Rizmo

August 7, 2023.

Furby's reign over the toy market was short lived, but his time in the sun allowed him to root himself deeply into the toy-ecosystem-- His DNA forever ingrained into the market. While the likes of other robotic pets try to recapture his former glory, Furby himself is reinvented over and over to gradually quieter fanfare. Rizmo is an obviously Furby-inspired robot pet that markets itself as an evolving music toy. He is a robotic Furby-shaped animal toy that talks, sings, and wiggles around.
Rizmo starts his life as a baby: a fuzzy ball with glowing eyes that comes in one of three colors. Playing with Rizmo helps him grow, and it is essential to his development that you sing to him. He evolves after some time playing together into a kid, which amounts to the same fuzzy ball with a furry tail springing up out of his back. The final stage is revealed after more time singing and playing with Rizmo, and he unfurls himself from his sphere form to reveal his adult form. Each of the three colors has two varieties of adult Rizmo it can evolve into. When Rizmo is an adult, his chest will glow. In all stages Rizmo sings, babbles, makes cute noises, and rips ass occassionally. He also very cutely says "bon apetit" in his silly baby creature voice.

My Rizmo is of the pink Berry Hip Hop Star variety. He was rescued from the thrift store, so it took quite a bit of time to figure out what to do with him. I noticed, after reading and watching some reviews, that he didn't act like the other Rizmos I had seen online. Something was different about my Rizmo, physically, too. He has a weirdly baggy face, appeared to be missing his tail, his chest didn't light up, and the lights on the back of his head were always lit up. Whenever I turned him on, he would retract his feet. He also didn't play as many games as adult Rizmo should.
I hypothesized that Rizmo had been mistreated. He was physically forced out of his baby stage by the previous owner, but was still acting like a baby since the game hadn't been progressed. So, I began to play his games. I sang to Rizmo, and he'd repeat the phrases in his funny voice. He also enjoyed being shaken and rolled around on the table. He would sing as his head was battered against the surface. Eventually, the eyes on the back of his head began to glow with rainbow lights, indicating that he was ready to move on to his next stage. To evolve Rizmo, you have to clap and encourage him to do his best. Soon enough, his tail popped out.

Rizmo had successfully evolved to the kid stage. Continuing to play his game, I was able to get him to evolve into an adult. It took a bit more time to advance him from the kid stage to the adult stage, but it was still entertaining to make Rizmo sing songs about biscuits and gravy and to tumble him around.

Rizmo finally became an adult-- inside, and out. His head filled out nicely, and the light on his chest began to glow. He also started to wiggle his feet, and was able to open his mouth. Adult Rizmo is very cute! Although it's a bit disappointing I missed out on the cute furry ball baby stage, adult Rizmo more than makes up for it. He has a couple more games as an adult, and also sings his own music over the recordings you sing to him. He is a cute, cuddly robotic pet that provides quite a bit of entertainment.
A nice feature of Rizmo is that he has an on/off switch. He gets sulky when ignored and makes quite a lot of noise just babbling to himself like a bird. Turning him off is a good option, so he doesn't ever feel too neglected, and doesn't get annoying during moments you can't give him attention. As a kid, I had a furby, and one of the worst aspects of it was that it never turned off, unless you removed the batteries. I remember being frightened awake by the thing many times, and thankfully, this frightening scenario is preventable if you play with a Rizmo. Rizmo also doesn't have to be taken care of in the same way as a Furby does, but it does demand attention (being pet and played with), and takes a bit of time to evolve into an adult. It's a fun enough toy and it's a cute creature. I like how furby-shaped it is, and it would fit right in with a collection of Furby fakies, all the while being a fun and cute toy on its own.