For years, collectors asked Bandai for one thing: bring back the Tamagotchi Connection. In 2024, they finally listened. More than two years on, that quiet re-release stands out as one of the smartest moves the line has made — because it revived the single feature that made Tamagotchi social in the first place.
The model everyone asked for
The Tamagotchi Connection first arrived in 2004. It was the virtual pet series' right-hand turn toward connectivity, and its headline trick was built-in infrared pairing: point two devices at each other and their pets could meet, trade gifts, and play together. That small idea turned a personal toy into a shared one, and it made the Connection the bridge between the solo Tamagotchi of the 1990s and the always-online Tamagotchi Uni of today.
To mark the 20th anniversary, Bandai resurrected the design fans loved most: the recognizable Tamagotchi egg with the small, cellphone-style faux antenna on its top-left corner. The new model was teased on April 25, 2024, and officially revealed on May 13. It shipped in the Americas and Europe on July 9 and 10 at $29.99, with a two-pack at $57.99, then reached Japan on August 3 at 3,960 yen.
A hybrid, not a copy
Bandai did not simply reprint the old hardware. The revival is a hybrid of gameplay from the Tamagotchi Connection Version 3 and the Japanese Keitai (cellphone) model, packing more than 50 characters and roughly 150 in-game items, some of which unlock through passwords. The shell lineup mixed faithful replicas of classic designs with shiny new ones, from the translucent "Clear Retro" to a Bubbles shell that recreated the beloved aqua blue V3.
For the Japanese second wave, Bandai even let fans pick two old Keitai shell designs to be reprinted. Voting ran on Twitter through May 2024, and the winners — Strawberry Milk and Orange Juice — were revealed on June 9. It was a nice reminder that the Connection's community has never really moved on.
Why it still matters
The re-release landed just as Tamagotchi was leaning hard into a connected future, and that timing was no accident. The back-to-back connections of the old infrared days are the Patient Zero of the Uni's entire online world. Reissuing the Connection was Bandai acknowledging its own history: the toy was always meant to be held up to a friend's, not played in isolation.
Two decades after 2004, it still feels slightly radical to hand someone a device whose whole purpose is "connect to another one." No app, no servers, no updates — just two eggs, an antenna, and the small joy of making your pets say hello. In an era full of cloud-sync everything, the 2024 Connection is a working time capsule of when connecting was the most exciting thing a pocket pet could do.
If you missed the wave, the reissue is a genuinely good entry point: it plays like the classic but works out of the box with a second unit. And if you were there in 2004, holding one in 2026 feels like running into an old friend who hasn't changed at all.