| Tamagotchi Connection Logs July 31, 2004 HURRAY BANDAI! ^_^ It's July 31st, 4:30am. Where in the world have I been? Tamagotchi Connection has been on the Japanese market for well over a month now. What happened? Alas I will likely be very long winded in what is the very first Tamagotchi Connection log and first real log on the site I've written in years.

I heard last year that Bandai was considering bringing Tamagotchi back. Now this year they finally have, and it looks like an incredible combination between several Tamagotchi from the past with a new edge of technology on top of that. While I have been silent on the chat rooms, email groups and I've pretty much not spoken about Tamagotchi for quite sometime, this event HAS been on my mind.

Why didn't I get one as soon as they came on eBay? Ultimately it came down to price. I knew if I waited a little bit, the price for Japanese Tamas would become reasonable, as the supply would start to catch up with some of the initial chaotic demand from the diehard rush. As predicted, the price did fall to something far more reasonable.

Ok so I fell asleep writing this. Its 2:47pm now ^_^;;

Tamagotchi Plus, Hong Kong version, in the package

Anyways...late last month I decided to bite the bullet and grab two Connections from eBay. I am picky so I wanted the freedom to choose, hence why I didn't buy from any of those stores online offering a random color. After the 45 minutes it took for me to make up my mind, I put a bid in two auctions, using the Buy It Now option and grabbed the two that interested me most. I took care to grab a Hong Kong version that would include English instructions.

Like with the original Tamagotchi, I avoided information online like the plague. I simply wanted to experience the Tama without biased thoughts. I find it far more fun to experience it rather then read it, when it comes to Tamagotchi. The only thing I knew when I ordered was all the simple rumors, the IR and that my Mimitchi would be back!

On Tuesday the 26th, I was blessed with a package in my mailbox. I tore that thing open and pulled out my shiny brand new Tamagotchi Plus. A beautiful light blue with white border, yellow buttons, two little Tama's at the top and a Mimitchi sticker staring back at me.

Unfortunatly the other Tama had yet to come. Like Mesu and Osu, I really want to have two of these going at once so they can play together and hopefully mate. Even though I didn't have the second Tama Connection, I still HAD to take it out of the package. I checked out the egg, but did nothing else.

The same day I received my first Tamagotchi Connection, I also got a package notification card from the post office. I didn't have too long to wait for my second Tama!

During this week on and off I was thinking about the site, how to update it, how to get materials and what I should really do or if I should do anything at all. I have been getting around 30 emails a day regarding Connection, so I figured that I must update. I really had no materials to work with, so Brendan and I decided to buy another camera to take some pictures. Having been purposely keeping myself out of the loop and staying away from spoilers I still have no idea if an official growth chart exists. However I have an idea of how it goes and may make one later.

Tamagotchi Plus, Hong Kong version, unactivated

So I made some plans with my soon to be hubby on what I should do with this site. Initially an entire overhaul was in order. That is still in the plans, but is down the road a bit. But alas...I had to first get my hands on another of these new Tamagotchi first...

Due to work schedules and having to work late a few extra days, I didn't make it to the post office until Friday afternoon. It's perhaps better to start off the weekend good anyway. On the way there I had pretty much had a strong idea on what to do with this site.

We arrive at the post office and once I get the box we were kind of wondering why the seller would use such a large box to ship such a small thing. On the way out to the car I noticed that he had address the package to me as "[my full name], Webmaster, www.mimitchi.com, [address]".

I stopped walking half way to the car. Where did this eBay seller find out I was the webmaster of this site and why would they even address me that way anyways? It's not like yahoo.com or something important.

As I gaze at the return address a couple of things occur to me. The most important one being that this box wasn't from Japan, or even from out of the country. My mind raced back to mid June, around the time of the Tamagotchi Celebrity Auctions. My oh my the address did sound ever familiar and so did the name of the company on the label.

My man, who has a much faster memory then I, remembered it...

"It's from Bandai!" he proclaimed.

Did time stop for a moment, or what?!

While the address did not belong to Bandai, nor did the package hint at such a name, the sender was indeed from Bandai America's public relations firm.

Some explanation is needed right here, before it sounds like I'm making this up.

Let's go back in time to mid-June. Tamagotchi still only in Japan, the prices still pretty awful in my definition and Bandai was preparing to hold Celebrity Tamagotchi Plus Auctions.

Work had been tying me up pretty bad over those couple of weeks and as a result I fell behind on my mimitchi.com email. The last day of June was already here when I finally got back to my website mail. While going through it, answering as many as I could (sorry Connection owners, I just didn't have the answer!) one at a time going down the list.

I started going back farther into June and eventually clicked into an email dated June 17th. No matter how old, I'll eventually get back to my mail ^_^. I was at work at the time taking a break. When I opened this email my heart sunk. A very kind lady from Bandai's PR firm had written to me to let me know about the Celebrity Tamagotchi Auctions. A date that had come and gone without my knowledge.

I felt sick. A representative of the company whose products I adore had written and I was two weeks late replying to them and missed the event that they took the time to write me about. How very unfortunate I had to miss this. I nearly did not write back, I felt so ashamed. I had been busy but... work was keeping me from spending time on the things I loved and yet that excuse felt so... tiny. /sigh.

I chose to write back anyway. She had asked if I could give her an email address or mailing address to which she could provide me "with more information and updates on Tamagotchi". Now that — without a doubt — I wanted. I didn't want to ever miss an important Tamagotchi event ever again. I wrote back to her with my information and apologized for being a moron basically.

Lesson learned: Never let your job take over your life so much to the point that you lose focus of the things that make you happy.

More or less I forgot that I had passed my information onto that PR firm and my mind focused on the fact that Bandai had seen my website. YAY! But then again...yeesh, it's *so* outdated. That was the moment I knew I had to get this sucker up to date with the new Tama Connection. ^^

Now that you know the back story...you know why I found myself standing in the middle of a side walk in front of the Post Office staring at that box in my hands.

Time eventually started moving again and we jumped into the car and opened the box. I hadn't felt this excited in a long long time. What could they have sent me? Surely an advertisement wouldn't need to be sent in a box?

My man keyed the box open and handed it to me. When I opened the flaps inside I saw...

Ok end of story.

Just kidding!

Inside the box I found a bunch of yellow Easter grass. Nestled in the center was a little plastic box. I pulled it out and found myself holding a clear plastic container, complete with handle and stickers. It has Tamagotchi Connection stickers on it like: "Virtual Pet Inside", "This way up", "Fragile", Tamagotchi Connection characters, the Connection logo and Bandai logo. Inside this little clear box was some more of the yellow Easter grass.

Tamagotchi Connection, US version, inside the cardboard box and packaging

With shaky hands I stuck my hand in the grass and found myself a Tamagotchi Connection. No ordinary Tamagotchi Connection - but a U. S. Version! The ones that were due to release on August 15. This Tama has the Tamagotchi Connection logo at the top near the IR sensor, orange stars around the yellow-bordered screen on the pink shell with purple buttons. The chain is like the P1 and P2 U.S. versions from years past. There is no writing on the tab this time either. The package is very likely not to be the one in stores, it's not a secure package material. No instructions came with the Tama either.

Tamagotchi Connection, US version, inside the package it arrived in

Upon looking farther into the box I found they had stuck a green folder in the box as well. It is labeled "Tamagotchi Connection Virtual Pet Kit". A press kit — they had sent me material to use on my site. Press kits are normally reserved for news and media sources. The materials are usually used to promote products in newspapers, on the news and other resources of publishing. I do not work for any media outlet, so I can only assume they are encouraging me to update my site and use the materials they sent me.

Tamagotchi Connection, US version, with ribbon.

The press kit contains the following items: the June 15th PR announcing the return of Tamagotchi, Tamagotchi background information, Tamagotchi Connections facts sheet, Tamagotchi Connection Characters chart showing each character with their names and stages, Official Tamagotchi Connection Early Adoption Certificate, Official Guide to Caring for Your Tamagotchi Connection and a high resolution image CD.

The CD contains images of the U.S. Tamagotchi to be released along with the Tamagotchi Connection logo. The images are now on my Gallery page.

The adoption certificate appears to be for media personnell only. It's very cute in design, but has places to fill in what Media Outlet the sender is as well as a deadline for the request. It can be filled out to request a Tamagotchi Connection for the media outlet to use. Either they offer it so the media can get an additional Tamagotchi Connection or perhaps a Tamagotchi is not normally included in the press kit. I can only make guesses. However I feel extremely lucky that a Tama was sent along with this kit. ^^

So now...I have two Tamagotchi Connections and a third that is still on its way from Japan. ^^

Friday when I got home I had a lot of work to do. I finally had material to build this site with and some Tamagotchi to help build it out. Which leads me to today. By the time you read this, the site will have been made launch ready. As of right now I need to finish up some art, build the navigation, put all the content into a site template and finish up what little material there is left to write, put it all together and publish it, which I hope is before the weekend is out.

I swore to myself I would get this section published before I started my Tama's. As soon as it's launched, I'll be back to documenting my Tamagotchi adventures.

Until then, I hope you enjoy the site.

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