Fake Tamagotchis Are All over the Internet

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Just bought one of these fakes yesterday. As far as I can Tell they share the same inner workings with the penguin/apple/heart/digipet variants. I'll see when it arrives if I inbox it.

 
If you go on eBay, the first page of tamas are all fakes. I’ve seen loads of the one with different coloured tamas in eggs. Trying to avoid them if I ever want to collect

 
THIS IS JUST A GUESS BUT...

I think the fakes that are labled connection and those other ones are made by the same company???

 
InCyberspace said:
Just bought one of these fakes yesterday. As far as I can Tell they share the same inner workings with the penguin/apple/heart/digipet variants. I'll see when it arrives if I inbox it.
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Yep, they use the same software as all of those and more - there's even a variant that's attached to the top of a ball-point pen, now!

I bought a penguin one because I wanted to add one to my virtual pets collection for the sheer stupidity of it, without handing over good money for a badly-made counterfeit - some UK shops were carrying the penguin, apple, and heart ones for a few pounds each before Christmas last year, packaged and distributed by a large UK toys and giftwares company (PMS International), which was why I grabbed one.

 
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Penguin-keeper said:
Unfortunately, we're not referring to generic virtual pets where auction-titles have the word Tamagotchi included so as to catch people's attention, here.

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As you can see, they don't just put the name in auction-titles and on listing images, but they also put it on the product and on the packaging. The counterfeits have the Tamagotchi Connection logo on them - that's why they're counterfeits. The intention is to deceive.

Anyway, they're not easy to spot for a lot of people, unfortunately. I once saw a video-review of one that was created by a person who'd spoken about how they owned a Tamagotchi when they were a child; They had no idea that the four-button fake was a counterfeit product, and then concluded that people shouldn't bother with the Tamagotchi Connection because it's bad. They later edited the video's title to clarify that it was actually a fake after numerous comments on the video pointed out that it was a fake.
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It's exactly the same shell as the DigiPet. Only with Tamagotchi written on it.

Here's the DigiPet version from my collection.

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Tamago_luckycat02 said:
Oh man, as some may know, I had a fake Tama, it’s gone now, and also WHAT ABOUT THE APPS LABELED TAMAGOTCHI like the only real tamagotchi app is my tamagotchi forever. Sorry I’m just so mad about these ughhhhhhhh someone get them off!
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You forgot Tamagotchi Classic and Tamagotchi Classic v2, those are the real apps.

debibu said:
So at a family gathering today, and a bunch of the nieces and nephews all had fake tamas - the B&W pixel type, 4 buttons, 32-in-1 pet. I was asked to help them learn how to use them. Apparently one of them came missing the screws holding the battery plate in place. From memory, the kids could:

- read to it (book animation)

- feed it snacks or meal

- exercise it (this was weird)

- give it medicine (ambulance animation and then a plunging syringe)

- clean its poop

There seemed to be a fake communication icon that was always on, too? It had multiple meters - EQ, Heart, Food and Health. And if it slept you could turn the lights on and off, too. I don't remember any games.

Eventually, they all chose which pet type they wanted, and started to learn and get excited about their virtual pets. I tried to help by making up a story about the pets - there really seemed to be little incentive other than keeping meters full.

To be fair, their parents didn't have much money for many proper new toys, especially as these kids fight quite a bit and often break toys if they don't get bored of them first. I know it's a pain to see so many fake tamas while looking for our next great deal or favorite shell, but a lot of "rip-off" ebay and Wish is an option for people looking for alternatives to things that are just too expensive, just so their too-young-to-know kids don't feel like they're missing out (perfect example of this is the My Little Pony rip-off, My Lovely Horse). Knowing how much I've spent on even my cheapest tamas, it's just not an option for these guys, especially as ebay sellers just keep increasing the prices on anything tama related knowing us collectors will usually happily pay.

Not saying it's right, but just something to think about I guess.
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I think I know which one you are referring to. Did the "exercise" look like this (suddenly growing a human arm with a halter)?

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That is a common white-label Tamagotchi clone sold under a thousand different brands and shells, sometimes with three buttons, sometimes with four buttons, almost always called "Virtual Pet".

Me, my brother, and one of my friends had those as a kid. It was horrible. Horrible. Nasty, nasty stuff.

Making up a story about the animals probably only made things worse, because they are guaranteed to die unless you send the "ambulance" at them 20 times in a row. No, seriously, that's how you keep them alive. At least, that's what my brother discovered, because I had already stopped playing with it.

We actually believed it was Tamagotchi. It's not a budget option, it's a scam. Not having much money only makes it worse because that money could have been saved up.

I really hope you actually told the kids they got a fake, because I absolutely didn't know it was fake, and it was a matter of pure luck that I got the real thing afterwards.

Jhud said:
^Yeah, its important to remember that just something is a copycat, doesn't mean its a "fake". A fake is when something actively tries to be another thing and deceive people.
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Penguin-keeper said:
No. This is a generic product, not a knock-off. It's not trying to convince anyone that it's something that it's not. It's just using the product-category's generic name because that's what it is - it's promoted and sold as a nostalgic curiousity, not as a "Tamagotchi Connection".

Unfortunately, education about how to identify and avoid counterfeits in all areas of life is generally bad, hence why counterfeit goods are so prevalent (because people keep buying them). Incorrectly labelling competing generic items as knock-offs doesn't help that.
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You don't need to explicitly say "Tamagotchi" in order to fool people into thinking that's what it is. It definitely fooled me at least. And that's obviously what these manufacturers are going for. They have no original mechanics. (Not to mention that the media has tried to make people believe that "Tamagotchi" isn't a name but a generic synonym term for "Virtual Pet")

 
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Jop said:
You don't need to explicitly say "Tamagotchi" in order to fool people into thinking that's what it is. It definitely fooled me at least. And that's obviously what these manufacturers are going for. They have no original mechanics.
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But for people to call it a "scam", a "knock-off", a "fake", a "counterfeit", and to suggest that they were trying to "fool" people, and so on, the manufacturer actually does need to be showing an intent to deceive, and the product actually does need to be falsely branded as the real thing.

The legitimate manufacturer of this product, who can be found here, is clearly not showing an intent to deceive, or any attempt at copyright or trademark infringement. They market it clearly as what it is, and that's a generic virtual pet, in generic packaging that in no way resembles that of a Bandai product, that happens to be called "Virtual PETs" - even on the shell.

It'd be a half-decent generic pet if the clock didn't run at ultra-speed, thus leading to it never leading a full lifespan. That and the fact that it has this problem but costs the same as a Tamagotchi are the only things that are really wrong with it.

 
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KidRetro64 said:
I have actually never seen that DigiPet version before. Is it a new make? Or am I just new to all of this
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I found it by chance. It was over a year ago. They were selling them in my local convenience store. Never seen them before and never seen them since. The store is different now under new name and new management.

 
Jop said:
(Not to mention that the media has tried to make people believe that "Tamagotchi" isn't a name but a generic synonym term for "Virtual Pet")
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My apologies, Jop - I missed this edit of yours before, because it was posted after I had replied to you.

This is actually nothing to do with "the media" - this is just something that's done by normal people. It's the same as people genericising the brand-name Hoover to refer to vacuum-cleaners, or the brand-name Google to refer to internet searches, and it's part of why companies have to work to protect and enforce their trademarks.

InCyberspace said:
I found it by chance. It was over a year ago. They were selling them in my local convenience store. Never seen them before and never seen them since. The store is different now under new name and new management.
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I wonder if the DigiPet came before the flood of counterfeit Tamagotchi Connections, or after?

 

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