Bandai to Show Fall Collection at Toy Fair

Dinky little electrical toys have long been Bandai's stock in trade, and the makers of Tamagotchi will have their new stuff for boys and girls alike on show at the American International Toy Fair next week.

First up will be the latest Tamagotchi itself, V4.5. I haven't been keeping track since the originals some 10 years ago, to be honest, but the latest batch takes the virtual pet through every stage of life: growing up, going to school, getting a job, and so on. The .5 upgrade brings, and I quote, "bling":

"Our Fall lineup extends the Tamagotchi brand with exciting new products, including plush, a decoration kit that allows you to ‘bling-out’ your V4 making it your own creation and a voice-interactive software pack with exclusive V4.5 toy,” said Michael Riley, vice president of marketing for Bandai America Inc. “Meanwhile, the Tamagotchi Connection toy now enhances the play by empowering fans like never before as they get to live the Tamagotchi lifestyle at home, at school and on the go.”

Thus empowered by a Tamagotchi, we can move on to Bandai's other big offering: Girlz Connect, a brand for girls aged 5-13, that's supposedly distinguished by the community-based sharing, caring website at Girlzconnect.com. There, young girls will be able to take their tamagotchis and share games, quizzes, horoscropes and so on.

When I found that there's nothing whatsoever up at this address yet, I held out a brief moment of hope that Bandai hadn't even bothered to register it yet, meaning I could snap it up and have it redirect to something unpleasant before most of America had even had it's breakfast. Alas, Bandai's already bought it, they just didn't actually bother to go live before the press release went out.

Tamagotchi v4.5 Press Release [Bandai]

GirlzConnect Press Release [Bandai]