Review Tamagotchi mini

First of all, sorry for the late update, Ive had night duty so its thrown my while schedule off. Now for my little intro. I got this tamagotchi in a lot of 4 off ebay. Picked it up for a steal when you consider all the other pets I got with it.

Name:Tamagotchi mini (AKA chibi)
Manufacturer: Bandai
Produced:2004
Country of origin: Japan


Aesthetics:
This pet is definitely one that will appeal to the old school collectors, the look of this one hearkens back to the early days of tamagotchi. My unit is one of the variations of the original clock face design. This one has has the pink and blue clock face. When seen next to the original tamagotchi once thing becomes really clear, just how small the mini actually is.

The background is again another throwback to the P1 with the same pink and blue checkers design, just in miniature form. The mini was available in lots of designs ranging from those from the original tamagotchis to newer colours and paint jobs.

*Creatures*
The tamagotchi mini sacrifices some of its functionality with the loss of size, this is why only a handful of characters are available. As a result the Mini only has 4 potential adult stages. For those who know them by character names they are Kuchipatchi, Mametchi, Masktchi,and Nyorotchi. Ive been running this unit while Ive been at work so, with the sound off i tend to ignore it a bit so i seem to get nyrotchi pretty regularly. For those who don't know the character names, its the most unhealthy potential adult.
Because this is more of a tribute to the older generation tamagotchi, its unfair to judge this tamagotchi on the originality of its characters. However as far as a faithful representation of the older gen characters, they are perfect down to the pixel.


*Icons*
As part of making the screen as small as possible, the icons are completely gone from this unit, instead all control is performed with the first button its used to feed, clean and medicate the pet and will respond differently depending on what is on the screen ( if the pet has made a mess, push the first button and it will clean it, if it is sick it will medicate and if it has neither, it will bring up a two option food/snack menu.


*Sound and Sound quality*
The sound is pretty nice on this pet. Similar to the original tamagotchi for button push noises but without the games there's not a lot of variation in the sounds.



Game-play:
Game play in the mini is pretty straightforward care, The mini was more sold as a fashion accessory so the care for the Mini is really easy,as I previously stated. Entertainment isn't really needed in the same way it is in the P1 but happiness is needed in the form of candy the same as the P1 and P2.

* Life stages*
The tamagotchi mini has the shortest life cycle of any of the tamagotchis, going from hatch to adult in 24 hours, and has a lifespan of up to 2 weeks.This makes it the ideal V-pet for someone who only wants to run one on weekends or days off.
Because there is no meter to show how full or bored feeding and cleaning on demand is the only real way of getting the favourable characters.

*Buttons*
Tamagotchi mini keeps with the same old design of the 3 button unit, Whats interesting is the


*Resilience*
Because the Mini was marketed more of an accessory than a toy the pet will take a pretty big slog of neglect before it will die. I personally have left it approximately 10 hours only to find it so overfilling with mess and it very ill but not dead. It takes a heap of neglect, but Like any V-pet it does eventually die. I found that this is a bit better for those who don't like to invest a lot of time in a v-pet, particularly for those who find them hard to maintain.

Additional features:

Clock-Yes
Connectability-No
Sound on/off-Yes
Pause-No

The tamkagotchi mini is fun with little commitment to care required. Its great for short term care and for those who like the old school P1/P2 feel. I loved the ease of care and just the novelty of having this tiny little functional tamagotchi. Great way to introduce a V-pet to a child not quite ready for a more complicated V-pet.

May also enjoy: Tamagotchi P1 and P2
Pokemon Pocket Pikachu

3-in-1 Chicken Review

Here's my usual little intro for this pet. I'd never seen or heard of this pet before I purchased it from a stall at a local market. As usual it was more of an accident that I found it, but picked it up cheap I only paid maybe $5-$6 Australian.


Name: 3-in-1 Chicken
Manufacturer: Unknown
Produced:Unknown
Country of origin: Unknown


Aesthetics:
This Pet is in one of the cutest shell designs I've come across. Its a Little half hatched chicken design, with a comb from its head and little feet sticking out the bottom.The eggshell is white, with green speckles and pink buttons. The pink buttons always seemed out of place with the green, but this doesn't detract much from the visual appeal of the pet. This she design is available in another colour, with red speckles.

The background is a bit plain,with green bands along the top and bottom of the screen along where the icons are, but considering the colours of the rest of the toy, this it quite fitting. It was also available in 2 other shell designs with a penguin and a dinosaur.As was popular with V-Pets of the 90's it has an attached ball chain loop at the top to be attached to keys or other handy items.

*Creatures*
The characters in this game are cute but sometimes a little ambiguous as to what they are, partially because of their simplicity, partially because I'm not sure if the creatures are linear in their growth i.e the bird looks like a bird through all its life cycle (as i thought i had a bird but all of a sudden it changed to a dinosaur).
There are 15 available characters , 1 for each life stage of each of the three choices of egg. The three potential final characters are a penguin, a dinosaur and a chicken.


*Icons*
These icons are the standard pictogram's you find with any pet. They do have a fair bit of detail though, the alarm clock representing the "call" icon has little increments on the clock and even the bells and ringer have tiny little sticks attaching them.


*Sound and Sound quality*
The sounds are possibly the biggest downfall of this V-pet, Ive found they are a bit monotonous, and are a very dull sounding beep.Its a bit loud and thankfully it has an included sound off function, the main problem with this sound off function is that the pet when waking up with automatically turn it back on again and beep like crazy.



Game-play:
The game play is about standard for most V-pets of the 90's. It has one really interesting part of its game play, its the clock function. For this game the clock looses an hour overnight, and you have to put it back an hour when the pet awakes. Ive found that it can be a bit annoying, especially if like me, you use your V-pets to keep time.

I personally think this part of the game was because the clock function was designed a bit dodgy.
The games for keeping up the "Mood" gauge are a basic guess the direction game and a little more difficult "Rock, Paper, Scissors" game.
The gauges that show the standard of care have an interesting addition, as this includes the pet needing regular water.

* Life stages*
Upon starting up the choice of three eggs is given, you pick an egg and it will hatch into a standard little black blob character for the first stage of any of the choices, again this is a demanding stage and close attention it required.It needs food, water and play regularly, as well as one short cycle of sleep requiring you to put the clock back.

At any stage, playing with the v-pet is very easy particularly where you must push the button in relations to what direction the pet is facing, this is very very easy as the pet is slow moving and you can win it almost every time. The rock,paper scissors game is harder as you have to hit the button in time to stop the hand icon of the right choice to beat the stationary hands choice. The game play is pretty standard and doesn't change as the pet grows.

*Buttons*
This V-pet is a traditional 3 buttons unit, the first being menu, the second being confirm and the third being cancel. the first and third buttons double as directional buttons in the direction game.


*Resilience*
This pet is pretty difficult to kill, I did manage to neglect it to death once, but this was due to its clock function being out for a few days and it waking up in the night and not being checked and eventually dying. It is more demanding in its baby stage and therefore more susceptible to neglect. Any of the other life stages are a little more hardy and give you quite some time between getting sick and dying.

Additional features:

Clock-Yes
Connectability-No
Sound on/off-Yes
Pause-No

I really like the 3 in one chicken, its a bit more relaxed than most pets and I could take care of it at work on breaks and it would still be fine. Its a very cute, good quality pet and besides the clock and annoying sound, care of this pet is enjoyable.
Sound can be turned on and off but its a bit unreliable if you are up early and forget to wake the pet up and turn the sound back off. The fact that the pet has a max age of 119 makes it fun if you like a longer term V-pet.

May also enjoy:Tamagotchi P1
Nano pets
Gureichi alien

Super Gyaoppi 9-in-1 Review

Name: Super Gyaoppi 9-in-1
Manufacturer: U.I
Produced:1998
Country of origin:Japan (but made in China)

First a little about this unit, I got this one from a toy collectors stall at a popular weekend market. I personally didn't find it, my partner and a friend ( he collects action figures) went while I was at work and he asked only to have had a handful of pets pulled from a shoebox behind the counter. He just picked the ones that looked different from what I already had and picked them up ( he got 5 of them) for about $20 Australian. Considering the pets were all 90's originals and in perfect working order, I think it was a good find.

Aesthetics:
This unit is a clear, light blue oval shaped pet, with green and white writing and images of 3 the available creatures. It has key chain attachment with a small length of ball link chain. The screen is longer and flatter than the traditional egg shaped pet. The background is the similar green, blue and pink metallic background popular with Vpets at the time.
While the Gyaoppi 1 had 2 shell designs, the oval shape and the dinosaur shape, to my knowledge the Super Gyaoppi was only available the oval design.This is not really a flaw but i do enjoy the variability. The shell is large while the internal workings aren't that big making it a nice size for a hand held toy.

*Creatures*
This game is a multi-pet. I know that to many now the multi pet represents a dodgy 24-in-one, 48-in-1, 100+ in-1 dinkie dino knockoff, but this was made in the golden age of the V-pet and the Super Gyaoppi is definitely one of the better multi pets. the pets available in the Super Gyaoppi include a cat, dog, dinosaur,duck alien, frog, penguin, bird and a panda.These pets include may that have been in previous pets from this company, in particular the dinosaurs from the Gyaoppi series, the duck and the bird. The creatures varies nicely and change while still being recognizable as that animal. A cute touch is the food choices change from character to character so your frog and cat eat different foods.
The designs for the time are detailed but, due to the larger LCD pixels than are used in newer pets, the detail was limited.

*Icons*
The icons for the menu are clear and very understandable pictogram's each representing the an action to care for the pet. This pet is different as it has icons along the side, as well as the top and bottom of the screen. These are not actually selectable, but actually represent when the pet has made a mess, there is room for three of these.


*Sound and Sound quality*
The beeps this makes are musical however can be quite harsh and high pitched,sadly i have found the sound is often linked to the glitches and bugs in the Gyaoppi pet.
The sound is quite loud and will easily alert you when the pet needs attention, and the alarm function is loud enough to wake up most sleepers.


Game-play:
The basic game play of the Super Gyaoppi 9-in-1 centres around the care of a small pet of your choice, the aim being to raise a pet from birth to adulthood up until it dies. This care includes, feeding, cleaning, playing with, discipline, medical care control of sleep patten. The games used for entertainment of the pet are different from most other pets. They are a little harder and are more interesting than the basic "guess what side" game. The games are a dodge the falling rocks game and a hi-lo card game.

* Life stages*
The pet has several life stages stages, and the potential different pets it turns into in the adult stage is pretty huge. depending on the kind of care you provide (I'm unsure how much this is in account as I've played through it a few times and gotten different pets with similar care), the pet has a potential to become one of ten adults, with another secret life stage.

The pet begins after being born into a baby stage, I say being born because egg animals hatch from eggs and cats and dogs just climb out of a cardboard box. I like this touch because most multi pets I've played with have a pretty generic start up. The baby stage is not as demanding as some pets, but I've found takes longer to care for.
The games are easy to play with no matter what life stage the pet is in. The games and care available don't change through the life stages. Gyaoppi is one of the many pets you can advance a life stage by playing with the clock function.

This pet has the real potential for being played through repeatedly, as the nine pets all have so many different outcomes.

*Buttons* The unit is designed with 3 buttons, the first being menu, the second being confirm and the third being cancel. The first and third buttons double as directional buttons in the dodge games.The first also acts as the high button and the second as a low button in the Hi-Lo card game.
The buttons are nice and responsive but are a bit close together for a pet with such a large shell, making it hard for someone with larger hands.

*Resilience*
The gyaoppi pets are pretty hard to kill and while without regular care you can fall behind in some games, it is easy to catch back up. but without care any of the other stages die in a matter of hours, some faster than others depending on the adult stage.

Additional features:

Clock-Yes
Connectability-No
Sound on/off-No
Pause-No
Alarm-Yes

Overall this V-pet is a bit annoying to run, while the game play itself if fine, the bugs which see you restart frequently make it hard to enjoy the game through to the end. This does tend to ease off a bit after a couple of so persistence pays off. Sound cant be turned off so this pet is best started off when you have time on your hands or "paused" by suspending the clock function. the pet can still be cared for in situations where you need to be quiet , you can muffle it quite well in a movie theater etc, but you have to anticipate when it may beep. I found the pet fun to care for, particularly the games in this V-pet. It has a fun feature of remembering past pets you have raised which is pretty rare for its time.

May also enjoy:Gyaoppi 2
Dinkie dino
Nano pets

Review Tamagotchi P1

First I will outline the criteria I used for this review, And provide some background information on the unit I am running. My basic headings are aesthetics, game play and additional features. From these I have added sub-heading for each subject.

The unit i am reviewing is a Tamagotchi P1 or, as most know it, the "original" Tamagotchi. This was the very first virtual pet to gain popularity world wide. I purchased my unit second hand from Ebay, as a lot of two with a P2, unboxed. this is by far the cheapest way to collect, you'll often find the older unboxed (and sometimes if you are very, very lucky boxed) virtual pets at garage sales and Op shops.


Name: Tamagotchi P1
Manufacturer: Bandai
Produced:1997
Country of origin:Japan


Aesthetics:
This unit is a clear, light blue egg shaped shell with a "cracked" design. This shell was common throughout this version, however many different colours and decals were available. The buttons are yellow and make a good contrast to the blue plastic shell, Again button colour varied from design to design. Different designs were released in different regions (japan, US, Europe and Oceania) the design of this unit was rather non specific as it was release with wave one P1's in several areas.This particular version has a ball chain loop at the top to be attached to keys.

*Creatures*
As far as originality goes, these characters cant be beaten, as they are the "original" characters. The characters have 10 different designs ranging from very basic "blob" type characters, to cute little aliens, to a human face with little legs.
The designs for the time are detailed but, due to the larger LCD pixels than are used in newer units, the detail was limited. The screen can be difficult so see at times as the contrast causes the screen to appear entirely black from some angles.

*Icons*
The icons for the menu are clear and very understandable pictogram's each representing the an action to care for the pet. The only Icon not immediately recognisable as an action it a picture of a duck, which upon reading the instruction manual, indicates a potty. This activates the cleaning function, and was changed from a toilet in the Japanese P1 when released to the western market.


*Sound and Sound quality*
The beeps this makes are musical and not monotonous across the different reasons for beeping, Many V-pets have the downfall of having a harsh tone in the sounds, with this pet the tone is not horrible.
The sound isn't terribly loud, but Will easily alert you if the pet is kept in a pocket or backpack and has the option of being turned off.


Game-play:
The basic game play of the P1 centres around the care of small alien type pet. This care includes, feeding, cleaning,playing with,discipline, medical care control of sleep patten.

* Life stages*
The pet has 3 life stages baby stages, adolescent stage and adult stage. depending on the kind of care you provide, the pet has a potential to become one of six adults.Which adult you get then influences the lifespan and general health of the pet.

The pet begins after hatching from an egg into a baby stage. In the first stage of life the toy is quite demanding, requiring food and play regularly, as well as one short cycle of sleep and one incident of illness. This I found to be a good way of initially introducing each concept,before moving on to the main game.

In this stage, playing with the Pet is difficult, as the game is a where you must push the button in relations to what direction the pet is facing, in the first baby stage it is near impossible to tell which direction it is facing and becomes guess work, this is similar for the second baby stage, however the clues let you be a little more accurate. The game play changes very little throughout the life stages and continues through till the pet dies.

*Buttons* The unit is designed with 3 buttons, the first being menu, the second being confirm and the third being cancel. the first and third buttons double as directional buttons in the direction game.
One problem I have found with the P1 is the sensitivity of the buttons, as they have to be pressed quite hard, and do not respond as fast as I would like, often resulting in double presses and having to re-cycle thought the menu. I'm not sure if this is due to the age of my unit of due to a design issue.

*Resilience*
From what I've found, the tamagotchi unit is reasonably hard to kill, And as side from the baby stage, is only moderately demanding. In the first baby stage it is impossible to kill, but without care any of the other stages die in a matter of hours, some faster than others depending on the adult stage.

Additional features:

Clock-Yes
Connectability-No
Sound on/off-Yes
Pause-No

Overall this V-pet is a good quality pet, it is both easy to care for and only moderately demanding. Sound can be turned on and off so that the pet can still be cared for in quiet situations. I found the pet fun to care for and easy enough that a 5 year old wound be able to care for it.

May also enjoy:Tamagotchi Connection
Tamagotchi Angel
Digimon

And so it begins: an intro

Meet Meg! I'm 21 and I collect toys, but for this blog I'm going to focus on my obsession with virtual pets.

I'm sure most people who stumble across this will have a good idea of what a virtual pet is ( Either you've owned one, had a kid who has owned one or even just seen a TV advertizement).
I'm sure lots of my fellow collectors will also come across this page.

For those who don't , a virtual pet is usually a small pocket-to -handheld size electronic toy in a plastic shell which emulates the care of a pet or other creature (feeding, cleaning, playing with etc.). It will often contain mini games and other interesting aspects. They can range from very simple (basic black and green style LCD screen,simple game play and cute child like graphics), to very advanced (connectible game play with , Colour LCD and more advanced graphics).

Virtual pet gained their popularity in the late 90's, this is where I come in. When I was in primary school (think grades 1-7 for the American readers), if you didn't have a Tamagotchi, you were out of the loop. I was out of the loop. This I think explains that now I have disposable adult income, I devote a lot of time and money to these toys.

It wasn't till 1998 when I got my first V-pet, a nano kitty clone, My younger sister got a Genuine Gyaopii II pet about the same time.About 2000 we both got version 5 Digimon, and in 2004 we got Digimon pendulum. My poor mum ended up looking after them most of the time.

From that point up until about 2 years ago I didn't give them another thought.Until, whilst I worked in a Big W department store I saw a Tamagotchi version 4 for 5 dollars each. I got two just for little nostalgia and 10 dollars for an afternoons worth of fun is good enough value for me.

Only this year did I start collecting V-pets seriously.At this present time I own approximately 70 pets, and it is steadily growing by about 5 new pets a week.

In this blog I intend to do a weekly review of different pets ( I tend to have one different pet running per week, and life cycles of most pets never run for more than one week).I will also catalogue my collection, suggest good places to obtain V-pets and maybe do some trade and sale.I don't mind constructive criticism, as long as it is constructive.

For this week I'll go back to the beginning and review an early Tamagotchi pet circa 1997.