The Tamagotchi Ocean!

My Collection: Update Part 2!!!

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 18:37:20 GMT

I already updated about all my namebrand Tamagotchis in the last post, so here is a post about all of my odd-pets that I have accumulated since the last post a few years ago.

~In the top row from left to right:

* One Elepets chick, which is broken and never worked well to begin with. Got it from a dollar store for $3 back when virtual pets first came out.

* One 9-in-1 Super Gaioppi that I got off ebay for about $15. One of my favorite virtual pets in terms of the gameplay since it is so unique.

* One 8-in-1 Octopets, which is the same exact gameplay as the Gaiaoppi except it is missing one character and it has a way nicer shell and screen.

* One yellow zodiac signs Kimiko Baby Byte, which I got off eBay for maybe $5-10 many years ago. The packaging was all messed up but the pet was fine. I recently played it and I have to say it is an ok/interesting pet. Definitely unique.

* One out-of-package green Panda Byte, by the same company as the Baby Byte. It is completely different gameplay, though. I got it on eBay in a lot of three other pets for $15.

* Two Aquapalz, the Dolphin and the Jellyfish. This is definitely one of the most unique pets with very interesting/unique features. If you can get ahold of one, I recommend adding it to your collection. Each was only about $10-15 on eBay at the time on eBay.

~In the second row from left to right:

* One translucent green DNA fish. Got it for only $10 on eBay. It is kind of similar to some other pets in terms of features, but is also very unique at the same time. I recommend it.

* One translucent green MyPet. To this day I can't figure out how to turn the sound off. It was only maybe $10 on eBay. Wouldn't recommend getting it.

* One white heart shaped Hitorriko chicken. I got it for maybe $20 on eBay.

* One white oval shaped Hitorriko dinosaur. Also from eBay for $20.

* One golden egg textured Dinopet. Has a very cute growth chart. I won it in an auction on eBay for $9 about a year ago. Not included in the photo the Chickpet version, exact same gameplay but chicken characters, just as cute. Got it on eBay also for $14. Sometimes buttons are hard to press on both.

* One really weird digital type toy with a Bunny rabbit character that I thought was adorable. I think I bought it for $15-20ish on eBay at one point, but its all in Japanese so I can't figure out how it works :(

* One Toy Store spaceship 3-in-1 pet. Only costed $15 on eBay.

* Two Tamakaci Dino and Chick pets. Neither of them work very well but maybe I can fix them. They have the same problem as the Elepets where when you barely touch it they restart, which is irritating. I got them together for only $5. Guess they were cheap on eBay for a reason.

~In the third row from left to right:

* One Giga Pets Compu Kitty. Got it for $15 on eBay a long time ago.

* One orange Nano Kitty, bought for $20 on eBay.

* One green Nano kitty (in puppy packaging). Mom got it for me for my choir concert in 2005. Not included in the photo is one translucent Purple Nano Puppy which I recently got for $4 at a swap meet (I got two of them and gave the green one to my brother). Can you imagine? Two Nano Puppies together for only $4? An excellent deal!

* One Sanrio Hello Kitty pet that my sister gave me. I think it was given to her by my dad who got it on ebay years ago.

* One Sanrio lime green Kerropi pet which I got on eBay a few years ago for only $17 in Jason's Store.

* One black Dinkie Alien that I got on eBay for $14 recently. I wanted white but they were all sold out. Oh well. Still a great deal!

* One turquoise Dinkie Penguin, also from eBay many years ago for only $15. One of my favorite pets.

* One yellow Dinkie Dino that my sister gave me. At one point the sound broke so I got my step dad to solder the wires back together and it works perfectly. The paint is rubbed off sadly.

~In the bottom row from left to right:

* A lot of various Giga pets I won on eBay for about $30, includes a Koala, Monkey, Puppy, Dinosaur, and Looney Toons (did come with a cat, but I gave it to my sister since I already have one).

* A Little Mermaid Giga Pet that I won separately from the others for about $5 on eBay.

* A Rug Rats Giga pet that I bought separate from the others on eBay for only $5.

* On Rug Rats Reptar Giga Pet (minty blue) that I won on eBay for maybe $18.

* One Orrr Orrr Dino. I'm not sure how it works, but I'll play it someday to figure it out.

* One watch pet Puppy. One of the cutest virtual pets you could play with. Got it for $20 on eBay.

* One watch pet Dinosaur. Got it also for $20 on eBay. Haven't played it much since the sounds are irritating and the game sucks.

* One Honey Bear pet, with the same programming as the dog and dinosaur, except some minor differences that make it impossible to play with it for very long.

That's about it for now :) Or all I can remember anyway. I've definitely accumulated way more Miscellaneous pets recently over the past year and a half. Thanks to having a job lol Right now I'm considering getting another version of a Digimon but they are so expensive. I'll keep you all updated.

My Collection: Update!!!

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 17:49:35 GMT

So my collection has actually grown by leaps and bounds since I posted the first group photos over a year or two ago. I took some updated photos earlier this year and haven't gotten many Tamagotchis since then so I would say these photos are way more up to date. Here you go:

English language Tamas:

~As you can see, quite a few have been added since my last collection update. In order of appearance from top left to right:

* Special edition 1997 Hong Kong New Year red Tamagotchi P1. Got this on eBay for about $50ish. Quite worth the money :) The shell is so unique and beautiful.

* My second Tamagotchi that I ever owned, yellow P2. My grandpa bought this for me for my birthday, may he Rest In Peace.

* 5 American Tamagotchi Angels (one yellow one is broken, but that was my first ever Tamagotchi that I ever owned). The broken one was bought for me by my mom when I was in middle school. The rest I bought on eBay over the years for varying prices.

* Two Version 1 Digimon, both bought for me by my mother at KD Toys before that company closed. They were only $4 each!

~In the second row from left to right:

* translucent pink P1 from Europe. I got this for the great price of $20 from a collector who was getting rid of a large portion of their collection at very great prices.

* Silver P2 from Europe, also from the same seller for $20 on eBay.

* 3 European Angelgotchis from the same seller for $20 each. I missed out on the yellow one sadly. Those got bought fast! I hope I can get the yellow someday.

* Two angels without packages, one was my sisters and she gave it to me and the other I bought on eBay for $10. I dropped the pink one in water, so I took the screen out of the eBay one and put it in the Pink and now it is fully functional with a prettier shell than the white :)

~In the third row from left to right:

* Two V1s without packages. The orange one doesn't connect because that feature was broken when I got it, but it can still have a baby from the Matchmaker so it is essentially almost fully functional. I bought the blue one after finding that the orange was broken. They were both only about $5 each on eBay at the time :)

* One American Mini-Tamagotchi. I only played with it once. It was about $15 on eBay. Maybe I'll start it up again someday.

* Two V2s, one blue Candy design and the other Milky White with pink hearts :D The Milky White is my absolute favorite Tamagotchi of all time. The Blue candy is the first Connection Tamagotchi that I ever owned, which my mom bought me as a present for my choir concert in 2005.

* One Starry Constellation V3. I bought it at Target for about $15.

* One Glow-In-The-Dark V4, bought from Toys R Us.

~In the fourth and final row from left to right:

* One globe design V4.5 with microphone dock, CD, figurines and mousepad! I got it for only $15 at either Target or Kmart I think.

* One white cityscape V5 from either Target or Kmart. My friend Thomas got the pink one :D

* One blue cityscape V6 Music Star from Toys R Us.

* One white Tamago with Kuchipatchi figurine from Toys R Us for $25. Pretty expensive.

That's it for my English Tamas. Now here are my Japanese Tamagotchis!

~In the top row from left to right:

* Three Keitai Tamagotchi, transluscent soda pop, light blue diamond, and pink Strawberry designs :) I got all of them on eBay but the pink one did not come with a package. It is in mind condition though and came with instructions. I would say it is my second favorite design of all time next to the Milky White V2.

* One Toys R Us special edition lime green Akai with Home Decka Tamagotchi. They came together in an auction that I won on eBay.

* Four unpckaged Tamagotchis: one green-yellow swirl Entama, one Hanerutchi 2, and two Uratamas. I got all of these used on eBay for very reasonable prices.

* Above that is my yellow Odenkun which I got on eBay for about $20. Definitely a cute design.

* My first Uratama, the pink party design :D got it on eBay when it first came out.

* A Famatama from the same seller as the two out of package Uras and the out of package Entama.

* One sparkly snowflake Nano Tamagotchi (the second edition of the Chibi). I don't have the Chibi (which is the Japanese version of the Mini). Got this on eBay.

* One pink Famatama with CD/DVD game. I'm not sure how the CD/DVD works since its all in Japanese. Also, from eBay.

* One turquoise TMGC+Color. Got it on eBay when it first came out.

* One blue Tamagotchi ID L-e. It is in English even though this is a picture of my Japanese Tamagotchis, but I figured it looked better if I included it in this photo instead. Got this from TheRoyalBanana on Tamatalk.com :D

* One special edition 15th anniversary Pink ID L. Probably one of my favorite Tamagotchis of all time. I love the games.

~In the second row from left to right:

* One orange P1, from Jason's Store on eBay. Only $17.

* One milky white P2, from another seller on eBay.

* One translucent green P2 (other version). One version has the Puchitchi and the other has Nyanchi. Also from eBay.

* Four Angelgotchis, all the colors (Gold, Pink, White, Blue). Yes, the gold one is a different shade from the white one. It is very rare. I was lucky to get it. All of these came from eBay. I used to have another white one, but I gave it to my little sister.

~In the third row from left to right:

* Two Morino tamagotchis, my two favorite designs of the white and the yellow with vines, both bought on eBay.

* Three pairs of Osu-Mesu connection tamagotchis. The transluscent orange and green ones I got on eBay in two separate auctions that I won. The white orange and green ones I got from a seller on Tamatalk.com, and the blue and pink ones I bought on eBay as a set years ago.

~In the last row from left to right:

* One Genjintchi (Cave Man), bought on eBay.

* One transluscent waves Umino that my dad bought for me on eBay many years ago.

* One black Devilgotchi that I snagged for the awesome price of $99 on eBay from Jason's Store back in the day when rare Tamas were still reasonably priced.

* One white Sanaclautchi that I think I also snagged from Jason's store for only $100 back in the day.

That's it for the namebrand Tamagotchis. I will do another post of my Miscellaneous off-brand pets later today. Thanks for checking in!

Aquapalz

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 03:32:01 GMT

The Aquapalz pets are probably one of the most unique pets I have ever encountered, and I think they are a must-have for one's collection. They come in three different animels: dolphin, fish and jellyfish. I have the dolphin and the jellyfish. I may or may not get the fish, but if I find it for cheap enough then I will.

The menu and buttons on this pet are quite unique. Basically, the pet does not use icons. You press a specific button in order to access the menu. The first option is a meter which tells you how happy and hungry the pet is. The second item is a food icon (a pacman face eating a ball). Once you select it a piece of food is dangled above the aquarium and the pet will swim up to the surface to grab it. Sometimes if it is really hungry it will jump and snatch, but other times it will poke at it and then take it very tenderly. If it is not hungry or it needs something else it will poke at it and then reject the food. The third menu item is a temperature and water cleanliness meter. These must be checked regularly since there is no attention icon. The more you change the water and oxygen level the healthier the pet will stay. You must also keep the temperature at a specific level or it gets sick. The next option is for giving it attention. You can play with it essentially. The next option is for games. The games are very cute and unique. For the most part some of the games are the same on all the pets, but for each pet there is something unique. The next meter is for medicine. Sometimes it won't take the medicine or it won't eat until it grows. At this point you must keep a close eye on it. If you miss it growing and don't get to its health meter right away it can die very easily. Sometimes when it is young some options are not available to use on the pet so it will only eat for instance and nothing else.

The very last option lets you turn off the sound, and turn off and on the backlight (the screen lights up). Turn off the backlight to save battery.

I give this pet an 8 out of 10. I would give it a 10 except for the fact that the buttons take a lot of getting used to, the pet requires four LR44 batteries, rather than just two like most other virtual pets, and the shell is not particularly pretty. It looks more like an mp3 player than a virtual pet, but maybe that's what they thought would get people's attention. Also there is some kind of weird hatch that opens up at the top and I am not entirely certain what that is for. The directions do not seem to indicate anything.

Pictures of the ones I own:

Price:
I got mine for about $10-20. You can get them for about $25-50 these days on eBay. Get them while they are cheap because they may become more rare.

Growth Chart:

I do not have a growth chart, but I can tell you that in the way of the growth the pet does not change much except to get bigger in size.

Tako Seijin (Dinkie Alien)

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 02:52:47 GMT

This is an alien with the same programming as the Dinkie Dino. It basically has all the same stuff except that the food is a little more "alien", so to speak. It eats batteries, for one thing lol Yet interestingly enough still eats fish, fruit and ice cream. The animations of the pet are not particularly cute in comparison to the Dino and the Yuki Penguin, but I would still say it is a high quality pet, especially for those who want a more masculine pet, as opposed to something super cutesy. The shape of the shell is very unique and the buttons are set up a little confusing, but function just like a Dinkie Dino. The shell is made of a nice quality of plastic and the screen is very big and protected by an outter piece of plastic that makes it look glossy and nice. There's not really much else I can say about this pet since it is basically the same as every other pet in the Dinkie Family.

Pictures of the one I own:

Price:
I got mine for $14 on eBay recently. Pretty good price for a vintage virtual pet. Get it for that price while you can because it won't stay that way for long.

Growth Chart:

I do not have a growth chart.

TMGC+Color

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:24:12 GMT

This was the first color screen edition of the Tamagotchi. It functions much like a regular Tamagotchi Plus connection, but with many enhanced features. Aside from a full screen, the Tamagotchi lives in a house that can be decorated. You can play games with the Tamagotchi at the arcade in order to gain points to go shopping. Various types of items can be bought for the Tamagotchi such as toys, tools, and decorations. I have not played with this Tamagotchi extensively, but apparently there are certain items that you can gather to unlock special features. Like the Tamagotchi Plus, you can connect it to other TMGC+Colors, but it is not backwards compatible with other older Tamagotchi Connections. It can also be connected with an ID, anID L and a Tamagotchi P's.

Here is a picture of the one I own:

Price:
Right now these are pretty expensive. They are discontinued, but you can find them on eBay ranging anywhere from $50-200. I got mine for about $45 a few months after it first came out.

Growth Chart:
Curtesy of Tamatalk.com

Bobo Panda Byte

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 23:50:01 GMT

Bobo Panda Byte is a pet by Trendmasters (the same company that made the Kimiko Baby Byte (aka Sweet Baby, or Lovely Baby). This pet is much different from the Baby Byte. While the Baby Byte has curved lines that make different faces and gestures when in different combinations, the Panda Byte has the traditional pixeled screen with two rows of horizontal icons on the top and bottom. This virtual pet has surprisingly a lot of cool options and features. I have to say I am loving it a lot so far!

Just some first initial impressions: This is a very musical pet. The shape is different from a lot of pets in that its very round, but the screen is very big. The background is a bit plain, but the pixels are nice because they are actually smaller (kind of like the 2004 Tamagotchi Plus). The character is VERY cute, but there is not much variation in the growth chart. The buttons are laid out weirdly (there are three regular sized button and one dedicated clock button off to the side). The first button goes through the menu. The third button selects an icon. The second button browses through the menus, and you must press the third button again to select a feature in the menu. So its a little topsy tervy in that regard.

Now for the actual features: In the first row the first icon is an apple. If you select this icon you will be presented for options for food. During the first day or two the baby panda can only consume baby formula. After it grows a couple of times it can eat bread, an apple, candy and drink a glass of some liquid that has a straw in it.

The second icon in the first row is a game icon. It has two options for games. The first game you must guess where the panda will pop out of the hole. If the panda does not pop out of the hole you chose then you get a point. It is a 2 out of three game. So if you guess correctly two or three times you win. The second game is rock paper scissors. You choose what the opponent will use, and then the game randomly selects an outcome. If the opponent loses then you get a point. The way these games are set up is a little odd, but its still easy to play.

The second icon seems to be some kind of discipline/play icon. You can make the panda play hoola hoop, pet the panda to give it affection, discipline the panda by scolding it, make the panda study from a book, or let the panda play on a swing. Making it read a book will make its IQ go up. Letting it play seems to make the IQ go down. Giving it affectionate pettings will bring its happiness up like with playing games.

The fourth icon in the first row is a medicine bag. You can give the panda some bottled medicine, a shot, or put it in an ambulence. I have not had to give it a shot or send it to the hospital yet, but as it has gotten older it seems to need medicine more often.

The first icon in the second row is the weather icon. You can choose from an umbrella, a scarf or a hat to give to your panda. It will show weather conditions on the screen depending on what it needs. I'm not sure how this affects the health of the panda, though.

The second icon in the bottom row is a light switch icon. Here you can turn the lights off and on, turn the music off and on, turn the tv off and on (I think selecting the tv will pause and unpause the pet), and turn the airconditioner off and on. I have used the airconditioner icon quite a bit, and apparently when it gets too cold the panda will get a cold (it will stay on the left side of the screen with a weird thing on its ear). I have had the music off the whole time because I do not want it to drain the battery with all these noises. The light will not turn on or off automatically. You must do it manually depending on what the panda needs. When the panda goes to sleep it will show little eyes closed with Z's coming out of it. (Note: when the music is turned off, this does not mean notification noises will be turned off. It will still play a sound indicating it needs something. It just won't play all the musical sounds when you are selecting options and actions.)

The third icon is the meter icon (a clip board). This will show the weight and age of the panda, the temperature, the happiness (five hearts), the hydration level (five hearts), the hunger level (five hearts), and the IQ level (five hearts).

The last icon in the bottom row is a comb. This icon is for selecting grooming methods. when the panda poops it will show him with his back turned to the screen sitting next to a pile of poop. You can select the toilet option. There is also an option to give the panda a facial. I am not sure what the other option is. Perhaps this is an option to give it a bath.

Every time the panda loses half of a heart it will light up the question mark notification. This can get annoying, but it is a nice feature to have because this will prevent the panda's meters from getting really low.

Another feature it shows is when the panda is sick it will show a skull next to its head.

Here are some pictures of the Panda Byte I own:

Price:
I got this Panda Byte used on eBay for $20. It was included in a lot of three (panda, P2, and 8-in-1 multipiets). I sent the P2 and 8-in-1 to my friend in exchange for $11. So basically the panda came out to about $10. These are hard to find, and usually new ones can cost up to $50 or more.

Growth Chart:
This is a growth chart, curtesy of Bookmice.net:

Under Construction

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:57:33 GMT

This page is under construction. Please come back later to see if I have updated with reviews, pictures and ratings. Have a look around at the rest of the site in the mean time :)

Pocket Pal Dinosaur

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:38:47 GMT

These are the same as the Hitorriko Dinosaur. Here's my review after playing with it for a week:

They are essentially a Dinkie Dino style sort of pet. The icons go up and down the sides instead of on the top and bottom rows like most other virtual pets.

The Dinosaur has four buttons. The first button is for browsing through the menu. The second icon is "escape", which gets you out of a menu or feature. The second button is for checking its health meters. The third button is for pressing "enter" or for checking the time when no other options are selected.

Just like a Dinkie Dino, the icons go up the sides. On the left side the first icon is a food icon, which gives the choice between an apple, a carrot or a fish. I've been feeding it only carrots to see what character I get. The characters have not been very cute so far. Actually it doesn't look much like a dinosaur, but maybe I'll run through it again to see if I can get some other dinosaur-looking characters. It has grown about 3 times. Depending on how much you feed it, you will fill up the happiness meter, which looks like a bowl of rice.

The second icon on the left side is for a back-and-forth game. Like a Tamagotchi you simply guess which direction it will stop. You use the first and fourth button to choose the direction. The game does not end unless you press the "escape" button (second button). Depending on how many times you go through it and win you will fill up the happiness meter, which looks like a heart.

The third icon on the left side is for when it is sick. So far after a week my pet has not been sick at all, which is weird, but I guess I'm fine with that. I do not know what it looks like when it gets sick, so I can't describe this any further.

The fourth icon on the left is the discipline icon. This basically makes you pet study so that its study meter goes up. The icon looks like a little book and corresponds to the book picture when you press the checking button.

The fifth icon on the left side is another game. This is a game of dice and you must use the first and fourth buttons to decide how high or low the dice will come out as. If you hit the fourth button then you are guessing higher (4-6). If you hit the first button then you are guessing lower (1-3). Like the other game, you can play it for as long as you want without it stopping or giving you a score. The happiness meter will fill up each time you get a correct result.

On the right side the first button is for the air conditioner. I'm not sure what this feature does. The pet has never shown any indication of need the temp changed. Perhaps this function will determine the growth outcome of your pet. For instance, if the temp stays high then it may affect which characters you get compared to when the temp stays low. I really don't know yet.

The second icon on the right is a pooper scooper for cleaning its poop. This pet poops constantly! When it poops it just shows two large piles of poop on the screen, and the character is not on the screen. Every time it poops the food meter will deplete a little bit.

There is another hidden icon on the right, but I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps it lights up when all of the meters are empty, but I've never let the meters get empty, so that may be why I've never seen it.

The last icon on the right is the lights icon, and you use the first and fourth buttons to change the option of on and off.

Overall I give this pet a 3 out of 10. It functions perfectly fine, but the shell isn't particularly cute and the music is a bit annoying since it poops constantly! The pet basically just stays in one place on the screen (like a Dinkie dino) and shows it breathing or moving in an up and down motion like a Dinkie Dino, but less cute. The background is just plain and grey, but it has a nice hard plastic screen that won't get easily damaged. I would not suggest this pet to anyone, but I'll keep it anyway in case I feel like playing with it again. Its not the worst pet I've played, but its not exactly entertaining either. I would say its main draw is that its easy to care for and does not die easily.

Here are some pictures of the one I own:

Price:
This one costed $19.99. Not worth the money, but oh well. I haven't really seen these on ebay except for one other seller who was selling a used one. The one I got was brand new, unopened in package.

Growth Chart:

I do not have a growth chart. I will look for one. For now you can visit this website to see someone else's description: http://www.tamenagerie.com/odd10.html

Collection Criteria Update

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:22:54 GMT

I have decided that since my virtual pet collecting has been getting a bit out of hand lately, I no longer intend to collect different shell designs of the same pet. For awhile I thought it was a good idea to get all the shell designs of pets I particularly enjoy, but its not financially responsible. I went on several binges, collecting every shell of every Angelgotchi (Japanese, American and European), and had intended to buy more Uminos, Morinos and Osu-Mesu pairs, but I've now decided against it. From now on I will only collect one of each pet and it will have to be the cutest design.

Another criteria that I have set is that unless a pet is super-duper rare, I will not be spending over $25 for any other pet. So unless its a Yasashii or something, its not worth it. Even if I have to scour eBay for years just to find a pet for very cheap, I won't be buying anymore expensive pets.

I've also decided that I should not buy more than about 2 pets per month. So at the most I can only spend about $50 on pets per month. I don't want to turn into a hoarder. It gets pretty hard to resist when you actually have income coming in for once. I can't let it go to my head. I had previously gone the entirety of about a year and a half without buying any pets. That was because I was unemployed!

In other news, I have bought a few more pets on eBay:
*Hanerutchi 2 (another version of an Entama)
*a Lot of 6 Giga Pets that I had been wanting for a very long time (Chimp, Looney Tunes, Koala, T-Rex and Digital Doggie). I might give away the Looney Tunes to a friend depending on how cute I think it is or not (I never did enjoy Looney Tunes to be honest).

If I get anymore pets anytime soon I'm just going to buy the Hanerutchi Keitai and that's it. I should take a break from it for awhile since I've been buyin so many. Part of it may be due to boredom. I'll just have to find better things to do with my time :P Especially since some of the pets I've bought I haven't even used yet! Ugh...

Long Time No Update!

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:19:22 GMT

So not much has changed, but I have done an update. I started up my Baby Byte a few weeks ago and let that run for about a week. After about 5 days she reverted back to infancy (not sure why). Anyway, I had a lot of fun with her and updated her review so go check it out in the sidebar.

Because I liked the Baby Byte so much I went out and bought the other virtual pet by the manufacturer known as Trendmasters. This is also a vintage virtual pet, but its functionality is vastly different! I look forward to playing with it. With the Panda also came a vintage Tamagotchi P2 and an 8-in-1 Multipets, which I plan on sending to my friend who lives in Pennsylvania :) I had to buy all three just to get the Panda, but I already have the other two, so I figured someone else could use them.

In other news, I broke down and bought other virtual pets after my last post, but not many:
*Innovative Time Dinosaur Watch Pet (aka Ganbare!! Ryuuta-kun)
*Innovative Time Dog Watch Pet

That's it. I ran the Dog for about 22 days and it grew about 3 times. After that it got a little dull since it didn't seem like it was going to transform again after all that time, so I took the battery out. I have to say it was a pretty cute pet and I recommend it to anyone who wants an easy pet to care for throughout the busy day. I'll do a more thorough review on it later. The Lovely/Honey Bear, Dinosaur watch and Dog watch all have the same kind of programming, so I suspect they are all by the same manufacturer. Now that I have summer vacation I can actually take some pictures and write more reviews. I'm currently playing with a V2 and an Osu-Mesu pair, but I will start up a new pet after that :)

Updates coming

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:05:40 GMT

So I bought a bunch of Tamagotchis over the past couple of months. I'm going to take a break from buying anymore since it was kind of ridiculous how far into it I got. I think I spent about $300... Kind of insane :(

* 3 European Angelgotchis (missing the yellow one)
* 1 Silver European P2
* 1 Pink European P1
* 1 special edition Hong Kong P1
* 1 Green Japanese P1 Type 1
* 1 Milky White Japanese P1 Type 2
* 1 golden egg Micro-Pet Dinosaur
* 1 yellow Orrr Orrr Dino
* 2 Uratamas (white and blue)
* 1 Entama (green swirls)
* 1 rare V2 connection (milky white with pink hearts)
* one set of Osu/Mesu (green stars and orange hearts)
* 1 rare Keitai connection (pink with strawberries)
* 1 Yellow Japanese Famitama
* 1 brown Takara Horse pet
* 1 Reptar Giga Pet
* 1 blue Tamagotchi IDL English

There might be more and I may have just forgotten, but that is just... a lot *sigh* I think I just won't buy anything else this year except for a Tamagotchi P... *sigh*

I will take some pictures and update later... maybe over Spring Break.

Tamagotchi Plus Cho Jinsei (Entama)

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:31:05 GMT

The Entama came out after the Keitai. It is basically the equivalent of the English V4 because it can get a career. I have yet to play it all the way through since I just got it, but apparently it has a special feature where it cooks as well, which seems really cute. Just like on the other Japanese connections, the games are not gradually unlocked, but are already playable once the Tamagotchi is born. The Entama is very similar to the Uratama, except that it has black pixels instead of blue pixels. It was also the first to have the new version of Mametchi (giant eyes and big head). So far the buttons on this Tamagotchis are very easy to push, and the response time is very good. Bandai seems to have produced a cheaper shell, though, because on the side where the antenna pops up, the seems is sort of splitting a little bit, and the paint isn't very nice on the back. Like the Uratama it has a lanyard of beads that say "TMGC". This was the first Tamagotchi to have an antenna that stuck out at a sort of diagonal angle with a ball on top. In my opinion these sorts of antennas are the uggliest and most irritating. I'm not sure why Bandai decided to design the shell this way, but oh well. Other than this one stupid thing I would say the Entama and Uratama are both very good virtual pets and I would highly recommend getting them. If you want a similar pet in English then I would recommend getting the V4.5 (not the V4 since in my opinion it isn't that great).

Here is a picture of the one I own. Since I bought it used on eBay it did not come with a package, but it is in very good condition. The character on the screen is Sebiretchi:

Price:
I bought this on eBay with a set of Uratamas and the price came out to $33 and change. So I got mine for about $11, but if you bought it alone or new in package it might be a little more expensive. Right now they seem to be going for anywhere from $20-50ish+shipping. I would recommend getting an Entama and Uratama so you have two versions that have a lot of connection capabilities. and characters in common.

Growth Chart:

(NOTE: if this is your image and you would like it removed or credited, please let me know ASAP and I will comply)

Kero Kero Keroppi

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:46:07 GMT

This is a Sanrio pet of Keroppi the frog. Keroppi is one of my favorite characters by Sanrio (mostly because green is my favorite color). I was wanting this pet for a very, very long time. I had seen it on eBay for years and years and finally got money to buy it. There seems to be a few different colors that I know of shell design. I got the opaque green design. While the shell design is adorable and I like how it is shaped like Keroppi's head, I do not particularly like the gameplay. Much like the Hello Kitty pet, it doesn't seem to go by the same rules of the average virtual pet. Here are some directions from tamasquare.

Here are some pictures of the one I have:

Price and where to buy:

I got this one on ebay for about $25. You only see one or two on eBay a few times a year and they are still going for around the same price of $25-30ish. Just keep checking periodically and you'll come across one.

Cute Pet

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:31:53 GMT

This pet has a lot of issues. From what I can tell its sort of an ambiguous type of animal (it doesn't resemble a cat or dog, etc) and the gameplay is meant to resemble the tamagotchi. However, there is no way to turn off the sound. Just as well, when the pet needs something I cannot for the life of me figure out what it needs. I've tried playing with it multiple times and always run in the same problem. It beeps. I try feeding it. I try playing with it. I try disciplining it. I try putting it to bed. I try giving it medicine or cleaning it. Nothing helps. The attention icon simply won't go away. The pets sounds are also very annoying. I had a similar problem with the Lovely Bear. If anyone knows how to take care of this darn thing, please let me know O_o Its not very self-evident, unfortunately. As a result, I give it 0 out of 5 stars *sigh*

Here are some pictures of the one I have:

I got it on eBay over a year ago for about $20. Not worth the money.

Electronic Pocket Chicken

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 07:32:55 GMT

The Chicken is a pet I bought on eBay over a year ago. It is basically just like any other Hitorriko pet with the exact same functions. It has icons that go up and down the side like the Dinkie pets. The pet has big pixels and the characters stay pretty stationary except for some minor movements. It eats a burger, some kind of dessert and a drink. It plays a "back-and-forth" guessing game. The third icon is for medicine. Fourth icon is for studying. Five icon is for a dice guessing game. Sixth icon on the right side is temperature. I have never had to change the temperature so I'm not sure if it does anythig regarding that. Seventh icon is for the toilet. The eight icon only shows up when the pet is hungry (its an arrow). I'm not sure why this icon exists since it already has an attention icon for when it needs something. The ninth icon is for the light and the last icon is for when it beeps for attention.

This pet poops A LOT. So did the Hitorriko dinosaur I have (Pocket Pal).

The transformations on this one started out as a chicken. It transformed twice and still looked like what could pass for a chicken, but then out of nowhere it transformed again and turned into this random Mametchi looking character O_o (pictures below). While this is cute and not a huge disappointment, I just wonder why they designed it to be this way. I will try raising it one more time to see if I get anything else that resembles a chicken. Pretty silly. After playing with the Hitorrikos a bit more I would give them a 7 out of 10. While they are not particularly creative, they are easy to care for, at least somewhat cute and the transformations are interesting, albeit random. Since they are relatively cheap I would recommend this pet. My major complaint is that the shell design is so cheap with cheap plastic and a screen that is not covered with an extra layer of plastic. The screen is also really embedded so there is always a shadow on one side when looking at it. Not a huge deal, but not exactly aesthetically pleasing the way most Tamagotchis are designed.

I think I may try to collect the fish and puppy at some point, or any other Hitorrikos that may exist.

Here are some pictures of the one I have:

The Chicken

Price:
I bought this for about $20 on eBay and they still seem to go for about that same price.

Growth Chart:

I do not have a growth chart.

URL update

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:23:22 GMT

Recently it came to my attention that the domain I was using to redirect to this website was not working. I went to the url provider and found that apparently the entire Co.cc website has been shut down. I'm not sure if this is temporary or if they just completely went out of business. So I've switched the url from http://tamagotchi.co.cc to http://tamagotchi.tk, which sounds better anyway in my opinion.

As for everything else, I am still maintaining the website. I still haven't had time to play with any Tamagotchis lately, but I will at the end of the year when I'm on a break from work and school. Hopefully next semester will be more laid back so I'll be making money and hopefully be able to afford to buy at least a couple of new Tamagotchis next year :) I'm really working on saving my money though, so we'll see. I'm also attempting to collect some of the necklaces from Kumacrafts! Check out the tumblr: http://kumacrafts.tumblr.com/sm

I've already collected three :) They are quite beautiful and very high quality.

It may have come to some people's attention that all of my avatars still say tamagotchi.co.cc on them. I will remedy this later since all of them were edited by me and I will have to go back and recrop and readd text to everything since I didn't save any of the icons without the text :/ My mistake. It will be tedious to do this, but it'll happen eventually.

Virtual Pet Collection, Part II

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:10:23 GMT

This update was a long time coming (about 9 months!). Here is the second half of my collection. This half is all official Bandai Tamagotchis. Part 1 can be found here.

This first picture is of all my vintage Tamagotchis from the 90's.

-In the top row from left to right:
* The yellow Tamagotchi is a vintage English Generation 2. I think it was the second Tamagotchi I ever got, and it was given to me by me Grandpa as a Christmas gift.

* I have all four colors of the American Angel Tamagotchi, all of which were bought on eBay at varying prices at different times. I managed to get the pink angel for only $14 ;) I'm a good bargain hunter.

*The two pets on the right are first generation American Digimons, which were given to me by my parents for my birthday a long time ago when virtual pets were beginning to go out of style. As a result, each digimon only costed $4. I could probably sell each one for over $100 if I wanted to.

* In front of the angel boxes is another angel out of box, which I bought for about $10. It was in great working condition with only a little bit of paint scuffed off.

* Next to the out of box angel is a white Santagotchi, which I got on eBay for pretty cheap because it was used. It is in near mint condition (I had to replace the screws because the old ones would not come out, so we cut them out and put new screws in without damaging anything).

-In the middle row from left to right:

* A vintage Japanese Generation1. I bought this one on eBay.

* A pink and a pearly white angel, both bought on eBay. Not included in the picture is the silvery blue which I just bought a few months ago on eBay as well.

* Two Forestgotchis, both bought on eBay. The yellow one is my favorite design but the white one is pretty too. The white one had the same problem of screws that would not come out, so we had to cut them out and replace them with different screws. Still a nice addition to the collection considering I got it for pretty cheap.

-In the bottom row from left to right:

* Genjinch (Caveman) that I got on eBay. There is only one design of this as far as I know. Its a bit of an annoying pet so I've never fully raised it, but its cute.

* Umino (ocean) which my dad bought for me on eBay a long time ago when the pets were going out of style. I do not play with it often since it is the hardest Tamagotchi to care for, sadly.

* A Devilgotchi which I bought on eBay used so it was cheaper than usual. It is in perfect working condition. Part of the chain was ripped, so I cut that part off and put the rest back together so it looks good as new, just shorter chain. If I had a choice I would get the pink edition too, but I settled for this one since it was like half price for what they are going for now.

* Blue and pink Osuchi and Mesuchi mating pair which I bought together on eBay. Both were NIB. I've opened most of my pets, but I'm always really careful to make sure the box stays in great condition so they can be put back inside and still look new and nice :)

So the only pet missing from this picture is the blue Japanese Angelgotchi, and thats because I took these pictures in 2011, but I got the blue angel in early 2012.

Next picture is of all the recent Tamagotchis that have come out in the 2000's. This picture includes both English and Japanese Language Tamagotchis. Most are Japanese, since Japan has always had way more releases than for English speaking countries.

-In the very back row from left to right:

* One special Japanese Toys R Us edition Akai Keitai and Home Dekatama box set. I was the highest bidder on this one and it was really expensive. I think it went way down in price since about 6 years ago when I bought it, but it has probably since gone back up in price since there aren't as many of them. The box is a little warn out and so is the Akai Keitai, but its still in good condition with all the paint on it. I do not recommend bidding on Tamagotchis. Just do "Buy It Now".

* One pink Japanese Famatama (equivalent of the American v5) with DVD set. There aren't many of these on eBay anymore. It was expensive at first when I bought it, then it went down drastically, and now because of the lack of them they went back up again I think.

* One greenish teal Color Tamagotchi that I bought on eBay. These were the first Color Tamagotchis, and this one is in Japanese. The picture does not include the iD L and iD L 15th anniversary editions I bought recently, but game play is essentially the same in all three, just with different characters and games, and slightly different shell design. I would say these are some of my favorite Tamagotchis. All three are in Japanese.

* One American V4.5 and DVD/CD set, which I bought on sale at Walmart for $14. Definitely a great find because it came with a Tamagotchi mouse pad and a dock for the Tamagotchi with some figurines. I'm not entirely sure how the functionality of the dock works. I'm not that motivated to figure these types of things out.

* Next to the v4.5 in the very right corner is a very large white Tama-Go with a Kuchipatchi theme in the shell design. I bought it at Toys R Us for about $20ish. These were an attempt to placate the English speaking market for not getting a color Tamagotchi. Kind of a lousy Tamagotchi in my opinion. Each one comes with a special figurine to unlock games and you can buy more figurines to unlock other stuff.

- In the second row from the top going left to right:

* One mint in box blue sparkly snow flake Nano Tamagotchi. These are the second edition of the Mini/Chibi Tamagotchis Bandai released in the early 2000's. It was only released in Japan. Essentially it is the smallest type of Tamagotchi and can be used as a phone charm. It has very limited functionality. I got mine on eBay for collection purposes. I doubt I'll ever play with it. It just looked really pretty so I couldn't resist.

* One light blue Japanese diamond design Keitai. This is essentially the "V2" for Japan. They have antennas to symbolize that they connect to cell phones. They can only connect to a Japanese cell phone. It is essentially the same as the Akai Keitai, but the Akai has red pixels and the regular Keitais have black pixels. I got this one on eBay.

* One slightly translucent Japanese Keitai (same as the light blue) with bubbly soda shell design. I got it on eBay and it is one of my favorite Tamagotchis :3

* One pink party design Japanese Ura Tamagotchi that I bought on eBay. It has blue pixels and a slightly different antenna with some slightly different features than the Keitai. It is like the "v4.5" for America, but with Japanese language, blue pixels and some slightly different website and code functionality. The games are different too, but a lot of the characters are similar. Before this one came out, the Cho Jinsei came out which is like the "v4" for American, but I do not have the Cho Jinsei because it didn't seem that appealing to me (just like the American v4 wasn't that appealing to me either). The Ura is definitely one of my favorites.

* One yellow themed Oden-Kun. Oden-Kun is a really weird Japanese cartoon, so this pet is in Japanese and its based on the characters in the cartoon. Apparently the characters are all each ingredients in a soup. So funny. It essentially functions just like an American v2 or a Keitai in my opinion but with different games and characters, and no antenna, which is better in my opinion. I bought it on eBay. I recommend getting this pet, but they might be more rare now.

- Third row from the top going left to right:

* One orange American Mini Tamagotchi. I got it on eBay. I have only turned it on briefly and it has very limited functionality, but its pretty cute.

* One blue candy themed American V2. My mother gave it to me after a choir concert a few years ago, which sparked my new interest in collecting virtual pets again. It is by far probably one of my very favorite pets. The introduction of the ability to earn points to buy items was a hugely popular feature that Bandai included. So awesome. I was re-addicted after I started playing with it.

* After getting a v2, I picked up an American v3 at Target when they first came out. Just as awesome as the v2, but they changed one of my favorite characters to look uglier :/ Its still a great pet to own though. I highly recommend it. It has a stupid antenna, but whatever.

* One glow-in-the-dark American V4 tamagotchi that I bought at Toys R Us when they were first released. Introduced the concept of a mail box and a career and getting career points, but I didn't like the antenna and a lot of the characters were uninteresting. Some of the games were meh. Still a good addition and I like the shell design since it glows.

* One American white V5 (family tamagotchi) that I think I may have bought at either K-Mart or Target when they were first released. These pets differed in that they actually offered Japanese shell designs, instead of just completely different American shell designs. Good pet, but kind of complicated to use. Has a contrast feature which is cool and the pixels extend across the screen which is good.

* One blue city American v6. I consider this to be the failure of Tamagotchis. Not only were most of the shell designs terrible, but the buttons didn't work that great (i hear this from multiple people) and the game play was waaaaaay too complicated and needy. Added a separate feature for "stress", which is just weird. The buttons made it hard to play the games without failing right away. Goal is to become a "rock star". I think I may have bought it at Toys R Us when it was first released.

-Very bottom row from left to right:

* Two American V1's I bought one eBay. The orange one is damaged in teh infrared feature but everything else still functions perfectly fine. The Blue one works fine as far as I know because it connects to other pets. I got them on eBay at different times

* One red candy American V2. This is actually my brother's pet, but he wanted to include it in the picture. It was given to him by one of my best friends who was giving away some of his collection.

So that's it for my collection. I'll update this when/if I get more pets.

Long time no update!

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 23:12:28 GMT

Hello everyone! I just wanted to put in an update as to what I'm doing regarding the site. I have not had opportunity to play with my virtual pets lately because I have recently begun studies to become a teacher, which will take me about a year to get done. So any virtual pets that I have that I haven't reviewed yet will probably remain on the back-burner for awhile. That said, I am still taking steps to maintain the site when I have free time. Recently http://www.co.cc shut down. They are either down temporarily, or they have gone out of business. Because of this I have switched the url from tamagotchi.co.cc to tamagotchi.tk, which sounds better anyway in my opinion. So the site is not going anywhere any time soon. It seems like I have been getting an influx of comments recently, which I am glad about! I'm glad people are coming by and reading what I've posted. I try to respond to every comment I get, even if its anonymous. Please be aware that all anonymous comments will be screened and subject to approval, and any user comments will be unscreened for anyone to reply to. Screened comments will not be able to receive replies from any other user unless they are unscreened by me :) So if you don't see your comment on the site right away, its probably because I haven't seen it yet. I check my email every day so I am able to unscreen comments regularly and frequently, so your questions will always get answered in a timely manner. Thanks for stopping by!

iD L

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:46:35 GMT

The iD L 4th is the newest edition to date of the colored screen Tamagotchis released in Japan. It has tons more characters, most of which are super duper cute and it has lots of features. Overall I would say that this Tamagotchi really isn't much different from the original Color Tamagotchi. I do like the shell design of the iD L's much better because they are prettier and less plain looking. The original Tamagotchi Color has a piece of plastic that goes over the screen and makes the shell design look more smooth. The iD L's are lacking the piece of plastic so the screen is more embedded looking into the shell. The screen is framed by a piece of plastic that is diamondy looking, the diamondy looking frame is framed by a silver painted oval. The back covers of the iD L slide off when you press a little button in back instead of being unscrewed like older Tamagotchis. The iD L is also rounder all over so it is more egg shaped, whereas the original Tamagotchi Color is flat on the bottom which is kind of weird looking, but is more stable when sitting on a flat surface. Bandai also released a 15th Anniversary edition of the iD L and it has different characters and games but is essentially the same exact game play as the regular iD L. They also released a version that has a character called Princess Spacey, but all the other characters are the same as the regular iD L. It might have different games but I don't know yet. I won't bother getting the Princess Spacey edition since it is more expensive and pointless to get anyway.

Here are some pictures of the ones I have:

This is an English ID L. You can tell by the fact that the packaging is mostly white. When you turn it on all of the menus are in English. This was only released in China.

Here is the regular iD L. I actually sold this one on eBay earlier this year in order to get the funds to buy the English version.

Here is the 15th Anniversary Edition

Growth Charts:

The iD L growth chart can be found here: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/338/5/a/tamagotchi_id_l_growth_chart_by_tamastargirl-d419p56.png

The 15th Anniversary edition growth chart can be found at tama-zone.com: http://tama-zone.com/index.php?showtopic=25165

Prices:
Right now the regular iD L's are still going for around $70. The 15th Anniversary editions are rarer so they are going from anywhere between $80 (if you're lucky) and $120. Princess Spacey edition is currently in the $90 range but I suspect the price will begin to go up after a few months like the 15th Anniversary edition did.

Octo-Pets (multi-pets)

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:20:21 GMT

Octo-Pets is a vintage virtual pet that has basically the same programming as the Gyaoppi 9in1. It has almost all of the characters except for one (I'm not sure which one because I haven't compared the two). It does have a few more features. For one it has a fourth button, which the Gyaoppi does not have. The fourth button can be pressed down to view the pet's health meter and stats. Other than this the pet is basically exactly the same except for the shell-shape. I personally think the shell design is kind of cuter than the plain looking oval Gyaoppi. I give this pet a 10 out of 10.

Here are some pictures of the one I have, including photos of the game play:

Growth Charts:

Sweet Baby

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:51:41 GMT

This is a very odd pet, indeed and definitely one of the most unique virtual pets I have ever played with. I finally played with it for the first time since buying it a few years ago. My sister originally got this pet for about $8 in the 90's when pets were popular. She purchased it at a drug-store. We had no idea how it worked and were thoroughly confused by the directions, mostly because they were in Engrish :3 hehe Somehow my sister lost this pet (it may have been traded or given away or perhaps sold in a garage sale, who knows), so I decided to go on a hunt for it on eBay. After years of periodically searching and coming up with nothing I FINALLY found it (I spent a long time searching for the Octo-pet and the Lovely Bear, too). It was relatively cheap, somewhere between $10-20. Not sure of the price tag since I bought it about 3 years ago or so. After reading the directions I found that it had different growth charts depending on how you raised it. Your baby might turn into a good child or a rebellious punk, depending on its mood. It also has a unique feature in that it does not have the standard pixelated screen. The baby is made up of different lines and shapes that change its facial expression, hair and clothes as it grows. A very interesting concept to say the least. The beeping is very low and soft and not that annoying. The shape is a bit ugly in my opinion. The Sweet Baby my sister owned had a sort of plainer logo on it, but this one is a bit more decorated from what I remember. Its still the exact same pet, though with all the same functions I believe. Its a good pet if you are looking to experiment with something different than the standard two row menu, clock pet.

Here is what happened when I finally played with it a couple of weeks ago. I started it up and read the directions very thoroughly. It has a clock feature, which shows the regular time. The baby usually sleeps at the same time you do, except for when its first born. When it was born it seemed to stay awake all night and lost a lot of happiness and health because I was asleep. Luckily it didn't die, but I had to spend quite a bit of time giving it care to get its vitals back up. The baby seems to put on more and more clothing the better you take care of it. If you neglect it it because rebellious and seems to want to wear skimpier clothing (thats my interpretation). It has a food icon, which is probably a rice bowl, a candy icon and a drink icon. when its first born it only wants to drink. After the first year it will take rice and candy. The candy makes its IQ go down. Reading and playing the game will make its IQ go up. The game is rock-paper-scissors and can't be played until it grows a little bit. It enjoys being cleaned from the very beginning, which is how its happiness goes up for th emost part. when it needs something it will show a sort of towel icon to indicate its hungry. If it needs some other type of care a sad face will appear.

One thing I noticed is that it is difficult to tell what the child needs. There is never any sort of medical aid icon that pops up indicating it is sick. I don't think it ever ran away, but I disciplined it a couple of times after not being able to figure out what it needed after it got older. As it ages it seems to get more rebellious when you play with it. If you read to it a lot it becomes more modest and grows longer hair and puts on a longer skirt. The "runaway" icon never appeared when I played with it.

Another odd thing is that the sound button is also the reset button. If it press it for a millisecond the sound turns off, and on, but if you push it for too long the baby restarts completely. I didn't want to turn the sound off at all for fear of it restarting, but luckily the beeping is so low that it didn't irritate me anything.

All of the vitals can be monitored at the bottom of the screen, which displays a heart for health, a happy face for happiness, IQ for intelligence, age, weight and time. Not all vitals are displayed at once however, so you must scroll through them to select. Its a bit odd but you'll see what I mean when you start it up.

Something I didn't like about it is that it doesnt move around the screen. The only actions it does it stay still and move its face or change styles. It doesn't even show the baby playing when you choose the game. It shows the baby's face moving when it eats, sleeps or expresses emotions, but thats it. the body just seems to be there for the sake of the clothes. On the other hand, the pet is sufficiently unique and interesting enough in its options for it not to matter too much.

Interestingly, after about 4 or 5 years it suddenly went back to infancy. I know I didn't accidentally restart it because the time was not changed, so... yeah.... weird. I dunno if thats a good thing or a bad thing, though.

I give this pet a 7 out of 10 for being unique, but it could have been an 8 or a 9 if it had better animations. Its uniqueness is what saved it from being anything lower than a 7. The sound/reset button is weird/annoying, but manageable.

Here is a picture of the one I have that was similar to my sister's old one. The package was too messed up looking to bother including it in a photo:

This is a used one I just bought off of eBay for $8. It seems to function exactly the same, but with a nicer shell, background and different sized screen. As you can see, the shell resembles the Bobo Panda Byte since they are made by the same company.

Growth Chart:

Coming soon, after I scan the directions.

Giga Pets

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:19:08 GMT

Giga Pets are another form of Virtual Pet that was released shortly after the original Tamagotchi. The features are in English and Giga Pets were manufatured by Tiger Electronics (now owned by Hasbro, I believe). Hasbro recently came out with a newer edition of Giga Pet but with completely different features, and animations and it hooks up to your television set, I assume for more advanced game play. I do not own any of the newer editions, but I do have a few vintage Giga Pets. The old style of Giga Pet originally had the Nano Pet programming with all of the exact animations and features. Then for some reason the company changed the pet. The characters were the same (dogs, cats), but were animated differently, and they came out with new characters (koalas, monkeys, Disney, Rugrats, etc). They functioned a little differently in that you raised one animal (just like the Nanos) instead of an alien that is always shifting shape (the Tamagotchis). The sounds were different, too. For instance, the monkey made a real monkey noise instead of just chirping like virtual pets usually do. As a result of this new programming game play also became more difficult. It became very hard to keep the pet's happiness up. It gets fatter the more you care for it. The skinnier it gets the sicker it usually gets.I found that playing with it more and feeding it less treats kept it healthier and happier for longer. If you let all the levels go down it is exceedingly time consuming and difficult to get everything back up to a healthy state. That said, Giga Pets are very unique and I do like the game play. If you pay close attention to the pet all day then it doesn't become a problem. There is no pause feature on the older Giga Pets and they were one of the first pets that gave you the option of naming your animal, which is something the Tamagotchi didn't incorporate until the newer connections came out in the 2000's. The characters take a very long time to grow. It takes a few weeks to reach adulthood. It was also one of the first virtual pets to come out with a "training" feature. Eventually they also came out with multi-gigapets where you could raise more than one animal/character at a time. Overall, I give this pet an 8 out of ten for uniqueness, cute characters, and interesting shell designs.

Here are some pictures of the Giga Pets I own:

Little Mermaid

Rugrats (this one has a backlight feature and legs you can pull out so it stands upright)

Reptar (also from Rugrats, and functions exactly like the other regular Giga Pets)

Compu Kitty

Price:

I got my Compu Kitty for $15 I think (sketchy memory obviously). I also got the Rug Rats Giga for $5 since it was used (still works). Good deals. Normally you might find these for $30-60 now depending on the Vintage Giga Pet you want. For instance puppies and kitties, which were more common, might be less expensive than a Koala or a Chimp or a Bit Critter. The Little Mermaid Giga is going for $34 which isn't too bad in my opinion. You are always bound to find at least 3 or 4 Compu Kitties at any given time on eBay, so hold out for a cheap one :)

Nano Tamagotchi (Chibi V2)

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:40:13 GMT

The Nano Tamagotchi is essentially the second version of the Chibi/Mini Tamagotchi. It has a few more characters and a different shell design than the first version. It does not connect to other Tamagotchis since it is supposed to be more vintage style. I have not played with this yet because I already know that it doesn't have very many different features from the original version, so I don't see any reason to open it. I will keep it mint in package for collection purposes. Overall, its a very pretty design. Its interesting because the shell shape is slightly rounder and thicker than the original, which I find cool since its more like a real egg this way. I'm not sure why they did this since it hasn't been much more enhanced, but perhaps they figured it would be cuter and could be used as a phone charm if they changed it up a little. I got the snow-flake design because it was the prettiest and most sparkly :) I'm pretty certain that Bandai only made a Japanese version of this Tamagotchi, but they did make an English version of the original Chibi, which is known as the Mini in English speaking countries.

Here is a photo of the one I have:

Growth chart:
I do not have a growth chart, but there aren't very many characters anyway and the it only transitions straight from infant to adult in a day.

Tama-Go

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:12:53 GMT

The Tama-Go is the newest American Tamagotchi to date. It is meant to emulate the newer Japanese Color Tamagotchis. The only problem is that it seriously fails by comparison. Firstly, it is a HUGE Tamagotchi, which I found disappointing. There's no way I could carry this thing around in my purse to play with it regularly. Even the Japanese color Tamagotchis, which are relatively big, are not nearly as huge as the Tama-Go. What's even worse is that it doesn't even have a color screen! You would figure that all that bulk would mean something, but apparently not. I'm not sure what the heck Bandai's reasoning is for the lack of updated features and the bulkiness, but I was disappointed. If they weren't going to give us all the perks, then why bother making something so huge? I did not play with this Tamagotchi, but I got it because the reviews on Tamatalk.com were fairly positive. I feel like it was a waste of $23 (I bought mine at Toys R Us). As for the actual game play, I don't remember much about it because I only played with it for a few minutes after opening up the package when it was first released, but I was very underwhelmed, to say the least. There was nothing interesting about this Tamagotchi. yes, the screen resolution was improved over say the v4 or v5, but it seemed pointless to have improved resolution when they hadn't updated the screen to color. If they aren't going to update the screen to color then I'd rather stick with the vintage style pixelations. Maybe other people don't care about this, but I was disappointed. All of that said, it is still a major improvement from other Tamagotchis. it has some enhanced features over other versions of Tamagotchi that I'm sure other people will find impressive, especially if they haven't played with a Japanese Color tamagotchi, but if you have tons of experience Tamagotchis you might be saddened by this release :( If they had designed it to be as compact as a v5 then I would have been far more impressed, despite the lack of features that the Japanese version contains. I have to say, though, the characters are fairly cute, which works in its favor, all else aside. Another thing that I found utterly ridiculous was the concept of attaching a figurine on top just to unlock different features. I do not approve of this concept because its basically a ploy to get consumers to purchase more accessories in order to access the full abilities of the pet, instead of just including them from the get-go (very punny). While connection Tamagotchis have always sort of been this way (you have to purchase another Tamagotchi or find someone else to connect with in order to mate them together), I think this simply goes too far and is clearly just plain manipulative on Bandai's part.

Here are some pictures of the one I own (includes size comparisons):

The Angel tamagotchi is one of the smallest pets available

Here is a character chart:

Devilgotchi (Devil Tamagotchi)

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:52:02 GMT

The Devilgotchi is a Japanese version Tamagotchi that came out in the late 90's. It is considered to be one of the rarest Tamagotchis of all time, and normally sells for hundreds of dollars on eBay. I did not pay hundreds because I am a good bargain hunter, but I can tell you that finding one in good condition for under $100 is a major feat (which I happened to accomplish :P). So far I have not played with this Tamagotchi extensively, but here are a few of my observations. The sounds on this Tamagotchi are some of the most annoying that I have ever heard from a virtual pet, BUT to its credit, it is a fairly quiet virtual pet. I think the reason the sounds are so grating to the ears is because well... its a Devilgotchi. Its not supposed to be pleasant XD Its basically supposed to be the opposite of an Angelgotchi, if you hadn't gathered already. It has devil characters, or little demons, whatever you want to call them. I have to say that after looking at the growth chart most of the characters are not especially cute, but it definitely makes for a good masculine virtual pet. Too many times I have heard the question "Aren't Tamagotchis are girl toy??". No, they are not by definition a "girl toy", but they do come in masculine and feminine designs and themes. Tamagotchis are a unisex toy, meaning they weren't originally geared toward a particularl group of people. They are simply a digital game that was meant to appeal to both boys and girls. The Devilgotchi, however, definitely has some masculine appeal, but in a cute way. The design I got is black with purple trim and silver wings. Ideally I would have liked to have collected the pink version, but obviously you can't be picky because these things are so rare and frankly I'd rather buy the black one for under $100 than the pink one for over $100. Overall, it seems as if the functions of this Tamagotchi are not particularly different from any other Tamagotchi I've played with. I'd say that the Santagotchi has the most unique features out of all the vintage pets, so the Devilgotchi stays within the lines when it comes to feeding, playing with and raising a pet. The buttons are easy to push and the functions are very responsive. If you remember the lag of the Angelgotchi, you'll notice that the Devil is much faster. After having recently played with the Devilgotchi all the way through to adulthood I would like to give this Tamagotchi an 8 out of 10. The buttons are soft and easy to push, the shell designs are cute, the gameplay is super easy. My old gripes are that the sounds are annoying and it takes forever to get this virtual pet to adulthood!

Here are some picture of the one I have:

Devil-Angel comparison

Growth Chart

(Note: If any of the images belong to you, please message me so that I can credit you ASAP.)