Kids Toy Crazes Go Virtual
Written by Lauren Moores (contact - e-mail) -- May 15th, 2007 | Recommend This
A few weeks ago, my kids and I were talking about Webkinz, one of the latest kid crazes that take collecting beanie babies up a level, and it sparked my curiousity about how they are performing online. Webkinz are brought to us by Ganz, a privately held company started in 1950. Like beanie babies before them, Webkinz are limited, hard to find and quickly becoming the toy to give and receive for the 6-12 age cohort. With Webkinz, you also collect ‘plush pets’ BUT purchase of these pets gives you access to your own secret code, which unlocks membership to the web-based Webkinz world.
At webkinz.com, your plush pet comes to life with its needs for food, activity and of course, merchandise. Online, you earn kinzcash to buy food, clothing and toys for your pet and your pet’s customized room. The two top activities for Webkinz users are kinzpost, where you can send notes with stickers to others in the webkinz world, and games in which you win the kinzcash that gives you purchasing power.
The first Webkinz came out in 2005, but Ganz only recently experienced the tipping point with their Webkinz plush pets. The Webkinz site broke into the top 1000 sites in January 2007 and just this month, reached neopets.com volume. Neopets.com has been a top domain in user traffic for the last 6 years, and like webkinz.com, it allows you to care for ‘pets’ in the Neopia world. Unlike Webkinz, neopets is free and revenues are based on advertising, not merchandise sales. clubpenguin.com, another free virtual pet world (albeit penguin-only), also vies for attention from the pre-teen set.
While Webkinz has succeed in matching Neopets volume, it still has a ways to go to reach the same attention levels.
Taking advantage of low supplies and pet-up demand, Russ Berrie & Co recently entered the virtual pet world space with its launch of Shining Stars, another plush pet purchase that gives access to a web world. Although with Shining Stars it seems as if the web part was an afterthought, as the site is really still in the beta stage as compared to the others.
If you go to the shiningstars.com, good luck finding any parental information. As for my kids, I doubt shiningstar.com will be as regular a visit as Webkinz, which continues to add more functionality and better access (new servers in late 2006) to keep the kids coming back… But you know how web-trends are…they change!
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May 15th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
The educational nature of many of the games was what first impressed me when my kids jumped into the Webkinz craze. But they have continued to develop features and have created a controled social networking site for pre-teens (my daughter is 7 and can’t get enough). The pets visit on anothers houses, send gifts back and forth, meet in community rooms and play one another in games. The socializing is contoled by pre-scripted text so I am comfortable with her safety. Ganz has done a great job with this site.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:32 am
It would be even better if their site worked in Firefox! Maybe a thought for their development team….
May 16th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Okay, must have been a temporary problem on my end. I checked back and the site seems to work fine on Firefox. My apologies to the kinz.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
http://nabeel.typepad.com/brinking/2007/05/club_penguins_4.html
A recent blog regarding the possible sale of Club Penguin…check it out.
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
hay waz up? i have a ton of cheats for money for webkinz! If you be my buddy and send me a rare item esclusive item or super bed i will post all my cheats on here but to do that i need three super beds, or esclusive items! My usuar name is bonzo97 remember bonzo97! Here is one cheat so you know i’m trustful go to adopt a new pet and then type in 2e6mhacd or 2e6mhad if the other one doesn’t work you will get a lot of money you can’t see your pet AND DO NOT GO TO YOUR HOUSE ON THAT PET! You can only do this if you have one or more pets it worked for me it will work for you! It gave me 3,000 kc! Use the money on your other pets! It will not delete tour accont! SO SEND ME SUPER BEDS AND ESCLUSIVE ITEMS and you will be rich!!!
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
i didn’t menchen you gat a FREE pet on this cheat and money this is only one of my cheats so hurry and send all you got you be rich im no time!!!!!!!!
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Libby is a LIAR!!! I just tried that on my webkinz and it didn’t work!!!! By the way be my friend on Webkinz!!! My user is chinnchilla plus you can be my friend and I won’t make you give me super beds or esclusive items!!!
July 10th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Guess how much kinzash i have NOW?
653,000!!!!!
July 10th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
how much kinscash do u have?
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I know lots of recipies… http://www.elubin.com go there today!
August 27th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
I think that sending u an esclusive item or super bed is a scam!!! U should not do that!!! U can be my friend 2!!! My name is Charmiekitty22. I am a very good friend!! I would love 2 be ur friend 2!! U dont have 2 send me gifts but if u do… thats fine 2. I will appreciate them very well!!
August 27th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Oh… almost forgot… What if we do send u an item… what if u dont post stuff??? Will u send the item back???
October 30th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Real Estate Guide
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting
October 30th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
i have ten webkniz i have a golden retiver its name is rigily i have a pink poodle its name is roxy i have a black lab its name is bryant i have a frog its name is hoppers i have a black cat its name is midnight i have a pig its name its name is pinky i have a grey and white cat its name is wiskers i have a hippo its name is hannha i have a racoon its name is oreo and i have a white terrier its name is snowball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!thats all the webkinz i havve pretty cool is it i know it is cool i just cant stop typing its so fun because i just lernd how to typ fast it awsome
October 30th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
on the bottom part its sopose to say have
November 1st, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Guess how much kinzcash i have?
58712642,576572172851565,17795021468,21476545285585556823552669,00000000000
November 1st, 2007 at 1:50 pm
i have 6 webkinz
i have a black lab her name is lady. a hippo hes name is baloo. a black cat bagheera . a pink poodle her name is sassy. a calico cat her name is suzey and a grey an white cat her name is fuzziwig.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
HOW CAN I GET MY CHILD TO HAVE FUN IN SHININGSTAR.COM
November 26th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
is rumor true that shinig stars are putting out a virus into webkinz and killing webkinz accounts??????
November 29th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
i have the webkinz that rock! user: TrumanxLp
December 15th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
You can stop braging and some people need to learn how to spell.And if you dont know how then dont type…………..I have 7 webkinz i have a pug his name is Otise and a white terryer her name is prinncess and i have a pink and blue hourse her name is cottoncandy.i have a chocolate lab her name is lilly and i have a yellow lab her name is Vanille.and a spotted frog her name is hopper and i have a pig his name is Wilber My name on webkinz is 00Freckles and the other is dolphine1
December 27th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
WEBKINZ ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you heard that they made 3 new webkinz and because webkinz rocks that shining stars is tryingh to copy it and that is why it is the least favorite in the circle.
January 5th, 2008 at 2:56 am
ummm ok wird can some one give a code i want to have anncount T^T please that u have not used please *cryies*
January 18th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
hello evryone out there! Right now i am going to talk to you about http://www.shiningstars.com!
THIS WEBSITE IS BASED FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN! i believe the age group is 3-12 yrs of age. This site, i think, is put together very well. I mean, the characters look wonderful and the graphics aren’t half bad. Now to the starcade, this is the area where you & your child can chat with his friends. This envolves choosing a message from the shiningstars dictionary. USERS CANNOT TYPE THEIR OWN MESSAGES. there are a WHOLE HOST of other things to do on the site. 1) You can buy a starworld (10,000 glowpoints ea.) and show off your landscaping talents to your parents or friends by inviting them over on the site. Also, every time you buy another shiningstars, you get 15,000 more GP along with some other cool prizes including, unlocking that pet in the “Starmakover” feature, Unlocking the “Snow World” (if the pet is a x-mas shiningstars). Also, there are a WHOLE SERIES of wonderful webisodes that come out almost every other week! they are ONLY 100 GP TO WATCH, and you can view them as many times you would like! There is also the feature where you can make your own videos! Using the tools that shiningstars has to offer such as, music, graphics, video clips etc. YOU CAN ACTUALLY CREATE YOUR OWN VIDEO and post it on your “my star space page” for any one else to see! And, if any other user likes the video, they can vote for it! Which brings us to the “star spotlight” section of the site. Here, your child can compete in games, starmakeovers, and videos to make it on the “top scores” list, when they achieve this, YOUR CHILD WILL FEEL WONDERFUL! if you want to ask me any other questions about child friendly sites, just e-mail me at: jasonkwiat@comcast.net
THANKS-HOPE I HELPED!
February 11th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I have 38 Webkinz add me I’m SweetHeart4563 and I will send you 1 of the 8 superbeds I have just for the heck of it!
February 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
this for olivia you can not have that much mony in webkinz
February 19th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Send me one!
March 19th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
i hate shining stars they r stupid but i love webkinz my user is grandiva,manorah,and and sallyrabbit
March 19th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
i love webkinz people dont cha know
April 14th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
There’s a HUGE rumor that Shining Stars hacked and/or hurt the Webkinz website.
another rumor is that, if you have a shining stars, and you go to a place, a black door will appear. And then, if you click on the door, your shining stars will pop up and kill your webkinz with a chainsaw!
June 12th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
webkinz stincks clubpenguin rules
!
June 17th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
clubpenguin and shiningstars and neopets are way better than webkinz.:)>
June 26th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
i think webkinz the the most safest and funnest website to go on.I my self think that shinning stars, neopets and clubpenguin r NOT a good place for kids to play on.WEBKINZ ARE THE BEST, SO IF YOU DONT LIKE WEBKINZ YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!my user name is monkeykinz74 so if you want add me i dont bite.