How to Skin a Furby (1998)
Before you start, you’ll need a couple of tools! Get a pair of wire cutters, a seam ripper, a craft knife, and a pair of needle nose pliers (you may or may not end up using these). You can skin your Furby without these, but I find it’s much easier with the right tools!
From left to right: Wire cutters, seam ripper, craft knife, needle nose pliers.
1) Cut the cable tie
Furbies have one cable tie holding their fur on, which sits in a sleeve going around the base. The sleeve has an opening just under Furby’s tail-- find it and use your seam ripper to cut through the thread holding the sleeve shut. Be careful, and avoid cutting fabric itself or the hems on either side of the opening!
The thread you want to cut should be a little thicker than the thread in the hems.
Once the thread is cut, pull the sleeve openings away from the head of the cable tie, out of the way. Work your wire cutters around the cable tie (either side works) and snip it!
If the head is in the way, use your needle nose pliers to try and shift the cable tie around the base to get a better angle. Don’t bother trying to cut through the head, it’s too tough!
Do your best to avoid gouging the plastic. Longer, thinner wire cutters work better!
Finally, pull the cable tie out of the sleeve head-first. Your needle nose pliers may come in handy here!
2) Turn the fur inside-out
If your Furby still has its paper swing tag, you may want to remove it to keep it from getting bent.
Next, start turning the fur inside-out. Start by pushing the fur on Furby’s back up the body (to get some slack in the fabric), then flip the feet up and inside-out. Work the flip around the rest of the Furby. This will be pretty difficult on Furbies that have tails instead of manes, but it’s still possible! If you need more room to flip the fur, push it higher up in the back.
Hmmmmmmm
2.5) Free the ears
Be careful with the fabric on the inside of the ears; it’s very delicate.
Use your seam ripper to cut the tiny threads holding Furby’s ears on. This might be very hard or incredibly easy, depending on when and where your Furby was made. You might need to cut the knots off on the back, too, as they sometimes become felted into the fabric.
This Furby has arrowhead-shaped ear bones, which are the most common. Other Furbies may have hook-shaped (most babies) or oval-shaped (most JTs) ear bones.
Once you’ve cut the thread, you should be able to slide the ear bone out of the ear! You may need to tug gently to get the thread completely loose. Make sure you do this for both ears!
help
3) Unhook the ear bases
On most Furbies, the fur is anchored around the base of the ears with a hook-shaped piece of plastic (some are held in with glue, too!). To unhook the ears, pull the fabric down and stretch it until it’s free, in a down-and-up motion.
If your furb has glue around the ears, you’ll need to do a lot of tearing and pulling to free the fabric. This is where the craft knife comes in handy! Go slowly, don’t cut any fabric if you can avoid it, and keep an eye out for seams that may need to be repaired later.
4) Remove the faceplate
Your Furby should have one of three types of faceplate: glue-on, screw-on, or clip-on. I’ll cover the basics of how to take each one off here, but for more information you should check out my “faceplates” tag here! The Furby modeling for this guide has a glue-on faceplate.
Glue-on: These are usually hot-glued around the upper edges of the Furby’s face. I grab the faceplate from the bottom and lever it up, peeling the glue away as I go. Some of the glue may hold on, but you can just cut through it with your craft knife.
Screw-on: Usually these have two screws on either side of the beak and a hinge-like anchor on the top, though some furbs (usually JTs) will have one screw attaching it near the tickle button instead. Unscrew the screws, put them somewhere safe, and unhook the hinge during the next step.
Clip-on: These have two pressure-fit clips on either side of the beak. Usually pulling from the bottom will work, but if you’re concerned about things breaking, you might be able to slip a thin tool like a screwdriver in to wedge things open.
5) Remove the fur
Continue turning the fur inside-out and slide the freed ear bones out through their holes. Peel the fur free from any glue on the top of the head, and slide the ears completely off.
You’ve done it!
When you’re ready to put the fur back on, reattach the faceplate first. Then slide the ears into their holes in the fabric, keeping them as straight as you can (they are a little flexible, but it’s best to avoid breaking them). Re-hook the base of the ears and flip the fabric back down! It’s ultimately up to personal preference, but I generally don’t replace any glue, since things tend to hold together just fine on their own!
Thanks for taking the time to read my guide! If you’re feeling generous, you can donate to my Ko-fi! I really appreciate it, and donations will help me provide more guides and fun tech stuff in the future! You can also buy a refurbished Furby at furbytech.tumblr.com/buy-a-furby!
Anyone is welcome to use the images or writing in this guide on other websites, or in their own guides! If you do so, please leave a link back to this post near the images or text.