The Rise and Fall of Robotic Pets

I remember having a furreal friends, it was a little dalmatian. I skinned it and had my barbie wear it like a warrior's cloak. I was.. a weird kid.

5:55 the fur real cat doesn't respond to commands, just like a real cat. That's not a limitation, that's accuracy.

I’m gonna add to the dementia thing, there’s actually a robot called PARO that is used with dementia patients. It’s been highly effective in soothing and stimulating these patients without the care requirements of a real animal.

For weeks, I saved up to buy this life-sized Furreal Friend. I finally saved enough money and went to the store to get it, but while I was standing in front of the toy I realized that I was buying a fake dog when I had an actual dog at home. My dad said, “Yeah, I was wondering why you wanted this. Good for you.” Wild times.

I remember Zhu Zhu pets being so huge, and so many people I knew had them. The wheels on them always got tangled up in loose hair and to my knowledge they didnt have an off switch so in the middle of the night you’d hear their little hamster chitter chatter coming from wherever they were in your room. Super freaky, glad we’ve moved on

Ever since I was a boy I was secretly fascinated by FurReal Friends toys. I didn't tell anybody for fear of being ridiculed for liking girls' toys, but I was amazed by the technology at the time! Little 7-year-old me was ecstatic seeing Biscuit sitting patiently in the living room, seeing him move around and do tricks, and just generally be really nice to be around! I still have him, and he's seen better days, for sure, but I still love him. When I finally got a job and could start making my own money, I got back into toy collecting, and soon enough I had a modest collection of FurReal toys! To name a few: Cuddles the Monkey, Starlily the Unicorn, my childhood Biscuit, Cubby the Bear (my absolute favorite) and, most recently, Cinnamon the Pony. I love them all so much and I wouldn't give them up for anything. <3

When i was a kid i was the stereotypical horse girl, so when one day my grandpa found one of the Butterscotch horses at his local flea market, he knew i'd love it. It was a little beat up, missing the accessories and one ear, but that was just about the best gift I ever got as a kid. I still have her, though shes missing the other ear, tail, and battery cover now, she's mostly still intact. Shes the last surviving thing i got from him, so seeing butterscotch mentioned was a great memory i forgot i had.

I'll never forget the Black Friday when my cousin decided to surprise her daughters by getting one of those ridable horses... that wouldn't fit in the trunk of the car. So we had to take it out of the box and only the body would fit in the trunk. And that's the story of how my aunt answered the door of her house at 11:30pm on Thanksgiving night to see us standing on the porch carrying a horse head like we were about to send someone a message about messing with the mob.

I had an interactive pikachu toy and as a kid, I liked it more as a plush toy than a little robot whose ears moved- so I cut out the battery box so that it would be more huggable

Oh god I remember owning a Furby as a kid it kept talking in the middle of the night and I ended up throwing it out my Bedroom window in frustration

Back when I was 8, I really wanted a cat but my parents did not want us having a cat so I asked for the next best thing, a furreal friends cat to be specific Lulu my cuddling kitten. I still have her living on a shelf next to all my MLP plushies. 10 years later and she still works fine and my niece and nephew like her alot, she even served as a surrogate mother of sorts for a litter of orphan kittens that I raised once. Only issue is that after so many years she has gotten REALLY dirty and I have no idea how to clean her without ruining her.

I think the biggest issue that made these things less popular over the years - they're literally a dust holders. Same with just almost any kind of complicated and sophisticated plush dolls that move or talk, use batteries. Most of them (I don't take the original furbies) just can't be taken apart that easily and cleaned properly, so if they 've been used for a very long time or just laying around in your garage for example, they're getting so worn-out, gross and dirty. Especially if they have moving rubber/silicone parts, like a beaks of 2005 furbies or faces of facial movement dolls from the begining of 2000s - these thin parts made out of gentle substances are splitting apart or dirt can rub into the material. And there's no way to fix these issue, it's just happens over time, and that's it... I won't say anything about how fragile the electronics themselves are in these robots, from one fall from a small height they can get damage that cannot be repaired. I have a 2004 robotic My Little Pony doll and I still can/t figure out how to take her apart, so it's electronics, as well as covering, wouldn't get damaged... so it's just laying around, collecting dust with it's neck buckle removed...😥 I have one conclusion about all of these - these things are too fragile and sometimes non-durable, some of them can live even shorter than your alive pets in case of intensive use...

It's a shame how FurReal Friends just eventually gave up on making their robots look realistic.

As an aside I think one of the main reasons furreal friends went in a much more stylized direction in modern times is stylization avoids the uncanny valley and childhood disappointment. As much as I love the original furreal friends line as a collector with nostalgia many of them after heavy play tend to look, well, rather taxidermy esque lol. The big eyed chibi look evokes cartoon fun and fantasy.

I feel like robotic pets still have a place today. They seem like a really good alternate option for people that could absolutely benefit from a pet but for one reason or another, aren't able to take care of an animal. There was a robot pet based on Jurassic World's Blue that I wish I was able to buy when it was still being made.

Only thing I heard regarding robot pets and virtual pets especially, I heard that animal rights activists loved them specifically because it would help keep real animals out of danger of potentially irresponsible kids by acting as a substitute

A part of the robot pet trend you skipped was Robo-chi Pets. I know Poo-chi was very popular back in 2000, and McDonald's even had a Robo-chi Pets promotion in February 2001. They were discontinued in 2002 when they were replaced by FurReal Friends. One robotic pet toy I remember having as a kid was Walk n' Wag Baby Pluto which had a leash with a controller that made him walk, wag his tail, bark, and shake his head, plus you could play tug of war with his bone. This was released in 1999, then later there was a Walk n' Wag Dalmatian, and even later they were both re-released in a series along with Walk n' Wag versions of Lady and the Tramp. Another interactive robotic thing I had as a kid was a WuvLuv which I got for Christmas in 2000. She would give birth to a baby in an egg, and then they could interact. I know a lot of people found this creepy, but I thought this was both cute and fascinating as a kid which was why I wanted one. While the mother worked well, unfortunately, the baby barely worked, so I didn't get to see much interaction with them.

I had one of those furreal chimps. They're as uncanny in real life as they look in pictures. How we kept that thing around for so long is unreal. I also had one of those baby ducks! It was yellow though. I remember naming it Quacky.

I had the original fur real cat as a kid and for some reason all that thing ever did was hiss at me. I was obsessed with cats and already had a reputation of being great with them, since even cranky standoffish cats that belong to extended family who we rarely saw would usually warm up to me by the end of the day visiting, so it's not like I was being rough with this robot cat. even my parents still talk about how weird it was that I was so gentle with this robot cat and it hated my guts

I really LOVED cats as a kid, but was sadly allergic to them. So my parents bought me a robotic cat as a gift. It was an off brand and not Fur Real Friends but I adored that cat and played with it until I wore down and broke the button that got it to move and meow lol