Hi Alex,
I have been on that block in Manhattan and yes it is a BIG block, especially by Denver standards.
Denver must not know about the Tamagotchi craze yet, because both times I went to Toys R Us yesterday, I was the only one buying tamagotchis. When I went in the evening I brought my wife and 8-month old son so I could buy 3 (1-per-person-per-visit). We got a brand new slaes clerk who tried to remember his spiel about "sorry, only 1 per visit because we have a higher than expected demand and a small supply." Then he went to his manager and she reluctantly ok'ed our buying 3 at once. She came to the pickup counter to get tamagotchis for us and when we asked for 1 white one she said "you have to take whatever comes out of the box, due to high demand, etc." Pretty rude, especially considering we were almost the only customers in the store and definitely the only ones at the counter. For Alex and the other New Yorkers, remember that Coloradans are overly friendly by default :-), so rudeness is unexpected. I will give her some credit, though, because she finally did go upstairs for another box without our asking, and gave us a white one. I didn't dare ask for another transparent blue one at that point.
I imagine that word will get out that Tamagotchis are available here and the stores will be mobbed in a day or two.
As far as being a Tamagotchi dad, it's kind of fun so far, but I've had too many real pets and gotten too old to get attached to a Gameboy-looking one. I am sure if I were a kid I would have the proper level of enthusiasm :-) However, I am amazed at the technological aspects of this toy. Bandai managed to pack a lot of stuff into a small space (smaller than the pictures make it look). The buttons are kind of hard for big adult fingers to press, but overall I like the design. It's the perfect size to keep in a pocket, it's a novel time-keeper (I don't recall seeing the watch feature mentioned anywhere, but yes, it has a watch display), and it's a great coversation-piece. I forgot to turn off the sound on it this morning and it started "chirping" when it woke up in my briefcase on the bus in to work. I got some strange looks when my briefcase started beeping, and more strange looks when I pulled out a turqoise-colored plastic egg with yellow buttons and started making more beeping sounds. I explained it to my seat-mate, and I am pretty sure Bandai will have another customer by this evening :-) Right now it's sitting beside my keyboard bouncing around the little screen.
Ok, all you other Tamagotchi owners, let's have your product research reports and impressions. Also, if anyone has gotten a GigPets pet yet, how do you like it and how does it compare to a Tamagotchi?
Kirk |
