Kotobukiya gives the ‘90s robo-pet a Bishoujo makeover. As one of Japan’s top manufacturers of anime and video game figures, Kotobukiya is no stranger to attractive characters. However, sometimes Koto

Kotobukiya gives the ‘90s robo-pet a Bishoujo makeover.

As one of Japan’s top manufacturers of anime and video game figures, Kotobukiya is no stranger to attractive characters. However, sometimes Kotobukiya’s designers perceive cute or playfully sexy sides to their muses that the rest of us might not be able to perceive. There was that time, for example, when Kotobukiya turned the Transformers’ Optimus Prime and Megatron into anime girl-style figures, and now they’re taking inspiration from a different Hasbro toy line.

With those colorful fashions and exuberant pose, is this a deep-cut callback to a secondary character from 1985 magical pop star American cartoon series Jem, which Hasbro made the dolls for?

No, the source material is a little more recent, since this is Kotobukiya’s reimagining of…

…Furby, the electronic pet that became a pop cultural phenomenon following its release in 1998.

This new figure is part of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo (meaning “beautiful girl”) figure line, which gives a girlish makeover to characters who’re ordinarily outside that classification. The Bishoujo Furby, which is produced under official license from Hasbro, adapts the electronic pet’s multicolored fur into a fluffy, oversized jacket.

▼ The connection is even more overt on the back.

The figure’s removable sunglasses also take a design cue from the toy, as their frame is meant to evoke the sensor lens that was positioned between the Furby’s eyes.

The Bishoujo Fubry’s boots actually do double-throwback duty. Their bright yellow color is obviously taken from the Furby’s talons/toes, but they also, whether deliberately or not, resemble the sort of high platform footwear that was popular with trendy young Japanese women in the late ‘90s, around the time of the first Furby boom.

Including the base, the Bishoujo Firby figure is stands 22.5 centimeters (8.9 inches) tall, and it includes a miniature Furby companion (though it doesn’t have the speech or automated movement functions of a regular Furby). Kotobukiya is asking 25,300 yen (US$155) for it, so this is clearly aimed at fans with a very strong, yet also very unique, affection for the character, but if that sounds like you, the figure is available to preorder through Kotobukiya’s website here, with a shipping date of next March.