Small but terrible?

    When I was around 8 or 9 years old, I was fond of small toys that are very colorful. I would collect the toys from kiddie meals and just keep it inside my toy chest until I think of playtime. One time, I saw my cousins, whom I lived with too, come home with a new toy that is digital. This was when internet games, or PSPs weren’t invented yet. I was so excited to see what that toy was, and I also got jealous actually. Because I was a bit of a spoiled little girl that time, I dragged my mother to go to the place where they bought it. It was the growing trend in the kid’s toy industry that time, and they called it “Tamagotchi.”

    The name sound foreign, right? That’s because it was made in Japan! It was created back in 1996 by two Japanese folks, and was first sold in their mother country – Japan. Tamagotchi has two root words which mean “egg” (tamago) and “watch” (uochi). So, basically, it means to watch the egg. It became so famous that almost every children’s store in Asia, at least, sold it. What was interesting about it is that once you buy the Tamagotchi, you have to take out a hard sheet of plastic from the side of the toy. By the way, the toy was less than the size of the palm, so it was really compact and easy to bring. Once you’ve taken out that hard plastic sheet, you need to set up the time and, from there, your Tamagotchi ‘comes to life’! A Tamagotchi usually has two to three buttons, and each button has a special function. Those buttons are used to feed, put to sleep, and clean your ‘pet tamagotchi.’ If you forget or get delayed in feeding your Tamagotchi, it can lead to its death, and ‘good-bye Tamagotchi! :(‘ That is why the kids, or the young at heart, have a collection of Tamagotchis because maybe it has died already over time or because of the lack of care. Tamagotchis are simply pets, only that it is digital (and more demanding).

    Over the years, because of the weaknesses seen in the first generation of Tamagotchi, there were better versions created, which included an added/enhanced feature. One of the good innovations of the Tamagotchi is it having a ‘Pause’ button, which could literally pause the life-time of your Tamagotchi. This resulted from incidents of students bringing their Tamagotchi toys to school, and taking care of it during class, causing the students to get distracted from school activities and lectures. That is why some parents started to complain and have the schools ban Tamagotchis.

    From last year’s record, there were already seventy-six million Tamagotchis that have been sold worldwide. And I wonder if that store where I bought my first Tamagotchi still sells one? hmmm...

Peace. Love. Smile.

Dom Manahan



Source for pictures:
Google


Source for figures and informaton:
Wikipedia (2011). Tamagotchi. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi