The holidays are the worst time of year to book a transatlantic flight in an attempt to buy a limited-edition Tamagotchi. But this is one virtual pet I may be willing to jump through a couple of hoops for so I can add it to my collection. Over the past week, “Eduardochi,” the chicken thigh, has been trending in the Tamagotchi collector’s forums and blogs for its delicious take on the iconic digital toy.
Eduardochi is, for all intents and purposes, a Tamagotchi, though Bandai does not officially license it. Eduardochi has four buttons rather than the standard three. You take care of it like any other virtual pet: it sleeps, eats, and poops regularly. It also gets sick and will require medical care, as chicken thighs do after being grilled and baked. The presence of a baseball bat icon also suggests there are mini-games to play with Eduardochi.
While the concept of a chicken thigh using the bathroom isn’t rooted in reality, it seems to work for getting people in the door to buy some chicken and a virtual pet. An outside creative agency developed the collab to reel in a particular niche of virtual pet collectors who don’t mind doing so with greasy fingers after imbibing in finger-lickin’ good fried chicken. Eduardo the drumstick is part of a larger schtick that began trending on the Spanish Internet in 2021. Indeed, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered the anthropomorphized drumstick. I have memories of doomscrolling my feeds and coming across this post on Reddit, where someone spotted 16-bit KFC buckets in the hands of a pair of Tamas in the Tamagotchi On mobile app (which no longer exists). It was my first exposure to the idea that brands could crossover into the Tamagotchi universe, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were an early test case for that kind of marketing.
Eduardochi was initially handed out at a pop-up shop in Madrid, Spain, and is available at participating KFC restaurants throughout the city until December 3. They’re about €4 a piece, the cheapest price I’ve seen a branded virtual pet go for in a while. However, those of us collecting from overseas will pay much more. The re-seller market has already inflated the cost of the digital drumstick. Most of the listings on eBay thus far start at around $30, not including the minimum $20 shipping it will cost to get it over the water. I’ll wait a while for these resale prices to fall before I try to import Eduardochi.
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