Back in the day, everyone had them: The egg-shaped, digital pets that elementary and middle schoolers would sneak into school and play under their desks – Tamagotchis. Launched in the late 1990s, the toy, whose name is a combination of the Japanese word for egg, “tamago,” and “watch,” Tamagotchis earned over $150 million within a few months of first coming to the U.S. Eventually, however, they became resigned to becoming just one of many nostalgia-inducing toy trends beloved by the millennial generation.
Yet while randomly doing research about games and toys for a class the other day, I came across a Forbes article from July 2015 about Tamagotchis and how they’ve “risen from the dead.” Well, sort of; they’re only carried now at Hot Topic stores (and are sold out on the HT website as of this article’s publication) here in the U.S. Nevertheless, the revamped version of the Tamagotchi boasts several additional features from the original, including new mini games and even text messaging capabilities between devices. Also, they retail for just $19.95 – which seems so much more affordable as a college student today than they seemed back in 2000.
It’s surprising that Bandai, the company behind Tamagotchis, hasn’t come out with an iPhone/Android app equivalent by now, but an updated version of the toy is basically the next best thing. Plus, the egg-shaped toy is iconic in and of itself, after all. Here’s hoping that Hot Topic restocks their supply soon.
