Review of Webkinz
Latest kids’ favourite cuddly toys and very popular accompanying virtual world.
Last week saw a visit to West Cork of the American “fake cousins” as our children called them. AKA our good friends, the Pierces and their 3 kids.
We don’t see Eoin, Jill, Kian, Aine and Rianna that often anymore due to both our families growing and the geographical divide that is the Atlantic Ocean, but it is always brilliant when we do meet up as its great craic and very enjoyable. It takes no time for the usual banter to start.
Much to the delight of Oscar and Oisín, they came bearing Webkinz gifts: a soft furry leopard and a cuddly boxer dog. Each had a code attached which facilitated entry to www.webkinz.com. This is a virtual world in which your pet lives. He has its own room(s) and garden. You have to take care of it, that is, feed it, play with it, get its health checked etc etc.
You can earn money to buy it clothes, food, furniture and lots of other stuff, by answering trivia quizzes, doing puzzles, playing games.
There are a huge number of different games to play, at various difficulty levels. I really liked the games tried so far. Some very basic but getting the boys to think logically and decipher codes. The quizzes ranged in topics from maths, science, arts, health, language and social science.
You can add friends of other webkinz pets and send them messages. You can purchase more pets and have them interact. You can buy seeds and grow virtual vegetables to sell.
We have only touched on the range of activities on the site, its huge. The boys are loving it and Sibéal is eager to get her own pet and login now too. It seems easier to navigate than www.clubpenguin.com as its immediately focussed on the pet rather than you wandering around deciding where to go and what to do. In clubpenguin you are the penguin going from place to place and possibly interacting with other penguins. Here, you are looking after your pet. So clubpenguin has been abandoned since the arrival of the webkinz toys.
As far as I know, the toys can only be purchased in the US or Canada at the moment. Though the webkinzpetstore say they ship worldwide.
UPDATE: webkinzpetstore.com have never replied to my mail enquiring as to shipping costs to Ireland. But I found many ebay shops on www.ebay.ie that do supply Ireland and purchased a lovely pink webkinz pony for the 3 year old who is well happy now!
Rated /5 on Aug 02 2007 by ManicMammy
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8 comments August 2nd, 2007
