Bandai’s Got a New Pet: Squid

Last year it was a virtual chicken. This year it’s a mobile-phone-activated squid from outer space.

Bandai Co., a Japanese toy maker and inventor of the popular Tamagotchi electronic pet, is hoping its latest gadget--the Wave UFO--will captivate kids and boost sales.

The Wave UFO, which dangles from a key ring, is a palm-sized computer screen featuring a creature from outer space. The creature will assume different forms if a mobile phone rings within a 1-meter radius. And, like the handling requirements of the Tamagotchi, the Wave UFO’s owner must look after the creature, supplying it with food and air via push buttons on the toy.

Bandai plans to sell 1 million Wave UFOs at $25 each in the first year, said Akiko Tagami, a Bandai spokeswoman in Japan. That compares with projected worldwide sales of 20 million Tamagotchis, through March, for the 17 months since it went on sale in November 1996.

The appeal of the games “is in having something that interacts with you, a world where you are the most influential being,” said Reinier Dobbelmann, a senior analyst at SBC Warburg Japan Ltd. “That just isn’t the case in most people’s lives.”

The Tamagotchi, which debuted at about $15, sold out in stores from Tokyo to New York. It was such a hit that it was banned by schools around the world.