So.... What exactly IS a Tamagotchi?
A Tamagotchi is a virtual pet made by Bandai that was originally introduced in 1996. The company started with only Japanese models and then they made their way over the the United States and quickly gained popularity. The egg shaped toys were a total hit in the late 90's and especially in the early 2000's, when Tamagotchi connections were introduced. These were special tamagotchis that could communicate with each other via in-fared sensors located at the top of the unit. Tamagotchi's beep to alert you that they want to be fed, played with, want attention, got sick, etc. If you neglect your tamagotchi, depending on the model you have, it either dies (turns into an egg with angel wings), or it returns to it's home planet, forcing you to start all over. Bandai introduced several other types of Tamagotchi over the years, some were never produced in English, including Angelgotchi, DevilGotchi, SantaGotch(i), Tama Otch, Mothra, Moreno, Digimon, Tamagotchi School, Tama Walkie, and the list goes on and on. The most recent version of Tamagotchi is the Tama-go which gives you access to Tama-Town, and online Tamagotchi Community where you can walk around and meet new friends. The Tamgotchi Familitchi (V5) was the first Tamagotchi to allow you to have a family of Tamas, however, you can only control ONE of the characters on your screen. The v6 music star was a cool addition to the Tamagotchi family because you could start your own band and follow your character to stardom. So, A craze of the 90's is still highly collectible today and if you are looking to start a collection, be careful because there are a lot of fakes and it can get very expensive on eBay.
Tama-Town
Flower Hills Park
Tama-town is the virtual website made by Bandai and has been around since Tamagotchi Connection v3 but has been totally re-done to become a virtual world for tamagotchi music star (v6) and even more so for the tama-go's. You do not have to own one of these Tamagotchi's to gain access to the site, however, you will be restricted from certain areas and will not be able to visit many of the shops. If you have not registered a Tamagotchi character with your account, you will turn into a different character each time you log in and will always wear a red hat that says 'Guest'. Tama-go figures come with special codes to enter to gain access to certain games, shops, or characters and allow you to purchase some pretty sweet items to decorate your apartment. Tama-town has a lot of fun games but they aren't really all that difficult and it can be quite frustrating to earn your gotchi points. You are able to chat with other members but as of right now, you are not able to customize or type your own message and must choose from a very limited list of pre-set phrases. This was probably the one thing I found most disappointing. Another thing is, signing up was a NIGHTMARE. You have a username and a display name. Your username will not be public to other users (as far as I know, that is) and your display name can MUST consist ONLY of 2 letters and 4 numbers. What's so horrible? Well, when you choose a username and display name it takes you to the print page so you don't forget your info and only after you print does it tell you if one of the names you chose was unavailable. Be warned, It can take several tries to make it right because of the set-up but all in all the website is pretty cute.
Tama-go Figurines
Kuchipatchi, Mametchi and Memetchi figures
Tama-Go figurines are little figures you can buy to access special games and shops on your Tama-Go device. There are several different figures you can buy and each has a different Tamagotchi character on it. They also each come with interchangeable face-plates for your Tama-Go so you can fully customize it anyway you like. The more you have, the more features you can access on your Tama-Go as well as on tamatown. Each figure also comes with codes to enter on tamatown to earn more gotchi points, access more characters, and enter shops to purchase items. The only downside really is if you do not have any extra figures, the Tama-Go is not a very fun toy to play with because it doesn't come with very much to do. You only get two games and one shop.