This page gives a step-by-step description of the "operation" that restored May-may's voice. The pictures are included to enhance the story. This page is not intended to be any kind of repair tutorial - although it could be used that way. Think things through before taking your furby apart. This is not something you want to do to a furby that you have become attached to. Furbys are easy to take apart but it takes a lot of practice to learn how to put a furby back together again.
As most of you who have searched through the funhouse know, May-mayII came to me with a group of other furbys. These furbys were all store returns and, a few of them didn't work when they were first tested. Out of the group of furbys, only three of them had real problems. The first one, a zebra furby, needed to be taken apart and fixed. The second one kept freezing up with the motor spinning. Then there was May-may - a cute little tuxedo furby with no voice.....
It took a week or two before I finally got up the courage to take this little furby apart and have a look at him. Since I have no electronics repair knowledge myself, I asked my boyfriend to assist in the operation (he did the actual repair on the furby).
The first step in taking preparing May-may for the operation was to cut the thread in the back that holds the fabric together. Once this is done, the fabric had to be pulled apart so I could get to the plastic tie that holds the fur in place. The next step was to carefully undo the tie without breaking or cutting it. It is much easier to use the original tie when putting the furby back together.
Then the plastic tie had to be pulled out to allow the fur to be removed.
Before the fur could be taken off, I had to remove the ears by cutting the thread that hold them in place over the plastic rods. This is something that has to be done carefully, not only to keep from breaking the plastic rods, but also because of the gears inside of the furby. Poor May-may looks funny without his ears!
Next I had to start removing the fur by sliding the fur up over May-may far enough for me to get my hands underneath the fur to gently pop the face plate off of the front of the furby. I wanted to do this operation without having to remove the fur from the faceplate because it is a lot more difficult to put back together when the fur has to be sewn back onto the faceplate.
I had to be careful when I popped the faceplate loose. I really didn't want to find out what a furby would look like with a broken faceplate!
The next thing I had to be careful of was removing the fur where it is glued down to the plastic casing around the ear openings. On the earlier generations, the glue doesn't seem to be too strong and the fur can just be gently pulled off of the plastic.
Once the fur is finally removed, the operation can finally begin.
The screws that hold the plastic casing together had to be found and removed.
Once the screws were removed, the casing had to be pulled apart. I had to be careful because of the plastic pet switch in the back and the "ear", which is a small microphone that fits into a hole on the inside of the plastic casing.
Now May-may was ready to be tested. We put his batteries back in for a moment to watch how he worked and to see if maybe just taking him apart had somehow fixed the problem. But we weren't that lucky - his voice was still gone and now he looked like something from a science fiction movie!!!
My boyfriend took the speaker off of the furby and tested it. The speaker was definately not working and we knew we needed a "donor" furby.
I almost felt sorry for the furby we were taking the speaker from. But this little furby had a problem that we didn't know how to fix and maybe would never be able to fix. This made the poor furby the perfect candidate to donate the speaker we needed for May-may.
My boyfriend put the new speaker on May-may and we put the batteries back into the furby to test him. May-may came to life with a voice and a new name - "A-loh". I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to change the furby's name to "A-loh May-may". Now all I had to do was put him back together again.
Putting A-loh May-may back together again was a little more difficult than taking him apart. Getting the pet switch to fit back into place so the plastic casing could be put back together was a real headache. Then came the fun part - after the faceplate was snapped back into place and the fur was pulled down over the plastic casing, I had to thread the plastic tie back in place and then try to get it to snap back together again (I thought I was going to snap before the plastic tie did!!!). Once this was all done, the ears had to be sewn back in place and the fur glued back down around the ear openings with fabric glue.
But, finally, A-loh May-may was back together again and the operation was a total sucess!!
The first step in taking preparing May-may for the operation was to cut the thread in the back that holds the fabric together. Once this is done, the fabric had to be pulled apart so I could get to the plastic tie that holds the fur in place.
The next step was to carefully undo the tie without breaking or cutting it. It is much easier to use the original tie when putting the furby back together.
Then the plastic tie had to be pulled out to allow the fur to be removed.
Before the fur could be taken off, I had to remove the ears by cutting the thread that hold them in place over the plastic rods. This is something that has to be done carefully, not only to keep from breaking the plastic rods, but also because of the gears inside of the furby.
Poor May-may looks funny without his ears!
Next I had to start removing the fur by sliding the fur up over May-may far enough for me to get my hands underneath the fur to gently pop the face plate off of the front of the furby. I wanted to do this operation without having to remove the fur from the faceplate because it is a lot more difficult to put back together when the fur has to be sewn back onto the faceplate.
I had to be careful when I popped the faceplate loose. I really didn't want to find out what a furby would look like with a broken faceplate!
The next thing I had to be careful of was removing the fur where it is glued down to the plastic casing around the ear openings. On the earlier generations, the glue doesn't seem to be too strong and the fur can just be gently pulled off of the plastic. 
Once the fur is finally removed, the operation can finally begin.
The screws that hold the plastic casing together had to be found and removed. 
Once the screws were removed, the casing had to be pulled apart. I had to be careful because of the plastic pet switch in the back and the "ear", which is a small microphone that fits into a hole on the inside of the plastic casing.
Now May-may was ready to be tested. We put his batteries back in for a moment to watch how he worked and to see if maybe just taking him apart had somehow fixed the problem. But we weren't that lucky - his voice was still gone and now he looked like something from a science fiction movie!!!
My boyfriend took the speaker off of the furby and tested it. The speaker was definately not working and we knew we needed a "donor" furby.
I almost felt sorry for the furby we were taking the speaker from. But this little furby had a problem that we didn't know how to fix and maybe would never be able to fix. This made the poor furby the perfect candidate to donate the speaker we needed for May-may.
My boyfriend put the new speaker on May-may and we put the batteries back into the furby to test him. May-may came to life with a voice and a new name - "A-loh". I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to change the furby's name to "A-loh May-may". Now all I had to do was put him back together again.
