Malachite Mouse of the Northern Lights

Amateur Furby Mechanic

[niamhthefae]

naturally

[danandphilupdates]

dan tweet

13/10/25

[grimblethefurb]

Want to join an effort to come together as a furby community, and celebrate these lovely critters?

I've noticed an uptick in posts asking how we can come together as a community, and my addition to the discussion table is, we should schedule a day where we all post pictures of our furbs, make jewelry/clothes for our furbs, and otherwise celebrate! The date in mind is August 1st, reblog if you want to spread the word, or join the effort! August 1st will be the day for making furby accessories, posting art/pictures of your furbs, dressing up your furbs, making furby jewelry, and bringing your furby out with you on an outing!

Picture of grimbles to show his seal of approval for this plan.

[malachitemouse]

Furby '98 speaker replacement

Symptom: Furby moves, but does not speak.

Possible causes:

you have displeased Furby. In which case there is nothing to be done but to attempt to appease and regain favour,

solder joints are dry,

speaker is blown.

If the last two, then surgery is required.

First, remove the batteries. Then skin Furby. And remove the shell.

Now that you have access, remove the two screws keeping the tummy button and speaker unit attached.

Next, unplug the socket at the end of those wires. You might need to peel off hot glue to manage this.

With the unit free, remove the speaker from the grill. The two might be lightly melted together, but they can usually be gently separated.

With the speaker solder pads accessible, you can test for continuity with your multimeter. There should be continuity across the + and - pads, as well as between the two +s and two -s. If there isn't that's a problem. You can add more solder to reflow the joints to see if that fixes the problem.

If not, the speaker is probably blown. You'll need a replacement speaker: 40mm diameter, 32 ohm, 0.25W (like this ~$2 one; https://www2.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Same-Sky/CDS-4051-32-SP).

Desolder the old speaker, and solder the wires onto the new speaker. Keep note of which colour wires attaches to which terminal (+ or -). Seat the speaker back into the grill. Plug the socket back in, and wake up Furby to test it worked.

Hopefully everything went well! Then just screw the tummy button and speaker unit back on, reshell, reskin, and resume appeasing thine Furby.

[the-muppet-joker]

[Muffled Screaming from Muppet Superhell]

[malachitemouse]

Free Vegan Faceplate 3d-printing files Comparisons

I printed three different free Furby Faceplates, to compare them. This kind of small detail would work better on a resin printer, but I don't have one. These are printed in translucent black PETG.

(I had to open the .stls in 3D Builder first to set the units for all files to millimetres to print at the correct size.)

The first is 1998 Furby Buddy Faceplate, and has a solid front plate (not posable), with a back plate it fits into to sandwich fabric. I've never seen a Buddy in real life, so I can't speak to the accuracy.

The second is articulated furby faceplate, and has the most pieces, including little eye chips! The eyelids are the hardest to print, being a thin curved surface. But all the pieces give you a lot of posing options.

The third is Articualted Furby Faceplate - vegan - easy to print, which has fewer pieces, and is indeed easier to print (though the tongue was too weak in the upright orientation). But the eyelids are straight across, and the tongue pointy, which limits the moods you can achieve, as they all seem a bit (more) menacing.

Two and Three are actually so similar I stacked Two's front plate on top of Three, and, um. They are really very close.

Which is especially interesting, as they're both wrong. They're close, but artistic license was taken with the forehead sensor area. So neither are a good choice for replacements/repairing an original '98 Furby. But either could work, depending on what you're going for, with a brand new vegan Furby creation.

[malachitemouse]

Poor Lamb ('98 type, series 3). Rested in peace. Briefly. For now they are in pieces.

I bought this little guy in 'spare parts only' quality. I don't know what it is about being shipped internationally, but it seems to fix a lot of problems for them.

Other than the cosmetic stuff, I had to clean out actual cobwebs, used contact cleaner on the belly and tilt switches, applied some silicone oil to the mechanism (but is still quite loud). They seem able to stay awake now. But the speaker is shot. (Sounds fine with a borrowed speaker.) Luckily it screws off for easy access. Waiting on a replacement to arrive.

Comes from an RL factory. So the faceplate is stitched to the pelt, and screws on to the carapace. Making it a good candidate for modification. If for no other reason than those eyelashes need sorting.

[draibo]

You asked for it- and here it is. Here’s how to give your Furby a volume knob!

[jazzybeansprout]

🌷

[furby-sgt-general]

FURBY CONDITION CHECKLIST:

IS THAT FURBY DEAD OR JUST RESTING?

Avoid being scammed, assess a thrift find, or rehabilitate a soldier.

Likely NOT Broken (Common in Dormant or Sleeping Furbies)

Head tilted slightly forward - Normal when powered off, gravity pulls the head down.

Eyes closed or half-closed - Could just be in sleep mode, try fresh batteries.

No sound or movement - Check batteries or power switch before assuming failure.

Still has fur, intact beak, limbs attached - Cosmetic wear ≠ functional failure, might just need a reset.

Possibly Broken (Needs Testing)

Eyes stuck closed or one eyelid sagging - Common gear or spring issues. May still work but needs repair.

Head fully drooped and doesn’t respond on startup - Could be a motor gear issue in the neck assembly.

Makes weak whirring or clicking sounds - Signs of stripped gears or stuck motors. Likely repairable.

Eye dome or beak out of alignment - Internal structure might be loose or warped.

Likely Broken (Save Furby’s Soul)

No startup response with fresh batteries - Dead motherboard or fried wiring.

Loud grinding or twitching without movement - Severe gear damage. May need part replacements.

Detached parts rattling inside - Internal breakage. Especially common in long-forgotten units.

Downward head + fixed blank stare + no sound - Possibly a seized motor and/or fried logic board, good for parts.

Special thanks to Minister of Art and Morale @satin-the-long-furby and Flora for their contributions to this poster.

[rancidbunny]

Furby Tutorial Masterpost

If you want anything deleted, added, or fixed let me know and I’ll be more than willing to do so! If you use any of the tumblr tutorials, or find them helpful, please consider reblogging them from the source!  Good luck with your furbs :))

Last Update: 06-Apr-25

Keep reading

[nudnickel]

The Furby Trainer's Guide DELUXE! Put together by the fans, for the fans!

FINALLY! After 25 years, the Furby community has come together to make the newest addition to the Furby Trainer's Guide series…THE FURBY TRAINER'S GUIDE DELUXE!

In it, you'll find a layout reminiscent to the previous ones, but updated with new information, chapters, sections, images, illustrations, and so much more.

And best of all, it's all FREE TO READ! 445 pages worth of new and updated content!! Download and read the PDF at this link: http://tinyurl.com/FurbyTrainersGuide

Please reblog this so other Furby fans can refer to this guide if needed, and feel free to send it to anyone you feel might be interested :D

EASIEST WAYS TO OPEN THE PDF AFTER DOWNLOADING:

PC: Open it using Adobe Acrobat, which you can download for free here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Mobile: Download Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer for mobile devices

What to do if you can't download the file:

First, try checking it out on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/furby-trainers-guide-deluxe-2024

On mobile: You should be able to read the PDF within Google Drive itself. Opening this on mobile may take a few minutes, so leave your device open while you go get a snack to eat while reading the book.

On computer: Since a lot of online PDF sites require a subscription to view large files, i suggest downloading the file onto an external drive like a USB stick and SD card and opening it on Okular from there.

[nudnickel]

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Since this post still gains traction I feel like it's important to say this: While I edited this post a bit I no longer recommend Adobe Acrobat as apparently Adobe is planning on practically spying on it's users with their software, and since Adobe is not a really good company in general, if you're planning on viewing the PDF in a PDF viewer I only recommend Okular if you're on a computer.

However I still don't know a good alternative for mobile -- Please let me know if you have any suggestions!!

[jennifersbodies]

this is a prayer corner to me

[malachitemouse]

To avoid the moral dilemma for as long as possible, I went back and bought the two more broken furbys.

Even though I'm only paying UK£16-20 for each of these, with shipping, taxes, and currency conversion, they're working out at €40-55 each. Eek.

[furby-sgt-general]

THE FURBY WAR HAS BEGUN.

I’ve been preparing the battleground. I’ve been in the inboxes. I’ve seen the listings. I’ve stared into the beady plastic eyes of $60 broken Furbies and said:

“$5.”

This is a call to all Furby modders. Long Furby engineers. Cryptid sculptors. Gremlin stylists. The scalpers have claimed the crust gremlins as treasure, but we know the truth:

They are not collectibles. They are potential. They are resurrection projects. They are friends.

And we will reclaim them. We will breathe new life into the remains. We will do it in this economy. We will do it for $5.

HOW TO JOIN THE MOVEMENT:

1. Search Furby listings. eBay. Mercari. Facebook Marketplace. Search “Furby not working.” Seek the sad ones.

2. Offer $5–$13. Do not waver. Do not blink.

3. Be polite. Be relentless. Be weird.

4. Repeat. It only takes 10 minutes to lowball 10 grave robbers.

5. Let their will crumble. Let them relist. Offer again. We are more creative and patient than them.

The sellers will say:

“But it’s vintage!”

“But it’s rare!”

“But it could be fixed!”

“But I saw one sell for $100 once!”

We say:

“It has one eye, no fur, and battery acid damage. I’ll give it a home. I’ll give it purpose. I’ll give you five dollars.”

We have the upper ground already.

There are more of us than there are of them. They have delusion and 30 year old pelts.

We have glue guns and emotional damage and ambition.

I’ll See You at Formation!

Tag your efforts. Join the resistance. Reclaim the crusty furby.

#furby war

#furby modding

#furby liberation front

#gremlin revolution

#deflate the furby bubble

#five dollar furby

#furbycore

#crust solidarity

[secretwhorses]

[malachitemouse]

I keep seeing furbs listed with 'no speaker'. When I disassembled my gizmo the speaker wires were really thin and snapped easily. I suspect a few seconds of soldering would fix most of them. ... Unless you enjoy the blessed silence.