The Tamagotchi Spirit

[CuteLilChibiTama<3]

See the thing is, I am really the only person I know with ANY Tamagotchis. I don't know whether it is my age group (I'm 21) or whether people just aren't that interested anymore. I absolutely love Tamagotchi. I had a REALLY rough childhood, and I used Tamagotchis and books as an escape mechanism... and now even heading into my adult years, nothing brings me that sense of escapism or relaxation then sitting down with a Tamagotchi or a book. Some people get really attached to these things, me included, but when I want to talk about them, this site is the only place I go. If I looked at one of my friends and said "Oh my goodness, I just managed to nab a a Santaclautch" or "My Angel tama takes so many walks a day" they would look at me like I was speaking Chinese. One of my friends saw my V3, i think it was anyway, and was like "Wow holy crap do they still make those?". Its a little sad to know that the community they bring so much joy to has dwindled down. Even when I browse through old threads here, so many account say something like "Inactive account" or "Joined 2006 - 37 posts". See I have some disposable income, and maybe that's a factor in keeping people enthralled. Like you all know its pretty darn exciting knowing there's a parcel in the mail bringing you a brand new Tama for your collection. Or maybe its because the Japanese Tamagotchis have kind of over taken the western ones in popularity, and not many people really have say a spare $100 for a colour Tamagotchi. Whatever the reason its sad to know maybe these once loved pixel pets don't appeal to that many people anymore

Edit:

Also I live in Australia and go window shopping quite a bit, and still have NOT seen a single Tama-Go or figurine in Target or K-Mart or Woolworths or Toys-R-Us. I can't find them anywhere :S

 

[Space Unicorn]

I know exactly what you mean.All of my friends except one hate tamas,they think they're "stupid" and ask me "why do you still use those?"I minus well be 3 feet tall and have a giant lollipop and a Barbie in my hand. I have a phone but I HATE sitting there texting,it's annoying to me.You could be talking to your friends in person or at least on video chat.I had a sleepover with 4 of my friends,two out of the four had tamagotchis.They kept asking me why I was playing with it and "what's the point?".My reply was "they're cute and fun,that's why." No effect just like with your case.:/

My friend was over my house when I grabbed my Tamagotchi to check it's health meter, she asked what it was and I told her. when I played a game with it she said "That thing is stupid." I called her stupid, made her leave my house and she's not my friend anymore ^.^

And I'm trying to teach one of my friends the character names Lol, I made and printed out some flash cards, she keeps on mixing up Memetchi with Ichigotchi and the only one she knows right off the bat is Lovelitchi.

 

[Moussette]

Here in france it's dead since the release of V5....It's sad, because it's hard for me to find Tamagotchi's to buy. When you look on ebay, there is less and less tamas for sale T-T

(hi there ! i registered sone time ago and never really posted on the forum )

 

[nekopan]

When I went shopping to The Warehouse, my mom asked one of the staff: "Excuse me, do you have any of the little figures that go on Tamagotchi?" and then the staff said "I don't know...maybe in the toys section?" and murmur things like "Long time since I saw those..." and "Nobody ever buys them anymore..." then we go to the girls toys section and after a bit of hunting, behind a load of Littlest Pet Shop collectables, were two Tama-Go figures. I often find them near La La Loopsys (girlish) and Moshi Monsters Moshlings (neutral-ish), so they're mostly in the Gender Neutral section.

Whoa. In Toys R Us,I find the Tamagotchis near Top Trumps and Digivices. I didn't know The Warehouse treated Tamas like that.

 

[Violetchi luv]

I searched Target for the new Tama-Go. No luck. The person we asked said she hadn't seen those since she was 8. We went to Toys R Us. We found some! I got a green one. I now have 4 two green ones and two white ones. I have 3 figures (not counting the lites.)

 

[MametchiBoyz]

good for ya violetchiluv im an asian who lived in malaysia and the toys r us around my state dont even have tama-go and when i asked the staffs they said that they dont know when the tama-gos will be made again and some said that they dont get a single tama-go since jan 2011 . i was sad when heard dat so i went to some online auctions and got 1 second-hand rarely played black tama-go. i think i was a little bit lucky anyway

 

[Tama Queen]

There is still tamagotchi spirit, but kids born in the 2000 don't know a thing about them, but all my friends have one now!!!

 

[dazzilitchigirl]

There is still tamagotchi spirit, but kids born in the 2000 don't know a thing about them, but all my friends have one now!!!

Uhh...I was born in 2001, but you're kind of right there, I haven't met a single kid in the country apart from 1 girl who was borin in 1999 who knows what a Tama is.

 

[ETHAN1994]

Yeah, that is definitely true.

Quite a few awesome websites seem to be going out of date in their information because they are being abandoned. It's such a shame.

Even BanDai doesn't seem that fussed about them anymore.

 

[purpurn]

I think part of the issue is yes, Bandai has advertized badly; Two - world economy is not doing so well and kinda teeter tottering at the moment; and three - Bandai has given up on the English speaking portion of their tamagotchi base because they made it unpopular through lack of good PR.

My Husband and I are gamers. One of the key things we look into about a game before we buy it is replayability. Honestly, video games are expensive (especially with companies selling additional content to add onto the released game) to start with usually hitting about $50-$60 brand new. We have made the mistake of purchasing a game that honestly was not what we feel as up to par with $60 before. Why did we do that - probably cause of all the promise the game showed in advertising through magazines, website reviews, sneak peak articles, etc...

I know one of Bandais big concerns with selling a color version in English is that it would cost too much for their "targeted" audience. Honestly, if they made a nice color unit similar to an IDL (hopefully not as fat as the tamago) and had the feature to download extra content and characters for free or even a very small fee, possibly with a rechargeable battery (USB port for charging and download maybe?) - I'm sure people would pay for it. They would need to get the product out there to the public though - PR with some magazines and online reviews and the like to get the word out - maybe spin it as nostalgia to get more people interested (Have a 97' "view" where it looks like the old tamas - download content?)

If companies can sell aqua pets Bandai can sell a better, more interesting and wider audience grabbing virtual pet.

-Purn

 

[dazzilitchigirl]

Yeah, that is definitely true.

Quite a few awesome websites seem to be going out of date in their information because they are being abandoned. It's such a shame.

Even BanDai doesn't seem that fussed about them anymore.

BanDai needs to:

A) Advertise. BanDai, if you can't come up with anything, here's a little bit of advertising: "Tamagotchi iD L, the newest and greatest virtual pet! Raise over 30 different characters and unlock new cool destinations and characters every week! Raise your virtual pet by feeding it, taking it out to various restaurants, playing games with it, and even downloading more clothes, wallpapers and items to it using your mobile phone! Compete with your friends for the highest generation! If you're a good carer, you'll end up with a character like the ideal pet you always dreamed of surrounded by endless items, clothes and super cool wallpapers you created yourself! It's THE best electronic toy ever! You can never get bored with Tamagotchi iD L! Trust us, you'll never regret buying your Tamagotchi iD L!!"

B ) Put some of the coolest colour Tamas in ENGLISH and ship them out to America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China and India! You could even translate them into French and Spanish and Portugese and Finnish and a load of other languages too!

C) Scrap the Tama-Go and other versions that give people a bad impression of Tamagotchi!

I say: COME ON BANDAI YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!! YOU CAN BEAT SQUINKIES AND MOSHI MONSTERS AND YOUR OTHER LAME-COMPARED-TO-TAMAGOTCHI COMPETITION! REMEMBER WHEN TAMAGOTCHI WAS RELEASED! YOU MADE AN ABSOLUTE FORTUNE! DO IT AGAIN! YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN BANDAI, DON'T GIVE UP ON TAMAGOTCHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can someone please send this topic to BanDai? I think we really need to. BanDai never bothers to look at our protests, so WE'VE GOT TO STOP THINKING THEY'RE COMING TO US AND GO TO THEM!

 

[kuromametchifan123]

^I'll send it!I totally agree with Dazzilitchigirl,the Tama-Go was a bad first impression of Tamagotchi.I say we all clutter their Coustmer Service Inbox with links to this topic.COME ON BANDAI!YOU'VE DONE BETTER!!First of all,Bandai needs to buy that 4 pm timeslot and advertise Tamagotchi not Squinkies or whatever.Like the Japaneese iD-L commercial like: Girl 1:Wanna connect to my new Tamagotchi? Girl 2:Yes! *giggle laugh,suddenly surrounded by a bunch of other girls and boys with tamagotchi.*Everyone:[insert catchy Tamagotchi slogan here] *Bandai logo graphic*.And what was that,a thirty second comercial?Come on Bandai,I'm younger than the advertisement staff and I came up with that and you haven't?That's sad.

Can't it be back in 09 when "everyone who's anyone" had a Music Star?Or even better,back in 08 when you would see people with v5s at Walmart and Target...That was because Bandai advertised it well.Come on Bandai,don't throw Tamagotchi in the trash,it's not done yet!Everyone,send a link to this topic to Bandai,I'd love to show them they still have Tamagotchi fans.

 

[LadyPlague]

Whenever I have a tamagotchi on me at school (high school to be exact) and someone sees me- I get one of 3 reactions:

1 (the most common): Is that one of those tamagotchis (usually pronounced wrong) ?

2: Really (said in a mocking or in a "what's wrong with this person" way), you have one THOSE?

3 (the rarest, and yet the better reaction): IS THAT A TAMAGOTCHI!? (said in a "ZOMG, I REMEMBER THOSE!!!" tone) OR Can I see it!? (I say yes, and let her see it) It's so cute!!!

But to MY credit, I got someone to start up one of their tamagotchis.

In terms of younger kids however, I think of what happened in a video-game store.

Group of young kids playing a game: Umm, what are you doing?

Me (waiting for my turn): just waiting for my turn.

Youngest of the group (maybe 4 or so): What's that around your neck?

*oldest (maybe 8) and middle child (6 or 7) turn around to see it*

Me: It's a tamagotchi. a virtual pet.

Middle child: Why do you have it?

Me: For companionship, (this next part is a white lie as I DID travel a lot, but it isn't the actual reason why I bought one, and i didn't think they would understand what "nostalgia" is.) I travelled all around Europe and I felt it would make me feel less lonely as I travelled the streets of each new city.

All 3: Ah. *they go back to their game*

So in conclusion, while the younger kids probably will never get involved with tamagotchis, the older kids haven't totally forgotten about them.

In regards to finding them however, all I can find are figurines and even THOSE aren't easy to find. I DID find a V6 (the one I have right now).SOMEHOW, I found a V4.5 once, but I never really liked the tamas on them. (I have slight regrets due to the fact I could've have sold it on Ebay, but it's water under the bridge now.)

 

[dazzilitchigirl]

^I'll send it!I totally agree with Dazzilitchigirl,the Tama-Go was a bad first impression of Tamagotchi.I say we all clutter their Coustmer Service Inbox with links to this topic.COME ON BANDAI!YOU'VE DONE BETTER!!First of all,Bandai needs to buy that 4 pm timeslot and advertise Tamagotchi not Squinkies or whatever.Like the Japaneese iD-L commercial like: Girl 1:Wanna connect to my new Tamagotchi? Girl 2:Yes! *giggle laugh,suddenly surrounded by a bunch of other girls and boys with tamagotchi.*Everyone:[insert catchy Tamagotchi slogan here] *Bandai logo graphic*.And what was that,a thirty second comercial?Come on Bandai,I'm younger than the advertisement staff and I came up with that and you haven't?That's sad.

Can't it be back in 09 when "everyone who's anyone" had a Music Star?Or even better,back in 08 when you would see people with v5s at Walmart and Target...That was because Bandai advertised it well.Come on Bandai,don't throw Tamagotchi in the trash,it's not done yet!Everyone,send a link to this topic to Bandai,I'd love to show them they still have Tamagotchi fans.

I'm not really allowed to send stuff like this to BanDai, although my mom would be extrememly happy if I asked questions about why they're doing this, but not so happy if she found I was sending stuff that was basically a camapign to keep Tamagotchi going. (Tamagotchi being discontinued is her dream, I'm sure if it happened she's throw a party while I was at school). BUT EVERYONE WHO CAN, SEND IT!!

I've even got evidence. My brother goes on Moshi Monsters even though he's 15, and he says stuff like "I'm STILL trying to get the Moshling Mini Ben!" and "Grr I did so bad on my Daily Challenge!" and I sounded like fun, but I created an account and quit within a day. I honestly don't know what Tamagotchi advertisers think they're fighting.

 

[Peanut05]

Yeah I know. Sad huh? I am still a loyal Tama fan! Goooooooooooooooooo Tamas!

 

[FullBlownWitch]

I know that it has. It hurts me.

I only just (if you've been able to take a look at my log) got over my fear/intimidation factor of going out and about with my Tamagotchi because so many people do tell you that you're out of your mind for having just a "toy". It's heinous. Other people play games just as "silly" on their smartphones, so what's the difference with our little, original versions.

I wish more people were into Tamagotchi again. Although since I have brought mine back to life, if you will, and have started the log, as well have kept some active posts about my Tama on my legit Blog, a lot of my friends have started digging their old ones out, or saying they're going to buy some online, etc. So I'm actually really happy that that has started, because without going and checking message and people number - I've got about 35 people who have decided they're gonna try and join the Tama Craze again. How fantastic.

Bandai needs to do some serious advertising around here again, and start pointing out all the fabulous things that the Tamagotchi can do, old and new versions.

 

[tamacollector23]

I think that the Tamagotchi Spirit has been fading slowly. I'm very sad about it. I love these little characters and wish that they got more press. Obviously, most kids from this generation wouldn't like it because it's not as fantastic as the video games they have today but these characters are really unique and hard to forget. I am not ashamed to be a Tamagotchi fan despite the fact that I've been told that I should be. Tamagotchi is original, ageless, cute, and amusing. I have collected them for many years and will continue to as long as they make them.

I believe no matter what the Tamagotchi Spirit will always be around.

 

[Gotchi Guy46]

I didn't expect this topic to get this many posts.

Thank you all, I'm really interested in hearing your opinions. Maybe we could all try and bring it back somehow? Do you guys think that the Tama-Go was Bandai America's last Tama?

 

[kuromametchifan123]

I didn't expect this topic to get this many posts.

Thank you all, I'm really interested in hearing your opinions. Maybe we could all try and bring it back somehow? Do you guys think that the Tama-Go was Bandai America's last Tama?

I think the Tama-go was a disappointment to Tama Fans. Yes I loved it for the first 6 months but afterwards it just got old. It's lacking pizazz I guess.I didn't want a giant Easter egg that could double as a baseball and a weapon.I loved how small the Music Star was,it wasn't so noticeable. Sure the new features are great but come on,no one wants a giant egg in their pocket.I don't think the Tama-Go was the last Tama,I sent them an email asking and they said they would "continue the Tama-go line but have no plans for future Tamagotchis.Maybe we could do something though.Bandai still does those Demo Days don't they?And we could always tell our friends about Tamas.Not my best idea but I bet I could think of something.

 

[FullBlownWitch]

I am just ecstatic that I managed to get yet another friend of mine buying a Tamagotchi, even though it's online, and is about to start her first ever Tamagotchi, and she's so excited because it's such a classic, but never did it, because no one else around her has one. I said to stuff 'em all and get one if you want one, and she has heard me talk about them for years, and she's finally getting one, because she sees how much joy, pure and simple, the Tamagotchi brings to me.

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So, I think it's faded away, because there are so many other toys and things, but if BanDai made the push, they'd have people young and old ALL over Tamagotchi again.

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