WARMTH LIKE HOME UNAWARES

Recently I've been asked by at least two people (!) what I would like as a gift and also have been asked what my "Holy Grail Tamagotchi" is. I don't really have a Holy Grail as my collection is still fairly small (about 15 pets right now) and the things I want are still reasonably obtainable so it's more just a matter of waiting for availability/money. So here's my Tamagotchi Grail. Not a Holy Grail, just a regular Grail LOL Or in other words, the Tamas I'm looking for the most:


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How to buy Tamagotchi

Most of my Tamagotchi shopping is done on eBay, and you can basically just type in the name of what you want but there's a lot of fakes and mislabeled stuff on there, so it's good to have pictures and know what you're looking for. I recently bought a first wave Angel and it ended up being a second wave Angel which look quite similar other than a very small detail. It was actually the seller that mixed them up and sent the wrong one (not the one that was in the listing). It was actually in the first wave packaging, but it was the 2nd wave device (which looks the same from the outside). So you have to be careful about stuff like that.

There's also JAPAN YOU WANT which sells mostly Japanese stuff, and has an entire section for Tamagotchi. Their stuff is reliable and quality, and the prices LOOK nice, but they charge big shipping, so it ends up being about the same you pay elsewhere. It's just a nice place to find reliable listings where you don't have to worry about things being listed wrong or being fake.

Also it's important to note that Tamagotchi is sometimes called "Tamagotch" (the original Japanese didn't use the "i" at the end) so you can find listings who list them that way, as well.

(Oh and there's this special Pac-Man Tama that I keep overlooking because I think "I can just get this later" but it will eventually be out of stock and makes a great add-on to gifts LMFAO)

Soooo I'm still on my Tama kick. I decided to spend the money I had set aside for Rune Factory 5 since the game isn't coming out til next year now and I'm not even sure if I want to get it right away now.

And so I bought a little slew of games on Steam from the summer sale:

Wizardry 6
Wizardry 7
Wizardry 8
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Sims 4
Duke of Alpha Centauri
The Hurricane of the Vastray -Collateral hazard-
Rebel Galaxy

I think the most expensive one was Sims 4 for $6.

And then excited from the feeling of "having money" I bought a Japanese screwdriver set (as 90s Japanese toys use different types of screws than the American standard ones, and I wanna get into my Tamagotchis lol) and a Japanese P2S2 Tamagotchi.

Anyway, my next goal is to collect every variation on the release of the "Original Tamagotchi." Despite the fact that P1 and P2 are quite different in some ways (a completely different set of characters and a different minigame), they're all considered and branded as "Original Tamagotchi" so I just want to get all of those. Basically they're meant to be variations on the same one toy.

Here are all the variations, as far as I can find information about:

1. JP P1 (1996) - The original release.



2. NA P1* (1997) - The original western release. Based on the JP P1, but the secret character was changed from Oyajitchi to Bill, the text was translated to English, the death screen was changed from a ghost and grave to an angel, and the meal was changed from a rice bowl to bread.



3. EU P1** (1997) - The original European release. Identical to the NA P1 afaik except packaging.



4. JP P2 S1 (1997) - The second release, featuring the second cast of characters. Box art and coloring is slightly different from the P1. The game background was changed. Meal was changed from rice to fish (?)***, snack was changed from candy to cake, minigame was changed from "character game" to "number game." Includes adult character Pochitchi and secret character Sekitoritchi. The egg is solid black.



5. JP P2 S2 (1997) - The other second release, a variation on the P2. Identical to the P2 S1, except it features adult character Nyatchi in place of Pochitchi and the secret character is Charitchi; the egg has also been changed to black with white circles on it. I'm not 100% sure if there's a way to tell the difference without actually playing with the toy and seeing the characters/egg; there may be a variation in packaging coloring?



6. NA P2 (1997) - The second western release, released only in the USA. It is based on the JP P2 S1, featuring Pochitchi as the adult character instead of Nyatchi, but changes the secret character to the western-exclusive Zatchi. The meal food is changed from fish to a burger, the medicine icon was changed from a syringe to a spoon and bottle, the egg was changed from solid black to a black and white check pattern, and the death screen was changed from a ghost and grave to a spaceship among stars. Text is translated to English, except for the food menu text which is replaced by icons of the burger and cake.



7. JP P1 v20**** (2017) - The Japanese 20th anniversary re-release of the original P1. Back casing and screws are different. Now takes one CR2032 battery instead of two LR44 batteries. Despite being promoted as using the "generation 1 programming," the game is reprogrammed to be slightly more complex. Outside of the programming, the cast of characters, background, etc. are exact replicas of the original P1.



8. GL P1 v20 (2018) - The global 20th anniversary re-release of the original P1, intended to replicate the original NA P1 release. Like the Japanese re-release, the back casing and screws are different. It also takes one CR2032 battery instead of two LR44 batteries. It contains the same programming changes as the JP P1 v20, with the localization changes from the original 96 to 97 P1's (translated text, ghost to angel, Bill replacing Oyajitchi) being in place.



9. GL P2 v20**** (2018) - The global 20th anniversary re-release of the original P2 intended to replicate the original NA P2 release. New casing and screws, the new battery, and programming and localization changes respective to the changes made for the GL P1 v20. Uses the cast of characters (Pochitchi, Zatchi) from the original NA P2 release.

* While often referred to as a "US" version, there seems to exist French-Canadian packaging. The toy is identical (with in-game text being in English) but the packaging has French text instead of English. At this time I'm not considering them separate versions as the only difference is packaging text.
** Similarly to the NA version of P1, the EU version comes with packaging variations in other languages to be sold in various parts of Europe. Also similarly, I'm not going to consider these different versions at this time.
*** I can't find concrete evidence of this, though I have only been using English-language resources so far. The most recent information is from like 2003 and says "They eat rice? or fish?" so who knows. It may be that the S1 and S2 have different meals? Most people are familiar with the western release's hamburger or the P1's rice bowl.
**** I don't know if JP got a re-release of the P2, or if they only got the P1 replica. It seems strange that they'd make a global P2 and not a Japanese one, but I can't find any information on a Japanese P2 v20th. I did find one eBay listing for a Japanese P2 from 2017, but from the packaging and everything in the photo it was very obviously a P1, and the seller doesn't use stock photos, so they must have just mislabeled the listing.

Anddd for my personal collection:

JP P1 - Owned (white shell CIB)
NA P1 - Owned (translucent blue shell CIB)
NA P2 - Seem to run $50-60. The shell I want is the $60 of course -_-
EU P1 - Seem to run for about $55
JP P2s1 - MAYBE runs for like $35, it's really hard to tell what is the s1 and s2 as mentioned.
JP P2s2 - On its way. (blue spaceship shell CIB)
JP P1 v20 - Seem to run for about $35
GL P1 v20 - Owned ("majestic" shell CIB)
GL P2 v20 - Owned ("sahara" shell CIB)

So we're looking at a little under $200 to collect the rest of them. Of course, I've gotten the cheapest ones first, with the v20s still being printed, already owning a NA P1 from the 90s, and getting a cheap JP P1. The P2s2 was used and a common shell color so I was able to get it for only $25.

I've seen a JP P2 listed that has slightly different packaging coloring than the P2s2 I ordered, so I'm guessing that is a P2s1...? I'll need to look into Japanese resources tomorrow, but I'm up like 2 hours past my bedtime already so I'm not bothering with that right now :P That'll be for tomorrow morning I guess.