toronto is tamatown
We are so back! Host
Twoey returned to us after her season away in BC, and over 50 tama players joined us again at Allan Gardens Children's Conservatory. We are getting very comfortable at our new home in the greenhouse! Our wonderful guest vendors
Ape & Frog,
Maya, and
Mune sold plushies, stickers, and other goodies while guests made bracelets, coloured, drew with chalk, and of course connected tamas!
July 28, 2024
cross-canada tama diplomacy
While living in British Columbia for the summer, tama club founder Twoey had the privilege of attending the inaugural meetups of the
Victoria Tamagotchi Club and
Vancouver Tamagotchi Club. What an honour! These are second and third Tamagotchi clubs to launch in Canada (respectively), and both crews were incredibly warm and welcoming. They send their tama love back to Toronto!
Sept 1, 2024
a picnic to remember
We touched grass! Special guest hosts
Wilzietchi and
Hannah led our second annual picnic meetup on July 28 at Grange Park. It was amazing to finally connect those brand new Connection re-issues! Wil brought over 100
friendship bracelets for new members, and Discord mod extraordinaire Linda (aka
@matcha_obliged) brought special 3D printed tama stands to give away. We had over 50 tama pals join us, and couldn't be more thrilled to see our friends again :)
July 28, 2024
a very tama birthday
Special delivery from Tamagotchi! For Twoey's birthday on June 8, the Toronto Tamagotchi Club was sent a special advance copy of the Tamagotchi Connection re-release! To our knowledge, Toronto is the only recipient of the True Friends edition, which comes with two complementary devices. Makes sense, since we are so well known for connecting IRL! The second Tama went to
Wilzietchi in honour of being the
first friend Twoey met at the debut Toronto Tamagotchi Club meetup. Our
unboxing video is live, but stay tuned for a review video of the connection features!
June 11, 2024
we grow together
Our June meetup brought us to Allan Gardens Childrens Conservatory. 60 loyal Tamagotchers joined us for a greenhouse meetup!
Twoey shared the inspiring backstory behind the creation of the Toronto Tamagotchi Club, and
Wil shared some of the latest news about the newly-announced Tamagotchi Connection re-release. We were also fortunate to hear from special guest
Sandra Bekhor who was part of the original Bandai Canada team that discovered Tamagotchi at a toy fair in Japan. Sandra was on the ground as the tama craze exploded across North America, and led the charge through a media frenzy, school bans, and confused parents. Through Sandra we learned that Toronto was the flagship location of Tamagotchi in North America. We're a city of taste! So many huge smiles in the building today, and thank you all for connecting with us!
June 2, 2024
logo contest winner
Our
Logo Contest was devised when members proposed that the Toronto Tamagotchi Club should have an original logo. Since we couldn't decide who should be the artist, we decided to put it to a vote. And of course, every contest needs a prize! Bandai was lovely enough to donate a P2 Tamagotchi, and
Ape and Frog donated a limited edition biblically-accurate Kuchipatchi plushie to our prize pack. Suddenly, the stakes were high. In the end, we had 24 incredible submissions, which were anonymously judged by members of the Toronto Tamagotchi Club. In the end,
Wolfie took home the win with their Ura-inspired Memetchi postage stamp design, featuring a gotchi-fied CN Tower! It was a very close vote, and thank you to all the artists who contributed their work!
May 1, 2024
rainy daze
By popular demand, we've decided to meet a little more frequently! Today's picnic was moved indoors by thunderstorms, but we spent the afternoon dry and cozy at Bootsy's Palace. Around 40 members joined us for an indoor picnic, where we were also visited by journalists from the Toronto Star.
Wilzietchi reviewed the mounting evidence that a Tamagotchi Connection re-release is imminent. Twoey shared that Toronto has now inspired 7
other Tamagotchi clubs (and one Furby club) across North America, and we continue to grow! Stay tuned for pics from our meetup.
April 28, 2024
spring dreams
Toronto IS Tama Town! 55 members joined us today at
Bootsy's Palace in Kensington Market for food, friendship bracelets, and fun. We had so many visitors that our group tama photo had to take place in two different heats: black and white vs. colour tamas. The very talented
@sugar.nymph brought an incredible
Angelgotchi-themed cake! Our farthest member drove 2.5 hours to visit us. We were also joined by a representative from Bandai's PR team, who took field notes to report back to Tamagotchi HQ in Japan. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement about where this could lead. Tamagotchi Clubs have started to appear in cities
all over the world. That's Toronto's impact!
March 3, 2024
chaos in the gardens
The third meetup of the Toronto Tamagotchi Club was our biggest yet! Over 30 players joined us at Allan Gardens (before we were kicked out for monopolizing the greenhouse). We were joined by a TV crew from
Radio Canada who documented the festivities in our first ever French-language interview.
Wilzietchi came prepared with 50
"TO TMGC Club" friendship bracelets for members to take home as souvenirs. We are now sitting at a membership of over 50 players, and are greatly looking forward to our next adventure!
Nov 12, 2023
a tamagotchi picnic
Our outdoor picnic meetup brought us to Bellevue Square Park on a busy Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market. How fitting to meet right next door to Toronto's Chinatown, the setting of Disney's
Turning Red, which features a Tamagotchi fan as a main character! We had some significant
media interest in our last meetup, and made many new friends who heard about us on the Internet or radio. We were joined by a couple who travelled all the way from Peterborough (150km!) for the event. One guest who heard about us had never played Tamagotchi before, but thought our vibes sounded wholesome and brought us a chocolate cake!
May 28, 2023
our first meetup
Twoey's poster declaring "My Tamagotchi has no friends" went Toronto-viral and enticed a group of a dozen strangers out to Allan Gardens on a cold winter's day. Mission accomplished: Twoey's Tamagotchi has learned the meaning of love, and a dozen founding members formed a core Tamily (tama family) warmly anticipating a sequel!
Dec 11, 2022
the origin story
In 2022,
Twoey was facing a time of immense change in her life. To clear her head, she went on a gentle bike ride one day, and did not stop for 60 days, until she had ridden 3000 kilometres from Toronto to Halifax! She had trained a grand total of zero days. Armed with a tent and a Tamagotchi, Twoey made her way across Canada by sleeping in graveyards, farmer's fields, and with new friends made along the way. Her Tamagotchi was a comfort to her during challenges she faced alone on the road, and a wonderful way to meet new people, since strangers would always ask "is that a Tamagotchi?". When Twoey returned to Toronto in the fall, she had done a lot of thinking about solitude, community, and the meaning of friendship. She had discovered that, with most things in life, we are mistaken when we imagine we are "the only one". Could it be true, then, that she was
not the last person playing Tamagotchi in the city of Toronto? Only one way to find out. Twoey made a poster and shared it around the city, and history was in motion...
Nov 30, 2022