What are Webkinz?

Farelle wrote: I see the advertised all over the place but I have no idea what they are...just curious?

amynicole21 replied: It's just a stuffed animal that has a special web access code on the tag. When you go on the website, you log in the access code and you now have an online version of your animal that you can name and dress up. You play games to earn "money" to buy things for your character. It's pretty fun actually.

It's a lot like that Club Penguin site if you know what that is.

mummy2girls replied: you get this stuffed animal of some kind.. cat, dogs etc and then they have a website. the toy comes with a code and you go onto the website and you take care of this animla online.. I think

MoonMama replied: What they said. Braedin has one (a bulldog) someone brought him back from Vegas but I have yet to go online and put in the code it came with.

MommyToAshley replied: What Amy said...

Ashley has a pink unicorm that she received from a friend for her birthday. She plays with it every day online for about 15-20 minutes. She likes to play the games to earn money to buy new stuff for the room and clothes for the unicorn. It also says you can socialize with other "webkinz", but I haven't let her do that yet as I want to supervise that. I think you have to "allow" them to socialize with a specific webkinz, but I haven't had time to read up on it yet.

The card that comes with it says that you can play online for a year for free. Not sure what happens after a year, I guess you have to pay for it then?

Kentuckychick replied:
They rank up there with Beanie babies as one of the most annoying stuffed animals in the history (of course that's just my opinion ) And were the source of many, many, MANY computer arguments for the children I nanny for this summer. Of course it doesn't help that their mother owns a gift shop and has placated them with far too many *but we won't get into that!*

A lot of people think it creates an avenue for children to learn to earn money and care for pets, etc... well it doesn't. The pet never dies even if you starve him for a month.

Kentuckychick replied:
You can pay for an additional 90 days or something along those lines or you can "retire" that webkinz and buy a new one (which I believe is actually cheaper). After the additional period though the webkinz is retired regardless... so in the words of my cousin "then it just becomes a useless stuffed animal"...
Yeah, because every parent needs 20 more of those around the house

NaturalMom replied: yeah my daughter wants one and we cant find one locally, only online. But all the sites do this thing now. my daughter has a barbie girl mp3 player that has a code and you go to the site and its like a kids myspace. bratz has this and now disney has this feature. all kids chatting with each other. like we needed more way for our kids to be susceptable to preditors! On barbie tho you can control if u allow them to chat with others or not. i dont let her anymore since i learned how to change the settings. before we changed it she was getting all kinds of rude messages from other kids. completely unappropriate!

My3LilMonkeys replied: Well, that explains why that bin full of teeny tiny stuffed animals the girls wanted cost $20 each....I thought they were just way overpriced.

Farelle replied: Intersting.....why didn't I THINK of that..........doh!!!! Someone is making a lot of $$$$!!! But how do the kids get $$ for taking care of them.....does it just add up online and you have to put it towards another Webkinz item?

Kentuckychick replied:
It's not genuine money it's "kinz cash" which allows them to purchase items for their pets on the site (they can decorate a home for it, buy food and drinks for it, clothing, and lots of other items). In theory they are pretty cute... but in actuality they get quite annoying

MotherForever2043 replied:
That's okay, there is so much new things coming out now, that it's so hard to keep track and stay updated. It's okay girl!

BTW, ours over here are $12.50 and the LilKinz are $10.00
I bought one for Amber (LilKinz..Golden Retriever) for $8.00, but that was before the price got so high. And now she's asking me for another one

Farelle replied: [QUOTE]It's not genuine money it's "kinz cash[CODE]

Oh, I feel dumb Why was I thinking real money....oh yeah , maybe bc I could use some!!!! LOL

Kentuckychick replied:
It'd be a heck of a lot better if it was real money!!! I'd play too

Brias3 replied: Aliyah has a unicorn as well. She got it at a birthday party, where this was passed out as a favor. I let her log on once, obviously with supervision, to the site but she wasn't too interested actually. It was one of those "entertaining for a day or two" things for her.

I don't necessarily like the idea of promoting kids to go on the internet to use their toys. It's like, Hello? Aren't there enough issues with children and online predators? It kinda boggles my mind why anyone is trying to encourage these activities.