Kava's Tamagotchi and Friends Log

Reading all the other great logs here inspired me to start one too!

I got a Daruma Chibi earlier this month. It was cuter and tinier than I expected!

The thrill of the unboxing!



I love how the shell design makes it look like the tamagotchi is living in its mouth.



I also got a Dinkie Dino and have found it super cute in how it starts as a blob and then grows appendages.



Finally, I have a TMGC+C that has a Lavuzukintchi right now.



Jumping for joy!

So the way I get clear pictures is to take photos in the morning. But unless it's a weekend I'm always in a rush to get to work. I took some photos last night but didn't like how the lights produce some glare. Anyway, I will be experimenting with photo times for the next few entries. Maybe I'll try setting my pet clocks early so they're awake in the morning for photos.

Dan the Dinkie Dino has grown some more legs and is old enough to sport a 5 o'clock shadow! Whoa.



Daruma chibi became a Mametchi! I wonder how to get the Daruma character? Is it a special adult after 14 days as a regular adult?



And I ended up with twin Lavuzukintchis on the two TMGC+Cs.



The story behind the two TMGC+Cs:

I got the black one when TMGC+C first came out a few years back. I played it a lot and got all the items and the castle and then tabbed it up for awhile. This past fall, my preschooler discovered it and adopted it for her own. I then opened the green one this month so I could raise one too and have it connect with the black one. I have been hoping to get them to breed together, but it has been a challenge. Why? Well the moment either of them gets old enough, the preschooler quickly shuttles one or the other off to the matchmaker. If it happens to be day 5, often I will get to my desk in the evening and find starving baby tamagotchis demanding food. The other night I caught myself saying, "Sweetie, try not to make babies when mommy's not around." At which point, the spouse gave me a funny look and started laughing.

It has been interesting watching a 3 yr old (nearly 4) casually play with a tamagotchi. Among other things, she is good about cleaning up tamagotchi poop, and playing with them (sending them to the park, etc.), but she doesn't really feed them. I have showed her what things are food for the tama, but she seems to prefer feeding them snacks. Maybe it's because the banana looks tastier than the food items (and she's not a fan of hamburgers in real life). She also likes having the tamas visit one another and I think this is because she is at an age where she likes to invite her own little classmates over to our home.

Lately, she likes taking the tamas to get their homes remodeled. This is why the black TMGC+C no longer lives in a castle. This is also why the green one has very few worldly possessions.

So a week or two ago I ordered an angelgotchi, an angelgotchi case, and a tamagotchi angel. Guess which arrived first? ...the case, of course. *sigh* I suppose the upside is that when the angelgotchi finally arrives, it will have its nice, sparkly, winged suit of armor all ready to go.

I hadn't planned on getting the tamagotchi angel, but when I saw a new one pop up on eBay with a reasonable price, I made an impulse purchase. When I see others going for over four times as much, it makes me want to save mine and not open it once it arrives! Still, since I'm not able to read Japanese, it would be nice to run one in English for a change.

DAN THE DINKIE DINO

Alas, he didn't make it past day 8. I think having to go to jury duty and turning off his sound and then forgetting to change his clock all contributed to his accidental death. When I checked the happy angel stats, everything was up...including the temperature. I fear he got cooked at 40 degrees.

I was going to take a photo of the happy angel last night, when it suddenly switched over to the dead angel? Not nearly as cute. I choose to remember him with this final happy pic of him at day 8, looking hearty and healthy from his steady diet of noodles and soft drinks.



Flipps and Bernie contemplate the possible cause of death.



DARUMA CHIBI

This little guy changed into a happy little Unchikun last night!



TMGC+C DUO

The stealth tama breeder struck again two nights ago. It's not so bad since they were both girls. This new generation is a boy and a girl! A Young Mametchi and a Chamametchi right now. I'll have to keep an eye on them around day 5 if I want the chance to connect them up for the next generation.



TABLETOP TENT

So I have this tendency to geek out with my hobbies. By this I mean that if the hobby leads me off on tangents, I will usually research those tangents out of love for the hobby. The last big thing was starting a saltwater reef aquarium where the tangents took me off into the worlds of chemistry, electrical and plumbing. Phosphates, peltier devices and float switches, anyone? Anyway, with tamagotchis and starting this log, my new tangent is photography of tamas. At work yesterday, someone in our photography newsgroup asked for recommendations for a tabletop tent. Tabletop tent? Basically it's this white, pop-up semi-cube that allows you to diffuse your lights to get glare-free, bright pictures of items up-close. Squee! I put one on my wishlist for my birthday in a few months. If I get it, I'll be sure to post photos of the setup and its results.

TMGC+C DUO

Today they became a Shimashimatchi and a Meidotchi. This is the first time I've ever gotten a Meidotchi so I'm excited. She is super-cute and I love her shade of blue!

Battling it out in the building game.



There can be only one.



I think Shimashimatchi has a crush on Meidotchi! I'm not sure how Meidotchi feels though. After all, she had a tendency to gift him poo when they were younger. Tonight she seemed all happy to get a gift, but then looked nonplussed when she saw it was a bouquet of flowers. Is she looking to "just be friends"? And here poor Shimashimatchi went home looking all pleased with himself, thinking he scored big points with the flowers. Ah the mysteries of young love!

DAN THE DINKIE DINO

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Dan reincarnated a few days ago. We welcomed him back!

Apparently a diet of burgers and drumsticks in this life has led to a mohawk on day 3.



TMGC+C DUO

Got a peek at their friend books tonight. Shimashimatchi has a totally adorable candid shot of Meidotchi and has even drawn little hearts near it. Meidotchi, on the other hand, has a pleasant, if boring shot of Shimashimatchi and no hearts in sight. It's looking more and more platonic from Meidotchi's end.



Today, Shimashimatchi was pleased to have sent a heart-box of candy to Meidotchi. Meidotchi, once again seems displeased.



After receiving some more flowers tonight, she went over to Shimashimatchi's house to visit. Was she going to set him straight and ask him if they could just be friends? Oddly enough, she brought the box of candy with her to share and then blushed prettily when Shimashimatchi showered her with compliments.



She even went as far as to give him a gift! Could this be a change of heart?



Alas, no. Meidotchi went home laughing at the joke she played on Shimashimatchi. Good-naturedly, Shimashimatchi looked at the ugly black skull and was grateful that at least Meidotchi seems to have grown out of gifting him poo.

DAN THE DINKIE DINO

Dan sprouted little legs and back spikes! Cute but prickly.



TMGC+C DUO

Last night, what started out as the usual evening hangout at Meidotchi's house ended up in a surprise elopement! It all happened so fast that I only got the briefest glimpse of the chapel before the fireworks started up!



In the end, I'm not sure what changed Meidotchi's mind about Shimashimatchi. From all accounts it seemed like a case of unrequited love. Maybe Shimashimatchi's persistence and patience paid off? Maybe there was a full moon that night? We may never know.

Here is Meidotchi looking pensive late in her pregnancy with the twins.



Twin baby girls!



(I wonder if Bandai always makes the twins the same gender to avoid that awkward situation of tamagotchi inbreeding?)

Parenting in tandem. It looks like Shimashimatchi is laughing it up with one baby, while Meidotchi is busy smooching the other. Too cute!



Dad and Mom taking off together. It always feels wrong to me that they leave while the babies are asleep.



Sad abandoned babies.

The weekend marks the enjoyment of some new arrivals to the family:

PIKACHU

I had a tough time cutting a screen protector to fit and then there were some lint issues. When it starts bugging me enough, I will likely make another. Anyway, Pikachu adorably has different animations throughout the day that I will try to capture along the way. However, his bedtime is 9PM, so for now, we just have a sleeping shot.



ANGELGOTCHI

Unboxing!



Trying on some sparkly armor.



I'm not sure I'll stick with the hard case. I may go back to ziptop bag protection depending on whether taps to keep the bats at bay register through the plastic.

DAN THE DINKIE DINO

Dan has grown a bit these last few days.



But at heart, he's still my cuddly, baby dino!



TMGC+C DUO

The twins became Chamametchis! Here they are visiting the local amusement park.

TAMA-GO

Opened my new Tama-Go for the Valentine's Day Hatch. Here's some pictures from hatch day.



UMINO

Just hatched my new Umino tonight. I hope to post some pictures later this weekend.

I've been on a bit of a tamagotchi buying spree. Here are some photos of some of the recent additions.

TAMA-GO

The little one picked out Memetchi, so I got myself a Mametchi so we could play together.



UMINO

Got a brand new umino! I couldn't wait to open it.



MORINO

I'm looking forward to playing this one after I tab up the Umino.



ODENKUN

I was hoping to find a yellow/blue one, but there only ever seems to be pink ones for sale.



V5 FAMILITCHI

Not sure if I'll ever get around to opening it, but it sure is pretty!



V6 MUSIC STAR

I got two, thinking I may play this with the little one at some point in the future.



TAMA-GO IMPRESSIONS

Having come from a TMGC+C, I was prepared for the Tama-Go to feel like a bit of a step down. I didn't realize how much of a step down it would be! Beside the greyscale (which I was prepared for) the speaker on the Tama-Go sounds weaker and lower quality than the TMGC+G speaker. The curved back on the Tama-Go makes finger-free-pictures really difficult (I hate prop appendages in my tama photos). And I feel a little bit irritated about having to keep track of loose gotchi figures. I have a case, but the little one prefers to cram them in a little Lego house she has.

Other than the gotchi figures, the little one doesn't show much interest in the Tama-Go. Instead she always checks on my TMGC+C before all other tamas. I hate to say it, but we may be tabbing up the Tama-Gos before the month is out.

TAMA-GO

I took pictures awhile back, but only got around to posting them now.



Kiddo grew a Necktiechi and I grew a Gozarutchi.



DARUMA CHIBI

I began my quest to get the Daruma character.

TAMA-GO

Both bachelors settled down. I must say, I like how there is more of a courtship in the Tama-Go than the TMGC+C!



DARUMA CHIBI

I got the Daruma character!



The animation has him go tall and then stubby.



He looks supercute when he eats.



MINI

I liked my chibi so much, that I got an English mini.

UMINO

I meant to post a picture of it in-box earlier.



Anyway, the bad news is my first hatch did not make it past "Day 3" last weekend.



The good news is I hatched again this weekend. I really like the pre-egg animation the Umino has.



Hatch round 2!

So for the past few weeks, I have been trying to remember what knock-off-model my very first digital pet was. I remembered it was a puppy and had 4 buttons, but that was about it. I thought maybe it was a Nano Puppy? But when I started up the Nano Puppy I got today to see, I knew it didn't seem right.

So tonight I was perusing more random virtual pet reviews searching for the puppy, when coincidentally one of the links I clicked went back to...a school assignment I did back in 1997 for the very class that provided me that puppy! I almost fell out of my chair. Call it kismet! Anyway, the link was to a different assignment so I still had more searching to do. After digging through some more links and using the internet wayback machine, I was finally able to find the actual homework assignment where everyone in my class was given a digital pet and had to record our observations for the week. In reading through my sadly lacking notes back then (I didn't even include the model name in my assignment!) and comparing it against my classmates' notes, I now know my very first pet was a Hitorikko Puppy!

More additions to the collection! I got all excited after I discovered pedometer pets on the forums. The first one I got was a Pikachu GS 2, which I posted earlier in my log and have pocketed every day (in place of my usual pedometer).

TAMAWALKIE



TEKU TEKU ANGEL

When I read that the Teku Teku Angel changes into a new character daily and saw it comes in a clear green case, I was intrigued!



ROBOCON

I love robots.



ARUKOTCHI

Some more new arrivals.

MOTHRA



TAMA-OTCH

UMINO

Tabbed up. I can't seem to get it past the second growth stage.

DARUMA CHIBI

Tabbed up after attaining the special Daruma character.

TAMA-GO

The kiddo's is paused as a Hoshitchi and mine is paused as a Shelltchi.



TMGC+C DUO

The black one is tabbed up, but the green one is still going. I couldn't bring myself to tab it up yet. The color display of a TMGC+C is just so nice to look at compared to the Tama-Go.

NANO PUPPY

I got this earlier last week. He is proving to be a relatively low-maintenance pet. The trade-off is slow evolution. He only just changed on the 4th day!



TAMAWALKIE

Mametchi has visited Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas so far in his quest for his spaceship parts. He is currently on his way to San Francisco on his skateboard.



MOTHRA

Hatched this one. I have to say that taking care of a Mothra after having taken care of an Umino is like going on vacation! The Mothra seems so much easier and low-maintenance!



TEKU TEKU ANGEL DUE

Started this one up after finding English instructions. I set it for 120 days since I want to see how many different characters it will evolve into.

ROBOCON



Started this one up. It's a little different in that it has a flip-up cover.



The startup seems to let you choose between 2 different robots (similar to the TamaWalkie letting you choose a character at the start).



Time-setting and display of steps taken.

ROBOCON



Here is what is shown when you're just walking around.



I think this is notification of coming across something while walking



Partway through the day he seemed pretty excited meeting this guy with the 88 for eyes.

Got around to taking pictures of the Digimon I bought back in the nineties.

DIGIMON

TEKU TEKU ANGEL DUE

It seemed like it was not evolving after several days of walking in the default mode. So I switched over to "stroll" mode (aka cactus guy mode) and found it evolved several times in the course of a single day!



A photo of an evolving cactus. (He eventually grew another arm and a pair of legs! Alas, I didn't have a camera to capture that.)



A later photo of the next evolution after cactus man.

The only problem with "stroll" mode is that when you go back to default mode, you lose your cactus.

The good news is that it looks like default guy finally evolved! But it is harder to capture clear pictures of him because he is constantly in motion.