more than others.

Obviously, a Furby isn't meant to look human, but I wouldn't be surprised if something similar was at play, here, as this has affected animatronic animal toys that have realistic-looking eyes and movements for decades.

I'm unsure if people find the modern iterations with the LCD eyes to be better or worse, though. Personally, I find those a bit strange because when the Furby is powered off, the blank eyes look hollow and empty to me.

I mention this because most people don't know that there's a name for the phenomenon, along with a definition that can potentially explain why we find things like this to be inexplicably creepy or unsettling.

 

[Coryn Asur]

Oh I do find them pretty scary. Or used to at least, since my own white Furby constantly managed to creep me out when I was little! I first got it as a Christmas present and was excited to play with it and it was fun for a while at first. Then something within its system got stuck or something and it suddenly made a loud, continuous sound that sounded like a scream to the very little me. I think that instance made me wary of the new, fluffy friend. Since then I felt strangely afraid around the toy since I was scared it'd make that awful sound again. And no, it wasn't the only time it did something weird. Some other time it was casually in my room, making beeping noises even though it was supposed to be off.

It probably isn't the overall look of Furbies that creep me out though, it's more likely the fact that they're able to make noises and stuff - now that I think about it, when I was little I did have a slight fear of all kinds of toys that had batteries.

 

[Jhud]

EDIT: It's the second time my post literally posts blank after I post it. I'm not amused. Admins, please consider looking into it...

I don't feel like retyping the whole post again, but long story short: I do understand being afraid of toys that talk. Mostly because I was conditioned to be a quiet kid, I was terrified of making a sound and doing a ruckus, but since I got my furby when I was super young I didn't know how to play with it, so I only played with it for a few seconds before not thinking about it. I think I was too young to be really afraid of anything back then. I remember it waking up at night (the first ones had acutely sensitive light sensors) and I didn't mind.

I do find hatchimals kinda creepy though. I do have one and while I do love it (I guess paternal instincts, since I helped it hatch), I think the eyes and the noises they make are kind of creepy. Furbys were way more expressive and had more personality.

 

[AnniChu]

I've never had a problem with Furby. And even though in my opinion they're a bit underwhelming compared to something like Tamagotchi, I still have a soft spot for them... Call me crazy if you want, but I even have a couple of them sitting next to my bed.Also once I purchased a lot of broken Furbys off of eBay to fix them up; of course I had to yank their skin off to fix them, and to be honest I don't think the Furbys were too happy about being bald. They were pretty happy about being fixed (Even though they went to sleep right after. "Me sleep again")!

@CTF@

Oh that's cool! Sometimes I kinda wish I wasn't afraid of them. I actually had a Furby at one point, I had gotten it for Christmas thinking I was over my fear. I liked it at first but I eventually got scared of it again and hid it in my closet. My parents eventually got it out and sold it for me when I was gone, so hopefully it's in a better home now. It's really awesome that you can fix them though, I definitely wouldn't be able to do that!

 

[Verklighet]

I actually loved my Furbies.

I had two of the Boom editions.

One stopped working about two years later, and the second stopped working the day I bought it

But, for some reason, owning a Furby was weirder then owning a Tamagotchi, and I got the fire for it.

I NAMED MY BLUE WAVED PATTERNED FURBY, SNOWFLAKE. WHAT WAS I THINKING.

 

[Breadcrumbs]

Same, i had one as a kid and it called me during the night: you can guess what i did after. I started having night terrors: one of which ended up having me break the furby. Funny enough, anytime i watch anything creepy, i have a 5/50 chance of getting night terrors

 

[KidRetro64]

My Friend had a Furby, and once she went to bed and she lay the furby next to her, and it got caught on the sentence it was saying

“I looooooooooooooooo....vvvvveee yyyyooooouuuu.”

It sounded very creepy, and whatever it said it would malfunction on.

It did this a couple of times, until her dad took the batteries out.

Creepy

 

[AnniChu]

Same, i had one as a kid and it called me during the night: you can guess what i did after. I started having night terrors: one of which ended up having me break the furby. Funny enough, anytime i watch anything creepy, i have a 5/50 chance of getting night terrors

Oh wow, I definitely wouldn't of been brave enough to break mine! When my sister was FINALLY getting rid of her's after keeping it in her closet for months, I had to go outside to my yard because I was so terrified! But mine gave me nightmares too, some of them still scare me to this day...

 

[PokemonBecky]

I love them, but I've always had scary experiences with them. I can't even bring myself to keep them in my room lol.

 

[Jhud]

They're just robots made to seem like a living thing, and all robots have their quirks. When something you expect to behave like something that's alive does something a bit unexpected (due to malfunctions, especially low battery) it can be creepy. And their appearance can be a bit creepy as well if you're not a fan of the design. But in the end they're just harmless toys, I think it's better to try to get over the fear of them. I personally keep only loving them more and more, and I wish I still had my very first one that I didn't know how to play with...