Though there have been many toy fads over the years, few were so portable that kids could take them to school in their pockets. But in the mid-90s there was a toy that was so addictive and easy to hide that kids just had to stick it in their pocket to sneak out during the school day. Yes, we’re talking about that digital pet extraordinaire, the Tamagotchi. If you had a Tamagotchi and didn’t sneak it into school, then we wonder if you really loved your digital pet at all. In all seriousness, though, if you didn’t have it with you throughout the day, then it could actually die, and that could be quite devastating for a kid.
But we’re getting ahead here! Let’s go back to the beginning. Where did the Tamagotchi come from in the first place? For that, we turn to Japan and the company Bandai. The story goes that a female office worker at Bandai, Aki Maita (pictured above), was inspired while watching television to create a pet that kids could care for and take anywhere with them, but that wouldn’t require all of the upkeep of a real pet — you know, the pesky feeding, cleaning, and vet bills. She took this idea to Akihiro Yokoi, a toy designer at WiZ, a company that specialized in animation and related toys. Together, the two came up with the name and backstory for this new toy.
The creatures were aliens from another planet who deposited eggs on Earth to see what life was like, and they stayed in these little digital egg-shaped contraptions to protect them from Earth’s atmosphere. Maita and Yokoi came up with the Tamagotchi name for these little guys by combining two Japanese words: tamago (たまご), which means egg, and uotchi (ウオッチ), which means watch. From there, they created prototypes that they handed around to local high school girls in Shibuya, and tweaked the design of the toy based on their feedback. By November 1996, the toy was released in Japan, and by May 1997, it was released to the rest of the world.
The way the Tamagotchi worked was fairly simple — you’d hatch your egg, get yourself a cute baby Tamagotchi pet, and then take care of it as it aged from a child through to an adult. Taking care of the digital pet meant a few different things: feeding it, playing with it, and disciplining it, while making sure to clean up after it and give it medicine if it got sick. If you played your cards right, your pet could reach old age after living for 28 days, at which point it would die, and you could start again. If you weren’t so careful, though, your little pet could poop all over the place, get sick from its sh*t, and die at a much younger age. Or, if you didn’t feed it, that would also result in death.
Remember our anecdote about taking your Tamagotchi to school? That was certainly true for me, as I definitely remember bringing my little orange egg in my backpack — but I made sure to be stealthy about it and only take it out during lunch or in the hallway between classes. Others were not quite so stealthy, and had theirs taken away by teachers or parents because they were getting too distracted — and if you were in a touchy spot with your Tamagotchi, that might have meant it died while you were at school. The horror! Eventually, Bandai implemented a “pause mode” in the toys so that this wouldn’t happen, but the death of their digital pets had likely scarred many a child by that point.
Tamagotchi pets were extremely popular — in the first few months of release in Japan, a reported four million units were sold. By June 1997, over 10 million of the toys had been shipped all over the world — indeed, they’re our most popular Christmas toy featured for 1997 in our article The Most Popular Christmas Toys from 1980-2000. By 2017, over 82 million Tamagotchi had been sold. Though Tamagotchi have been around in some form throughout the years, with many different iterations and improvements, in 2017, Bandai released a 20th anniversary edition that mimicked the original design, with a few small changes, such as the size of the egg (it was smaller), and the screen itself was square instead of rectangular. You can get all sorts of different colors and styles on Amazon today, so if you’re wanting a good dose of nostalgia, go get yourself a new one!
Did you have a Tamagotchi, and did you sneak it into school? Let us know in the comments, but first check out this commercial that highlights the pause feature that was implemented on your beloved ’90s Tamagotchi:
- Tamagotchi inspired quite a few copycat digital pets — the Digimon, which was also released by Bandai, and more geared toward boys ; the Giga Pets launched by Tiger Electronics were also super popular ; and the Nano Pets, which were created by Playmates.
- In 1998, a man in England created a Tamagotchi pet cemetery where he performed burials for dead digital pets. Owners from around the world reportedly sent in their pets by postal mail to be buried in this cemetery.
- Aki Maita and Akihiro Yokoi received the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize in economics for the Tamagotchi. These prizes are meant to honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.
- The original Tamagotchis sold for $17.99 in the United States in 1997, which would be around $29.70 in 2021 dollars. You can get a new Tamagotchi in 2021 for anywhere from $20-$60.
- If you don’t want to go out and buy an actual physical Tamagotchi, you can also play a version on your mobile devices — My Tamagotchi Forever is available on Apple and Android.
- Tamagotchi inspired quite a few copycat digital pets — the Digimon, which was also released by Bandai, and more geared toward boys ; the Giga Pets launched by Tiger Electronics were also super popular ; and the Nano Pets, which were created by Playmates.
- In 1998, a man in England created a Tamagotchi pet cemetery where he performed burials for dead digital pets. Owners from around the world reportedly sent in their pets by postal mail to be buried in this cemetery.
- Aki Maita and Akihiro Yokoi received the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize in economics for the Tamagotchi. These prizes are meant to honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.
- The original Tamagotchis sold for $17.99 in the United States in 1997, which would be around $29.70 in 2021 dollars. You can get a new Tamagotchi in 2021 for anywhere from $20-$60.
- If you don’t want to go out and buy an actual physical Tamagotchi, you can also play a version on your mobile devices — My Tamagotchi Forever is available on Apple and Android.
