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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

That vape part was amazing. 10/10 special effects

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Everyone gangster till someone scans a barcode and Satan appears

10:55 That hand reaching for JoJo. Nice.

Holy shit I actually had one of these !

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

If you never accidentally killed your tamagotchi you never lived

Who else got tripped out when blew smoke out his mouth

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

One thing I like about your channel is that by reviewing all these old (almost always failed) toys and gadgets, there's something to be learned I think. Like, for every several dozen failures, there's a success, and I like a lot of your commentary on why you think one thing might have done better than another, or why certain items are outdated, or how they might have even just entered the market at the wrong time between two different fads. I make stuff myself, hopefully someday I'll make something that'll get me rich. It's good fuel for my creativity, thinking back on old stuff I saw advertised as a kid and other people's failed inventions, and thinking "is there anything worthwhile hidden in this other inventor's failure that might help my next idea succeed?"

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

So good I love the insight , genius!

I’m binge watching all your nostalgia vids! Great content!!

"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.

Really loved your content and channel bro.keep it up. love from Philippines

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

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

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 .😄👌

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

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!

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

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

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

This made going to the grocery store as a kid Sooooo much more fun!! Grocery store trips were litt!!!

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

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

I was LEGIT thinking about these the other day and couldn't remember the name! I had the Green one! Honestly, I remember having a LOT of luck back in the day! Great video!

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.

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

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

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

loved these jons

Thank you Billiam, very cool!

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

Vape scene was awesome. Made me die laughing. Thank you man

Subbed because you have really good editing

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Seeing this in my recommend was a massive blast from the past, and now I feel extremely old 🥺

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

I had this as a kid and Don't remember it taking that long to find things

7:38 My Hero Academia is my favourite Disney franchise

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

Vaping it really got me, HAHAH nice man.

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

Funny how everyone calls stuff like this "Pokemon clone" when pokemon wasnt the first. There wouldnt be Pokemon if it wasnt for Shin Megami Tensei.

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

Thank u for this c:

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

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

Blast from the past! I begged my mom for a scanner commander as a kid and had the exact same experience lol

I like the fact you dont get one that often. Makes finding one that much more rewarding.

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