Pros: Wide age range from young child to adult. Adding and subtracting skills are used.
Cons: "Exclusive Items" can only be obtained by having 10,15 and so on Webkinz.
The Bottom Line: I totally Recommend this item and have bought one for a friend, well actually her son. I think this is a fun, educational and easy to use Internet game/toy combination.
O.k. I am completely addicted to my kids Webkinz. I admit it. There it's out there. Every morning my kids go off to school and I spin the "WHEEL of WOW".With hopes that I will win a great prize to surprise my kids with afterschool. I really hope I don't get the blue Gak drink - doesn't look very good and I hate having to feed that to the poor Webkinz. Maybe I will win a Captain's Chair today for my sons Pirate Room or a really cool blue pullover sweatshirt for my daughter's pet Pink Poodle.
But, WHOA! Let me backtrack and introduce what it is that I am talking about more precisely. Now that I have you totally confused.
You start of by getting a Webkinz. These are stuffed animals that you buy in some boutiques, Hallmark stores,some hospital gift shops or Iparty. They cost $11.00 for a large WebKinz or $7.50 - $8.00 for the smaller one. These smaller ones are called "Lil'Kinz".
* I was told before that the difference in the cost comes from the ability to go to another Webkinz house or not.
(I promise I will touch on this later or I will totally lose you know)
They come in a variety of animals. Various breeds of dogs,bulldog,terrier,lab,poodles,etc. Also, Lions,bears,geese,bunnies (very popular for Easter)bullfrogs,treefrogs,cats,pink ponys,pigs,monkeys,gorillas,elephants and many more.
They are very soft(surface washable)and actually well made by the GANZ company in Cheektowaga, N.Y.
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 3 YRS OF AGE.
They come with a special tag on there leg with a secret code on it. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU KEEP THIS CODE AND KEEP IT SECRET. or someone can go online and steal the access to your Webkinz. It is also the only way you can get back on if you forget your password.
**They do send it to you if you forget it. WRITE IT DOWN!!
When you get your Webkinz you go to htp://www.Webkinz.com. on your computer. Yes, this is an Internet Toy But, COMPLETELY SAFE. No chance on communication with outside people. Only playing games.
Then you go to the New Member area and ADOPT your pet with Mrs. Birdy. After choosing a password and username you can find out a short paragraph about your pet and it's birthday. It will give you the option to print out the bio and the adoption record. VERY CUTE KEEPSAKE!
Keep in mind your Webkinz activation starts that first day and is good for 1 year. There is a disclaimer that reads you have to either purchase another Webkinz and adopt to keep your account active of pay some amount of money that they will disclose to you at the time when your account is running out of time.
Once you are all checked in,printed out and fully adopted you can go play. No not yet! You pet will first receive a few surprises.
First you get a room - A very boring room - plain,boring - y You get to decorate it)& 3 surprise gifts (1 is a balloon,1 is a webkinz book and the other is an exclusive gift - that you can't get anywhere else) Also, you will receive I think it's 2000 webkinz points. These are called Kinzcash. You use them to go the one of the 2 stores in the site to buy things for your Webkinz.
Your Webkinz will appear in your room -cute graphics - as itself. You an make it walk around by clicking where you want it to walk to.
The W shop is the name of 1 of the stores. You can buy basically anything. Food,clothes,wallpaper,tile,paint,beds,chairs,etc.
Some of the objects are "interactive" meaning your pet can play with them(the bathtub is fun -you can shampoo your pet and even let him/her play with a rubber ducky - one the stove you can add 3 items together and cook something with a recipe)You can also go with a theme for your rooms.
My daughter has a funky girl bedroom and a princess bedroom. While my son has a spaceship kitchen,a lilypad living room and a Pirate dining room - he has had his a bit longer. They both however have backyards with swimming pools & gardens - got to have your priorities.
The W Shop also offers sale prices to get the kids to think about saving there hard earned Kinzcash and wait for that wonderful item that they want for there Webkinz to go on sale to get it at a discount.
Another way is to get a coupon. At certain times during the week you can click a machine that makes W shop coupons. We have gotten coupons from 10% off any item to 60%off any item at the W shop.
Another thing you can do in the W shop is sell your items. They will not pay you the value that the item is selling for currently, but, it's one way to get some quick money.
CURIO SHOP is the name of the other store. Less stock sometimes higher prices than the W shop, but, also has some items that you can't buy at the W Shop. You have to keep your eye out though for the bargains and the rip offs.
At the CURIO SHOP you can play the find the Gem game where you look in one of 5 mines for the Gem of the day. You get 3 chances to tap a rock with you pick axe and see if you have found a Gem or the Gem of the day or a "Stag"(nothing).
Once you have found a Gem(any Gem) you can keep it for your collection and try to collect all of the Gems and make a "Legendary Crown of Wonder" or sell it to Artie(the dog running the shop) for an amount of Kinscash that he offers at that time.
Let's see where to next....The WHEEL OF WOW! No not yet,
first your pet will need food. After you buy it you have to click and drag it to your pet. There are 3 levels on the bottom of the screen to keep in mind. If your pet Happy,Healthy or Hungry.
Dr.Quack works at the clinic. He will give your pet a full exam anytime you feel they need one. Younger children will get a kick out of this. Make sure your volume is up so they can hear the conversation.
There is a scroll up bar to click on the right side of the screen (THINGS TO DO - BAR) that will let you see a bunch of options. Once a day you can click on My pets -this shows you your PET STATUS (Happy,Healthy,Hungry)and go into daily kinscare to receive a free food item. If you go on everyday in 1 week straight without missing a day your pet will be entered into a weekly drawing to receive an Rare item. (Lets hear it OOOH & AHHHH)
Okay on to some more of the fun stuff....
There are daily activities & hourly events - like when you go to camp and there is an activities board. 2pm-3pm BINGO. But, there is also, example might be 4pm-5pm get free grapes by clicking here. All of these are only once a day special things though and the hourly ones do expire when the time is up.
In the daily events you can spin a Wishing well wheel for Kinzcash,play the bingo game or SPIN THE WHEEL OF WOW!
Spinning the Wheel , all you really do is click the button and wait for the wheel to stop spinning and see if you won good prize, Kinszcash or a yucky food prize.
We have won beds, chairs & bathtubs as well as YUCKY GAK DRINKS!! ( Blue drinks that your pets don't really like but, since they are good sports will drink) Same as when you cook (which my son really enjoys) and mix 3 things together without a recipe it makes different colored "GUNK" that you can also feed your pet. My son really loves feeding the aweful looking stuff to his pets. He calls the orange Gunk Dog food.
As Promised I will now tell you what in the world I was talking about before about going to other Webkinz rooms - bare with me this sounds really complicated but, it's really simple. When you go into your Webkinz's room (MY ROOM) on the bottom of the screen will be your meter (Happy,Health& Hungry) but on the right hand side will be a CEL PHONE.
If you click on the CEL PHONE it will open a box on your screen. You can add the names of your friends who have WEbkinzs and it will send them an invitation to be added to your list. If they do there name will be on your list. They can play against you in a tournament if you are both on at the same time or you can send them an invitation to come over your house and look around. But, fear not there is a do not delete mode when a friend comes over that they can't take any thing home with them or come over and rearrange your house.(UNLESS THEY HAVE YOUR PASSWORD)
When you do go to a friends house you can chat, but, only using pre-typed in sentences/questions/answers that you scroll down a list of and click on them.
Another cool thing is the Kinzpost. My mother actually went out and bought herself a Webkinzs for this reason.
She loves to rake up points and buy stuff to send via Kinzspost to my kids.
She sent them cookbooks yesterday. My kids like to send her flowers. It's like penpaling and they earn the money,choose and buy the gift and sent it to her with the message.(pre-programmed messages to choose from) Costs 15 kinzscash to send a gift,per gift.
Another really fun thing about this site is all the games. Fun for young kids is the sleighing game. A bear in sledding down a mountain and you press the up arrow on your keyboard and he jumps over obsticles. Not very hard.
For the adults there is a really fun word game called QUIZZY'S WORD CHALLENGE. I really enjoy making the words sort of like scrabble all the letters have points and you have to make so many points to remain in the game - no time limit.
There are also basic quiz questions in the Quizzy area for Kinszcash.
The only bad thing I can say about this site/toy is that your can't save up for all the items - some you can only receive by buying a large quantity of these stuffed toys.
That my kids really don't play with - they only want them to get on the site and play the games.
By the way, if your child does like the toy itself you can buy - seperatly of course - a purse or a backpack to carry your Webkinz in. The going cost is $13.00 for the backpack (purple & blue or blue & green) and $11.00 for the Purse (pink & green or pink & blue)sold in Hallmark stores and some specialty stores.
O.k. by this time you should really see just how addicted I am and be in complete shock that I am truly what I say and addicted. But, what can I do? The Wheel calls to me!
HAVE FUN!
Kathy
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 11.00 Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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