stuff
Tamagotchi Connexion Version 1
The first release of the Connexion series of Tamagotchi. Like the name suggests, it has a focus on 'connexion', and uses infrared (the red stripe on top of the device) to let users link with friends and play minigames or exchange gifts.
It's a pretty basic device compared to what came later on, but still a giant step up from the original gen 1 and gen 2 tamagotchis. The first tamagotchi I had was a V2, so I don't have too much experience with the V1.
I only have one Tamagotchi V1, and I didn't get it until I was in my 20s. I got it off eBay for a low price, maybe around £10, and at the time wanted one to further complete my collection. I like the Mametchi charm it has.
Tamagotchi Connexion Version 2
The first tamagotchi I ever owned. They look visually identical to the V1 - the only way you can tell them apart, as far as I know, is by shell design and the background design on the screen. I didn't like this Tamagotchi as a child. I couldn't figure out how the games worked so my Tamagotchi was always fat. The strongest memory I have of it is taking it to my friend Kate's house and her showing me, in hushed giggles behind their family sofa, how her brother had named her Tamagotchi POO.
It's purple, that's for sure. I would've been 4 when I got this.
Tamagotchi Connexion Version 3
This is where the Connexion series really starts to get nostalgic for me. The V3 is probably my favourite Tamagotchi overall, which is why I have so many of them. It's got a great balance of simplicity and entertainment, the characters are good, it's low on gimmicks and gimmick characters, and it's not too needy so you can easily have it running without getting annoyed. Also, they're much cheaper to buy than other versions. It also introduced TamaTown, a website where you could play minigames and transfer Gotchi back to your device.
This was my first V3. I remember coming out of school in Year 1, running to my mum to say hello and her having one of these in her hands ready for me to play with. I'm not sure why she chose a cow design when there are so many better shells, but maybe that's all they had in the shop. It's so well-used you can see that the logo saying 'Tamagotchi' has worn away. It also has a keychain. This was an honour bestowed only upon my favourites as I loved fiddling with them, but they often got broken thanks to this so were in short supply.
This and the red tropical V3 were bought together as a pair. They cost me about £30 for both and I got them a long time ago, probably 2015 or so. They're my favourite V3s and I normally choose one of them if I'm going to run one. I prefer this one ever so slightly because the buttons feel a little more responsive than the red one.
This shell and the pink ribbons design were purchased as a trio alongside the blue clouds V4 shell in the next section. They also came with a Pocket Pikachu Color (see Other section). I got these on the tail end of my childhood Tamagotchi obsession, around 2019 I guess. It cost me £35 for the lot. I've not used them too much. It was around this time that I realised I'd rather have a collection where every piece has individual value to me rather than a large one full of things I never use just because I want different shells, so I stopped buying repeats for versions I already owned.
This was my sister's childhood V3. She would neglect her pet until it grew into Masktchi, Kurokotchi, or Gozarutchi. I think some people are nostalgic for this transparent aesthetic, but personally I've never been a fan.
I love this shell. It's definitely my favourite design of the V3s I own. It's so bright and friendly.
Pink is not my favourite colour, but the silver highlights are quite good. I'm lukewarm on this one.
Tamagotchi Connexion Version 4
This was my favourite version as a kid, and is my second favourite of the Connexion series (second to the V3). It's distinguishable from other versions by the ball on its antenna. Its main gimmick was the stats mechanic, but there's a lot of other stuff unique to this version, too. It introduced a stats mechanic, where your Tamagotchi has Intelligence, Charm, and Art scores that can be raised by playing games or going to school. I could go into all the details of exactly how it works and which activities raise what stats but that would make this section so long and the information is easily available elsewhere. Your Tamagotchi can go to preschool as a toddler, school as a teen, and then can even go to work as an adult. There's a postman who will drop off letters for you multiple times a day, including invitations to go to school for the first time, a daily fortune (which can influence how much Gotchi you get from games, amongst other things), and random gifts from the King (or, sometimes, a poop or snake from a prankster that causes all your heart containers to empty).
This version bangs. There's so much to do and engage with. The characters you get are linked to both how well you take care of them and how high their respective stats are. Their stats then influence what jobs they can successfully apply for as an adult. The base minigames are varied and engaging (except Dance, fuck that one), the side activities are cute, the jobs are fun and can get you extra Gotchi (and are associated with unique minigames!!!), and the character roster is good. This version also had TamaTown, but this time your actual Tamagotchi could go there. Hooray!
If it's so good, why is it not my favourite to replay? Well, that's because all the extra stuff that makes it an engaging pet is kind of annoying as an adult. The mail means it's pinging at you multiple times a day outside of normal care responsibilities (and if you open that mail and there's a shit in there you have to drop everything you're doing to play a game with your fella or feed it snacks), and the characters being linked to stats means that over multiple generations that control can feel like a burden if you're not deliberately trying to mix it up. Some of the minigames give you random stat increases but the 3 introduced as a teen give a fixed increase to a respective stat. If you have a favourite game and take consistent care of your Tamagotchi you could conceivably get the same few characters over and over across generations.
This was my all-time favourite Tamagotchi as a child and the one I remember taking everywhere. I'd take it to school and gymnastics and my friends and I would connect. The design itself is just fine, the colours are okay. I mainly adored this one in particular because the buttons are so responsive. I'm a great lover of tactile sensation. I got to 13 generations in a row on this without a single death. A lot of commitment for a child!
This was my sister's V4 growing up. It didn't get much use - she preferred the V4.5. The sound on this one has never worked properly, so it's way too quiet. This means it's easier to miss when it beeps at you for whatever reason.
I really like the design of this one. It hasn't had much use, but if I was going to run a V4 now it would be this one.
This is actually a Japanese V4! It came with a string of multicoloured beads. I was running it and was so happy and then the soft plastic the beads were looped on snapped (it was just old) and this guy and a brand new (secondhand) Tamagotchi Mix fell out of my pocket and it got a minor cosmetic imperfection and I was so aggrieved I stopped running both for a while. So I can't speak too much on the differences between this and the English version!
Tamagotchi Connexion Version 4.5
The V4.5 was an alternate version of the V4 with different characters and games but still the same gameplay loop. You can tell them apart by the antenna design. The V4 has a round ball, and the V4.5 has a star. I really like the V4.5 and its aesthetic. The characters and overall theme of the device are more fantastical, with some of them just being alternate versions of normal Tamagotchi. The game from the V4 where you jump rope has been replaced with one where you jump through the clouds instead, etc. For whatever reason, these are way more expensive to buy secondhand than a V4.
This was my childhood V4.5. I love the blue colour. It's a little sun-damaged - the back is more of an egg-blue, but the front has faded. I got a screw stuck in this one when I was little. It got stripped and I couldn't take the backplate off. I didn't know what to do so basically just pulled the entire back off. The backplates have two small clips near the bottom that 'hook' it to the main body and these got snapped in the carnage. Then, I'd got the backplate off (hooray!) but no way to secure it, so my solution was just to tape the entire thing closed whenever I wanted to play it. I liked this version a lot so that happened more than you'd think. Blue and yellow truly the best colour scheme.
This was my sister's childhood V4.5. It's pretty sun-damaged and yellowed (though it looks fine in this picture) because she used to leave it on her windowsill and forget all about it, and come back hours later to a corpse or a screen completely full of poo (diseased Tamagotchi in the corner).
Tamagotchi Connexion Version 5
The version 5, or Familitchi, introduces a new way to raise Tamagotchis. Rather than having one pet at a time, you now look after up to three, hence the name Familitchi. You're looking after a whole family. I did not like this version as a kid and to be honest have never really gone back to it. I just don't find it very fun to play. I can't even remember what the games are, it feels confusing and kind of unintuitive to use, and to top it all off they are ridiculously expensive now. A 'normal' shell will run you about £100, with rarer ones being 4 or even 5x that. I suppose this was when Tamagotchis started to lose relevance. I feel like I knew a lot of people growing up who had a V2, V3, or a V4, but I can't think of anybody who had a V5. This is when my sister lost interest fully in Tamagotchis and to be honest I can't remember her ever using this version. It was only me who was stubborn enough to keep playing with them! The house roof antenna on the device itself is very cute and most of them came with a charm, which I also like.
My sister and I had one each of this shell. I never liked it because it was pink all over, but I guess that was all that was available in the shop. When I went to uni, after having kept all of both my and my sister's Tamagotchis for a long time, I insisted that my sister take her one of this shell back as it was a duplicate (and I don't like V5s much). She told me she didn't really want it but I was adamant. A couple of years later, I found out that this shell is an Argos exclusive and found a few listings on eBay for upwards of £600. I then obviously immediately contacted my sister and told her this, but she couldn't find the Tamagotchi anywhere. Eventually we decided she must have given it to charity. Much anguish followed. I can see now that on eBay this goes for around ~£200, but to be honest, I got over replacing it a long time ago. I'd never buy a Tamagotchi that cost that much anyway but if I only want something because I think it's valuable, having not liked it in the first place, well that's just not good morals is it. I wouldn't have sold it no matter how much it went for (well, unless it was like... thousands), so wanting it purely for clout is wrong. That's my cope anyway. The charm on this one is very cute. I love Violetchi.
Tamagotchi Connexion Version 6
This is the last release in the Connexion series, also known as the Music Star. These are insane to buy secondhand. It seems to get worse every year, but I just checked the market and they're sitting at about £250+ unboxed. I guess they're pretty rare, and I'm not sure if they released in Japan at all. If they did, I've not ever been able to find one. The Music Star is a unique device. Its gameplay revolves around your Tamagotchi being in a band. The shells are all music themed, the games revolve around music, your Tamagotchi has an instrument it can practice with - and when it becomes an adult, you join a band and can play in concerts. There are different genres of music. It's a pretty sick device. It also had integration with by far the coolest version of TamaTown. You could send your Tamagotchi to it by linking your Music Star to the website, which would mean you could walk around and chat in a Club Penguin-esque social environment. There were games and events, and you could get a special evolution for your Tamagotchi. The only downsides to the Music Star are that it's so needy. It needs a lot of attention to make your band good, and once your Tamagotchi becomes a teen unlike previous versions there's no default food option that will fill it up, so you've gotta keep your economy good until you start earning money. If you don't practice a lot and keep your fella healthy good luck passing those auditions.
This was the first time my sister didn't want a Tamagotchi. We were in Tesco and she had one picked out (it was orange, with a black city skyline, fading to a purple gradient at the bottom - great shell) but then decided she'd rather have a different toy instead and put it back. How we grow up! I like the blue on this shell. I think some Music Stars came with a plastic guitar pick. If mine did, I don't know where it is.
Colour Tamagotchis
Colour Tamagotchis were Japan exclusive for a long time. The first of them, simply named the Tamagotchi Plus Color, came out in 2008 and ever since I first heard of it in probably 2009 or 2010 I've been OBSESSED. They're the one Tamagotchi that I still really want to own. They have a simple block colour design and waugh I just love them. The last time they were a reasonable price I was a child with no income, genuinely. Once in 2015-2016ish I found a lot of them for around £30-£40 but chose not to spend my limited job money on a Tamagotchi, thinking they would probably depreciate with time (as was the style at the time for retro items), and I regret this every day. But to be fair how was I supposed to know that the market for my stupid cheap hobby would explode and the Tamagotchi Plus Color would end up going for an extremely reasonable £200+ secondhand. Maybe one day they'll be ~£50 again and I can finally have one.
Japan continued to release colour Tamagotchis at a steady rate, including the Tamagotchi iD and then iDL, the Ps, the Mix, the Meets, etc etc. They all take AAA batteries, and have full colour, fully backlit screens. They're much bulkier than the Connexion models and I think they are sooooo cool.
The rest of the world got some shitters during this time, including the Tamagotchi Friends, which had the form factor of the Color models but not the backlit screen nor the gameplay. I had a Friends gifted to me but didn't end up keeping it as it was not good - the screen in particular was horrible.
This could probably be its own separate page because there are so many models with their own unique features, but I don't have that many (because you generally have to import them, and they're expensive, and most of them continue to get more expensive over time) so I'm just going to put all the ones I have in one place.
Tamagotchi iDL
Tamagotchi Ps
Tamagotchi Mix
Tamagotchi Watches
The self-restraint to not put 'Tamawatchi' as the title... Bandai decided that a fun new twist on the Tamagotchi experience would be a watch that is also a Tamagotchi. Originally Japan-only with the Tamagotchi Smart, which was touch-screen only (horrible), they since released the Tamagotchi Uni worldwide. Tamagotchi watches are cool in concept. Have your buddy on your wrist! But in execution, I found that it just doesn't work that well for me. The transition from physical battery to a rechargeable device was a weird one for me - technically superior in every way but I dunno, the Connexion series last like 6 weeks on one battery. The watches you have to charge every couple of days and then you have to wear it around, but the straps are rubber and don't make for a great sensory experience. Plus, they're very baby-coded which is fun and all but difficult to wear around as an adult. You can use them as a normal device without a wriststrap but these versions are piercingly loud - I guess to make up for the sound having to carry through rubber and also cos it's always hanging out on your wrist. Cool concept but not for me. I barely used the Uni at all.
tamawatchi
