Apparently Furby hacking has been around for a long time. I’m very, very glad I didn’t know this. The videos would give any child of the ’90s terrible nightmares. You guys remember your Furby. I was far too old to have one, but they were just so cute and I couldn’t resist! They spoke to you. They blinked. They–okay, come to think of it, that’s just creepy.
Furby appeared on the toy scene in 1998 and people have been taking them apart, removing their skin and making them do strange things since the beginning. The hacking, however, didn’t go the way of the actual Furby. It’s still alive and well. (Newer versions of Furby are still on the market. They’re just not causing holiday riots like they used to.) Last year, students at Wroclaw University of Technology started the Open Furby project, which teaches your average toy owner to install a custom controller so you can operate your Furby a la Frankenstein’s monster from a PC. The newer ones are even easier to break into with their Android and iOS phone apps, which can be manipulated to perform certain actions when you get @ mentioned on Twitter or read your email.
Check out a bit of the Open Furby project video below, but be warned. It’s going to mess you up. Setting it to Christmas music doesn’t help.
Freaked out yet? The team at Open Furby may even do a Kickstarter campaign to help you do this yourself, you monster. Need help now? Head over to Instructables for step-by-step instructions to create your very own zombie Furby.
Have you guys done this? Have you taken your childhood toy and made it do your bidding? It’s not like you’re starting with a fluffy teddy bear. I don’t know about yours, but my Furby had some sort of malfunction and would randomly chatter to me from my closet after weeks of silence. Between that and the malfunctioning fuzzy Tribble that would giggle when the dog bopped it, my closet was a very upsetting place. Tweet me/us @JennaBusch/@Nerdist and tell us if you’ve created Furby A.I. or if you’re hiding under the covers like I am.
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