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51-861: Each Webkinz toy has an attached tag with a unique "secret code" printed on it, allowing its owner to play with a digital version of their pet on iOS , Android , and desktop computers . Sales of Webkinz plush toys are limited to the United States and Canada , but international users can buy virtual pets from the Ganz eStore. Plush toys made after October 2020 contain two secret codes for Webkinz Classic and Webkinz Next, respectively. In 2006, Webkinz Classic achieved one million concurrent players. During this same year, according to one estimate published in Wired , Webkinz generated approximately $ 100 million in revenue. Ganz updated Webkinz Classic in 2015 to Webkinz X,

102-532: A "Pattern for an elephant and blanket" that was intended to be a child's toy. Two years later, the first known commercially available stuffed felt elephant originally sold as a pincushion , was made by Margarete Steiff , founder of the German Steiff company in 1880, using the Delinator pattern. Steiff used newly developed technology for manufacturing upholstery to make its stuffed toys. In 1892,

153-701: A character created by Michael Bond , were first produced by the family of Jeremy Clarkson in 1972, with the family eventually selling the rights to London-based Hamleys , the world's oldest toy store. More recent lines of stuffed animals have been created around unique concepts, like Uglydoll , introduced in 2001, with a number of recognizable characters and overarching style. Modern plushies from Japan are known for kawaii styles, generally thought of as (at least globally) starting with Sanrio 's Hello Kitty , with many popular characters from popular media like Pikachu and Eevee from Pokémon , and characters from stationery company San-X including Rilakkuma and

204-554: A different "Secret Code" that gave access to the Webkinz World website and a virtual version of the toy for online play. Webkinz's success inspired the creation of other stuffed toys containing codes to unlock digital content, such as the former online worlds Disney's Club Penguin and Build-A-Bearville from Build-A-Bear Workshop . In 2013, Disney launched its first collection of Disney Tsum Tsum stuffed toys based on characters from different Disney properties. Inspired by

255-504: A direct response to the "touching". Long-term interactivity includes action that affects the pet's growth, behavior or life span. For example, training a pet may have a good effect on the pet's behavior. Long-term interactivity is quite important for a sense of reality as the user would think that he has some lasting influence on the pet. Two kinds of interactivity are often combined. Training (long-term interaction) may happen through continuing short-term interaction. Similarly, playing with

306-411: A franchise known as Petz . The digital pets were further popularized when Tamagotchi and Digimon were introduced in 1996 and 1997. Digital pets like Tamagotchi and Digimon were a massive fad across Japan , the United States and United Kingdom during the late 1990s. Today, there are also "Digital Pets" which have physical robotic bodies, known as Ludobots or entertainment robots . From

357-573: A friendship with the Curio Shop owner to purchase, while others are obtained by registering other Webkinz accessories purchased in the real world. Each type of pet gets a special item, and food available exclusively for them. A "Pet of the Month" is announced at the beginning of each month. Users with the Pet of the Month on their account can participate in special minigames and rewards; if a person registers

408-570: A gun being held to a real dog's head and the line, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog." There is research concerning the relationship between digital pets and their owners, and their impact on the emotions of people. For example, Furby affects the way people think about their identity, and many children think that Furby is alive in a "Furby kind of way" in Sherry Turkle 's research. There are many common features between different digital pets, some of them are used to give

459-606: A laughing and shaking plush toy based on the character Elmo from the Sesame Street television show, was released in 1996 and was soon in demand, with some people buying and reselling the toy for hundreds of dollars. This popularity sparked similar fads, including the robotic talking plush toy Furby released in 1998 and ZhuZhu Pets , a line of robotic plush hamsters released in 2009. The Internet also presented an opportunity for new stuffed toy fads. In 2005, Ganz launched its Webkinz stuffed toys, which each came with

510-527: A new pet for over a year, and accounts without active users are deleted after a certain period of time. All inactive accounts were once stored to later be unarchived upon retrieval, but it was announced by Ganz, that on Oct. 1, 2019, all archived accounts would be deleted after seven years of inactivity, due to storage issues, and a change in children’s online privacy laws. No new accounts were archived, and users with free accounts which had been abandoned for more than six months would be deleted. The Webkinz World

561-525: A pet (short-term interaction) may, if continued over the long term, make the pet more optimistic. Stuffed animal A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys , plushies , lovies , stuffed animals , diane , and stuffies ; in Britain and Australia, they may also be called soft toys or cuddly toys . The stuffed toy originated from

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612-409: A pet's behavior seem natural, rather than calculated, and fosters a feeling of a relationship between user and digital pet. To give a sense of reality to users, most digital pets have certain level of autonomy and unpredictability. The user can interact with the pet and this process of personalizing can make the pet more distinctive. Personalizing increases the feeling of responsibility for the pet to

663-657: A range of materials. The earliest were created from felt, velvet , or mohair and stuffed with straw, horsehair , or sawdust . Following World War II, manufacturers began to adopt more synthetic materials into production, and in 1954, the first teddy bear made from easily washable materials was produced. Modern stuffed toys are commonly constructed of outer fabrics such as plain cloth, pile textiles like plush or terrycloth , or sometimes socks. Common stuffing materials include synthetic fiber , batting , cotton , straw , wood wool , plastic pellets , and beans . Some modern toys incorporate technology to move and interact with

714-479: A sense of reality to the user (such as the pet responding to "touch"), and some for enhancing playability (such as training). With advanced video gaming technology, most modern digital pets do not show a message box nor icon to display the pet's internal variable, health state or emotion like earlier generations (such as Tamagotchi). Instead, users can only understand the pet by interpreting their actions, body language , facial expressions , etc. This helps to make

765-740: A trivia section about the respective animal; purchasing a Signature also unlocked access to a virtual item from the Signature theme. Production of Signatures had stopped when the contract Ganz held ended, and new Signature plushes were not made, in part to their steeper price. Ganz continues to release new Signature pets, albeit without their plush counterparts, with certain pets only available as special promotional items; virtual Signatures and other pets given away in this manner often run for an extremely steep price, ranging from $ 25 per code on third-party sites such as eBay, to $ 2,000 per code (including several other virtual promotional items), when acquired through

816-422: A version that created a safer environment for young players. In October 2020, Ganz unveiled Webkinz Next, a 3D spin-off with different social features. Karl Borst, the creative director of Webkinz, had the idea to link the new plush toy line to an online site, and later to a virtual world. Originally, the pet avatars were designed to be three-dimensional, but this was later replaced with cartoony pet designs, due to

867-400: A webpage and use for role-playing in chat rooms . They often require the adoptee to have a page ready for their pet. Sometimes they have a setup for breeding one's pets and then adopting them out. There are many video games that focus on the care, raising, breeding or exhibition of simulated animals. Such games are described as a sub-class of life simulation game . Since the computing power

918-472: Is a type of artificial human companion . They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment, or as an alternative to a real pet . Digital pets have no concrete physical form other than the hardware they run on. Interaction with virtual pets may or may not be goal oriented. If it is, then the user must keep it alive as long as possible and often help it to grow into higher forms. Keeping the pet alive and growing often requires feeding, grooming and playing with

969-694: Is an online play area with its economy controlled by Ganz. The user can earn money (called KinzCash) by adopting new pets, playing online games , answering general knowledge questions, and through daily activities like spinning the Wheel of WOW , playing Wishing Well 2 , or completing jobs (minigames) available once every 8 hours. Each day, there is a Game of the Day which can be played for bonus KinzCash, and other bonuses are available each hour, full days on weekends, and afternoons only on weekdays. With each Webkinz toy purchased, more KinzCash, rooms, and items are added to

1020-1200: Is famous enough. These toys are filled with soft plush material. Stuffed toys come in an array of different sizes, with the smallest being thumb-sized and the largest being larger than a house. However, the largest somewhat commonly produced stuffed toys are not much bigger than a person. Most stuffed toys are designed to be an appropriate size for easy cuddling . They also come in a wide variety of colors, cloth surfaces, fur textures, and humanizing embellishments. Stuffed toys are commonly sold in stores worldwide. Vendors are often abundant at tourist attractions, airports, carnivals, fairs, downtown parks, and general public meeting places of almost any nature, especially if there are children present. Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote in 1835: "Bring’ uns, lieber Weihnachtsmann, Bring’ auch morgen, bringe Musketier und Grenadier, Zottelbär und Pantherthier, Roß und Esel, Schaf und Stier, Lauter schöne Dinge!" which can be translated as: "Dear Father Christmas, bring us musketeer and grenadier, shaggy bear and panther, steed and donkey, sheep and steer: lots of lovely things." In 1878, The Delineator , an American magazine that offered sewing patterns, offered

1071-461: Is more powerful than with webpage or gadget based digital pets, these are usually able to achieve a higher level of visual effects and interactivity. Pet-raising simulations often lack a victory condition or challenge, and can be classified as software toys . The pet may be capable of learning to do a variety of tasks. "This quality of rich intelligence distinguishes artificial pets from other kinds of A-life, in which individuals have simple rules but

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1122-562: The Sumikko Gurashi characters. There is also a trend of Japanese plushies being shaped like mochi . Children, as well as adults, can form connections with their stuffed toys, often sleeping or cuddling with them for comfort. They can be sentimental objects that reduce anxiety around separation , self-esteem , and fear of the night . In 2019 about a third of British adults reported sleeping with soft toys, and almost half had kept their childhood toys. Stuffed toys are made from

1173-651: The Ithaca Kitty became one of the first mass-produced stuffed animal toys in the United States, which was sold as "The Tabby Cat" printed pattern on muslin by Arnold Print Works . The toy industry significantly expanded in the early 20th century. In 1903, Richard Steiff , nephew of Margarete, designed a soft stuffed bear that differed from earlier traditional rag dolls because it was made of plush furlike fabric. As an art student in Stuttgart he visited

1224-482: The Steiff company of Germany in the late 19th century and gained popularity following the creation of the teddy bear in the United States in 1903. At the same time, German toy inventor Richard Steiff designed a similar bear. In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy. In 1921, Christopher Robin 's stuffed toy, given to him by his father, A. A. Milne , would inspire

1275-593: The Ganz eStore website itself. In May 2009, the Birthstone Pets series was released, with one new virtual Birthstone Pet (a brightly-colored dog with the corresponding birthstone on its hip) being released for each corresponding month. In April 2010, Ganz replaced the Birthstone Pets series with the Zodiac Pets series. Similarly, one Zodiac Pet was released every month, and were limited to just digital avatars, with no plush being made available; however, there

1326-629: The Rockerz Pets series was released, which, consists of rock band-themed pets, along with the virtual pet unlocked with the purchase of a plush toy, also unlocked a virtual item from the Rockerz theme, in a similar manner to the Webkinz Signatures; some later Rockerz pets were only available as digital avatars. In 2019, Ganz announced that the “first generation” of Webkinz plush was ending and that no new plush pets would be released for

1377-479: The Signature collection, which ran from April 2009 to December 2013. Lil’ Kinz unlock the same virtual items as a regular-size Webkinz, but feature a smaller in-game avatar. The Webkinz Signatures were designed by a different toy company which had partnered with Ganz, and included three different sub-lines of plush: Webkinz Signature, Webkinz Small Signature, and Webkinz Signature Endangered, the latter being based on real-life endangered species of animals, and unlocking

1428-622: The United Kingdom, and the United States. Many people also handmade their own stuffed toys. For instance, sock monkeys originated when parents turned old socks into toys during the Great Depression . In 1921, A. A. Milne bought a stuffed toy from Harrods department store in London for his son Christopher Robin , a toy which would later inspire the author's creation of Winnie-the-Pooh . Stuffed toys of Paddington Bear ,

1479-543: The Webkinz Classic desktop application or mobile app, the customer " adopts " a pet in the virtual Webkinz World. Without the code, the user will not get access to the full Webkinz World, but they can create a free account. On January 19, 2011, Ganz announced that Webkinz World accounts would no longer expire, meaning users would not have to buy a new pet each year to renew their account. However, certain features become inaccessible for accounts that have not registered

1530-476: The ability to customize the pets’ rooms, but many more interactive features have been added to Webkinz World since, including a school (called the “Kinzville Academy”) where users can play minigames which improve their pets’ abilities, and a trivia section where users can earn points for answering questions. In 2015, a decade after the site’s launch, Ganz introduced a major update to the game (called Webkinz X), which had been failing due to certain technical errors in

1581-441: The announced pet in that month, they will also receive other exclusive items. In April 2020, a hacker gained access to the login information of almost 23 million players, which was later leaked. As a response to this, Ganz later strengthened their encryption and required all Webkinz users to reset their passwords. Digital pet A virtual pet (also known as a digital pet , artificial pet , or pet-raising simulation )

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1632-526: The coding. Webkinz X improved many of these problems, but also created many more, as the unique mixture of new code and code as old as 2005 resulted in several hundred in-game objects disappearing, or otherwise not functioning properly; the animation joints of some Webkinz avatars also were affected, often resulting in an awkward and disjointed appearance. The Webkinz World site was run by Adobe Flash, and in 2018, in accordance with Adobe’s decision to no longer support Flash Player, Ganz worked with Adobe to convert

1683-615: The creation of Winnie-the-Pooh . In the 1970s, London-based Hamleys , the world's oldest toy store, bought the rights to Paddington Bear stuffed toys. In the 1990s, Ty Warner created Beanie Babies , a series of animals stuffed with plastic pellets that were popular as collector's items. Stuffed toys are made in many different forms, but most resemble real animals (sometimes with exaggerated proportions or features), mythological creatures , cartoon characters, or inanimate objects. They can be commercially or home-produced from numerous materials, most commonly pile textiles like plush for

1734-426: The difficulty of animating such a large variety of pets while including cute and expressive features. After the site’s premiere in 2005, users could register the code on the tag of their plush toys, and play games with the virtual version of their adopted Webkinz pet. The original site had among its features a few games in the arcade section, the “W-Shop” where users could use their in-game points for virtual items, and

1785-461: The entire game interface from an embedded Flash Player-driven web game, into a desktop app, which can be downloaded directly from the Webkinz website. Webkinz are modeled after real pets and animals, as well as prehistoric animals and mythical creatures. Along with the regular Webkinz toys, there are also smaller, less expensive versions called Lil’ Kinz, as well as larger, more expensive versions in

1836-414: The form of animals, especially bears (in the case of teddy bears), mammalian pets such as cats and dogs , and highly recognizable animals such as zebras , tigers , pandas , lizards , and elephants . Many fictional animal-like characters from movies, TV shows, books, or other entertainment forms often appear in stuffed toy versions, as do both real and fictional humans if the individual or character

1887-592: The industry overall. Teddy bears were an early fad that quickly grew into a cultural phenomenon. Close to 100 years later, in the 1990s, Ty Warner created Beanie Babies , a series of animals stuffed with plastic pellets. The toys became a fad through marketing strategies that increased demand and encouraged collection. Pillow Pets , which can be folded from a pillow into a stuffed animal, were another successful brand, launching in 2003 and selling more than 30 million toys between 2010 and 2016. Other recent fads have involved toys paired with technology. Tickle Me Elmo ,

1938-406: The late 1990s to the early 2000s, virtual pets specialized to be official mascots of personal websites known as "cyber pets" (or "cyberpets") could be especially seen in websites hosted with GeoCities , Tripod, or Angelfire . There were also webpages which allowed users to "adopt" cyber pets for their websites. The popularity of virtual pets in the United States, and the constant need for attention

1989-476: The most popular toys, especially for children. Their uses include imaginative play, comfort objects , display or collecting, and gifts to both children and adults for occasions such as graduation, illness, condolences, Valentine's Day , Christmas , or birthdays. In 2018, the global market for stuffed toys was estimated to be US$ 7.98 billion , with the growth in target consumers expected to drive sales upwards. Many stuffed toys have become fads that have boosted

2040-449: The outer material and synthetic fiber for the stuffing. Often these toys are designed for children, but stuffed toys are popular for a range of ages and uses and have been marked by fads in popular culture that sometimes affected collectors and the value of the toys. Stuffed toys are distinguishable from other toys mainly by their softness, flexibility, and resemblance to animals or fictional characters. Stuffed toys most commonly take

2091-433: The pet as if you were picking it up. Most screen mates are free to download and used for entertainment purposes. The first-known virtual pet was a screen-cursor chasing cat called Neko . It was rather called a "desktop pet" since at that time the term "virtual pet" did not exist. PF.Magic released the first widely popular virtual pets in 1995 with Dogz , followed by Catz in the spring of 1996, eventually becoming

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2142-480: The pet does not usually reproduce. Virtual pet sites are usually free to play for all who sign up. They can be accessed through web browsers and often include a virtual community, such as Neopia in Neopets . In these worlds, a user can play games to earn virtual money which is usually spent on items and food for pets. One large branch of virtual pet games are sim horse games . Some sites adopt out pets to put on

2193-522: The pet. Some digital pets require more than just food to keep them alive. Daily interaction is required in the form of playing games, virtual petting, providing love and acknowledgment can help keep your virtual pet happy and growing healthy. Digital pets can be simulations of real animals, as in the Petz series, or fantasy ones, like the Tamagotchi or Digimon series. Unlike biological simulations ,

2244-515: The pets required, led to them being banned from schools across the country, a move that hastened the virtual pet's decline from popularity. A Mad cover on regular issue #362, October 1997 shows a gun being pointed at a virtual pet with Alfred E. Neuman 's face and the line "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this virtual pet!" Illustrated by Mark Fredrickson. The cover parodies the January 1973 issue of National Lampoon which depicted

2295-480: The population as a whole develops emergent properties ". For artificial pets, their behaviors are typically "preprogrammed and are not truly emergent". A screen mate is a downloadable virtual pet that creates a small animation that walks around a computer desktop and over open screens unpredictably. Each pet is a small animation of an animal (such as a sheep or a frog, or in some cases a human or bottle cap) that can be interacted by clicking on or dragging, which lifts

2346-403: The time being, with fully virtual pets being created and available to purchase. In November 2020, Ganz resumed the creation of plush Webkinz toys for the spin-off game Webkinz Next. New pets include a code for Webkinz Classic and a code for Webkinz Next. Each Webkinz stuffed animal and Webkinz accessory comes with an 8-character code, within a tag tied onto the plush. By registering this code on

2397-720: The user's account. Many of the tasks in Webkinz World involve collecting items. For example, recipes are released for the players through cookbooks , or (formerly) one of the in-game TV shows called The Secret Chef . "Gems" can be mined once a day at the Curio Shop , with a full set of gems being turned into the Webkinz Crown of Wonder and used to buy exclusive items. A similar feature, called Alyssa's Star Challenge , involves users clicking on colored stars to find valuable stars. The online world also contains many rare or exclusive items. Some of these items require developing

2448-511: The user. Manufacturers sell two main types of stuffed toys: licensed, which are toys of characters or other licensed properties, or basic, which take the shape of ordinary animals or other non-licensed subjects. Stuffed toys can also be homemade from numerous types of fabric or yarn . For instance, amigurumi is a traditional Japanese type of knitted or crocheted stuffed toy typically made with an oversized head and undersized extremities to look kawaii ('cute'). Stuffed toys are among

2499-405: The user. For example, if a Tamagotchi is unattended for long enough, it will "die". To increase user's personal attachment to the pet, the pet interacts with the user. Interactivity can be classified into two categories: Short-term and long-term. Short-term interactivity includes direct interaction or action to reaction from the pet. Example: "touch" a pet with mouse cursor and the pet will give

2550-684: The zoo and sketched the bears, which became the inspiration for his first life-like toy bear, known as "55 PB". At the same time, in the US, Morris Michtom created the first teddy bear after being inspired by a drawing of President "Teddy" Roosevelt with a bear cub. In 1903, the character Peter Rabbit from English author Beatrix Potter was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy. The following year they went on sale and were mass produced by Steiff. The popularity of stuffed toys grew, with numerous manufacturers forming in Germany,

2601-546: Was greater variety in the types of animals offered, not comprising only dogs as before, but including an Eagle, a snake, a horse, a crab, and even a butterfly in the series. In 2011, the CandyKinz series was released, which was originally composed of virtual-only pets with various dessert-related themes; later, plush versions of some of the CandyKinz were made available, such as the Gingerbread Puppy. In June 2012,

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