Class of Bootleg	Class 2 - Duplicated and Modifed
Class Notes:	SOOOOOO close to a Class One!
Bootleg Source:	Tiger Electronic's FURBY
Bootleg Rating:	(Five out of five stars)
Sightings:	California
Vintage:	1999

When looking at bootlegs, quite often the line name fits pretty well with the subject matter. Star Wars becomes Space Wars. Batman becomes Bat Hero. And Furby? Well....Furby becomes Furbish.

For those of you who are famaliar with this Christmas 1998 "Toy of the Hour", you'll recognize the line name as the language spoken by Tiger's licensed toy. Maybe Furbish speaks "Furby".

At right is the logo that appars on the top of Furbish's box. As you can see, the logo an styling are identical to Tiger's efforts. The text, however, makes one wonder exactly what the bootleggers intended the toy to be for.

(For best effect, read the above with a classic "Valley Girl" accent)

 
Looking at the packaging as a whole, we see that the bootleggers have retained Tiger's five-sided design. The scale is identical between the two, and even the die-cuts for the window design have been duplicated.

The stylistic duping doesn't stop at just the shapes. Many of the layout and art choices made by Tiger were included in the knock-off.

On the side of the box, you can easily see that the bootleggers were coping direcly from the source. Note the placement of the clip art, the use of models, even the actions the kids are performing! The Furbish box is on the left, the Furby box on the right.

The similarities don't stop with the packaging, of course. Furby came with an instruction booklet that explained how to play Furby games and how to use the toy - and Furbish comes with almost the same booklet.

Once again, the style and fonts used by Tiger have been slavishly adhered to. There are a few differences, but unless you have the two side by side, you're not going to really notice them.

The booklet, pictured below, includes a dictionary to translate beetween Furbish and English, and vice versa. There is one big change in the text from Tiger's version.....the detail at right shows it.

Uh-oh! Furbish just let out a Dah-Pee! This word is also listed as meaning "Smelly"

Finally, let's take a look at the toy itself.

The only real difference between the two is the addition of arms to Furbish. All the other details are the same - right down to the electronics inside.

Furbish sounds a bit different from Furby - when snoring, for example, he sounds just like Darth Vader. I haven't had the patience to see if he learns english correctly - or even if "Dah-Pee" is in his translated vocabulary.

All I know is that his IR circut is on the same wavelength as my computer-room's TV's Remote. If I change channels, the little bugger will wake up.

One thought before we move on to newer topics - I wonder if the models in the product shots will list this toy in their portfolios.