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 :)

Tags: giga pets, virtual pets
Current Mood: cheerful

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.

Tags: nano tamagotchi (chibi v2), tamagotchis
Current Mood: blank

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:

Tags: tama-go, tamagotchi connection, tamagotchis
Current Mood: calm

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.)

Tags: devilgotchi (devil tamagotchi), tamagotchis, vintage tamagotchis
Current Mood: cheerful

This is a list of Tamagotchis I don't own, but I wish to collect one day.


V5.5 Celebrity Tamagotchi

Japanese Royal Family Tamagotchi

Aqua Palz (fish)

Bit Critter Giga Pet

Sabrina (black cat) Giga Pet

Any type of Nano or double Nano

Tomy DNYA Mickey Mouse game (yellow, blue and pink)

Z-pets (doesn't matter which ones)

Green Dinkie Dino

Dinkie 4-in-1 (white or green)

Penpy (any color)

10-in-1

Ku Ma Taro Bear

American Oceangotchi

Digimon (any version except V1)

Asian Connexion V2

Dragon Quest (any color)

Cool Tec Pocket Puppy

Pocket Chick

Hitorriko (fish, puppy, panda, etc)

Hello Kitty Pedometer

Heart Tune

Yasashii







and that's about it. I'm not too intent on collecting anything else, but if I get the chance I will one day.

Tags: wishlist
Current Mood: calm

Introducing the V6 connection Tamagotchi, also known as Tamagotchi Music Star! My friend and I decided to nickname this one "The Stressed Tama". Why? Well because apparently Bandai decided to add a new meter which indicates when the character is stressed out. So now not only do you have to worry about hunger and happiness, you also need to worry about keeping the stress down. Seems a little superfluous to me since there's already a happiness meter which indicates whether or not the tama is happy or unhappy *shrug*. In addition to the new meter, not only does the Tama get stressed, but we found ourselves getting stressed just playing with it. "Why?" you may be asking again. Well because there are just too many menus and options on this tama. Not only does your cahracter grow up and mate, it also forms a band, practices it's intrument, goes to music school, and actually has to get tested and graded O_O Whoever came up with the idea to send a Tamagotchi to school was crazy in my opinion. Kids have to endure school everyday as is, so what makes Bandai think that kids want to send their pets to school in the game too? We play with Tamagotchis because we want a vacation from school XD That's my opinion anyway lol



Not only did we find some of the stuff extremely hard to navigate because there were too many menus, the buttons were very unresponsive. We had heard this complaint from other people about the V6, but we bought the V6 anyway just to give it a fair shot. Unfortunately, the critics were right :( It usually takes me at least 2 tries to get a button to do anything on this Tamagotchi. That said, it's the same thing with the v4.5 that I have, so I've been able to put up with it in the past. Oh well.



The goal of this Tamagotchi is obviously to become a music star by practicing your instruments and practicing with the band members you meet in the music school. Admittedly, after fiddling around with the Tamagotchi I got used to some of the new features and I do kind of like some of it. Some menus are reorganised nicely (despite there being too many), Bandai brought back the original shop (just looks a little differently and your tamagotchi actually walks out the door to go shopping), and they also brought back the discipline and praise features, which I am happy about. The BIGGEST improvement in this version was the LACK OF ANTENNA. I was so relieved to see they finally got rid of the antenna on this version because aside from the v3 and Keitais, antennas really bug me and I think they look ugly. I can't say too many positive things about the shell designs sadly. I didn't really see any designs I liked, so I opted for the least ugly one (in my opinion anyway) *sigh*



Other notable things I liked: The screen of pixels extends all the way to both sides just like on the v5 :D I really like how the Tama has way more room to move around. You can adjust contrast like on the v5. Also, your tama doesnt get lonely on the screen because there are actually toys and instruments present at all times for him/her to play with. I thought that was a good idea and it was something I had been thinking about for a long time and wanted Bandai to add. I'm glad they read my thoughts on that feature. You can switch toys and instruments when you get new ones if you want. Super cute! There's also an actual trashcan feature. You could throw away stuff in the older versions too, but it was more difficult to do because the option was never expressly visible like on the v6. It actually gives you the option in the menu in this one.



Other stuff I didn't like: There are 3 games and they are kind of difficult :/ I like easy games that don't take too much practice or aren't too hard to figure out, but still super fun and challenging. Since response time on the buttons is awful, that made the games even more difficult to play. We're also thinking of calling the v6 "The Difficult, Stressed Tama" XD



Silly, silly Bandai *shakes head*



I give this version 3 and a half out of 5 Hitodetchis.



Here are some pictures of the one I currently own:

price

Got this one for $14.99+tax at Toys R Us. You can still buy them for about $17 on eBay right now, brand new in package :D Since its a relatively cheap Tamagotchi, despite all its drawbacks, I would suggest collecting it now before it gets expensive.

V6 Growth Chart

A chart can be found here at tama-zone.com ----> http://tama-zone.com/ar/t21193.htm

Tags: music star, tamagotchi connection, tamagotchis, v6 connection (music star)
Current Mood: cheerful

This is by far one of the best Connection tamas ever! You get to raise 3 characters on one screen as a family! Hence the chimney because it's like they live in a little house under one roof ^_^ They have 4 different games. Two of which you can play on a regular basis. In order to unlock the other two games you must have a father and mother figure present. Your tamagotchis grow up together, and eventually form their own families. You get different families depending on how your characters bond with eachother. It's a little confusing at first, but there are plenty of forums online where you can find information on how to get certain families.



What's new? Instead of a shop where you buy items, there is a shopping tv station on your Tamagotchi. There are three channels: 1) shopping, 2) dating show and 3) travel channel. When you go to the dating show at too young of an age, the Match Maker will yell at you and shut the tv off lol If you choose the travel channel, your tamagotchis go on a family vacation which is the same as pausing your regular Tamagotchi. You won't need to care for them when this function is activated because they are "away on holiday" so to speak :P Also instead of a discipline feature, there is a "family bonding" feature. When your tamagotchis beep for seemingly no reason it means they want to interact with each other. Depending on how you care for the family they will aspire to different talents such as intelligence or creativity doing art. It's really awesome. There's so much to explain about this version of the connection that it's not even funny. The downfall is that this newest version can only connect to other v5s. But on the plus side you can still connect to the brand new v5 website at TamaTalk.com just like with the v3 and v4. You can also input special passwords in your v5 to get free items. The best thing is that you can keep these items forever. Even food! Once again the antenna is a little annoying in my opinion, but all the new stuff more than makes up for it! :D



Here is a picture of the one I currently own:

price

Going for really cheap at $20-30 brand new. Auctions can be really cheap too. Just don't pay more than $17 if you do an auction cause then you may as well have just done Buy It Now.

Connection v5 Character/Growth Chart

(NOTE: If you own any of these images and would like them credited or removed, please contact me ASAP and I will comply with your request. Thanks!)

Tags: famitama (familitchi), tamagotchi connection, tamagotchis, v5 connection
Current Mood: chipper

Connection V4.5 came out shortly after the V4. It is much like the v4 except with a lot of different characters and all different games and designs. It also has a little star at the top instead of ball on the antenna. So far I like this one more than the v4 because the games are cuter and more fun in my opinion. This is also the one that comes with the PC pack with games you can play on your computer and voice activation. I haven't tried them out yet but I will later probably. When it comes to tamagotchi stuff on the computer I'm generally not interested, but I figure it's best to play with it at least once :)



Here are some pictures of the one I currently own:

price

These are still going for fairly cheap, $15-30. If you want the PC pack, then it's probably from $30-50ish. I got my PC pack for $12 at Walmart because it was on sale :D

v4.5 Character Chart

Tags: tamagotchi connection, tamagotchis, v4.5 connection
Current Mood: exanimate

Another version! Just like the v3, this one uses a website, but there a couple of different features on the tamagotchi itself. The discipline feature has been replaced with a mail box which delivers messages about how your tamagotchi's day is supposed to go. You also get a career meter function. Depending on how you care for your Character, your character aspires to a certain career. Your tamagotchi will leave the screen sometimes to go to work! Also, the lights on this tamagotchi turn off and on automatically so the light option is missing in this version and has been replaced with a treasure chest where the items are stored. There are tons more games on this one as well. I'm not particularly fond of this version though because the antenna is even more annoying than ever, I'm not impressed with any of the newer characters and I don't particularly care for the games. I'd give it a 3 and a half out of 5 as far as Connections go. Other than that its an ok Tamagotchi and other people might love it.



Here is a picture of the one I currently own. It glows in the dark!:

price

These can be found on eBay and run at $10-25. Again careful about the fake ones because they are super cheat so they will try to tempt you.

Connection V4 Character Chart

(NOTE: If you own this image and would like it credited or removed, please message me and I will accommodate your requests.)

Tags: tamagotchi connection, tamagotchis, v4 connection
Current Mood: artistic

That's right! An antenna! Why? I'm not exactly sure. The Japanese version of this tamagotchi (also known as the Keitai) connects to cell phones, so that explains why the Japanese ones have antennas. The American ones do not connect to cell phones, so no one is quite sure why Bandai decided to include the antenna in every version after the version 2 Tamagotchi up to the V5. Perhaps it serves as reminder of which version it's supposed to be. *shrug* This Tamagotchi functions just like the v1 and v2 except with a couple extra features and a bunch of different characters. You can now log into the TamaTown.com website where you can enter your username from your tamagotchi. Once you enter the website you are presented with a bunch of fun games and shops where you can find souvenirs and item codes to input into your tamagotchi. Essentially this is a website connection Tamagotchi. It also connects to the v1,v2 as well as other v3s and any higher versions that connect with V3s. It is personally one of my favorites :) And of course you don't necessarily need the website to have fun with it. There is still a shop in the Tamagotchi where you can buy items with the points you've earned from playing games.



Here are some pictures of the ones I currently own:

price

You can find a lot of v3's on eBay at the moment and they go for really cheap at about $10-25. Just watch out for the fake ones. What might look like a good deal at $3, could probably turn out to be a crummy boot-leg.

Connection v3 Character Chart

(NOTE: If this image belongs to you and you would like it credited or removed, please message me and I will accommodate your requests.)

Tags: tamagotchi connection, tamagotchis, v3 connection
Current Mood: contemplative