Keychain vs. ball chain in P1 Tamas

[kbutt]

I did browse around before posting this, and I've seen two other topics on this particular question—but both of them are from many many years ago, so I'm wondering if anyone is an expert and has updated information on it!

I'm a collector, and I start up collecting again every few years. This time I am on a quest to pick up every shell color from the first wave of P1 Tamagotchis (pink/yellow, white/blue, yellow/orange, purple/blue and translucent blue). I'm at three out of six, all of them ball chain style.

I'd always understood that the ball chain keyring style was exclusive to the first wave of P1 Tamas, and this wisdom appears to be common around the internet. But lately I've found a NUMBER of in-box, authentic P1/Wave 1 Tamas for sale online that have keyrings instead of ball chains. I'm reluctant to buy any because I'm worried they are from another country (I'm only interested in in-box Tamas from the US).

Anyone know anything specific about this subject? Were there actually multiple batches of P1/Wave 1 Tamas? Ideally my collection would only include Tamas from the earliest batches possible.

Thank you so much!

 

[OneSummerDream]

US Tamagotchis can come with either type of chain. I don’t know the specifics besides that, but maybe the chained P1s are the earliest? That’s what the Japanese ones had, so the key rings might have been used in later US additions. This is supported by how the P2s pretty much exclusively have those. Just a theory, though. It’s also possible to find some NIB P1s with either.