By Jessica Ye (Jessica Yap)
For anyone who grew up in the 1990s, Tamagotchi was never just a toy.
It was the tiny digital pet hanging off a school bag zipper in a candy-coloured plastic shell. The thing beeping in the middle of class because somebody forgot to feed it. The panic of finding out it died while you were asleep. The weird emotional guilt attached to a pixelated blob no bigger than your thumbnail.
Now CASETiFY is pulling that entire memory back into circulation through a new collaboration with Bandai Namco Entertainment, built around phone cases, charms, travel accessories and an exclusive CASETiFY-branded Tamagotchi device.
And honestly, this might be one of the better nostalgia pulls they’ve done in a while.
A lot of brands mine the 1990s badly. Everything gets flattened into “retro aesthetics” and lazy Y2K moodboards. But Tamagotchi still carries actual emotional memory for people who grew up with one clipped onto their bags at all times. You didn’t just collect it. You looked after it.
That’s what made those ugly little egg-shaped devices stick.
The collection leans fully into the original visual chaos of Tamagotchi. Bright colours. Sticker graphics. Cartoonish layouts that look lifted straight out of a late-90s stationery store. The standout pieces are probably the customizable 21-inch CASETiFY Bounce suitcase and the Tamagotchi plush earbuds pouch, both sitting somewhere between travel accessory and toy aisle object.
There’s also something very funny about seeing Tamagotchi reappear inside adult life through tech accessories and airport luggage. The generation that grew up feeding digital pets is now carrying them through departure gates and business trips.
The collaboration also includes straps, charms and collectible chase cards across seven rarity tiers, pushing the same collector instinct that made Tamagotchi explode globally in the first place.
At its peak, Tamagotchi sold over 100 million units worldwide. Most people probably remember the shell before they even remember the gameplay itself. Transparent plastic. Loud colours. Tiny monochrome screen sitting in the middle like treasure.
Somewhere along the way, everybody had one.
The CASETiFY x Tamagotchi collection launches from May 29 online and at selected CASETiFY STUDiO locations. Honestly, the hardest part might be deciding which character to clip onto your bag first.
