I've never had a "vintage" Tamagotchi, my first one was a v1. I must say, I definitely prefer my v1 over any other Tamagotchi release. It was easy to care for seeing as you didn't have to play the games for that long to lose 3g of weight (one of the things I hated about the v3 and v4) and you didn't have to worry about skill points. And unlike the v5, growth is influenced by care. Even though there are "only" 9 adult characters, I still haven't gotten Hanatchi, 104 generations later.