Toys have always been a part of pop culture. Who doesn't think fondly of the Velvet and Chrissy dolls from the 1970s? Or The Cabbage Patch Dolls from the '80s? Or the Tickle Me Elmo from the '90s? (OK, so maybe not that one!)These days, the pop culture toy phenomenon is Webkinz. If you haven't heard of Webkinz by now then I can only guess you don't spend a lot of time around kids. Webkinz, created by a company called Ganz, is the latest online toy craze. First, you buy a plush pet that has a code attached to it. Hop online and do a quickie registration, enter the code, and voila! --- you've just "adopted" your Webkinz pet. You get to enjoy a full year in Webkinz world. (yYur year starts over again every time you add a new Webkinz to your account).
But it doesn't end there. You're given a virtual room and 2000 points (called Kinzcash). You get to decorate your pet's house, do jobs to earn more cash, play arcade games and visit your friends' Webkinz houses. There are daily activities that can earn you cash each day and you can visit the "Employment office" every 8 hours. Plus there's exclusive and rare items that can only be purchased once in a while. Avid Webkinz fans know the tricks to finding the rare items.
And there are a few other fun things to do in Webkinz World as well. If you purchase a stove (and doesn't every kitchen need one?), you can buy ingredients and create recipes. You can buy extra rooms and outdoor yards for your pets (some Webkinz live in mansions). You can create and maintain a garden. You can send mail and gifts to your Webkinz friends. And you can play against other Webkinz owners in the online Tournament arenas.
Most importantly, Webkinz is extremely safe -- even the chat rooms feature pre-typed sentence so kids aren't talking directly to strangers.
