GRAND TOYS TO OFFER ANIMATRONIC PET
By Adnews Staff
Grand Toys of Montreal will launch the first in a line of new plush toys later this month that will interact with the environment through sight, touch, hearing and physical orientation. Called Furby, the toy can move and dance, as well as open and close its eyes, wiggle its ears and move its mouth when speaking. Furby speaks his own language, but learns to speak English through positive reinforcement. As new toys are launched in the line, they will be able to communicate with each other through infrared signals. They will be able to teach each other tricks and songs, and catch one another's colds. Furby will initially only speak Furbish until it learns English. It will have a vocabulary of almost 200 Furbish and English words and sounds. It will also be able to say more than 800 phrases. Grand Toys will promote the plush toy using TV ads created by Bozell Worldwide of Toronto. Grand Toys is distributing the toy in Canada. It was created by Tiger Electronics of Chicago.