To find out where Webkinz are sold near you, go to www.webkinz.com and click on “Store Locator.”


The sold-out TMX Elmo is setting eBay on fire as the holiday season’s hottest toy, but there’s a quiet upstart topping Christmas lists this year, too. Webkinz.

The plush toys are cute, cuddly – and virtual. Each animal – there are pigs, bears, frogs and more – is tagged with a secret code that allows its owner into an online Webkinz World where the cyber-pets come alive.

Children can adopt and name their pet, custom-design its room, earn KinzCash by answering trivia questions and shop for toys, furniture, clothes and food for their newest buddy.

Traditional plush toys have always been a hit with kids: They raked in about $1.3 billion in 2012. But experts say Webkinz’s interactive component is what puts the kiddies in a tizzy: Think Beanie Babies meets Neopets.

“Without those tags, it’s just another stuffed animal,” says Steven Josephson, who owns the Toy Box in Mamaroneck.

Across the country, youngsters are throwing Webkinz parties and adopting them as class pets. Boys and girls are toting around Webkinz in special knapsacks and purses. And kids are spending as much time on the Webkinz site as they are on their homework.

“The first thing when she comes home from school, she says, ‘I have to take care of Moo Belle,’ ” White Plains’ Joan Kelly says of her 6-year-old daughter, Nina, and her Webkinz cow pal. “She could spend hours on there if I’d let her.”

Says Nina: “I like to play the games. They’re fun … and also you get to sleep with your Webkinz in your own bed.”

With Webkinz selling at a relatively low $10 each, it’s easy to see how one can get hooked.

“People aren’t buying one, but one, two and three,” says Mel Edelstein of Circle Cards N Things in Yorktown.

Surprisingly, the Webkinz buzz is booming without any advertising by the toy’s manufacturer, Ganz, a Toronto-based gift company.

Ganz launched Webkinz in April 2012. At this time last year, Alison Marek – managing editor of TDMonthlyMagazine.com, an online publication about the specialty toy market – says she’d still “never heard of them.” But by the time spring rolled around, Webkinz “had just exploded.”

And children are the ones spreading the word from playground to playground.

“That’s why it’s special. It’s not something kids are being force-fed on television,” says Marek. “They’re finding it on their own.”

Jim Silver, editor-in-chief of Toy Wishes magazine, agrees that Webkinz are “the quiet hit of the toy business.”

A private, family-owned company, Ganz declined to release sales figures. However, communications manager Susan McVeigh said that more than 1 million members have registered online, with most owning multiple Webkinz (as well as Lil’Kinz, the baby siblings of the larger Webkinz line).

Two of the 37 Webkinz animals – Cheeky Dog and Cheeky Cat – have already been taken off the market, or “retired.” And while McVeigh insists that Ganz has no set schedule to retire others, the move seems suspiciously similar to the Beanie Babies formula of rotating certain toys in and out of circulation.

That strategy only seems to fuel collectors’ frenzy, driving up prices on auction sites like eBay (where bids for a set of the retired Webkinz are already near $100).

McVeigh says Webkinz had been in development for years at Ganz, which created the stuffed animal and its online universe completely in-house.

“We’re really gratified that what we’ve believed in for so long has captured the imagination of all of these kids,” she says.

Part of the toy’s appeal is that children wield a great deal of control in the Webkinz community. After logging onto the site and adopting their pet, they can choose its name, gender – even the paint color or wallpaper for its room.

Kids can then go to the online arcade to play games, alone or against other players. They can answer age-appropriate quiz questions on science, social studies, language and other subjects. All of these activities earn them money that can be exchanged at the “W Shop” for pet snacks or room accessories.

The site changes these activities frequently – even hourly in some cases – to keep kids interested.

Children are able to chat with other Webkinz owners, too, although only through a series of pre-set words and phrases so there’s no way to provide personal information.

Fun, safe, and educational? That adds up to a toy that gets any parent excited.

Sometimes, maybe a little too much.

“It’s addictive for parents, too,” laughs Joan Kelly. “I go online without (Nina) sometimes and earn her money.”

At Imagination Station in New City, storeowner Laura Treibitz is selling one to two dozen Webkinz each day. One of her best customers is her own 7-year-old daughter, Chrissie, who has a personal collection of 23.

Still, Chrissie admits to having a favorite in the bunch.

“It’s a unicorn,” she says. “That’s the queen of the whole entire family because it’s so pretty. Her name is Rose.”

Chrissie has attended a crush of birthday parties lately, and Webkinz has been her gift of choice. For the most part, anyway.

“I don’t give everyone a Webkinz,” she says.

“They’re only for special people. Only if people are really nice and stuff.”

The lovable toys have also been a comfort to Bailey Iaccarino, 6, who was upset by her family’s recent move to Wappingers Falls from Hartsdale.

Bailey’s mom, Lisa, says that the computer was the first thing she set up in their new house – before unpacking any of Bailey’s other toys – so she could get right onto the Webkinz site.

“She got her Webkinz out, and they became like her new little buddies,” says Lisa.

And Bailey hopes to bring more tiny pals home soon.

“Each time I go to the store, I get close to them,” she giggles. “I can’t stay away from them!”

Reach Heather Salerno at hsalerno@lohud.com or 914-696-8561.