SKANNERZ Was Weird (Barcode Monsters) | Billiam

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Skannerz was Radica's cool toy that let kids collect Monsters by scanning Barcodes...as long as they could find them.
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[@WhiteLocust]

I work at universal, I was working when this video was taken and I finally found it. I feel accomplished

[@jjjoshiii6659]

oh my-

[@milkfish1605]

For real? Dude that’s sick

[@latieraeve]

What words do you even google?

[@diskdem0n]

Found what?

[@ultraslang]

Full circle.

[@cooldude56g]

So as one of those rare kids who had a "Skannerz" toy when I was a kid and was obsessed with it, let me lay some basic info down on yall: 1.) Billiam was kinda doing it wrong. In order to get monsters & items, you have to find "heartbeats" (those little upward peaks on the toy). If you find a weak heartbeat (a tiny, little peak), that means there's a monster in there somewhere. If you keep scanning that same code over and over consecutively, that beat will grow bigger and bigger, and eventually you'll find it and get it. You very rarely get monsters and items from one single scan of a UPC code, the fact that Billiam even got 1 monster at all is kind of a miracle. 2.) The variety of UPC codes actually doesn't matter as much as they lead you to believe. The numbers present on the UPC code only influence the random algorithm the toy uses to pick which monsters and items you get. If you take one single item and scan it 100 times, you can potentially get like 9 different items and monsters from it. Scanning the same code indefinitely can accrue you the entire monster collection if you're patient enough. Flatlines are the toy's way of telling you "there's nothing there", but they don't actually mean anything. 3.) Battles with these toys were fucking brutal. If you fought another person or another monster (from one the UPC codes you find), all deaths you accrue are permanent. When your monster's health drops to zero, it's gone and there's no way to get it back. You can't find the same monster more than once, so there's also no chance of you finding it again. Because of this, you can face a scenario where you've found all the monsters, have them all die, and your toy is essentially bricked until you reset it. Like so Billiam can see plz and thx!

[@snager80]

this sounds so cool! I wish i had had these as a kid, me and my sister could have had a blast orz

[@agr0nianTV]

I figured he was doing something wrong I didn't have nearly as hard of a time with mine

[@HeilRay]

cooldude56g Master... MASTER!!

[@DataDrain02]

... So it was basically a Nuzlock before Nuzlocks were a thing?

[@user-ki9km7xo5p]

I feel you man i loved this thing as a kid and this video is hurting my soul

[@WarhammerGeek]

If only past Billiam knew that Barnes and Noble wouldn't be the dated reference. It was actually the fact he was able to go outside.

[@aj4waffles]

Yeah ive just been on a click-hole binging his videos tonight so i havent been paying attention to how old or new this video was and when he mentioned notwanting to go outside i thought possibly covid was part of it (although i understand just being anxious to go outside pre-covid too, i also had anxiety in public) but then i saw him in disney world and no one in a mask and got anxious and checked the date. then i was like "Oh nevermind this video is a relic from the before-time."

[@straightupanarg6226]

There is a Barnes & Noble like 2 blocks from my apartment, with a comprehensive manga section and a coffee shop inside.

[@BigmanDogs]

You underestimate the patience kids had back then. I was so hyped after finding 1 monster after spending an hour scanning groceries.

[@coolguy132435]

certainly. i was probably in late elementary school at the time. It wasn't boring to _not_ find anything. It was _thrilling_ to find something.

[@jazrivvaz1282]

I found one monster over the course of a year with the toy. I then never figured out how to do ANYTHING with it.

[@BigmanDogs]

@@jazrivvaz1282 are you sure you knew how to scan properly? 1 monster is incredibly low. The scanner was kinda scuffed.

[@realretrorelapse]

Exactly. We didn't have tablets or cell phones to keep us busy, either. We were very patient back then!

[@andrewortiz1703]

Dude, you are the Oracle of half-remembered toys and games from an early 2000s childhood. Keep it up - this is awesome archiving work that deserves more recognition.

[@kumatorahaltmanndreemurr]

Billiam is actually the reason I got back into Bakugan and he's introduced me to a lot of franchises I plan on checking out sometime. What he's doing really is archiving, cause most of this type of media doesn't get properly preserved. I hope some day that can change.

[@RevBombRR]

I used to have the Blue Skanner and thought it was a but more difficult to find a monster, I never left the grocery store empty handed. The comic also provides a "Heal Code". We did figure out that if you have to reset your skanner and lose your monsters, as we often had to do, we kept the items that gave us monsters and you can always get that monster from that barcode everytime. You can also use that code to heal that monster. Also the barcodes in the manual DO give you monsters, if you scan it correctly. You're not supposed to move it around the barcode in a circle, you scan it horizontally straight across until the scan registers properly

[@00exia1]

That vape part was amazing. 10/10 special effects

[@MattMillwardUK]

Yeah ...'special fx'

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

What do you mean? That was real.

[@christchex91]

Yes that was real he modded a scanners toy into a vape yes

[@00exia1]

@@OnlyEpicEmber I was just joking

[@02337755]

WTF!?

[@not.por.u]

Skannerz probably made a bunch of little kids want to go grocery shopping with their parents

[@xviolaa]

I took mine to a grocery store once and had an absolute field day

[@biggestnibba]

Its the beauty of it

[@Valientlink]

I liked going anyway to ride the carts and push all the coupons back into the coupon machines so they would get stuck

[@MultiCheeseLouise]

This was the reason my mum bought me one

[@quasarulas3968]

it did, as well as going anywhere with barcodes like the video store. it wasn't tedious at all in reality quit the opposite, scans were positive on 90% of items when done properly. the monsters that weren't from your tribe would battle one of your teams of 3 monsters. he apparently didnt have 3 so they just go away instead. the barcodes that come with the game give you 3 monsters right off the bat. unfortunately he wasn't able to grasp the concept even with the practice codes on a game intended for children :p it rarely felt like a grind to play except for a few of the monsters in each tribe that were extremely rare.

[@dracodracarys2339]

10:55 *scans a Jojo manga* *gets a "heartbeat"* "you thought you scanned a Skannerz monster, but it was me, Dio!"

[@BroomPusher2024]

White Snake reference here

[@YowLife]

My oldest brother had Skannerz, and I remember trying to play with it as a kid. I kept scanning soup cans and stuff around the house before finally getting a cool monster from the bread's barcode. Afterwards I didn't know what to do with it, so I just kept scanning stuff.

[@fishencasedinjelly3950]

why does this sentence sound so funny to me

[@dork5002002]

Yes. Scanning cans is what I remembered when he mentioned that if it wasn't flat you probably couldn't scan it.

[@naturalistmind]

get that bread

[@ScooterinAB]

Proof that this was all a conspiracy put on by Big Bread.

[@lunasif]

Huh I'm pretty sure I got something off bread too, definitely a conspiracy.

[@ellewoodford8057]

"kinda makes it look like a vape" "what the--!?" that killed me

[@Swamp-Bat]

XD

[@z3dscanningservices688]

Yup - lmao

[@JasonVanished]

@@Swamp-Bat same

[@eldritchplastic]

Yup

[@itskae19]

I was not expecting it at all

[@MattSipka]

Those practice barcodes ALL give you monsters. You seemed to be scanning the barcodes only once and not 3 times until a flatline. A small bump often just means a bad/incomplete scan. Also some barcodes don’t give you a monster or an item, but triggers a monster battle. There’s also a healing barcode with the manual so if you lose it, you can’t heal your monsters. I had the green one as a kid and I remember getting stuff constantly!

[@ScrubLordCasual]

I had one as a kid hardly remember it just remember sitting in my grandparents pantry and scanning everything and getting the games version of a caterpie

[@ErikTheAndroid]

I had one of these as a kid and I remember absolutely loving the idea, I brought it to the grocery store with my mom but I quickly found that even though I scanned every product in the cart I did not get any monsters. This product still holds a warm place in my heart though for some reason.

[@chrislones6041]

You were supposed to scan every product in line on every shelf until your mom yelled at you because you were taking forever

[@shaun787max]

don't know why in the world this memory made itsway to my prefrontal cortex after 20 years but im grateful that technology has advanced so far ahead that there's literal videos of any minute thing i could ever possibly perceive as a child

[@banaenae3677]

Yo wtf, you have unlocked a hidden memory of my childhood 💀

[@megamegaO]

@@MrMinimusss what IS memory?

[@GrahndDorkus]

Akkusativ Singular 42

[@AnxiousEducator]

We used to download a barcode cheat sheet with printed barcodes for the strongest monsters lol

[@shutter_king]

My P.E teacher took my Dragonball GT scannerz and pretended like she never had it a few months later. This was the 6th grade. I’ll never forget that.

[@Hiihtopipa]

Jesus that is a monster worse than any serial killer in history

[@drawthesun]

SAME! My language class teacher confiscated my scannerz and i never got it back

[@hoogachakahoogahooga]

She sounds like her name would be Gertrude going off this story

[@HelloAltocat]

I had one of these as a kid. It NEVER worked and made me rage to no end.

[@magnum93954]

Yeah this is all I remember of it

[@yeahman181]

Right!? Like 2 of the barcodes in my entire house actually worked haha

[@Drfaggett]

SAME

[@shigglezz684]

What? U guys r nuts! My friends and I loved these lol, we printed out barcodes for monsters and items

[@piratesofthedeepweb9873]

@@shigglezz684 yeah I made a cheat sheet of all the codes on 4 pieces of paper, though the fun faded quickly when everyone has a cheat sheet. The fight would go on till we got bored and always ended in whoever got bored first lost. I can do that same with watching paint dry and even if I win I still feel like a loser lol. www.consoledatabase.com/cheats/handheldgames/skannerz/

[@blindcassette]

Skannerz is a really cool concept that if they fixed it and put it out today I'd probably buy and play it ngl

[@ilodar5684]

I actually vaguely remember an app version of this that I had in freshman year. I'm not sure if it's still around, but if it is it should be on the app store (idk about google playstore as I had an Iphone at the time.)

[@Yuoaman]

The "Skannerz as a vape" bit is still one of the funniest Billiam moments, your reaction is priceless.

[@Scheuersicle]

OMG, I live for these "That thing from my childhood was weird" videos.

[@angelsalt2469]

Everyone gangster till someone scans a barcode and Satan appears

[@agonleed3841]

scan a rubiks cube and Pinhead w/without the cenobites appear. lmao

[@mpomarico]

I had scanners as a kid and the biggest problem with it I remembered was that it took forever to find anything which as a kid really killed the fun of it. (Which makes this video 1000% accurate) but also a toy like this isn’t very common for your friends to have like Pokemon. So even if you were on a hot streak and caught 20 monsters and were ready to battle, you would have to find a friend who even knows what the toy is let alone own it. But i do remember owning this toy and enjoying it for the first week.

[@songsthatarecatchy]

Me and my brother had 1 each and my best friend had 1. Guess I was lucky. It did take forever to find something but so worth when you did. We played and enjoyed them for years. I was recently wishing I could play with one again but I don't know if it would work with modern bar codes.

[@ConkerTheCat]

I remember this game SKANNERZ. If you lost the comic, you couldnt use the barcode to heal your monsters.

[@Guilmon470]

I had the Commanders version and I think some random bar codes healed monsters if I remember correctly.

[@ConkerTheCat]

@@Guilmon470 Yeah but good luck finding that XD

[@myes344]

Could find it online

[@ConkerTheCat]

@@myes344 This was before many people had internet for where i lived

[@Mournforthelost96]

This would be a cool mobile game idea. Just use the camera on yohr phone to scan barcodes or qr codes.

[@vexvesper]

You're right!!!

[@BusterBeachside]

It exists on Android (EDIT: Not officially, but an app that comes up if you search for "Skannerz" in the Play Store)... They ruined it by giving you limited scans per day unless you pay. Even so, though, these days it would be far too easy to completely cheese the idea by just looking online for bar codes that will always give you what you want. So it would be kind of tough to bring the idea back as-is. :(

[@wolfetteplays8894]

Mournforthelost96 mobile gaming is gross. No thanks.

[@_pulstar]

Wolfette Plays Me: *finds out your real name is mobile gaming*

[@jake-lum1800]

I had the same idea

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

1:53 This talked to me on a whole spiritual level. *Let me tell you a story:* When I was 2 years old, my mum and my dad divorced. When I was 7, my dad used to come every weekend to my mom's house, and take me with my aunts and cousins to play. We used to ride on bicycles, go to the park, make tunnels in the dirt, play super smash bros, play pokémon, make nerf wars, go to the arcades... I always, always had a blast with them. I loved those weekends. I also aturally loved my dad, because I was too dumb to realize that he only picked me up, left me in my aunt's house and very rarely spent any time with me. Years passed, and my dad took me to the Office Depot along with his new family. I didn't think anything of the situation. I was still a dumb kid, and I was happy to be with my dad for once. We walked onto the kid's aisle, where they have all the finger paints, the craft materials, the colored crayons... and the Silly Putty. I had nothing, and still have nothing against the other kid... we share blood, but we never ever talked to each other. He was never there with my cousins. He was absent in my life much like my dad. He was and still is a mere stranger like any other person you see on the street. My dad never made any effort to make us connect, and neither of us was interested in doing that. We both saw that shiny golden egg with a lot of interest. And dad decided to take it off the shelf and add it to the shopping basket. "You'll see what this is once we get home." We went home, and that deformed mass of plastic amazed me. I remember my dad molding it into a tiny golden ball and making it bounce. Spreading it onto a sheet of newspaper and copying the letters and the images off the paper. It was amazing. I wanted, really wanted to play with it. I was too dumb to realize that he only bought one. And my dumb little heart was broken when he put it back into the egg and handed it to his son. Man, I felt bad. But tried to not make much of a deal of it. Looking back, it was pure shit. I was never a spoiled little shit that measured love in how many useless gimmicks people gave him,and my dad was never abusive... But I realized that my dad not only never bought me anything, but he never spent any time with me. He showed more affection for his Marvel comics trading card collection than for me, and despite how many times he told me how much he wanted to visit me, he never did. Despite knowing where I lived, he never knocked the door. He didn't care, and I didn't either. Can't say that I feel terrible. My dad is also a stranger to me now. We both lived a fine life without the other. Now, over 15 years later, I was wandering one day with nothing to do. And what do people do when they have nowhere else to go? They go buy office supplies... And then I saw it. The metallic gold silly putty egg. Man, I never felt so many emotions over a piece of polymer. I knew what I had to do. Getting it on my hands felt strangely cathartic. I felt vindicated. Now I was gonna get it. It was finally mine. Mine and mine alone. And then I bought it. Brought it back home, and spent the evening playing with it. I felt better. Much better.

[@laggory]

damn dude that's rough

[@scrubbingdoubles8585]

God loves you

[@TheBluestflamingos]

Thanks for sharing your story

[@NeverGiveUp66963]

Loved your story you always got yourself at it sounds like you treating you right

[@Runningtowardsawall]

The real authentic Joy when he says “its in the socks!”

[@toxicbambi6208]

okay so for YEARS I thought I imagined this thing cuz NO ONE remembered it

[@GrahndDorkus]

ToxicWaste OfSpace I had the green one!

[@toxicbambi6208]

@iewind The Brave Little Toaster is another one of mine, especially since I only ever saw brave little toaster to the rescue

[@ghostproplays5904]

I had black

[@srbnsn]

I had them all, i remember going to the supermarket and scanning for hours

[@ghostproplays5904]

Sad part is I only had 3 monsters

[@tankhedgehog]

Omg I had the black one as a kid. Holy crap this is so nostalgic. I haven't thought about skannerz in years. I remember doing exactly as you described and going to the grocery store with my mom to scan all the food. I remember having a lot of fun with it, but little kid me was easily impressed

[@TheCaptain008]

I was such a sucker for Tamagatchi. I definitely wanted one these as a kid. It was such a cool idea. And yeah, you often tagged along with mum shopping and didn't really have shit to do. Before smart phones and Pokémon go. I can imagine every shopping trip was mildly exciting af.

[@regorllerref]

I remember spending forever trying to get anything with one of those. The thrill of digging through the pantry looking for monsters was second to none.

[@tomvincent8403]

I loved these! I remember struggling to scan barcodes, but i dont remember ever having difficulty finding monsters! It may just be that i got so excited every single scan that an hours scanning just got completely forgotten? I remember having tonnes of monsters but no mates who had skanners to play with so it was just a collect em all

[@Solanne11]

I THOUGHT THIS HAD BEEN LOST TO THE AGES MY FRIENDS AND I PLAYED WITH THESE FOR LIKE A YEAR BACK IN PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THEN THEY DISAPPEARED

[@kaelingoings]

If you never accidentally killed your tamagotchi you never lived

[@lol-nc3tz]

ikr

[@JT5555]

What If My Tamagotchi's Battery Died Before It Did And I Just Never Got Around To Replacing It?

[@XSlimSxadyX]

They all turned into ninja guy, who sucked. I had the old ones when I was 12 or 11 in like 2016 or something

[@bluepixel7154]

"accidentally"

[@banishedair4518]

I literally just went to bed and woke up to it being dead. I wasn't expecting to have to feed it every 10 minutes without fail.

[@digitalon01]

I had the blue scanner as a kid and my siblings had the other colors. I would go around the house and scan everything that had barcodes. I even would cut out and save the "best" barcodes in a little note book so I could scan them again later. I found that certain types of barcodes worked better than others. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!

[@billiam]

I did try scanning small heart beats multiple times, it never yielded a different result. I did try. I promise. Edit: Also I've taken every tip to scan better I've received since posting this video and I've not gotten any better results. And many people's idea of a "correct scan" is different.

[@SpiritKingD]

when you get the heartbeat game it's actually a mini game where you hit up on D-pad if I recall if not that try "A". Been awhile since I messed with mine but you definitely influence the heartbeat took me forever to find that out when I was young. Also generally the harder it is the better the monster was likely to be, and never lose the comic that heals you lol.

[@ricshawsorin5464]

Me and my friends played it and all of us quit cause Healing items were too rare so you pretty much couldn't heal after you ran out of code scans for the base barcodes. Also the rate I remember for monsters I think was higher than what you had which potentially means that as the barcodes got more complicated over the times the limited success rates could've gotten worse.

[@deadmanstoolbox]

@@ricshawsorin5464 you were supposed to heal using the healing barcode on the back of the comic

[@cobraaaaaaaaaaaa]

As somebody that had these as a kid I can say you were doing the scan wrong. All you need to is one solid motion from one end of the barcode to the other.

[@cobraaaaaaaaaaaa]

For the base 3 you used the comic's barcode. For Commanderz any Radica product worked.

[@fatfuck2384]

>guy profits off a war from an alien species The most American series covered so far

[@cicerothenekoknightplaysall]

I love finding new gaming stuff to discover and research thanks for the video it was very fun an informative i will definitely be adding these to my list of odd ball gaming stuff to collect

[@Danbo22987]

Billiam thank you for being my source of early 2000’s nostalgia

[@berandom2000]

Make a video about Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go.

[@WaltonGFilm]

Yes..... o,_o That episode where homegirl breaks his heart. FEELS!!!!

[@i-ranium810]

Hmmm,I kinda want to see him make a review of tht 🤔

[@Frank-sx7js]

That just brought back so many memories

[@MerlinPrismriver100]

I saw these and liked the idea but wanted cuter monsters, so I was THRILLED when Barbie Scanimals came out and I loved it so much Cool angel in the thumbnail image

[@Noobazzah]

I remember having this as a kid, literally never found anything before just giving up on it.

[@chowe5379]

Same 😭

[@gothica3605]

For me it was alway, *siren* “BATTLE”

[@dwaugh2215]

why couldn't they have made it easier for kids to give upgrades? maybe in the future someone would do something better

[@joshdove]

Why do I remember having this but again don’t 😂

[@phoenix12491]

Omg no I do too! I think I had it, didn't get anything and returned it after a day that's why I barely remember having one but also... not

[@MingleMan91]

You had me at "now I'm an adult and I can buy my own stupid sh** lmao here's your like kind sir

[@SanctumOfTheDin]

Can you please do one on the full line of Megaman Battle Network PETs?

[@goldmegaman1000]

I have most of them, that is one expensive endeavor man

[@orionorion1809]

Or please just the us release ones

[@matthewdempsey1426]

the "if you're watching in the future" comment couldn't predict that the unknown aspect here is going out in public

[@bakerXderek]

Holy shit I actually had one of these !

[@MoonBella-0]

CHEAH!

[@cgh_1232]

Omg I love you man CHEAH!

[@mustardstain9593]

10:55 That hand reaching for JoJo. Nice.

[@justingoulart3594]

Who else got tripped out when blew smoke out his mouth

[@cobrakingofeart]

i actually lol-ed

[@BrokeNerfing]

I was expecting it when the camera cut but still made me laugh

[@tylerfrancis5132]

I still have mine. That being said, this dude keeps bringing up my old toys And it's making me want to go spend nostalgia money.

[@brycevo]

I remember the Jurassic Park game that used this scanner technology, it was called Jurassic Park: Scan Command

[@AndrewTheKingOfPenguins]

They made a non scanner version called Dinosaur Battles. That game was the fucking shit

[@GooseAtron5000]

I only remember seeing it as a commercial in a jurassic park 3 dvd,did anyone actually play it?

[@DAngotti22]

You'd probably be more successful in scans if you slap it to the far left of the barcode and slooowly scan across the middle, flush against the barcode left to right. I had the green one and the black one and I had 50 some when I was 8

[@Esach711]

Yeah, you were supposed to slowly drag from left to right.

[@ChadHex]

Did you also scan the same bar code multiple times if you got the small "heartbeat" until you got a tall one or a flat line?

[@bubbastevegarcia2459]

Fauztinn it literally shows how to do it IN THE COMMERCIAL THAT HE INCLUDED IN THE VIDEO wtf lmao

[@KayGreylai]

This playlist is giving me a massive nostalgia hit. I begged my dad for so many of these, I had some of them. I kinda wanna buy them now and get my tamagotchis out of storage... Also props for not dismissing the 'girly toys' a lot of them were really cool!

[@BugsyFoga]

A Mon game where your a Store Clerk using a Barcode machine , that just might be the dumbest yet creative thing of all the mon games .😄👌

[@kryzethx]

0:33 "and then I segued into Skannerz" That is my absolute favorite line on this entire channel lmao.

[@nunyabiness181]

I always thought this was a sly way to train kids to do inventory scanning

[@18matts]

Your scanning completely wrong. Swipe it from one end to the other. Please like this so he sees this and tries again. YOU should be getting scans all the time

[@CDRiley]

Smh

[@Narraturgy]

Also if I remember from my childhood I had success ~ 1 inch from the bar codes, pressing the device against the barcode didn't work well. It also rarely worked with long barcodes like a lot of the merchandise Billiam was scanning. It worked with like Grocery store barcodes, on food products which have a barcode that resembles a 4:3 resolution like the ones in the manual (which all worked, by the way) as opposed to the long ones which are over twice as long as they are tall.

[@jtr159]

Watching his half-assed back-and-forth scanning made me so frustrated! Dude seriously needs to release a follow-up video after he actually gets a hang of how to do this properly. IMMA GO PUNCH HOLES IN DRYWALL NOW

[@Tygron]

​@@Narraturgy I wonder if it could read them better if you shrunk them down and made them taller. A scanner just needs to see from left to right, it doesn't really care how tall it is so long as it's readable. (I used to work for Amazon and got really familiar with how the scanners worked there) If they weren't pretty crispy and sharp the scanners also wouldn't read it. But I wonder if it has to do with the two break lines in the middle of the code.

[@C12omega]

10 years later many of us work at a Grocery store

[@crystalcolden9158]

Try the Webkinz pets. I love collecting them as a kid and still do have quite a few on me!

[@agr0nianTV]

I had them too I had the Orange Cat, Raccoon, and Kangaroo. I want to say I played the game for 2-3 years then Roblox became my go-to game :P

[@harrylane4]

I don't know if the site is still up, if it's not he'd just be talking about stuffed animals

[@BBC600]

Harrison Lane It still exists but it’s changed a bit. For instance Webkinz no longer get sick (which means they cut Dr. Quack). They only become unhappy.

[@skittycecil9786]

Ayyy I had them too! I had a TON, my favorite was a raccoon.

[@mwbgaming28]

Skanners is like playing an EA mobile game but you can't afford the microtransactions

[@RinzyOtt]

"how did kids have the patience for this?" I very distinctly remember there being websites that had sheets of all of the monsters and items and we just scanned those instead of going out and scanning random stuff at stores.

[@quasarulas3968]

sounds like a good way to ruin the idea but to each their own, i didn't even realize that was an option without having access to the internet, we used to just grind them out which was the pay off the game. there were only a handful that were extremely rare and difficult to find

[@dedpxl]

personally I did both. you'd scan everything at home with a barcode then eventually find out you can print off sheets of barcodes. to me it doesn't ruin the idea, it still is pretty exciting.

[@kylenewton4918]

I honestly remember having a much easier time getting monster's and items with mine when I was a kid. I only quit using it because I was literally the only kid I knew of that had one.

[@eamsamaraka486]

i had a blue digivice as a kid, i loved it and it used to be my only friend. I had it on my person everyday, on my belt with that wierd plastic clip it had on the back. one time when i went home from shool i noticed it was missing and i panicked an ran the entire way back looking for it. to my dismay it got run over by a car on the sidewalk and was destroyed. im 30 now and to this day i kinda miss this piece of plastic dearly. sadly i cant get a replacement nowdays cause its like 300+ bucks. Your video keeps reminding me of it. you do great stuff man.

[@Bloodreign137]

Holy crap! I had one of these!! Honestly I thought it was super cool! I’d take it all over the place looking for cool things. I haven’t thought about it in so many years but as soon as I saw the thumbnail I had so much nostalgia wash over me I had to click. Thank you for reminding me of this

[@doritos6893]

Same bro!! I remember I hit a double in my little league game and mom took me to Toys R Us and this was the only thing that caught my eye next to the Pokémon Gameboy Silver version

[@Melanie-wg7ru]

Dude...i REMEMBER these holy shit. I wanted one so bad! I remeber the commercials

[@bubbastevegarcia2459]

Mioko I usually correct people but for some reason when i read the way you spelled “remeber” made me laugh really hard saying it out loud 😭 I might just be high as fuck lmao

[@laura2daisy]

I owned a scanner, absolutely loved it. As people said you have to sometimes scan more than once if you get a low heart beat. Sometimes you get a friendly monster other times you get an aggressive one which you have to battle and win to collect. Also if it's a monster from a different tribe it will prompt a fight if you own at least 3 monsters. If you have a small heart beat then keep scanning as a monster is hiding in there.

[@WhatAvery]

Just going to throw this out there: Seeing the struggle of scanning to get anything really makes me appreciate how the D-Scanner from Digimon Frontier (the Japanese one) really works a lot better than the Skannerz seems to. Every scan rewards you with something, either a battle, an item or a digimon to add to your collection. The way scanning on the Skannerz looked in the video here seems kinda tedious. Again, I only have experience with the D-Scanner, so this is just my take on the whole scanning gimmick v-pet.

[@Esach711]

Billiam, you missed the most important part... You could go online and print out sheets of barcodes that guaranteed specific monsters and items!

[@RinzyOtt]

This is definitely what we did instead of going out of our way to scan every barcode at the local walmart.

[@billiam]

I tried this. I could only find the 12 “exile” monsters

[@RinzyOtt]

@@billiam It wouldn't surprise me if most of that stuff was gone now. It was a pretty niche thing, and the barcodes were likely hosted on geocities websites that are just gone now.

[@limitless_93]

I remember buying a book on ebay with all the codes in it.

[@JeiHeirumaru]

Chase Rebecca I just mentioned this lol

[@LoonerFlight]

This reminds me of a function in Monster Rancher 3 where you could put in a random cd/dvd and get a random monster from it

[@latenightgaming5057]

I remember me and my friend went and got a pair cause we where on to digipets and what not. And boy, did we go around town scanning all kinds of stuff. That lasted for about 2 days. Then I think we went back to digipets😋 Good times

[@thesweetembraceofnonexiste3740]

Oh God I loved Cube World so much I don't even know what was so appealing about it but it was amazing

[@PTPMerlin]

i had the black skanner and my brother had the blue. we never let empty handed and though the amount of monsters was still limited, it made us cherish the ones we had and had favorites in our teams. we carried them everywhere just in case we needed to grab more items. we battled a lot. the guide does provide things btw. and i always rescanned and usually got something eventually unless it was just a dead code. i kinda want to find another one now....thanks for that lol

[@zeronxepher]

Have you tried the Pox handheld game? That was a damn trip.

[@JeiHeirumaru]

I remember those. They were pretty epic. The wireless battling was something I never got to experience, but a VERY dope concept nevertheless

[@JeiHeirumaru]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnqUaoN3ich1a9k

[@cardgamesandotherthings9734]

I've had all three of those. I have been wanting to look them up but couldn't remember what they were called so thank you lol.

[@Papi1031]

Thank you! I had one off these but my brother kept taking it until he "lost" it. I just ordered 2 from ebay. Super glad the prices didn't skyrocket like digivices.

[@TheSimpleMan454]

Pox was sick.

[@SpiritedSpy]

its incredible you didnt have anyone try to stop you from using some weird beeping device on all of their barcodes

[@J0non0]

revisiting this video 3 years later. this video basically started my v-pet collection. this video reminded me how much i love them and after this video i tacked down my old tamagotchi, realised it wasn't working very well because of its age and then buying one of the re releasees that came out around that time and then thats taken me down the rabbit hole of my v-pet obsession

[@mystrynane5841]

0:56 Is that young Drake Bell in the ad?

[@SPIDER-ut3wt]

Yeah.

[@MissAshley42]

Oh, to be a fly in the room while Billiam spent hours scanning his collections.

[@KrisCasey4]

that vape joke was flippin' hilarious-- I almost died. Billiam is GOAT'd at comedy

[@spencersonnier1]

This just unlocked a memory I didn’t know I had

[@h_doggo6746]

I forgot I had one of these and this vid dragged out memories I never realised I had

[@ignskeletons]

"If you're watching in a couple of years, Barnes & Noble *WAS* a chain of bookstores" you sir, just earned a new subscriber xD

[@andrewortiz1703]

Lowkey disappointed that this toy line didn't involve any exploding heads.

[@pixelatedvoids]

Billiam... Will you ever made a patreon? I'm tryna give u my money

[@ThatFilmisGnarly]

You could give ME money instead

[@pixelatedvoids]

@@ThatFilmisGnarly make some videos and I'll think about it

[@ThatFilmisGnarly]

@@pixelatedvoids check out my other channel beam theory kzbin.info/door/WmDJzm2GzaeY5YgyfpfCBg

[@MegaSpideyman]

@@GoggleGum In your opinion they aren't, but others might like them and they might improve in time and support.

[@billiam]

zannneee maybe one day! Have no plans for one right now. Thank you ✨✨

[@lrmclinn]

Look at how crazy excited this man is once he finally gets one the sheer elation on his face is great 🤣

[@CheeseLoverRed]

I did enjoy this. Wouldn't mind if they did it again, but improved technology.

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

There must be a way to do it, but as the video mentioned, nothing stops people from just searching the barcodes/scanned thing online...

[@vitadude5004]

Oh I really miss mid 2000 , this weird stuff look so cool in those times ..

[@ee1yd]

had it's positives and negatives, I'd trade them for the convenience of smartphones + modern internet over them any day

[@falsegarden]

Really surprised they haven't revived this idea for a phone game or something

[@Medbread]

7:38 My Hero Academia is my favourite Disney franchise

[@billiam]

lmao the Japan pavilion at Epcot has a lot of anime/gaming merch

[@SirMonty_]

The comment I was looking for

[@rileypeterson1859]

I heard you mention that they made UB Funkeyz. That should be your next video.

[@skittycecil9786]

Riley Peterson Hell Yeah! Funkeyz were great! It’s really a shame they faded out of the public consciousness.

[@Mfenton10]

I. Still. Have. Mine!

[@skittycecil9786]

Mfenton10 AJ Same! My favorite is and always will be Twinx.

[@Mfenton10]

Sprout or Sol for me!

[@ryudelafuego3051]

I'm a couple years late but I got some tips for getting monsters with these things. You have to scan the more square looking barcodes, if it's too long like a stretched out rectangle it wont work (although I have lucked out a couple of times scanning long barcodes). Scan from left to right and the speed has to be perfect, like a metrocard swipe. not too fast not to slow. You will get a lot of items and some monsters you need to battle in order to obtain them (you can only battle if you have at least 3 monsters that aren't KO'd), but you will still be able to grab at least a couple monsters any time you visit a store. If you fight your monsters and lose, it will be KO'd and can no longer be used until it heals, however if the monster gets hit too hard it will die and be deleted from your device. To heal monsters from a KO you need to scan a specific healing bar code that came with it. I'm sure most people lost that by now so just google the healing barcode for it and print it out. Have fun.

[@donaldpetersen2382]

Why is he not doing this at a grocery store? Wouldn't the bar codes be more common numbers?

[@laurasullivan77]

Because some guy using a strange device scanning codes loooks weird

[@derrickhaggard]

I actually brought my Skannerz with me to the grocery store for obvious reasons.

[@scragar]

The number itself isn't important. The toy takes the number and does a bunch of operations to get a new number, then if that new number is under 128 you have a chance of finding something based on the number. There's plenty of duplicate barcodes and as long as the barcode you have is different for all items the odds of getting something from them should be the same.

[@SuperSpeed21]

"How to start a KZbin channel?" Me: upload videos of things you well like to do. And do that when you can and not just daily.

[@DeanAshford]

Skannerz... man that takes me back :D I had one of these things, nobody else I knew had one or even remembers them. I had a similar kinda toy, that involved little robots (not Medabots) that was sorta like a Skannerz, and you'd do dungeon crawls and fight to steal parts from the NPC characters, can't remember what that one was for the life of me.

[@ForHeWhoLaughs]

My eyes.... they don’t believe what they’re seeing.... all these barcodes I’ve missed after all these years lol. The hope I had as a kid to run into someone else with one 😂😭 I don’t think it ever happened lol

[@agr0nianTV]

Same my brother might of had one, but I honestly don't remember

[@ForHeWhoLaughs]

@@agr0nianTV We can still do it my man! Lol. This was one of those toys you had to tell your friends about just so you'd have someone to use it with lmao

[@albertomunoz9018]

I busted out laughing when smoke actually came out from him smoking on his "vape". 😂😂😭😭

[@jeliason17]

Skannerz was nuts. Wish they still had these. Used to scan all kinds of barcodes

[@jeliason17]

Books were the best to scan . Didn't take long to get a few monsters

[@eevieiftrue]

I feel like he was attracted to JoJo's in the Barnes and Noble on purpose.

[@drippumusic9716]

IVE FOUND IT YES GOD. For years I’ve tried to remember what this was called

[@mikaylawilliams7213]

It's great that you remember these things. Some of the things you talk about I didn't know existed.

[@Harleigh_19]

I was just thinking about this damn thing last week 🤣.