The hottest toys for the 2012 Christmas season previewed

Oh, and then there’s this guy.

Furby is back.

The must have item in 1998, Furby has come and gone several times over the years, appearing in 2005 again with a new version and disappearing two years later.

Seven years seems to pass for every incarnation of the Furby, so you can probably expect a new version in 2021, but for now, here’s Furby for 2012.

The old Furbies, one of them still in its packaging.

He’s small, furry, and kind of reminds us of the Tribbles from the original Star Trek series with William Shatner.

While the original models had plastic eyes with blinking eyelids, the new Furby features a more expression-based LCD pair of eyes, able to show different types of eyes and graphics and say much more than simple white eyes.

Hasbro told us that new Furby will develop his own personality. If you’re good to him, he might be nice, but if you’re bad, expect him to be a little brat. A furry little brat.

They can dance, talk to other Furbies, and even speak to you in over 100 phrases of what the creators call “Furbish”.

You probably won’t need a degree to speak it, and you can always feed it with an iOS app that lets you make virtual sandwiches from a virtual snack deli.

We felt Furby and he’s still a dancing ball of fluff, though he has quite a few points of articulation in his body, able to twist, move forward slightly, and shake a lot.

It’s still not going to be for everyone, but when it arrives for $100 later this year, we can see kids really getting into Furby, bringing the strange ball of fluff virtual pet back to bedrooms and living rooms.