FurReal Friends (later FurReal in 2017) is a toy brand division of
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...
,
Tiger Electronics
Tiger Electronics Ltd. (also known as Tiger and Tiger Toys) was an independent American toy manufacturer best known for its handheld LCD games, the Furby, the Talkboy, Giga Pets, the 2-XL robot, and audio games such as ''Brain Warp'' and th ...
and Dreamright Toys
created in 2002 focusing on
robotic pet
Robotic pets are artificially intelligent machines that are made to resemble actual pets. While the first robotic pets produced in the late 1990s, were not too advanced, they have since grown technologically. Many now use machine learning (algori ...
s.
FurReal toys widely vary in style and size, depicting different domestic and wild animals as robotic toys ranging from large enough to be sat on to small enough to be held.
Each FurReal robotic toy moves in some way. Two slogans were "They love you for real, FurReal Friends", and (for 2013) "My best friends are FurReal Friends".
Products
FurReal is noted for its
animatronic
Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions.
It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
replications of creatures and domestic animals as an alternative to live pets, or emulating the behaviors of pets commonly desired by children including
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
s,
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
s,
rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...
s and
dogs.
Certain toys may be designed to represent creatures unfit for domestication, like
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...
s,
lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adu ...
s,
tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living Felidae, cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily pr ...
s,
leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, ...
s,
jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
s,
unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead.
In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...
s and
bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the No ...
s.
Bouncy, a robotic
puppy
A puppy is a juvenile dog. Some puppies can weigh , while larger ones can weigh up to . All healthy puppies grow quickly after birth. A puppy's coat color may change as the puppy grows older, as is commonly seen in breeds such as the York ...
, can jump and turn in a circle when a child waves their hand across her head. With Zambi, a robotic elephant manufactured and intended for charitable sales, a portion of its proceeds go towards charities.
The popular toy Tumbles My Roll Over
Pup Beagle
The beagle is a breed of small scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking instincts, th ...
was launched in 2008. He rolls over, makes realistic puppy noises and goes to sleep. It comes with an adoption certificate.
Another notable toy manufactured by FurReal was the
Butterscotch
Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter, but other ingredients are part of some recipes, such as corn syrup, cream, vanilla, and salt. The earliest known recipes, in mid-19th century Yorkshir ...
Pony
A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...
, a large, animatronic, whinnying pony, among the toy line's products designed for children to sit on.
The
pony
A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...
was designed with an assortment of sound effects mimicking those of live horses and opened a gateway to the production of a second animatronic pony named S'mores of slightly higher quality and with more sound effects.
See also
*
Furby
*
Beanie Babies
Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, ...
*
ZhuZhu Pets
ZhuZhu Pets (, formerly known as Go Go Pets in the UK) is an American line of plush robotic hamster toys created by Cepia LLC in 2009. Multiple spin-off toy lines, including ZhuZhu Puppies and Kung Zhus, have been released.
History
ZhuZhu Pet ...
*
Hatchimal
Hatchimals is a line of mini-figures produced by Spin Master. The flagship toys feature a robotic creature—representing one of various species—that "hatch" themselves from an egg.
After their initial release in October 2016, the toys faced an ...
Notes
External links
Official SiteFurReal Friends Zambi Website
- Information about the FurReal Elephant and Project Zambi
Project ZambiOfficial SiteJapanese websiteFan site
Hasbro products
Products introduced in 2002
Toy animals
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