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As a card-carrying millennial and child of the '90s, you can bet that I'm a fan of everything to do with the Care Bears and Tamagotchis, and so when they were combined to create the Care Bear Digital Pet, I knew I needed one.
These adorable Care Bears accessories were launched for $24.99 / £19.99 at Amazon by toy brand Thumbs Up earlier this year, and combine the new current generation of Care Bears with the iconic 90s digital toys. While the faces and designs of Cheer Bear and Grumpy Bear aren't the ones I grew up with, I've grown pretty attached to their modern looks, and out of all the Black Friday gaming deals I want to buy later this month, it's these Care Bears Digital Pets I want above all else.
Of course, these digital pets aren't really a bit of gaming tech. If you're also a nerd of a certain age, you'll be more than familiar with the Tamagotchi craze of the '90s, of which these Care Bears devices are harkening back to.
Just like the original gadgets, these compact keychains come equipped with little LCD screens that allow you to look after a pixelated digital pet - in this case, a Care Bear. There are four buttons on the device, which let you navigate through the small menus and play a range of mini-games, feed your bear, and more, but while the digital pet gameplay loop is always fun, I'm more obsessed with the designs.
Each digital pet replicates one of the faces of the modern Care Bears, and they're adorable. I honestly much prefer this to the original Tamagotchi's design, and out of the lot, it's Grumpy Bear that has caught my eye the most. Growing up, Grumpy Bear was my favorite of the greeting card bears turned cartoon icons, as I was known to be pretty grumpy myself. At the time, even my Care Bear hand-me-down bed-frame just couldn't cheer me up, but that's maybe because Care Bear Digital Pets didn't exist.
If you're confused as to why these adorable devices are being dubbed "digital pets" and not Tamagotchis, that's because Tamagotchi is a brand name and toy specifically produced and owned by Bandai. Any and all other toys like them usually need to have monikers and names of their own, but that doesn't make them any less than the originals.
In fact, in the '90s, I much preferred Tiger Electronics Giga Pets over Bandai's Tamagotchis as they were larger and more comfortable to play. To this day, I still own my Little Mermaid Giga Pet, and she still works after all these years. I can't prematurely say if these new Care Bears Digital Pets will stand the test of time for that long, but they are definitely one of the most adorable incarnations of the digital pet toy I've seen in years.
If you were never a fan of the original Cheer Bear, you can grab the digital pet of Grumpy Bear, Good Luck Bear, Funshine Bear, and Share Bear instead. Or collect the entire set, I won't judge.
Grumpy Bear $22.99 at Amazon
Good Luck Bear $22.99 at Amazon
Funshine Bear $22.99 at Amazon
Share Bear $22.99 at Amazon
Each of the Care Bears Digital pets are coincidentally on sale now in both the US and UK, coming in at just $22.99 at Amazon, so I could just grab one now as an early Black Friday treat.
However, I'm going to wait until the toy sales officially roll out on November 28, to see if each of the pets can get lower than the current £16.99 at Amazon sale price here in the UK. Not because I don't think its current price isn't reasonable for what you get, but because I'd like to make my millennial dreams come true and collect the entire set.
Check out our guide for the best retro gifts if you want to see even more nostalgic goodies.
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