#i'll have to stop by electronics stores.... very sad

[gumheel]

my old laptop that has years of art and photography on it has finally reached its end of days :( it survived a xouple moves and running many programs that overwhelmed its miniscule ram. i'll miss her deeply but the last thing to do is strip the art & photography files from her and transfer them to hard drive until i can get a better laptop for school use u_u

[joviantwelve]

Please speak more on your knowledge of vpets???? I've never met anyone who knew anything about them!!

uh oh anon you just slapped the "hyperfixation" button here we go

OK, so, I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for--are you looking for a way to get into it? or are you into it and just want to know my personal faves?? or my general history and opinions of them?? so sure I'll answer all of that. by the end of this you will have wished you were more specific.

I have one of my interests listed as "electronics," mostly to encompass the broad range that is for me, like mechanical keyboards, PCs, synthesizers, game console modding & hacking...but it also includes vpets. Pretty sure it started with vpets.

(Aside: haven't done anything with circuit bending quite yet, but it does fascinate me. A lot of people seem to find it horrifying, especially when it's done with kids' toys, but I just find it...Neat. maybe that's how I know I'm in too deep with this stuff.)

as a Millennial™ I was a small baby child when the craze first hit, and so the whole concept of "virtual pet" was just very formative for me. didn't matter what it was--physical electronic devices like Tamagotchi, PC games like Petz, robotic toys like Poo-Chi or Furby, whatever, I had a little of everything. Tiger electronics and LCD screens dominated our childhoods (RIP).

but then the craze faded, as all crazes do. I became less interested in toys' for toys' sake, and a fair few of the vpets I had became lost in two moves (I'm so sad about my angelgotchi ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. please remake that one next Bandai?!).

wasn't till college where my roommate had a Tamagotchi Connection with her. and I was like, "wait, they still make those?!", a sentiment shared with many of my peers every time I start spouting things about vpets. turns out they never stopped making that shit in Japan, we just...weren't getting the majority of them. Japan had colored Tamagotchi for YEARS and we only JUST got them like three years ago, over here.

I'm very happy about the revival and Bandai's willingness to bring more and more Tamagotchi and Digimon over, because let me tell you, those eBay prices fucking hurt. $80 for a secondhand Digimon X is now $20 at Wal-Mart. Thank god.

I have seen a Giga Pets revival browsing online stores, but uh, Tiger's been out of business a long time now. Those are not the Giga Pets of yore. and Nano Pets? who?? I kinda do miss Nano Pets though...I liked their aesthetic. they had those weirdass talking ones with the super crunchy 8bit voices, and yet, I still played with mine a lot. I think my favorite Nano was a dog one that came as two devices, that you could connect and breed once they reached adulthood, and just continue the generations that way. it'd record your family lineage. I found that one incredibly cool and kinda wonder why more pets hadn't done that. but alas, all of my Nanos are lost to time!

but, like, yeah, I got mega back into Tamagotchi specifically in college. turns out, I can take care of them pretty well! when I was a kid, I lost my Tamas pretty quickly and the rest of what I had were Giga Pets, so I guess they just colored my opinion for the longest time.

here's my general Tama/Digimon strategy, since they operate on similar time scales:

hatch on a day off where you can attend to the needy baby stage and/or be generally aware of the beeping.

once it's at the child stage you're seriously good muting it and playing/feeding it whenever you go to the bathroom or something. after that you just have to be aware of the sleep schedule.

if you want to go for a specific form, look up an evolution chart and follow the instructions accordingly.

you should be golden!! they're super easy if you're allowed the break time to check every couple hours like that.

GENERAL OPINIONS SECTION IDK HOW TO SEGUE INTO THIS ORGANICALLY?????

Giga Pets: I feel like these were the ones that created the stereotype that vpets were hard to take care of--those things were PICKY. if you look up a guide on how to properly care for one so that it reaches adulthood, it fucking SUCKS! don't bother with them! they were just riding Tamagotchi coattails! I had a few of them as a kid and became endlessly frustrated with them, lmao. the revival looks like it's doing weirdass AR stuff, I can't attest to how it is as a "vpet" device, but I feel like it's probably not much better.

Nano Pets: probably the better of the western brands if you're looking for an electronic vpet that's an actual animal and not a funny anime creature. nothing wrong with wanting that. however, I don't think this brand ever came "back," so anything selling itself as such nowadays is bound to be some kind of scam if it's not a '90s used one. I remember them being fairly easy to take care of even when I was a small child killing all of my Giga Pets.

Tamagotchi: the "girly" Bandai vpet. originally sold gender neutrally in the west, Bandai's finally bringing over the modern devices with color and dressup and whatnot. the color ones are a bit unwieldy compared to the classic, but I'm glad we have options to pick from in that regard. go for the classic revival you can find in stores today if you just want Any Old Virtual Pet Device, as it's definitely the most reliable of the bunch. (you fake pausing by going to change the time, and then never finalizing a time change. the color ones have pausing built-in.)

the color ones tend to have some gimmick or another per each release (the latest one has an app and lets you take photos, for example), and are generally even easier than the classic ones. you can literally keep your Tamagotchi alive forever if you care for it every day, while the classic ones do eventually reach old age and a natural death. the color ones are a bit reminiscent of browser games like Gaia with their dressup and room/furniture aspects, and I'd call them fuller "games" as a whole. however, as you can imagine, this makes them pricier.

don't bother with the mini ones or the mascot tie-in ones, unless you really like the mascot. (I think the mascot ones have totally eclipsed the mini ones at this point, but I figured I'd mention them both. they're the same shell and game engine and such.) they're not very involved; more like a glorified keychain than a virtual "pet." but hey, maybe that's what you prefer!

Digimon: a lot of people are surprised to learn that Digimon was originally the "boy" version of Tamagotchi, and not, (shocker) a Pokemon ripoff. but yeah, it is, and it's my favorite! you'll get a big evolution chart in every device, and now that Bandai is bringing more of them out here, they don't cost an arm and a leg on eBay. that's kind of the tradeoff with Digimon--due to the existing fandom, a lot of Japan-only products are pricey or get snapped up immediately.

but thankfully, we have a lot of cool ones in the west. any Digimon vpet you see over here marketing itself as just a Digimon vpet will be the 20th anniversary vpet, which is a FANTASTIC first Digimon imo! it has a huge amount of QoL compared to the original vpets from the '90s: there's RAM, so your progress isn't killed by your battery life, you can train up to two 'mons at once, and you can fight other 'mons as a sort of "stadium" mode rather than NEEDING another device to connect to (which was pretty harsh because battling others determines if you got to evolve or not).

the Digimon X are my favorite vpets overall, but they have a bit of weird backstory that was in Japan-only TV specials and stuff, so the US releases of them...just...market them the same way? be careful if you order an English one if it says "X" or not, in case you're looking for the 20th. the Xs have an actual "campaign" mode with RPG leveling, which is what makes it fun to me--you unlock new evo branches with your progress, so I try to make it to the end of each one. you can store your digimon, too, so if you got a big strong one you don't want to grow old, you can just shuffle it out and raise a new egg.

the Pendulums haven't come out over here, which is a shame, because I like that the devices are specific Digimon elemental families. just makes sense to me! I know the Pen 20th is like the holy grail of Digimon devices, because you can hack the board to unlock every egg that was in that lineup, which makes for the biggest evo branch in any Digimon device. but it's like $300 on eBay AND you have to mess with the PCB. so, no. if you want a modern Pendulum (which is the Pendulum Z line, though I think they recently wrapped it up?), you kinda have to be on top of the preorders from Bandai's site, or pay scalper price. the Pendulums function similarly to the other vpets, but have a gyro shake battle system, and focus more on new digimon and fusion evolutions, almost requiring you to have more than one device...but the fandom loves them.

the actual Digivice electronics are less a pet and more a pedometer with a game attached. these fetch high prices on eBay and are often gimmicky, so I wouldn't go for them nowadays unless you were strictly a collector. apparently the Japanese ones are better, but I don't think it makes them "eBay scalper price" better.

(side note: Japanese devices are fine for Digimon, as the menuing is still in English for some reason. it's a bit harder on Tamas, because of all the accessories and such you can collect. In terms of finding more obscure devices, JYW has my back.)

I tried a bit of the Vital Hero but couldn't get into it, sadly. a bit too unwieldy on the wrist, and it wants you to do a bit of exercise in order to make any progress. which is, like, fine, but it's not really what I was looking for. I guess I was hoping it'd be more like the Pokemon Pikachu, counting your steps and gaining happiness etc. that way? but it wants me to do squats. eh.

The cool thing about the standard Digimon vpets (vanilla/20th, X, and Pendulum), for me, is that it's always been backwards compatible. there's a generic battle system baked into each device, so my Pen Z that I bought a couple years back can battle with my original '90s vpet if I so desire. AND, if you like Arduino stuff, you can very much spoof other devices to connect with if you know how. I've literally battled with folks across the world using this silly little program and an Arduino board. lots of folks make their own on Etsy and such, and the Discord is very friendly to new tamers, making this all less intimidating. I certainly don't know how to program, but I've done it.

they recently announced a color Digimon, which is like, wow, about time, but I'm a little worried it might bring the devices more toward Tama territory, of not being very compatible between generations. fingers crossed, but both are owned by "Bandie" "Scamco," so...we'll see, I guess.

BUT. YEAH. THANKS ANON. here's my collection, thank you for entertaining me.

I literally just came back from the store to this ask. I've been typing for like an hour and a half straight. ahh. sometimes, I go down the toy aisles just to see what's Hip With Kids nowadays. each and every time I STILL feel tempted by whatever FurReal has currently put out or something. (also I'm very happy when I see Tamagotchi & Digimon there.)

I have ideas for a vpet like program thing, or perhaps a story that involves similar devices somehow, but currently it's on the backburner. but lord if I don't end up thinking about it every time I play with one of these.

[jovialturtleface]

Rambling about greeting cards

It's hard for me to recognize when I've obtained a new special interest, it's always in hindsight like for the last three years I became really into greeting cards specifically those with fun art styles and cute gimmicks, I justified this interest by giving them away as intended but I cherished the moment I put them into an envelop and sealed it... I did keep some for myself! I have a SpongeBob singing birthday card unfortunately I found out recently that it has stopped working and I don't think there's any way to repair it, hopefully the audio is archived online somewhere. It's a very cute card, although I neglected to grab the envelop with it since it was a last minute grab. I never got to celebrate my birthday much so it's nice...

I also have a Hoops & Yoyo talking card too, hence why I drew that fanart of them when I did. They're very cute characters, simple designs but a lot of charm but tbh it might just be the nostalgia talking I used to love browsing their website they had a lot of those electronic cards' and flash animations. In general I have a fondness for greeting card characters, even the ones who are one-off designs! I really wish the cards had artist credits but alas....

Oh yeah I do have a clown card, it was at a thrift store and I thought why not. Lately I haven't been in a situation where I can freely buy cards so the latest card I've gotten is from a month or two ago, a nice Kuromi shaped card.

I also actually made a few cards myself, nothing too elaborate just me drawing the front and writing a nice message for family and also I got to finally use up some stickers I was hoarding... Oh yeah I also really like to collect stickers hehe maybe I should write about that?

Greeting cards are nice, they're also a little sad I guess like mentioned above the electronic ones won't last forever so you might as well cherish them while you have them or maybe invest in ones with different gimmicks like that one that came with finger puppets. One day maybe I'll take a few pictures of what I have... Probably on my side idk if anyone would want to see much of that here. Ah this was really long but it's not like I get many chances to rave on about cards, even if nobody's reading at least my words will exist for a little bit here.

[amewinterswriting]

I've not officially been a manager but I've had keyholder and till management (cash drops, cashing up and morning float) duties at different places and I'm pretty confident at handling some of the weirder customers without needing a manager involved.

If we're talking really small, that usually gets very weird very fast. I've worked at two tiny import candy places and typically they are as dodgy as everyone says - I can probably guess exactly what tax dodges the owners were pulling but no evidence for it. I was often opening/closing on my own - 'management' was thin on the ground/only in for half the day.

We'd often get people coming in to a candy store (bright colours, sweets on shelves, massive gumball machine, not exactly subtle) and asking for cigarettes, soap, bin bags, etc. I mostly credit that to us being in the proximity of a small convenience store that closed an hour before we did so people weren't really paying attention or were desperately hoping it would be something we had.

We had a serial shoplifter who wore a huge neck to ankle puffer coat to hide sweets in to resell in the middle of summer. Like...who is buying sweaty melted candy from this guy? I still shudder thinking about it.

On shoplifters, somehow my current place (children's toy shop) is far worse for it than anywhere else I've worked and more prolific than anyone who doesn't work retail realises - it's daily. The bulk of shoplifters we get are aiming to resell the toys, so in general it's collectables (TY, Transformers, Lego, 5 Surprise, Squishmallows etc) or electronic baby toys (vTech in particular). They are absolutely shameless and will give you a lot of aggression for succeeding in stopping them. I've been physically threatened just for keeping an eye on someone who looked a little bit suspicious from half the store away.

A weird one though: had a guy come in, quite big and intimidating and asked how long I'd worked there. I gave a vague answer. He apologized profusely to me (and a lot of other people who had been there for a similar amount of time). See, turns out he had attempted to lift from us in the past, been caught and been very aggressive about it. He admitted that it was a very low point of his life and he was stealing to fund a drug habit and he was now turning his life around and his sponsor suggested apologising to the people he'd wronged in the past. It was very awkward for everyone involved but nice to get an apology. The sad thing is, I'm not even sure if I was even in store when he was being aggressive - it's not unusual enough that a particular incident would stick in my memory anymore.

Customer weirdness:

Being convinced that we're hiding exactly what they're looking for 'in the back' despite being told very clearly that we don't have it, we last had it six months ago and I personally checked the system and the whole company doesn't have a single one left

On Christmas Eve: "what's your bestselling toy? I'll buy that." Our best-selling toy sold out in November, but here's what we've got in store now. "Well, if it's still here, it can't be that good, can it?" Sir, you are buying a toy on Christmas Eve, what other options do you think you have??

"Do you have this really specific thing I saw six months ago?" Nope, that was something we typically only get for Christmas.

"I saw this thing yesterday, it was right here!" And it sold. Yesterday. You were here, why didn't you just buy it when you saw it?

"Have you got any of this really specific thing left?" Uh...we've never carried that range, it's an own brand from our competitors. "Sure you did, I bought it six months ago, probably before your time." I've worked here five years and for three of them I've been in charge of this specific subsection of the store, trust me, we've never sold that item. "Well, can I talk to the manager? He knows me, he'll tell you." The manager in fact, does know the customer, in a 'oh no, it's him again' way, and also repeats that we haven't ever sold that item, he must be thinking of our competitor. Customer accepts this information this time (likely because a man said it, or because a position of authority said it, but I am frothing at the mouth at this point - manager often needs to ask me about specific products we have in this section, my product knowledge of toys is embarrassingly good for someone without kids). Best part about this is that the mistaken guy is a semi-regular and while he prides himself on knowing the manager 'by name' he's actually got the wrong name. He just calls my manager the wrong name for 20 minutes every time he visits. We wear nametags!

The obsession with gender. When working in chocolate, it was always "what kind of chocolate do men like?" For some reason there's a general idea that men prefer dark chocolate, even though my informal survey of everyone I know places milk chocolate as the preference of most men, dark for most women. But even then, most people who prefer dark won't turn down a gift of milk chocolate whereas people who prefer milk chocolate tend not to like more bitter dark chocolate. In children's toys, it's always the most gender-neutral toys imaginable like some Paw Patrol figures and the question "is this appropriate for a boy?" Double points for asking the most gender-nonconforming member of staff around. (Short hair, no makeup, occasional facial hair, obvious breasts, higher pitched voice) Trust me, I'm never going to answer that it's inappropriate for your kid to play with anything in our store unless it's an actual age related safety thing (like Nerf blasters for very young kids). Let your son have the doll and let your daughter have the remote control helicopter, if that's what they're interested in.

Well, this is getting a bit long and mostly complaining so I'll stop here but if you have specific questions I'm happy to talk shop, as it were! I've worked in video game stores, import candy stores, posh chocolate and children's toys so there's a bit of variety there.

I need to speak to the manager

Hellooooooooooo writeblr 😘 I have a character who works as the manager of a small shop. If you’ve worked in a similar position I’d looooove to hear stories. Give me your boring day-to-day, your weird wtf, and anything in between. Basically, anything I can use so someone reading this character would think “oh yeah, that tracks.”