Two years ago, Bandai did something it almost never does: it listened. Collectors had begged for years for a reissue of the Tamagotchi Connection, the 2004 model with the little faux antenna. In 2024, twenty years after the original, the revival finally shipped — and its second life has been quietly lovely.
The first Tamagotchi that could talk to another
Every Tamagotchi before 2004 lived its whole lifecycle alone. The Connection changed that. It launched in Japan as Keitai Kaitsu!! Tamagotchi Plus — a phone-flavoured pun fans shortened to "Kei-tama" — and it was the first Tamagotchi to communicate over infrared. Point two devices at each other and you could play games, exchange presents, or visit. Connect often enough, and characters grew close, became partners, married, and raised the next generation. For the first time, raising a Tamagotchi was something you did with someone else.
The signature antenna started here, too. The international v3 made the look famous, and it also earned a footnote: the first Tamagotchi released outside Japan to connect to a companion website, the long-departed TamaTown.
The comeback, in every colour but
When Bandai announced the revival in May 2024, it made clear the audience wasn't just the 20- and 30-somethings who owned the originals — it was also the teens enjoying Y2K fashion. The new Connection keeps the monochrome screen and the infrared play (game, present, visit) and adds modern touches: a ball chain so it hangs off a bag, over 50 characters — Mametchi, Kuchipatchi, Memetchi, Young Mimitchi and Ichigotchi among them — more than 150 items to collect, and ten-plus mini-games. Each shell hides a password that unlocks a special item: the Bubbles shell, for instance, earns a soda.
North America got it first, on July 9, 2024, at $29.99 — or $57.99 for the True Friends duo pack with the Blue and Pink Graffiti shells. Japan followed on August 3 with four pearly shells at ¥3,960. And Bandai let fans choose the second wave: a vote across 22 designs in May 2024 picked Strawberry Milk and Orange Juice, which shipped on November 23 — fittingly, the same date the very first Tamagotchi went on sale in 1996.
Why it still matters
The Connection is easy to underrate because it sits in the franchise's quiet middle chapter, between the 1990s mania and the colour era. But its core idea — a Tamagotchi is better with company — became the roadmap. The same instinct, in wireless form, lives on in the Uni's Tamaverse today.
Two years on, the revival has aged wonderfully. It is the friendliest entry point to the hobby: cheap, simple, and it only gets better when you meet another owner. No app, no account, no updates — just two eggs talking to each other in infrared. Sometimes the oldest trick is still the best one. North America got it first, on July 9, 2024, at $29.99 — or $57.99 for the True Friends duo pack with the Blue and Pink Graffiti shells. Japan followed on August 3 with four pearlescent shells — light blue glitter, pink glitter, pearl flower, and melon soda — at ¥3,960, powered by a single CR2032 coin cell. And Bandai let fans choose the second wave: a vote across 22 designs in May 2024 picked Strawberry Milk and Orange Juice, both faithful recreations of adored Keitai-era shells. They shipped on November 23 — fittingly, the same date the very first Tamagotchi went on sale in 1996. Two years on, the revival has aged wonderfully. It is the friendliest entry point to the hobby: cheap, simple, and it only gets better when you meet another owner. No app, no account, no updates — just two eggs talking to each other in infrared. TamaTown, the companion website of the V3 era, is long gone, and that turns out to be fine: everything social happens between devices, face to face. Sometimes the oldest trick is still the best one.