Retro 90's Furby Teardown -- The EIectronics Inside 03

element14 Presents | About David | Project Videos | The Electronics Inside

In 1998 the big Christmas toy was an interactive animatronic pet. How intelligent was it really? What hardware was crammed into the fluffy exterior? I guess there is only one way to find out - tear it down! The ICs are: An LM234 Adjustable current source (a power controller) an HT93LC46 - 1K EEPROM (non-volatile memory, or its storage) an IC with smudged text - although I understand it is an audio amplifier! and 2 potted ASICs which I understand is the CPU and ROM.

Supplemental Content:

Furby Timelapse

Top Comments

a531016 over 5 years ago in reply to dubbie

I was really suprised to see all the actuation was from a single motor. Just a very clever use of linkages, cams and tansfers, brilliant! If you would like a specific photo or details, let me know and I'll see what I can dig out for you?
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dubbie over 5 years ago

A fun tear-down. I didn't have a Furby when younger although I would have liked one. I did see a couple of Furby's at a car boot sale relatively recently and was very tempted to buy them they as they are practically robots, but in the end decided I had enough stuff/junk. Now I wish I had purchased them. I particularly like the eyes as I am interested in making an animatronic face and these eyes would be a good start. I'll have to keep my eyes open for Furbys again.

Dubbie
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jpnbino over 5 years ago in reply to a531016

Unfortunately no...,

If I still had it, I would tear it apart for us and post hahah...
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a531016 over 5 years ago in reply to jpnbino

Oh, that's cool! Did you ever take it apart?
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jpnbino over 5 years ago

Hahah... I enjoyed!

this was a really good one. That made me remember that I had one of these monkeys when I was a kid.

https://youtu.be/XJ_rs9Cvpjs
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a531016 over 5 years ago in reply to DAB

Thanks DAB, I thought they had done a great job with a small package and limited hardware?
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DAB over 5 years ago

Nice teardown.

DAB
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