Tama Depa, interactive Tamagotchi shop opens up

Written by: Rebecca Milner on October 2, 2008 at 2:21 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS | 2 Comments

We were pretty disappointed with the closing of Shamrock Air, the cute concept store with the aircraft-like interior that required shoppers to pre-register online for a boarding pass to enter. Taking its place at the highly visible entrance to Harajuku’s Takeshita Dori, however, is a new Tama Depa with a few nice concepts of its own.

Tama Depa, produced by Bandai, is a contraction for Tamagotchi Department Store, meaning the shop carries just about everything Tamagotchi you or your child could possibly want.

Not only to play with, but also to eat, as Tama Depa specializes in “Tamagotchi donuts” visible (and smell-able) from the street.

Fans who sign up for a Tama Depa membership online are rewarded with an animated version of the donut take-away case for their Circle Link avatar. Circle Link is an SNS forum for character loving school kids organized into “circles” for members who follow the same character.

And who wouldn’t want to be a fan of Tamagotchi in exchange for free (unfortunately virtual) donuts? Membership also promises more avatar goodies in the future as well as off-line event notification.

Another way to get your hands on virtual donuts is to pass by the front of the store. Here, an interactive monitor takes the faces of those standing in front and puts them on the screen with an animated donut in hand.

The inside (sorry, no photos) is also fully decked out with video screens.

The opening of Tama Depa, on September 20th, came just ahead of the announcement from Bandai that color tamagotchis are on the way.

Tags: Bandai, Characters, Digital POS, Harajuku, Retail, Tamagotchi
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Human Player from Bandai: The Tamagotchi with YOUR personality

Written by: Michael Keferl on February 18, 2007 at 1:56 am | In DIGITAL LIFE | 7 Comments

Just announced today from Bandai, the Human Player is a new take on virtual pets, communication, and personality tests. Though it looks like a portable media device mixed with a virtual pet, the Human Player takes elements from two other Bandai products, Tamagotchi and Cube World, and add a personal element: Your own personality. First, you take a fifty question personality test (Called the “Ego-Gram”) that assigns you one of 22 personalities. We took the test and got “Super Hero Type”, so it’s pretty accurate beyond our expectations. Up to sixteen people on one Human Player can take the test.

After your personality is determined, you can now interact with other characters on the device, or infrared-beam yourself into someone else’s Human Player to see how you get along with them. Basically, they put you into the same room and see how things work out, based on your personality traits. Your own character spends his/her free time doing, supposedly, what you would be doing. Perhaps staring at his own virtual pet? There are also mini-games that put you into real world situations, and see how your character reacts. For example, you see a guy harassing a turtle with a stick…what do you do, Super Hero? Save the day, or walk on by?

Check out the video below from Bandai:

Human player will be available March 31st for ¥2980, or about $25.

Pictures via Bandai
Take the Ego-Gram at Human Labo

Tags: Bandai, Tamagotchi
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Tamagotchi Music Fever: New from Bandai

Written by: Michael Keferl on December 16, 2006 at 12:06 am | In DIGITAL LIFE | 13 Comments

Released last week, the Tamagotchi Music Fever is a music-based Tamagotchi game from Bandai, now celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Tamagotchi. Its flash memory can hold up to 120 minutes of music, and gameplay integrates the music as well with “Session” (character plays an instrument) and “dance” (umm…dancing?).

Music itself is not in mp3 format, but can be ripped in real time from a CD, radio, TV, etc via audio cable, which makes it appropriate for children especially. There are two mini games, and nineteen available game characters to play up to seven hours.

Click to buy Tamagotchi Music Fever online

Tags: Bandai, Portable Audio, Tamagotchi
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS