Update: The Digivices will be available for pre-order from August 1st and will release in December.

Update 2: More details about the Digivices has been released.

Toy manufacturer Bandai have announced that they will be reproducing the Digivices from Digimon for the franchise’s 15th anniversary. They will be reproducing the 1st generation of Digivice toys, which are similar to the Tamagotchi line of toys.

Bandai will be producing a new line of Digivice, the first in four years. From the image above, it seems to be the same as the first generation of Digivices. Additionally, a description of the new Digivice describes it as a “Super Evolved reprint” so these will be special edition Digivices. You can now pre-order the product on Premium Bandai for ¥9,900 (~ $99 USD).

The Digimon anime will be celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, which began in 1999. The first Digivice toy was released that year and was accompanied with the first anime, Digimon Adventure. There has been many further iterations of the toys that released with each new anime. Each one was stylised after the Digivice from the anime, and the toy themselves were similar to Tamagotchis, where you had to take care and raise a virtual pet. Later editions of the toy also allowed bar codes to be scanned and had pedometers.

In addition, an anniversary event for the first anime series will be held on August 1st. More details can be found here.

Digimon (Digital Monsters in Japan) is a large multimedia franchise that was based on Bandai’s Digivice products, which first released in 1997. The toys were based on Tamagotchis, which were also produced by Bandai. The toys were seen as more female orientated products, so Bandai created a new line of products for a male equivalent. .The first anime adaptation, Digimon Adventure, was produced in 1999 by Toei Animation. A film and TV anime were released alongside each other in 1999, the movie being a 20 minute anime produced by Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time). Since then there has been numerous anime series, toys, figures, manga, video games and trading card games in the franchise. And this year, will mark the 15th anniversary of Digimon Adventure.

More information on the upcoming Digivices will release on July 19th. You can visit the 15th anniversary website for more information on the upcoming events: http://digimon-adventure.net/