Horrible news, everyone:

^{Life hack: You can just go down to the hardware store and buy a soldering iron and nobody will even try to stop you.}

The speaker transplant was a huge success.

Fun fact: 1998 Furbies don’t have an off switch.

She… uh… If you ignore her for a little while she goes to sleep?

At this stage I’m not really sure what’s up with my mechanical daughter’s eyes, she hasn’t managed to blink properly since I got her moving, and her motor seems to get jammed if the eye mechanism is engaged.

Figuring out how to disengage and reengage it has been a part of the resurrection restoration process, but I am as of yet undecided on whether or not her unblinking stare is enough to warrant a more thorough repair, since everything else is currently operational.

One theory is the 25yr old motor no longer being strong enough to push all the gears, so short of any other possibilities it may be worth looking into a replacement at an indeterminate point in the future now that I’m basically a professional electrician*.

While this was the first time I’d attempted electrical soldering, let the record show that I have previously soldered on at least one occasion, over 20 years ago:

_{The mirror was a leadlighting project in highschool.}

Predating this website by maybe a full year? Something to discuss at length on another day, perhaps. Or ignore on the grounds that it’s not technically the same website as the one in 2004 and your feeble human concepts of time have no power here anyway.

_{Time is an illusion. Peel a Furby today.}

Assuming you know how to peel and shuck a Furby, the front plate is held in place by two screws; one on either side. The screw at the centre top is holding the pressure sensor and does not need to be touched.

_{Side screws removed from front plate. The round white part is the pressure sensor.}

Once the front plate is removed the speaker can be unclipped, from there the wires may be tangled and possibly covered in glue, but your mileage may vary.

This particular Furby was positively brimming with hot glue. After 25 years it’s easily removed by hand, gentle prying should be enough to do it.

_{…To be honest I don’t even think you need to wait the full 25 years.}

The cables can be removed from the circuit board by unplugging the little white box. This is a good idea because it gives you more room to work. Unlike the hot glue, the wires in this Furb were stuck fast, so I didn’t end up unplugging them.

_{It’s me V.S. Occupational Health & Safety and I’m losing.}

There are two wires on the speaker, positive and negative. They should be different colours (in this case Orange+ and Brown-) so make note of which is which or otherwise mark one if the colours are too similar.

Gently touching the soldering iron to each of the two connection points was enough to detach the wires from the old speaker. From there I melted a drop of solder onto the connection points of the new speaker and touched each wire to the appropriate side.

_{The surgery was a success.}

Kind of wild how straightforward it was. The solder dries pretty much instantly, waiting for the iron to heat up actually took longer than swapping out the speakers.

The 40mm speaker size was a perfect fit and clicked right in place behind the front pressure sensor.

_{40mm diameter, 2W 8ohms headphone speaker; the replacement was sold as a pair so there is a spare.}

If the old speakers are undamaged it can be possible to get them working with a decent clean. However, in this case you can see that the old one has visibly corroded:

_{Last entry I may have said the new speakers came from AliExpress but actually it was eBay I am so sorry for lying to you.}

The internals of vintage Furbs can vary considerably depending on a combination of the exact year of manufacture and factory they were produced in, so it’s definitely worth measuring your old speaker to be sure of the most appropriate size.

Some weeks ago my father had asked if I was sure it was the speaker and not some other electrical fault which, no, I really was not 100% sure it was the speaker. Maybe a good 72% sure because I got her moving and her sensors appeared to be responsive, but I am absolutely winging it here. Watched like three-and-a-half YouTube tutorials, skimmed a Reddit thread, and genuinely did not expect the new speaker to actually work, but I’m here for a good time not a long time.

It was going to be a success as long as nothing caught fire, I bought a 25 year old “broken/for parts/display only” Furby to see if I could get her working purely to indulge a sense of nostalgia and I was about to say “as long as she’s still intact I’ve got what I paid for” but wow is that a loose statement under the circumstances.

Two alterations have been made specifically for easy disassembly:

1. The cable tie which holds her fur to her base has been replaced with elastic.
2. Her ears are pierced with labret bars through the plastic tabs, normally they would be stitched in place.

_{Her necklace says: ” B R O K E N   M A C H I N E “.}

Now that she’s talking I can tell you her name is May-Lah Kah which means “Hug Me” in Furbish.

As a linguistics major, the existence of the Furbish conlang gives me plausible deniability to discuss Furbies openly in polite company and also to get super pretentious with it.

Thanks for visiting.

_{*Do not under any circumstances allow me to rewire your house no matter what promises or threats I make.}