By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
The Canadian fan fashion house Cakeworthy and Hasbro have released a new collection inspired by the 1990s toy sensation Furby.
If you’re of a certain age and had kids in the 1990s, you may recall the phenomenal Furby craze that swept North America. Furby was an early companion toy for kids that spoke, danced around, and generally interacted with children in ways that could keep them occupied for hours.
The only downside was that kids got so obsessed that retailers couldn’t keep their shelves stocked with the wildly popular toy.
Furbies were created by a trio of inventors and originally licensed to Tiger Electronics in 1997, but came under Hasbro’s umbrella when Tiger was acquired. The timing was great for Hasbro, as Furby launched in October 1998 to overwhelming success. The first Furbies went on sale at New York’s famous FAO Schwarz toy store, which had 35,000 Furbies back ordered by the end of the week!
By the end of the year, with just three months of sales, Hasbro had already sold 1.8 million Furbies, with (hopefully apocryphal) stories of moms and dads battling it out among the toy shelves over Christmas. While those stories may have been urban legends, it is true there was a booming aftermarket for Furbies, as resellers would buy them for around $35, and then offload them to desperate parental units for hundreds of dollars.
The craze continued as Hasbro sold another 14 million Furbies in 1999, and in the first three years of the toy’s existence 40 million had been sold.
Furby sales dwindled over time as newer electronic toys hit the market, but to say there is pent up nostalgia around the toy is probably understating it. Even today, Furbies appear in popular culture, my own favorite being the gigantic, sinister Furby that appears in the fantastic animated comedy The Mitchells vs. The Machines.
Now, Cakeworthy is bringing Furbies into the dynamic world of Canadian fashion, giving Canucks something cool to wear this winter over their thermal underwear.
Cakeworthy is a leading lifestyle brand in the Great White North, specializing in combining nostalgic fandom with stylistic chops, and the company says this collection perfectly fits the Cakeworthy aesthetic.
“The Cakeworthy brand thrives off of nostalgia, so this collection truly couldn’t have been a better fit for us,” said Cakeworthy CEO Brandon Sheddon. “I really wanted to take the icon that is ‘FURBY’ and turn it into a product on a level that we’ve never really hit before.”
Canadians will be able to ‘Free Their Inner Furb’, the partners say, with the new line on sale as of Jan. 19 both online and at Cakeworthy’s brick and mortar store location at CF Lime Ridge Mall in Hamilton, Ontario.
Sheddon says the collection may be the company’s best yet, and will appeal to both kids who had Furbies, and those brave parents who managed to snag one during the Furby glory years.
“When designing this collection, we essentially asked ourselves, ‘What would FURBY look like if it were a hat or a bag or a jacket’—that was the vision,” Sheddon said. “This has truly been one of our most ambitious collections to date including never-before-seen features from Cakeworthy including 3D elements and even hair. These are things our community hasn’t typically seen from a Cakeworthy item, or really anywhere!”
The 13-piece fashion line includes an array of accessories dawning the hard-to-forget FURBY face, as well as several clothing items including a sweater, t-shirt dress, and a sherpa jacket, ideal for Canada’s balmy winter months.