The Bejewelled Furby

The Bejewelled Furby
Model type	1998 Furby Revamped Snowball Furby
Date released	1999
Special edition	Yes
Price	$100,000
Units produced	5

The Bejewelled Furby is a is a 1998 Furby that is a special edition. It was sold at the FAO Schwarz Toy Store in October of 1999, and has been given the title as the most expensive Furby to ever be sold, with a price tag of US$100,000, as it was adorned in all sorts of fine jewels. It hadn't been given its name until later on. For a short time after release it was only known as "Jeweled Art" Furby.

It is not officially known if this was intended as a proper release of a Furby, as it was not sold by Hasbro or Tiger Electronics, however, a portion of the money went to World Class Hasbro Children's Hospital on Rhode Island.

Description

The Bejewelled Furby was a Snowball Furby studded with various gems, and featured an array of jewelry, including a tiara, a necklace, and a pair of earrings, all 3 pieces being removable and wearable.

The jewelry was crafted in 18k gold, containing 156 Swarovski crystals, including 63 full-cut diamonds (3.7 ctw), 44 rubies (4.5 ctw), blue sapphires (5.3 ctw), and emeralds (1.0 ctw).

Distribution, Sales and Proceeds

The Bejewelled Furby was sold at FAO Schwarz, a company that originated in the United States in 1862 before moving to New York City in 1870, where the headquarters are now housed. FAO Schwarz was owned by Vendex KBB at the time of this Furby's release in 2001, where it has since had multiple bankruptcy problems with multiple companies in ownership of it.

A trademark FAO Schwarz was infamous for was their exclusive and expensive toys, especially the jeweled ones, The Bejeweled Furby being an example. However, unlike the jeweled etch-a-sketch or 14-karat gold-plated slinky, The Bejeweled Furby ended up being a bit more obscure. The main reasoning for the Furbys' obscurity was the dwindling low sales of all Furbys at the time. With the price at US$100,000 (approximately $150,411.23 as of 2018), only 5 were made, and only 2 were known to have been sold. A portion of the proceeds would go to the World Class Hasbro Children's Hospital, the Pediatric division of Rhode Island hospital.

It is speculated that one of the two sold Bejewelled Furbys is housed in a museum. The other is privately owned.

Designer

Sidney Mobell was the main designer for the Bejewelled Furby. Sidney is known for his various works of jeweled and exclusive pieces, such as the gold monopoly game, a gold plated sardine can with studded sardines, and various other excellent pieces.

Trivia

• The Bejewelled Furby is the first and only Furby to have a retail price of over a thousand dollars.
• The Bejewelled Furby appears to be a jeweled version of the Generation 1 Snowball Furby.
• The Bejewelled Furby has been crowned the rarest Furby of them all, due to both the high retail price and low quantity made.
• A similar design idea for a Furby was released in 2019 to promote the film Uncut Gems. It was a Furby pendant with a retail of $250 and a total quantity of 100.

• Other pieces released by FAO Schwarz or related companies that were encrusted with jewels include:

1995: the FAO Schwarz and Mattel jeweled Splendor Barbie
1999-ish: the FAO Schwarz jeweled Etch-A-Sketch for $1,500 (10,000 Swarovski crystals)
2005: the FAO Schwarz gold-plated commemorative slinky (14-karat)
2008: a Mattel jeweled Hot Wheel Car that sold for $140,000 at the American International Toy Fair
2018: the FAO Schwarz red kids Mercedes-Benz for $25,000 (44,000 crystals)

• Other pieces made by Sidney Mobell include:

1975: A gold mousetrap (14-karat gold and diamonds)
1980: Jeweled Yo-Yo (44 diamonds, 25 emeralds, 25 rubies, and 25 sapphires)
1982: A gold and diamond pacifier (18-karat gold, 8 diamonds)
1988: A gold Monopoly worth $2 million, housed at a museum (23-karat gold board, 42 diamond studs, and other various gold pieces)
2000: Jeweled Nokia cellphone (14-karat gold, 466 gemstones)
A gold Mickey Mouse watch for Roy Disney
A gold Charlie Brown watch for Charles Schultz
Jeweled sardine can
Jewel-encrusted baseball
Sapphire-studded mailbox
A gold toilet seat
A gold garbage pail
A gold chess set

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