Bandai opened preorders Thursday for the Tamagotchi ring, a 28 millimeter egg shaped device you wear on a finger and use to raise a virtual pet. The company priced each unit at 7,700 yen including tax, about $48, and set shipping for February 2027 through its Premium Bandai store.
The announcement came from Bandai Co., Ltd., headed by President Kazuhiro Takenaka and based in Taito Ward, Tokyo. Staff framed the launch as the 30th anniversary product for a line that began on November 23, 1996. Preorders started at 10 a.m. Japan time on August 27 and run through 11 p.m. on October 6. The official listing is on Premium Bandai.
Bandai calls it the smallest Tamagotchi with a color screen. The body is about 28 mm tall and 23 mm wide. Dexerto, working from the store page, also listed a depth near 35 mm. The display is 0.56 inches, the tiniest color LCD in the series. The original 1996 unit measured about 50 mm long. This one is 56 percent of that length.
It is the 39th mainline model. Care still means feeding, flushing waste, and giving attention. Minigames and room makeovers sit on top of those basics. How you treat the pet decides which of 30 characters it becomes. Care can also unlock secret forms. Bandai grouped the roster by era: first generation names such as Mametchi and Kuchipatchi from 1996, communication era characters such as Memetchi and Flowertchi from the 2004 Plus line, and color era faces such as Lovelytchi and Meloditchi from 2008 onward.
The shell keeps the old silhouette. Egg body. Screen in the center. Three buttons. On this model the side buttons handle most of the tapping. Engineers spent two years shrinking the internals. A new charging layout, first for the series, cuts empty space. A shorter USB protection circuit helped too. Part count landed at 64 pieces, 52 electronic and 12 plastic. Tamagotchi Paradise, the current full size unit, uses 116.
That squeeze has a history. Color screens arrived in November 2008 with Tamagotchi Plus Color. Button cells could not keep up with the extra draw, so Bandai switched to alkaline batteries. Devices ballooned to 68 mm long and 29 mm deep, 137 percent of the 1996 size. The ring is the company’s attempt to put color back into a body closer to the first toy. Details sit in the August 27 press release.
Charging is new as well. You drop the ring into a matching case instead of plugging the toy itself. Each color ships with its own case so the dock can sit out as a small display. Three finishes are on sale: Pink and Pearl White with an aurora pearl frame, Light Blue and Metallic Gold with plating, and Black and Metallic Silver with plating. Japanese ring sizes 10 and 14 are supported. A spacer in the box handles the fit.
Wearable Tamagotchis are not brand new. In 2021 Bandai released Tamagotchi Smart, a wristwatch built during pandemic indoor routines. That unit added Tama Delivery, a gag where food and snacks arrive on command. The ring is the next step in the same idea: keep the pet on the body so care is never a bag hunt. Bandai’s copy still leans on the 1990s pitch that a digital pet should travel with you.
The public first look happened at the Tokyo Toy Show. The show opened Thursday at Tokyo Big Sight in Koto Ward and runs through Sunday. Bandai and BANDAI SPIRITS are showing the ring at their booth on August 29 and 30. Talent Yuchami wore a unit on her index finger at the opening ceremony. “It’s stylish and cute. Most of all it’s super tiny,” she said, according to coverage of the event.
The Japan Toy Association, which runs the show, said the domestic toy market hit a record 1.16 trillion yen in fiscal 2025. Exhibitors this year are chasing kidult buyers and tourists as well as children. Bandai’s floor also includes Chiikawa goods. Tomy is showing a Doctor Yellow Plarail set. The ring is the anniversary piece in that mix.
International shoppers will need to watch Premium Bandai’s regional sites. The Japanese page is live now. Whether a U.S. or Europe drop follows later has not been stated in the press materials. For now the buy window is Japan first, six weeks of orders, then a winter wait until February boxes go out.
The company closed its release with a long horizon. Bandai said it wants Tamagotchi to stay an IP people still care about in 50 or 100 years. That is marketing talk. The hardware claim is smaller and easier to check: 28 mm, 64 parts, 30 characters, a case that charges the thing while it sits on a desk. Official pages and social accounts are listed from the Tamagotchi site and the Bandai release if buyers want the source files rather than the recap.
