Hasbro’s Furby got major updates, the company announced on Thursday. The toy now has Bluetooth technology so kids can connect the improved Furby to their devices and enjoy entertaining video clips, catchy songs, phrases, global events, and more.
Furby Connect, its official name, is now available for pre-orders starting today. It is priced at $99 and will be arriving in the stores this fall. The personality of the toy will be delivered through the Bluetooth connection from a device that has the Furby Connect app, as reported by PC Magazine.
“Every time we evolve the Furby brand, we want to introduce kids to a new way to play,” commented Kenny Davis, Senior Director of Global Marketing at Hasbro, in a press release. “And kids and Furby fans alike told us they wanted a creature they could interact with in more ways, so we have created the technology infrastructure for Furby Connect with that in mind.”
According to Davis, with Furby Connect kids can develop a relationship with their toy while laughing at a video and singing songs together, even if they do not quite know the word like they would with any other friend.
The creature reacts intuitively to sound and touch, and can speak more than 1,000 phrases as well as express moods through colorful animations displayed in its LCD screen eyes, the company wrote in the statement. Also, Furby Connect knows the exact date and time so it can surprise its owners by asking them for breakfast or a late-night snack. The creature also has multiple sensors to spot when the owners are near or to touch the toy.
The new App for Furby
The app, named Furby Connect World offers the kids a further immersion within the toy’s world. It delivers new content to the toy and allows users to engage in the new one when this is ready. Virtually, they can take off their Furby and play multiple games.
The new toy is the latest advance Hasbro made in the toy since its relaunch of the Furby line in 2012. The toy was a success in the 90s, making it a unique toy from the era but experienced a decline after that.
High-tech toys
Hasbro is not the first one to bring their toys into the new era. Mattel recently released Hello Barbie and the Hello Barbie Dream House. The house is where the iconic blonde can enjoy smart features that include Wi-Fi, embedded floors and voice commands. The new features that the child to give the toy instructions to turn on and off the lights, preheat the oven, operate the elevator and even activate the party-mode among other functions.
Back in the Dream House’s presentation, it was presented as a way to induce a child-directed play, where the kids can decide in a not-very-usual way what to do in the house. Otherwise, kids would have to tell the house what to do.
The house is set to arrive this fall, as well as Furby Connect, with a price tag of $300, according to Chip Chick. But the “Hello” series was not well received last year, as many parents step out claiming that the interactive barbie was a breach of their kid’s privacy.
Source: Hasbro