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Another plush ball of fluff kicks up a huge fuss AP photo Furby, a fuzzy toy that interacts with people, is this year's must-have toy for Christmas Finding Furby, this year's hot toy, will be parent's nightmare before Christmas Staff and wire reports DALLAS -- One of most elusive creatures in the toyland jungle this season is Furby. Parents trying to get their hands on this year's hot toy are discovering the gremlin-like furball is both hard to find and expensive. Furby is out of stock at many stores around the country, and some retailers aren't even sure they will get any for the rest of the holiday season. Manufacturer Tiger Electronics is flying in Furby dolls to the United States from China to get them to stores faster. The hard-to-find talking toy has been spotted regularly in the Rogue Valley at Target and Toys-R-Us. Lines of customers haven't formed yet, but the Furbys have been selling out the minute they arrive, say sales people at both stores. Target has been selling an average of 18 Furbys a week. "As soon as my people put them on the shelves, they're gone," said Jeffrey Sheehan, Target toy team leader. He's also on the phone about 15 times a day with customers requesting when the furry, electronic talking creatures are in stock. "They're kind of cool," Sheehan said. "They can interact with you and you can pet them on their tummies and the head and they talk back to you." Unfortunately, Sheehan said, a lot of the buyers are collectors. "If it gets too out of hand, then we'll put them on the service desk," Sheehan said. "It's more fair." Shoppers, however, shouldn't fret, says Toys-R-Us inventory control manager Frank Zahn, who works at the toy seller's regional headquarters in Stockton, Calif. The word is, more Furbys are on the way. Zahn said Toys-R-Us just sent shipments of Furbys to all stores within its distribution region, including the Medford store. Those shipments of at least 24 Furbys should be arriving within the next two weeks. Zahn is confident Toys-R-Us will ship more Furbys after the first of December. "We foresee that, based on what the manufacturer is telling us, that we'll be getting sufficient quantities after December," Zahn said. "Right now they're just trickling in." That's not quite the news Mike Daulton, Medford Wal-Mart store manager, is hearing from Wal-Mart headquarters. He's being told Furbys are in short supply. "I only know of one shipment I'm going to be getting, and I think they'll be on the shelf by Thanksgiving," Daulton said. Elsewhere, some desperate shoppers are turning to classified ads and the Internet, where Furby dolls are going for as much as $200 -- more than six times the retail price of $30. "We have people calling and we don't even have any idea what they look like," said Kent Sylvis, an employee at the Store of Knowledge in Dallas, which is waiting for its stock of Furbys to arrive. The fur began flying off the shelves not long after Wired magazine in September named it the must-have toy for the holidays. Parents have been lining up for hours to get one of the 5-inch toys, which look sort of like owls with tufts of hair between their huge pink ears. Furby is embedded with a computer chip that allows it to speak its own "furbish" language. "I got them early in the season, but I still had to wait hours on line to get them," said Shirley Ringstone of Manchester, Conn., who waited about four hours to buy two Furbys. "I'm glad I don't have to do it again." Others haven't been so lucky in tracking down Furbys. There have already been scenes reminiscent of the Tickle Me Elmo and Cabbage Patch doll crazes of years past, with shoppers lining up before dawn when they hear a shipment may arrive. A women calling into a New York radio station on Thursday said she didn't believe Furby existed because she had yet to find one in a store. "Furby is selling off the charts. We haven't had it in stock at all," said Michael Glazer, president and chief executive of K-B Toys. "When we first sold it in Boston several weeks ago, we had 500, but there were 700 customers waiting for store to open. That's just the way it's been." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA