THERE was this Dalmatian at Planet Me last week.
You can tell Webkinz are factory-made on an assembly line. There is no consistency to them. People have complained of animals with short or twisted legs, uneven eyes, even escaped stitching that has pulled to reveal holes. In some cases the animals don't really look as cute as they do in the posed catalogs. The Dalmatians all seemed Roman-nosed to me till I saw the one I picked out, and it had more spots than the rest.
The Family Expands
Good For a Giggle
IF you hit Wacky just the right way, he trumpets "Zingoman!" as he flies through the air.
Evidently I'm In Collector Mode
I wish they hadn't made a pink Pegasus...ah, well, she looks like cotton candy, so has been given that name, since I was in the middle of reading Seven Sunflower Seeds—the horse that the Callendars were taking care of, ostensibly a hunter being groomed for a point-to-point but actually a Grand National winner named Camoscio, is named "Candyfloss."
I warn you—I have two more critters in the dock; not sure when I will "run" them.
Not to mention the collie on order and I do want the reindeer. Not sure about the black cat. The promo photos looked rather cute and I've always been partial to black cats. Someone posted a photo of the ones they'd purchased in Webkinz Insider, though, and I didn't like the look of it as well.
Who Is That Mysterious Black Horse?
THIS is made funnier by the fact that there is no Lil Kinz black horse:
Wow
I called Ganz' long distance hotline this morning just before noon. I had a response from them and my fountain back just after one o'clock.
Never Trust a Smiling Cat!
OR that's the saying, anyway.
Perhaps Minnie is smiling because strawberries, corn, carrots, and two pumpkins were harvested this morning. A post-harvest "snapshot."
The plants in the foreground at the end of the long rows are just decorative. I found that my old eyes were having trouble telling which plant was which if they weren't in harvest mode. So the fake plants simulate row markers. Minerva is next to the strawberries and the watermelons are around the scarecrow.
Jackpot!
INSTEAD of one "pixie pod," got a key. (I had gotten one earlier, but with less of a bonus.) The key unlocked five:
Received two charms candy and then three W100 coins.
[insert wicked laugh here]
OOOPS! Look what turned up on a Charms Forest search this morning!
Complete with wicked laugh. Better luck next time!
[Update: 8/15. There she is again!]
Vanished!
WE found more charms yesterday and I had enough to get a special gift, a fountain.
When I went to put it into my room, a message popped up saying that Webkinz World had to go down for maintenance, and when I clicked okay it kicked me out. However, I could get back into the application immediately.
But my fountain is nowhere to be seen.
Apparently then I had to e-mail Ganz to get it replaced. I hear they are not responding to these requests like they used to and are brusquely telling people not to share their passwords. But this didn't disappear while I was logged off; it vanished while I was online manipulating it.
They haven't responded and it looks like I will have to call them. Joy.
How Charming!
I was in the throes of a nap this afternoon when my cell rang. I had slept very badly last night and was using a free hour between laundry and floor washing to catch a few more winks, so I didn't answer it.
When I did finally check my message, it was from Love Street. They said they would call me if the Webkinz charms came in. The proprietor was apologetic. About an hour after she called me, a woman had come in, seen the charms and bought three of every one she had. There were very few left. I asked her to save me three and tossed on some clothes and zipped over there.
These are quite attractive little charms considering they are being mass-produced for a website. Trifari sold charms off and on over the years and they were equally solid (not to mention more expensive and this was almost thirty years ago!). The Webkinz ones are of a silver polished pot-metal on the back and are enameled on the front. Instead of just a link to fasten it on a bracelet, they come with a little clip so they can be used on zipper pulls and other items of that sort.
I purchased a golden retriever, a white terrier, and the chihuahua, which I'd asked her to save for me, and also the monkey. I left the panda and a Wacky Zingoz behind. There were only about four left. I suspect the woman who made the big haul is going to sell the extras on e-Bay. They are selling for phenomenal amounts there.
The charms come with codes and gain you access to something called the Charms Forest. Once in the forest you can pick one of four paths and hunt for virtual charms and gifts, which you get by clicking on a fairy who either gives you a fairy pod or a key. The gifts can be as small as charms candy, which you can feed to your pet, to sap, which apparently is the booby prize, and as big as little pieces of furniture and even a charms tree. The deeper you can go into the forest, the more you can collect, and the better prizes you get.
My first charms prize was a charm candy. At least Pablito liked it.
The Webkinz in the Dell
LIKE some other Webkinz property owners, I have started a farm. I harvested "farm-fresh" tomatoes, strawberries and carrots this morning and thought it would be good to invest in a new yard and move my existing vegetables there. They are in essense "replanted" and will not bear fruit again for a while now.
In a couple of days I will buy a few more plants of various varieties and then in a few more days a few more, and so on until the rows are full, so that I will have plants harvesting at different times.
Some folks talk about garden plots large enough that they are selling their produce back to the W Shop. [waves at Jerry] Right now I'm just providing for my brood. :-)
My former vegetable plot is now a little grove of trees next to an expanded picnic area.
Iron Balloons
SUPPOSEDLY they're trying Balloon Darts again tomorrow. The last time they had it, after the upgrade, the top row of balloons did not pop at all. The dart would "stop" at the skin of the balloon and nothing else happened. It was quite funny if rather frustrating. It only took me three failures before I tried the middle and bottom rows! Persistent I be.
[Note: 08/07/2007; apparently the first row of Balloon Darts are as impervious as last time. I just aimed at the bottom row. :-)]
Creative Minds, Part 2
HERE'S another slideshow of creative room designs. There's even a Starbuck's and a Mexican restaurant!
That Pesky Date
IF you are having trouble, like I was, with the date on the site reversing one hour when you log in, some super person on the Webkinz Insider forum ("googles") posted this trick that works:
Proceed as if you were adopting a new Webkinz. When Mrs. Birdy finishes talking and the clipboard pops up, use the X in the upper right hand corner to get out of the adoption center. Your room will load and the time will be correct!
[Update 8/11: The site was down a couple of mornings ago and now the date seems to be working properly.
There are also numbers on the markers and flags in Wacky Zingoz again. Oh, yeah, and food is successfully being distributed again.]
A Little Behind the Curve, Aren't They?
SINCE Webkinz have been in release since late 2005 and this isn't coming out for another six months!
Amazon.com: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Webkinz (Complete Idiot's Guide to)
Alarms and Exhortations
GANZ has been warning users for several weeks that a new layout would be premiering on August 2. It requires that people set their monitors to 1024x768 to use the site properly. A followup message stated that the Webkinz site would be down from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. on that day to implement the change. Great excitement was then heard in the land of the forums.
Naturally I didn't expect it up by the prescribed time and I was correct; it actually staggered from its server almost an hour later. And when it finally did it was buggy as all get out: the time on the clock would change, some things didn't have captions, some games didn't work, peoples' rooms didn't load, etc., all to be expected when launching a new website. Some people were redirected to a completely different site that had nothing to do with Ganz.
Since the majority of the users are young people, there were bound to be some complaints about things not working right.
"Complaints" didn't cover it. "Complaints" still doesn't cover it. There are still torrents of messages wailing about how the new format is "confusing" (it's not; it's actually arranged much better), that this is the worst thing that is happened to them in their lives and that the new format is so ugly that they will never use it again, etc. I suppose if I was their age using it I probably would feel the same way—I remember wailing and railing over canceled television programs and unpublished books and favorite store closings throughout my youth—but viewing it from an adult's perspective it's been hard not to smile a little. Oh, if this is the worst disappointment they will ever have in their lives!
They are right about one thing: Ganz sure didn't beta test this thing enough before premiering it! Some people are simply having trouble getting the new screen to work or appear full screen at all. When you get in, the Kinztime changes abruptly when the newspaper loads it jumped back an hour every time I loaded it in Firefox (it worked okay in IE), so that daily events were not coming up properly. Today when you clicked on a free food it never appeared in your dock. Some of the games are strange, too. Polar Plunge is funky; it doesn't "feel" the way it did before and goes too quickly in some places and too slowly in the other. When you play Wacky Zingoz the distance measurements do not show up on the placards and pennants. You only know how far you've gone after your score is posted. Sometimes when you play the Chef Challenge or Supermodelz Challenge, the judges' word balloons are empty.
However, for the most part I like the full page layout. I've had problems playing a couple of games, Go-Go Googles in particular and sometimes Candy Bash 2, where my mouse went off the partial screen being used and valuable game time was wasted while I switched back. The different choices of things to do are arranged in categories. You can always see the Logout button no matter what you are doing, and you can always access your pets without having to go to the menu.
One of the reasons for the expansion was to put in "ads." They are really only ads for Webkinz World itself—thank heavens, we're not seeing commercials for Oreos or Boniva here!—but they have some people smoking mad. I notice some of them are Webkinz versions of PSAs; they say things like "Fresh air is good for you. Go outside and play for awhile," "Brush your teeth," "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," etc. Obviously Ganz wants to show parents that they care about their children's well-being.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
WEBKINZ aren't the only interactive toys out there.
It happens in books and on television particularly: one success in a certain genre is followed by others in imitation. The Waltons begat almost a dozen family-oriented shows in the early 1970s, only one (Little House on the Prairie) of which succeeded. When Animal House was a big hit, all three networks created series about fraternity houses. And on.
There are of course online worlds that don't come with a stuffed animal, Club Penguin being one. You choose a penguin, give it a name, and then confirm that your child can play there by answering an e-mail. Once inside, you can decorate your penguin's igloo and play games. You can sign up for free, but if you want to continue the account, you must pay a monthly or yearly membership.
Shining Stars, made by Russ, are a type of interactive pet that comes with a stuffed animal like Webkinz. When you buy a Shining Stars stuffed pet, it also comes with a code that allows access to a website. The gimmick with Shining Stars is that when you join you get a star named after you, although of course these star-naming" businesses don't really officially name stars after anyone. On the Shining Stars site you earn "Glow Points" and presumably can play similar games as to Webkinz.
I saw the Shining Stars today while I was out at lunch. They're pretty cute—you can see that they have several animals that resemble their Webkinz versions, like the unicorn and the cow. They also have a dragon, which is kinda cool. They strike me as a little more "cartoony" than Webkinz.
Even the "Bratz" line of dolls are about to start a virtual world called "Be-Bratz."
Last week there was a bit of a flurry on the Webkinz Outsider forum about yet another iteration: Kookeys. According to the promo now on the web, Kookeys live in KooLand and earn KooCash made up of KooCoins. They can live in several different theme neighborhoods, in dwellings ranging from a log cabin to a dollhouse to a mansion, shop and play games on Main Street, hang out at the lake, or even go to KooKollege.
The reception on the Forum was pretty much in the negative, most seeing it as a rip-off of Webkinz. No, it's just a fact of life in marketing land.
I thought the graphics looked interesting if a bit cartoony myself. However, although the promo site exists, not a hint of what the actual stuffed animals might look like exists in virtual space. If the animated critters who are on the promo site are any indication, it looks as if the stuffed Kookeys will be a bit cartoony as well, but no way to know until they're unveiled.
But that name...Kookeys. Sheesh. I wouldn't have found it at all appealing when I was a kid.
Have Katie Roo and Kenny Roo (and Mayor Moose) introduce you to Kookeys.
Charming Webkinz
THE new animals, toiletries, costumes, and bookmarks aren't enough for Ganz. They will also be releasing a set of charms soon. One of the reasons for Ganz to be doing a major update of the Webkinz site tomorrow is to add something called the Charms Forest.
The charms you buy are just what they sound like: charm bracelet figurines that cost about $3.00 each. You can also buy a bracelet for them and a necklace; the necklace tops out in expense at $7.95. I have heard some complaints about the cost, but as someone who used to work in a jewelry factory, I can tell you that $3 for an enameled charm and $4 for a chain necklace is pretty inexpensive. Anyway, each of the charms comes with a code. You need only one charm and one code to access the Charms Forest, featuring more of what looks like the good and bad fairies from the Tulip Trouble game. Every six hours you can search one patch of the Charms Forest to find virtual charms or even prizes. The more charms you purchase, the further you can go into the Forest, but one will get you in.
That Face, Those Eyes...
ALL the animal avatars have their "cute factor," and some, like the husky, are downright handsome.
But I think for cute factor that the Clydesdale has them all beat. Emily does "cute" better than anyone:
On the other hand, she's not always a sweet little girl. This is what happened when I threw the ball incorrectly while bowling:
At least I didn't make her really mad:
Clever Rooms
"WEBKINZ Insider" has an entire forum of people showing off their rooms. Some of these designs are very clever. Here is a slideshow of one member's different designs.
Strut That Stuff
IF you had fun doing Chef Gazpacho's Chef Challenge, you might want to try Webkinz Supermodelz. I have no interest in clothing, but this is as equally fun as the Chef Challenge. You pick a model, then take your pick of one of several choices of hats, pants, and tops. (The advice I read on Webkinz Insider was to not match outfits; in general the judges' attitude is "the wilder the better.") This is where the fun factor comes in, because you model may end up in a Pilgrim hat, and Santa jacket, and multicolor polka-dotted pants. Too funny!
I'll Never Be Emeril
EXCEPT perhaps in a game.
One can simply go to the W Shop and purchase different foods and feed them individually to your pets. Each food adds a different combination of happiness and health points and points toward assuaging the pet's hunger. (You can even purchase a food that is specially made for your pet, but it is usually expensive, about W25.) You can also grow vegetables using the new gardening feature.
Elubin's website has a nice table of each food, how much it costs, and how much of a boost you get from each food. (If you notice, when you eat junk food like fudge your health actually goes down a point! LOL. There's a positive lesson in there somewhere.)
However, there's a wrinkle for the creative among the membership. You can buy a stove, a blender, or a sandwich maker, and each of them has "recipes." To make a recipe, you take three foods and put them "on" whatever cookery item you own and click the cook/blend button.
If you've used foods that actually make a new food, it will appear in your dock. Unfortunately, no matter how good some combinations look, they only make something called "gak" or "blech." Your pet will eat it, but it doesn't make him happy.
My attitude to this has been pretty blah. It seems to me that if you blend three foods with a certain point value together that the foods should be worth that combined point value, but they aren't. To me you pretty much waste the food values just to be creative.
YMMV!
The Webkinz Insider site has a nice list of Webkinz Recipes for all three devices including a picture of what your creation comes out to be.
If you want to have some fun combining food without losing points, you can go to the tournament arena and play Chef Gazpacho's Chef Challenge. You have to use three of the six sometimes unlikely ingredients (a cupcake, carrots, root beer, an apple, chicken soup, and a hamburger) to make things with unlikely names like "Gersplitz Garbleblaster." The three judges are all Webkinz host or game characters and they will treat you with pithy comments about your cooking skills (or lack of same). First contestant to make three good recipes wins.
Roll, Webkinz, Roll!
I dropped W10,000 on a rare purchase for my game room yesterday.
I bought a bowling alley.
Yes, you really can bowl on it; it's not simply a decoration. Previously I had only used the bowling alley at the Tournament Arena and I really needed something to practice on.
Bowling alleys bring back all sorts of warm fuzzy memories to me, although what I purchased is the classic ten-pin bowling type, and my memories have to do with duckpin bowling. My parents bowled in a Sunday couples league all during my schooldays (all the teams were named after mixed drinks; I still get nostalgic when "Grasshoppers" are mentioned) and Dad also bowled in a summer league. After he retired, at least one day a week he would go down to Legion Bowladrome on Park Avenue and keep score for the retired men's leagues that bowled on weekday afternoons; if someone didn't show up he sometimes bowled as a substitute. (After Mom retired, she told him she married him for better or for worse—but not for lunch.)
I wasn't much of a bowler, even when I bowled with Jeannie and Don, two other kids who accompanied their parents to the Sunday night league, and used to spend most of my time at the table behind the alley area writing stories. If I was really bored I might go into the ladies' room and act out a story when the place was empty. I watched almost all of the first run of Get Smart on the television that was in back of the checkout counter/shoe rental counter. It was very hard for me to ask the clerks behind the counter to change the channel, because I was so shy, but all of them were friends of my dad and they usually did as I asked, unless there was a hotly contested Providence College Friars basketball game on. I still hate basketball! :-)
The one thing I have noticed about the personal bowling alley vs. the one in the Tournament Arena is that the latter seems to have more "action" in its ball (if a ball in a virtual Shockwave program can be said to have action!). I can get more strikes and spares playing in a tournament than I can back in my game room.
Maybe that's a good thing because I need all the help I can get. :-)
Sad
ONE type of post I am reading continually in Webkinz Insider are stories about children who have shared their passwords with schoolfriends and who get up one morning, go into Webkinz, and find all the things they have "bought," their Kinzcash, and some of their rare items gone. Their so-called "friends" have hacked into their account and spent or taken everything.
How depressing to have considered someone enough of a friend to have shared something special with them and have it turn out that you have been used. Disillusionment starts early.
Emily at Last
I'LL let you in on a secret. I actually ordered a Clydesdale a month ago from a woman on e-Bay. It was a pre-order, but she had a 100 percent rating. She said the actual order would be in a few weeks; she had only gotten a dozen to start with and sold them all within a few days. The Clydesdales were going for astronomical prices on other e-Bay auctions and from the reports I was hearing, stores were all getting extremely limited quantities that were selling out in hours.
I had contacted her a few days ago and she said she was still waiting for the shipment, and even offered to cancel the order if I didn't want to wait. But I told her it was okay.
In Italy when you are stubborn and hard-headed you are called "Calabrese," apparently because the people from Calabria are stubborn to a fault. My mom always said I took after my dad, who was not Calabrese, but whose family was from Quarchina, whom Mom always said were almost as hard-headed. She'd glower at him when he got in a set mood (or glower at me when I did the same), and mutter, "Quarchinese!!!"
I was being Quarchinese today. James was at work, and I was on a mission. I took a list from the Webkinz site of stores in Marietta that sold Webkinz. Surely one of them had to have a Clydesdale. I wasn't planning to go far afield; I would start downtown and then work my way down Whitlock Avenue and past where it turned into Dallas Highway, hitting each of the six stores in turn.
There was nothing in the two stores located on the square in Marietta, but then I stopped at a little shop called Polkadot Kids on Whitlock Avenue. This is basically one of those cutesy clothing stores for small children, with things like baby gifts, too, but they did have a small rack of Webkinz. I didn't see a Clydesdale, but I asked when the proprietor wondered if I were looking for something special. She squinted at the rack and said that she must have sold out of them—then paused, reached her hand in the pile, and pulled out...Emily!
At least till the collie comes out. This is me. I must have a collie. They'd toss me out of the Lassie Appreciation Society (if there was one) if I ignored that!
I toyed with canceling the other Clydesdale; of course wouldn't you know it: I got a notice from the e-Bay seller that it was shipping. So I'm going to keep it, but not run it online for the moment.
The Story of a Horse...
I grew up watching all those great animal series on television, first Lassie and then The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, My Friend Flicka, Wild Kingdom, and National Velvet. My favorite, however, of all the series featuring or starring a horse was that wonderful "story of a horse and the boy who loved him," Fury. Bobby Diamond starred as Joey, an orphan boy who was adopted by rancher Jim Newton (Peter Graves) after the boy falls in love with a wild black stallion that Jim captured on the range. For six seasons Joey and Fury had adventures around the Broken Wheel Ranch owned by Jim and his grizzled partner Pete Wilkey (William Fawcett). (Ann Robinson of War of the Worlds fame played Joey's schoolteacher, and Roger Mobley, later to be Walt Disney's intrepid newsboy Gallegher, made his series premiere as Homer "Packy" Lambert in later episodes.)
Fore!
ONE of the best things about having joined Webkinz Insider and also checking out the mini-golf advice on Elubin's website is that my game has improved sooooo much.
I was stymied initially playing the game because Hole 17 has a saddleback on it that seems insurmountable. I'd use up the ten shots they give you on each hole trying to land my ball on that ridge of land. Then one day in June I accidentally landed in the sand trap. Eureka! If the ball gets trapped in the sand, it stays on the ridge!
There's supposed to be a trick shot that bounces the ball off the wall and up onto the ridge as well, but the sand trap is very dependable. I can usually make the hole in par now.
A Bouncing Retriever
GOOD exercise for your Webkinz! This boosts health points.
Bounce, Cubby, bounce! :-)
Everything Old is New Again
or REDECORATING ON THE CHEAP
THEY call them "nesting urges." This phrase is used to describe the need some women have to redecorate. As you can tell if you watch HGTV with any regularity, redecorating doesn't come cheap. Even on Decorating Cents it will cost you at least $500.
Redecorating in Webkinz World will cost you Kinzcash, but at least it can be recouped by judicious visits to Quizzy's, daily tasks, and certain dexterity at the arcade. (Buying trading cards helps, too!)
When you buy a Webkinz, you also get a room and a certain amount of Kinzcash to furnish the room. You can start with paint or wallpaper and even pick a different floor. A bed is recommended because it is advised you leave your Webkinz pet asleep when you log off. A bathtub is also suggested, as it's one of the easiest ways to increase a pet's health and happiness.
For minimal Webkinz coverage, you can buy things in the Kids Theme, which are the cheapest, and start housekeeping in one room. But if you earn Kinzcash and then peruse the W Shop other than to buy groceries or take a look at other members' rooms, you'll soon have a hankering to decorate...or redecorate...or re-imagine your Webkinz living space.
The problem with this is when you adopt a new Webkinz, a new room is just added...wherever. Where if you purchase a room, you can place it anywhere you like. Did you want your pets' rooms around a central hall that led to a kitchen, living room, and yard? Tough luck; your new koala's room just was placed where you planned the hall to be.
I'd wanted my exercise room and game room to be in a wing by itself, but Gaudior's room ended up next to the exercise room (and that was a tiny room; it didn't need a door in the wall!) and Pablito's place was placed next to the game room.
However, there is a perk that comes after you adopt ten Webkinz. (Actually, there are two: first you get the choice of a "super bed." These come in various styles, including a dragon bed where smoke comes out of the dragon's nostrils, a bed that looks like Cinderella's coach, a movie bed with film reels for a headboard, and the bed I chose: a book bed with a bookcase headboard and the bedclothes in the style of open pages of a book.) On the eleventh Webkinz, they no longer give you a room; instead, you get extra Kinzcash to purchase a room and put it anywhere you want.
Gibson's adoption meant that I could redecorate. I lined the "common rooms" along the yard, kitchen and dining room on one side, living room and conservatory on the other, with a den off the living room. The tiny "winter retreat" room I placed at the end of the garden became a deck, and I now plan to put some rooms on the other side of the yard.
I placed a park on the opposite side of the complex (next to the cats' room, so they can prowl at night LOL), and next to that placed a little cafe. I understand from the Insider group that there are multiple Christmas trees and some other decorations given out at Christmas, so I'm planning a big "Forever Christmas" room there. (I figure I can use some of the gingerbread/red-and-green trimmed things that are part of the Sweets Theme as part of the room as well.)
At least I don't need the $50,000.00 decorating budgets they constantly use on Designers Challenge to get the nesting urge out of my system!
Everything with a Grain of Salt
YOU read these stories or see these stories on television news shows about how children and even teenagers will give away personal information to strangers on the internet. People from ten to ninety have been fooled by Nigerian scams, other get-rich-quick manuevers, phishing attempts, browser hijacks, e-mail attachments, and other criminal and mischievous machinations of hackers and con artists. The admonishment is always the same: don't believe everything you read on the internet unless it is from a reliable source, like the official website of a manufacturer or government entity or network, etc.
(LOL. And even then you can't believe some of them. I mean, politicians speak with forked tongue in any venue.)
Lately there has been a rumor going around that Ganz is going to have a penguin Webkinz. I wouldn't be surprised; since March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, penguins have been bigger than ever. However, there has been no official announcement or nothing like that photo from the trade show.
Then someone got all excited because a photo of a penguin with a Webkinz tab was posted on Wikipedia. If it's on Wikipedia, it has to be true, right? They have people that check the site!
Sadly, Wikipedia is open to anyone who cares to add to it, whether they are telling the truth about it (or telling the truth as they see it) or not. People who are expert in certain subjects certainly will change things if there is an incorrect fact in a Wikipedia article. But there is no big committee overseeing Wikipedia to make sure everything in it is correct. A few months ago there was a big news story about incorrect information about a person that was passed off as true in a Wikipedia article.
It's absolutely frightening how many people will see something in Wikipedia and automatically assume it to be true without checking other sources first.
At the risk of sounding like a wet blanket and a Mommy clone, I had to post a message in the penguin thread about not believing everything in Wikipedia, because I had seen the photo of the so called "Webkinz penguin," and it was actually a Ty (Beanie Babies) penguin with a Webkinz tag grafted on it. I know because I saw the same penguin in Hallmark today.
Some people always have to spoil things for everyone else.
I Only Stopped for a Card
I swear.
I went to the Cumberland Mall Hallmark shop after work.
I freely admit that part of the appeal was that the black Lab comes with the autumn window. I wanted it for my den, which is masculine and sturdy, with paneled walls and a wood floor (and it will have a fireplace, too, when the Clydesdale finally arrives; the fireplace is the special gift with it).
He also looks solemn and a little bit sad.
James must be rubbing off on me because instead of some generic water dog name like Splash, I named him after Guy Gibson, who was the commander of the squadron responsible for the famous "Dambusters" raid on Germany in 1943. Gibson had a Labrador who was the squadron mascot and almost as famous as the flyers were; however, the dog had a name that, regrettably, was very common for black dogs in that more-prejudiced era. So he's named after the master instead of the dog.
Crazy Over Christmas
WHEN they ask for room theme suggestions on Webkinz Insider, I always say I want a Christmas theme and a fall theme. (It's me, after all.)
Here's some screen caps of the Christmas things they have sold in the past. I hope they have all these wonderful trees this year: Christmas 2006
I still would love an animated fireplace with stockings hung from the mantel...maybe some holly on the mantel.
Not Alone
TODAY I joined the Webkinz Insider forum after having read posts for at least a week. I find we are not alone—it looks like about half of the membership are adults. Many are parents, a few of whom "care" for their kids Webkinz pets during school hours, but the majority got hooked just like Jerry and Sue did and purchased their own pets.
There are also college students, young professionals who saw a younger sibling or relative enjoying themselves and bought one, people who sold them and wanted to see what the fuss was about (one Hallmark clerk told us she was deciding which one to buy), etc. There are many tales of people hooking their adult parents on the critters (one woman has bought her mother two Webkinz; Mom is seventy). The people who run the site are adults as well.
(I would think a Webkinz membership would actually be fun for someone older. You hear them say repeatedly in the news, on health websites, and in health publications that thinking is one of the things that keeps people young. I would think that a website with so many different games and activities would be useful for keeping your wits sharp.)
The Deluge
I had JoAnn coupons, so we went to Town Center today. After indulging in a skein of one of DMC's specialty embroidery threads, James wanted to go to Hobbytown, which is in the next shopping center.
Oh, my. They'd refilled their Webkinz stocks. Three big spinner racks were in front of the checkout counter.
James decided he would like to have the chocolate Labrador, which just came out. I wasn't going to get anything for myself until I noticed one of the Lil Kinz cats, which had the most woebegone expression. He reminded me of Neville Longbottom.
Well, when we got home I figured there was no reason to hold off anymore. I had gotten another pack of cards with a second virtual pet (a frog). James had also collected a virtual pet card (a panda).
So I ended up signing up all five of them at once and spent the rest of the afternoon doing virtual decorating of rooms. This is a lot less expensive than the real thing. LOL.
James also signed both his husky and his Lab up as well. He wanted to give the Labrador a name that reflected his love of science fiction fandom and a chocolate-related name, but nothing stereotypical, like Cocoa or Hershey. There's a type of chocolate called "Dagobah," and of course that's the name of Yoda's home planet in The Empire Strikes Back. But Webkinz wouldn't allow him to use that name; I guess it picked up on "dago" and rejected it immediately. He named it Frye instead, after Fry's chocolate and Frye on Futurama.
Incorrigible
APPARENTLY I keep "incorriging" myself. :-)
I stopped by Love Street yesterday for a few more packs of cards and purchased a Lil Kinz gray and white cat. I admit I had an ulterior motive. I have an exercise room in my online rooms which has two treadmills in it. I wanted a trampoline for the room, but the only trampoline sold works outside only.
But I'd seen an indoor trampoline the couple of times I ventured into the clubhouse. It was in the shape of a cat. I did some research and discovered the cat trampoline comes with the grey and white cat.
I notice that none of the Webkinz cats, not regular sized or Lil Kinz, have very big ears. The poor things look almost like Scottish fold cats! So I took my scissors and trimmed some of the fur away from the front of Minerva's ears so you can see more of the pink interior.
You Know You Are a Webkinz Fan When...
...YOUR budgie makes noises from the website.
Schuyler is imitating at least three sounds the pets make when you go into their "room": the two-note whistle, the squeaky noise made when a pet wags its tail, and the kiss. At first I thought I was hearing things! It's so funny to hear these computer sounds coming out of a little bird!
That Pesky Contest
THEY'VE been running a contest since July 5. Each day two clues have been given, one in the morning, one in the evening. We were hoping the more clues there were, the more enlightenment there would be.
I think our candle failed. :-)
These were the ten clues:
1. It's a real mix up
2. It's soup-er
3. questionable
4. everyone would know this
5. curious
6. past the tipping point
7. shine on
8. its yours or mine?
9. hatch a good plan
10. this really rocks
Finally they asked the question:
Who are the characters, where are they, what are they doing, and what do they have?
Absolutely no idea.
One of the members of Webkinz Insider just received a post saying that she and her daughter were one of the winners. Turns out the answer was that Quizzy and Chef Gazpacho were gem mining and had found the Pearl Egg.
Make a Wish
THERE'S been a new Wishing Well, Wishing Well 2, for the past few days. This one doesn't give you as much of a chance to make Kinzcash. Now there are only three rows of three; the figures "bob up" from under the water of the well. If you get two or three matches in the center row, the score triples. If you get three Wishing Wells in that center row, you have your choice of lots of Kinzcash or an exclusive item.
I noticed this one day when I was reading in the Parents Area, under the question "Are the Wheel of WOW and the Wishing Well gambling?"
Webkinz does not endorse, nor condone gambling. Webkinz does not contain ANY gambling. Gambling requires that a player put in a wager to play, and hence have the chance to lose that wager. Webkinz members can not lose KinzCash playing any of our games. There are no wagers involved at all.I guess they finally bowed to the pressure about the slot machine aspect of the original Wishing Well.
While the Wishing Well and Wheel of WOW use visual metaphors that are sometimes associated with gambling, there is no gambling involved. They are merely a method of giving out random prizes to our members. They are our version of giving out a door prize, a thank you just for showing up. As kids love getting free prizes, naturally these features are highly popular on our site.
Coming Soon
THEY are going to have a Webkinz collie!
It appears someone attended a toy trade show a few weeks ago and took photos of upcoming Webkinz products. We had already heard about the upcoming holiday Webkinz: a black cat for Hallowe'en, a reindeer for Christmas, and a "Love Frog" (a white frog spotted with red hearts) for Valentines Day of 2008, but this was additional material. There will be stuff like lip gloss and spritzer (eh...boring), bookmarks, and costumes for your stuffed pets, but also a new line of animals themselves, and one is a very attractive collie.
Ms. Lassie Fan here must have a collie. Must have a collie. Must have a collie... :-)
Anyway, the photos also showed a brown Arabian horse, a German Shepherd dog, a grey cat, a pinto horse, a duck, and a yellow Labrador retriever, and some Lil Kinz versions of the larger Webkinz.
You can check out the material here.
Something In the Closet
FRIDAY I went to the Hallmark store near Bells Ferry Road after dipping into the Barnes & Noble nearby. I was hoping they might have some of the Christmas ornaments out already, but the counters ready for the Ornament Premiere on Saturday were covered with big red paper covers.
I did look at their Webkinz selection and for a moment considered buying the Lil Kinz golden retriever. The avatar on the Webkinz site isn't much, but the stuffed version is adorable. But I dismissed the idea.
It came back yesterday when we had to come back to the store. The Hallmark we originally visited for the ornament premiere did not have a gift we wanted to put away for someone, but the clerk thought they might have it at Town Center. They did.
The golden retriever was gone. Oh, well.
We did get several packs of cards, however, and I received a surprise: a virtual pet! In one of every 36 packs there is a code for a pet you can play with online that has no corresponding stuffed animal. This virtual pet can also go toward extending your membership; something to put away safely. Cool.
Well, today James went to work. I was bored. I went to Planet Me and then to Love Street.
There was that golden retriever again.
Not to mention the Lil Kinz rabbit, who is almost the spit'n'image of Sunny, the rabbit in Rankin-Bass' The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town.
They're presently in a plastic bag in the closet. Oh, well...
Just Following the Trend
APPARENTLY it has not escaped the attention of the folks at Ganz that a certain very popular movie is opening this week and that the final book in the series that this very popular movie is based upon is coming out next weekend, because there is now a Wizard Theme in the W Shop. You can get things like a potions table (okay, as long as it doesn't come with Snape!), a dining table and chairs, a flying carpet sofa, etc.
According to the theme room preview, there are going to be other items in the Wizard Theme, including a bed and a really neat-looking set of floating lamps, but those haven't been released yet.
A Hard Job at Last
THIS one's called KinzPost Helper and involves processing packages at the KinzPost Office. You are given three empty piles of a certain amount of boxes. Each pile must add up to a number indicated above the pile. Packages marked with different numbers come rolling down a conveyor belt. You must make certain combinations of these numbers to make the total. For instance, the number above one pile is 11. You must make three packages add up to that number...2, 6 and 3, perhaps. Or 2, 2, and 7. etc.
It's harder than it looks. :-)
Romancing the Crown
But after awhile (and with the addition of KinzCash added via cards, not to mention James' W25,000 win on the Wheel of WOW), we both decided to accumulate the thirty gems needed for something called "a Crown of Wonder."
Each day you are allowed to go into one of the mines—Muzzle Mouth, Barking Mad, Flea Floater, Howling Horse, and Buried Bones—to have three chances at chipping away at a likely-looking rock, hoping a gem lurks underneath. More often than not, you find slag, but if you are lucky, a glint of color appears. I hunted around for some hints, but only read that you should not tap on the rocks that glint and then glint again immediately; rocks that glint and then do not glint again for some seconds are more likely to have a gem behind them. For the most part, that seems to work, although I am already in repeats with found gems.
Once you find the gem, you can keep it or sell it to Arte. Prices depend on how rare the gem is, how many of them Arte supposedly has, and, sometimes, totally on Arte's whim. We got a big laugh one day when James came up with a red gem and Arte exclaimed, "Oh, no, not another one!" and offered him W5 for it!
Some Virtual Dirt Under My Fingernails
ONE OF THE decorations they sold for your Webkinz yard were vegetables. You could buy pumpkins, corn, tomatoes and cabbages and make it look as if you were growing a garden. We joked "Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually raise vegetables in your yard and feed them to your pets?"
Lo and behold, ask and ye shall receive.
About two weeks ago they introduced "seed packets" in the W Shop: cabbages, tomatoes, strawberries, corn, carrots and watermelons. When you dragged them into your yard, they were miraculously planted. They must be checked every day by clicking on one of the plots. A menu pops up and the first thing you do is inspect each plot. Most of the time it tells you the plot needs water; you then click on the water button and must tip a "watering can" over each of your plots. On some crops you also must rake them. In a prescribed number of days, you can "harvest" your crops and use them to feed your Webkinz, and the plot is replanted so the entire sequence can start again.
If you neglect your plants and they die, you must use the "dig" tool to dig up the dead plants; only then are new seeds replanted for you.
Now this is my type of gardening: no bugs, no dirt, no worms, and especially no sun giving me a migraine.
"Be Wery Quiet, I'm Hunting Clydesdales..."
NO Clydesdales yet at Love Street, Hallmark, or Planet Me, a small shop in the Smyrna Village. I did buy a few packages of cards. Mostly I seem to get Kinzcash, which is fine with me. I have also received some medieval furniture, which I put into my game room, and a Webkinz studio.
The Webkinz studio is a blast. They give you two generic actors (a boy dog and a girl cat) and a grassy background. You can buy other sets like the deck of a pirate ship, a haunted house, the surface of the moon, a fairy castle, etc. and appropriate actors to go with them, including a "Froggenstein" and a good and a bad fairy from the Tulip Trouble game. Then you pick a particular setting, a time of day, and two actors, and in fifteen scenes create a story. I've only tried one, which involved a brave knight encountering a featherheaded young miss who turned out to be Paris Hilton transported in time. :-)
Games Other People Play
NOW that I've become reasonable proficient in Mini-Golf I have been making regular forays into the Tournament Arena. You receive the money you would receive from the game, plus any winnings if you finish in the top place or places.
There are two types of games there. The first is a one-on-one game play. You can either challenge someone on your friends' list or the game will find you an opponent. Mini-Golf is of the other type. You enter a pool of so many people competing in a tournament. You play your game and leave. Later an icon pops up to show you your standing in the tournament.
Now that I've conquered that 17th hole I'm starting to come up in the money.
Most of the Tournament Arena games can also be played in the arcade. Here are the games that are unique:
♣ Trading Card Challenge
You can play the Trading Card game online with a friend or random challenger.
♣ Dogbeard's Bathtub Battles
This is Battleship with sailing ships as befits Captain Dogbeard (a pug). This game can also be purchased in the W Shop and placed in your room.
♣ Farming Frenzy
Be the first to collect the winning amount of tomatoes and sell them at market. Differently colored tomatoes' prices rise and fall as the game proceeds. This game can also be purchased in the W Shop and placed in your room.
♣ Kinz Pinz Bowling
Self-explanatory. The bowling alley is also a rare item and shows up occasionally in the Curio Shop to be purchased and put into your room, but it's expensive, W10,000.
♣ Quizzy's Whiz Kinz
Answer Quizzy trivia questions against an opponent.
♣ Rock Paper Scissors
Just what it sounds like. An old-fashioned game in a new medium.
♣ Webkinz Chef Challenge & SuperModelz
I haven't played these yet. I gather it is a competition of recipes and of clothing combinations.
♣ Zingoz Switcherooz
Have no idea. Looks like it might be a version of Othello.
The rest of the games can be purchased in the W Shop for placement in your room. You earn Kinzcash from them as well. On some of them, you can invite people on your friends' list to come into your room and compete with you.
♣ Air Hockey
Self-explanatory.
♣ Billiards
Ditto.
♣ Jigsawz Breaking News
Jigsaw puzzles at three different levels, with increasing KinzCash rewards.
♣ Skunk Sweeper
This is a version of the arcade game that can be played in your room.
♣ Go Fish
The card game.
♣ Checkers
The board game.
♣ Link'D
Otherwise known under the trade name "Connect Four." :-)
There is one other game at Webkinz World you can play: DiceKinz. This is a virtual dice game only; a roll gives you the ability to move or bump an opponent from the course. To be honest, I don't understand the game well. You get some dice you can play with, but you can also buy additional dice in the W Shop.
Acing the Arcade! Part 2
HERE'S the rundown on the rest of the Arcade games:
• Lily Padz. Use the arrow key and the space bar to hop a frog home. As his energy runs down, you can leap up and catch bugs. A pleasant diversion.
• Dex Dangerous and the Lunar Lugbotz. Asteroids with better graphics. You, as courageous Dex, a spacefaring lion, must defeat the enemy ships trying to get your asteroid. Fast moving and fun.
• Lunch Letters. This is Webkinz' version of my favorite "Letter Invaders," the Space Invaders-like typing game that comes with Typing Tutor software. As letters fall from the sky, you must type them to get rid of them before they hit the ground. The grumpy goat janitor complains if they do.
• Operation Gumball. I have yet to understand this game. Something about gumballs and numbers. Headache time.
• Picnic. More ants looking for food. Played once or twice. Eh.
• Polar Plunge. You must jump the polar bear on the sled over various obstacles like trees, snowmen, etc. as he careens downhill. I never make it very far, but love trying.
• Pumpkin Patch Protector. You must direct the farmer's jet of water to drive off the crows raiding his pumpkin patch...but don't use up all the water! The fewer pumpkins stolen, the higher your score. An okay game.
• Quizzy's Word Challenge. Ah, my other favorite. You must form ajacent letters on a square grid into words, and achieve a certain point goal on each level. You get the most points if you use the center letter last. Usually the center letter is something like B or H. Fiendish and wonderful for logophilists.
• Stack 'Em Up Solitaire. Self-explanatory. I've never played this.
• Tile Towers. It's MahJongg with Webkinz denizens instead of bams, cracks, and other Chinese characters. Also fun.
• Tulip Trouble 2. For the very dexterous in later levels. Bad fairies have invaded the tulip patch and confined all the good fairies in the blossoms. You must click on a good fairy when it appears in a blossom to free it. If you free a bad fairy you lose time and she laughs evilly at you. Those little critters move fast...click faster, you fool!
• Wacky Zingoz. This is the Webkinz version of a Flash game that was passed around the Web at Christmastime where a penguin drops from a cliff and you as the polar bear whack him at exactly the right time to send him out the longest distance that you can. To be more animal friendly the penguin is now a funny blobby yellow masochistic critter being batted the distance by an ogre-critter, and he giggles when he's hit. (If you hit him the correct way he warbles "Zingoman!" and strikes a Superman pose, which is good for a giggle.)
• Wacky's Bullzeye Batter. Same two critters, but this time you're going for accuracy on a target, not distance. I find this one difficult.
• Where's Wacky. It's like the old game "Concentration." You flip cards over and must match two. As the levels progress, there are more characters to match. Sharpen your memory on this one.
• Zacky's Quest. Frogger with a little purple version of the yellow Zingoz in the Wacky games. Zacky must cross rivers, roads, ponds, floating logs, etc, and avoid monsters with clubs and birds who pluck him off the ground to find pieces of a treasure map. To gain more lives, he must eat the multicolor vegetables along the way. I love this one, but I was a Frogger fan from way back.
• Zingoz Bounce. Another game I haven't figured out how to work.
• Zingoz Pie Throw. They will toss pies at you...hit them with a pie first! They come faster and faster, of course, as you progress, and then start throwing them from above. Gotta move fast on this one.
• Zingoz Pop. Only tried this one a few times. You have to aim a big gun to pop the Zingoz. Wasn't very good at it.
Acing the Arcade! Part 1
WELL, not really. The only game I'm really good at is golf. I've never been quick enough at the mouse to be that good at videogames.
However, I am enjoying some of the games quite a bit, some I don't like at all, and some I keep plugging at and am plain no good.
• Cash Cow. The instructions are "Click on a group of 3 or more matching bottles to sell them. This adds money to your truck." Larger groups earn more money. More bottles come as you progress through levels. I like this game but don't do well at it.
• Cash Cow 2. "Click on two or more bottles of matching color to remove them; the larger the group, the more points you get." Again, I enjoy this one, but I usually tank on Level 3. (I know, that's pathetic.) By some miracle, a couple of times I've reached Level 5.
• Ant Mania. (Picnic 2) Your ant must avoid spiders and red ants while collecting food. Sorry. I'm not playing any games with ants in them.
• Bananza. You must guide a monkey through leaves and vines to collect bananas while avoiding falling coconuts and poisonous spiders. I still haven't figured out how to get up the vines to certain levels. Heck, I haven't left the first level without falling victim to the spiders.
• Zingoz Bounce and Burst. Zingoz are bloblike creatures of various colors that live in Webkinz land. In this one, explorer Livingston the Lion tickles blue bouncing Zingoz. They split. If a Zingoz hits Livingston, you lose a turn. I find this game...impossible.
• Candy Bash. Pancho the chihuahua bounces a big jumping bean from his sombrero, trying to break open pinatas lined up above him. You must bounce the bean in a Pong-like movement without dropping it and also collect the candy to earn points. I wasn't bad at Pong. I'm terrible at this.
• Candy Bash 2. This is one of my favorites, although I never have gotten more than 50KinzCash out of it. Pinatas drop from the sky and Pancho shoots up a jumping bean to break them. You collect the candy in his hat. You must not let the pinatas hit the ground; after three you're out. Every so often a cat flies overhead and you must shoot him to get a special treat: a chile pepper, a firecracker that pops all the pinatas on screen open, a taco. If you're down on lives what you want him to drop is a pear; the fruit gives you an extra life. See! Fruit is good for you.
• Color Storm. You need to direct different color raindrops into groups of four so that they disappear. If they touch the ground you lose. Eh.
• Go-Go Googles. Googles are little ducklike white creatures that inhabit Webkinz world. One Google must push another up into a tree to eat the googly flowers while also swatting the butterflies that the tree is allergic to. If you let too many butterflies land on the tree, it sneezes and the game is over. You have to juggle the Google to get it into the tree. Oy.
• Goober's Lab. Basically Bejeweled...absent minded scientist Goober has a rack of differently colored atoms in his lab. You use an instrument to shift the atoms so that you get three or more in a row. You must be quick at seeing the patterns or time will run out and the lab will explode. How well I do on this one depends on how awake I am.
• Hide'n'Skunk. I don't think I've ever played this. It's "Minesweeper" from Windows with a skunk instead of a mine.
• Hungry Hog. Pac-Man with a pig instead of Pac-Man and bees instead of Inky and his pals. The pig gains points when he eats junk food, but moves slower; if you eat good food, it adds more food you have to eat to clear the board. The bees can sting you unless you eat a power tablet that only lasts for a few seconds. A fun game, but then I always loved Pac and his Ms.
• Jazz Monsters. Haven't played this much. You must click on the musician of the same color as the monster attacking to vanquish him.
"Doctor, Doctor!"
NEGLECT your Webkinz and something dreadful happens!
No, they can't die. With virtual pets you are spared the sad gravesite in the back yard or the urn of ashes on the mantel. However, if you don't feed, bathe, exercise and care for them, they do get sick.
W25. This usually puts your Webkinz on the mend and you finish the cure with liberal doses of healthy vegetables and chicken soup and perhaps a workout on the trampoline.
Anyway, it was a surprise to walk in this afternoon and find poor McDuff with a green snout and the icebag upon his head. We payed a visit to Dr. Quack and now all is well again.
Cry Havoc!
AT the end of May GANZ announced on the site that they have released a stuffed Clydesdale. This is a really adorable horse and I'd love to have it. A friend of ours owns three horses, including a Clydesdale mare named Emily, so when I do find one, Emily will be her name.
We stopped at Love Street, but it's still on order (we'd already asked at the beginning of the month).
Despite the fact that we have only been Webkinz users for a month, I've already started to wonder what we will do when our year's membership is up and have wondered if it would be prudent to buy a Webkinz and save it, since buying another is the only way to extend your account.
Love Street had restocked their assortment, so I looked it over. I'd been toying with buying a unicorn, but only the Lil Kinz unicorn figure was left. (There are two types of Webkinz. The regular size is eight inches. There is a smaller, cheaper six inch version called a Lil Kinz.) The only problem was that I spotted the Lil Kinz chihuahua at the same time. I don't like the regular size Webkinz chihuahua at all; they have emphasized the bumps on its brow so much that it looks deformed. The Lil Kinz version, however, is quite attractive.
So I ended up purchasing both, but don't intend to "run" them until I need a renewal animal.
We also tried a little gift shop near the Vinings Kroger. They did have the two newest animals in, the husky dog and the raccoon. The husky is rather handsome and when James expressed an interest in it, I bought it for him as a late Father's Day gift (or maybe an early birthday gift, whatever). So now he has an animal to save for renewal purposes, too.
He's already named it Havoc.
What to My Wondering Eyes Do Appear...
TODAY'S Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a big article on Webkinz. It mostly concentrated on children's use of the site, but talked about parents and other adults being involved as well.
One of the big concerns has been the Clubhouse. There are actually two Clubhouses. Both have differently decorated rooms—there are gym rooms, for instance, garden rooms, reading rooms, etc.—but one has carefully chosen phrases that people can use to each other. Everyone can use this Clubhouse. The KinzPlus Clubhouse requires parental permission to use because you can type what you like, although there are forbidden words. If you type one of them, it turns red and you are not allowed to post your sentence.
I wandered into the KinzPlus gym one night to see what it was all about and some dip was wandering around saying "Do you want to make out?" Lo and behold, by next night the KinzPlus Clubhouse had been shut down.
Yes, I'm Hooked
I stopped at Love Street again to check out their collection of Webkinz. Nothing much new, but while I was there, I also bought a few packs of the trading cards. You can use these cards to play a challenge game which might be fun for games night, but also each pack of cards comes with at least one (and up to four) "Feature Code" and a "Virtual Trading Card Code." You can collect virtual cards as well and play the challenge game online. The Feature Codes get you more stuff, whether it be more Kinzcash, food, clothes for your pet (you can sell it back to the W Shop if you don't want it), or exclusive items which are not sold at the W Shop, like Webkinz card furniture, or furniture in themes which are only sold intermittently at the Curio Shop, such as the Egyptian theme, the Medieval theme, the Farm theme, the Scientist theme, etc. There are also little vehicles for the pets to ride in and strange things like disco balls and exclusive beds (including a Bookworm Bed that looks like an open book!).
Having just a few cards has whetted my appetite for more codes...I mean more cards! Cards to play the game! Each person who plays needs to have seven challenge cards at least... LOL.
The Games People Play
MINI-Golf isn't the only game I am having fun with. I have found some old favorites in the Arcade.
One is called "Lunch Letters" and is my old friend "Letter Invaders" from the software "Typing Tutor." Letters fall from the sky, faster and faster as the levels progress, and you have to type them to destroy them. "Lunch Letters" in Webkinz has the letters falling within foods or hoagie sandwiches. Below, a goat janitor sweeps up any food you miss.
"Goober's Lab" is a Bejeweled-type game taking place in absent-minded scientist Goober's (he's a dog—looks like a St. Bernard) lab. You exchange "atoms" (they look like giant gumballs) set in rows to get arrangements of at least three in a row; they then vanish and are replaced by other atoms. Apparently this is the most popular game on Webkinz World and is one of the reasons so many adults have become hooked. (Wonder if I'm the only one who's been hooked by Mini-Golf? LOL.)
"Zacky's Quest" is Frogger. Zacky is one of the Zingoz critters—they look like ambulatory teardrops with eyes; this one is purple. You have to negotiate him through a course that includes Frogger-like logs and a street to get to caves containing bits of a treasure map. There are misshapen potato-like monsters to whack Zacky if he gets too near and a bird that swoops down to take him away. I haven't gotten past Level 2 yet, but that's part of the fun.
"Dex Dangerous and the Lunar Lugbotz" is Asteroid. Dex is the courageous lion captain protecting an asteroid from meteorites and strange alien ships. When the asteroid gets too many hits, plunk down it goes. Oh, well.
"Hungry Hog" is like Pac-Man. A pig must eat all the fattening foods to increase to the next level. Vegetables make him faster but also pop up new fattening foods. Don't get stung by the bees, which send you back to the beginning, and, if you get stung too many times, sent out of the game.
I don't know another video game equivalent, but I love something called Quizzy's Word Challenge. You must make words from letters posted in a grid on the screen. You get more points using the letters in the center square and the most money by finishing your word with the letter in the center, which often turns out to be a B or an H. Since this is a kids' website, many words are forbidden even if they are not scatological or considered curse words, so an additional challenge is added. Thankfully, it does consider some Britishisms.
I'll do a complete list of the games at some point.
Portrait of a Terrier
ONE of the best ways to boost health points for your pet is to buy a pool. I'm continually amazed with what they can do with scripting in Webkinz (not sure what language it is scripted in) and also with the Flash graphics. Your pet paddles about the pool in a widdershins direction, very much looking like it is swimming. All that's missing is the splashing!
Here's McDuff taking his turn in the pool:
This is a particular cute snap; the scooter is the special gift that comes with the white terrier:
Got Milk?
POOR Weenie. Even though we were having fun together playing miniature golf, I had never given up looking for the white terrier. Willow has aroused in me a liking for all things "terror." But the Hallmark shops were still understocked.
Finally I consulted the store locator feature on the Webkinz site and found out that a small shop nearby was selling them. This was Love Street, right "up the road apiece," where I had bought the firecracker outdoor ornament last year. They sell gift-type items, things for baby showers, Crocs, garden decorations, and other things of that sort.
It came with a pink polka-dot bow.
Have I mentioned lately how much I despise pink? :-) I snipped the bow off the actual stuffed animal and registered HIM as McDuff, after the West Highland White Terrier in the Rosemary Wells/Susan Jeffers' children's books, which are beautifully illustrated with 1940s-type pictures.
Pretty much almost immediately he was nicknamed "Duffy" and made comfortable in his own room with a drafting table. Each Webkinz comes with a special gift and McDuff's was a neon palm tree. It flashes in his room every time you enter.
So how could I resist a Webkinz cow with a winsome face and fuzz in her eyes?
I named her Molly after Molly Preston, the mother in Kate Seredy's The Open Gate, who was afraid of cows when the family first moved to the farm, and decorated her room with cream-colored furniture, farm wallpaper, and a cow bank.
So if I cuddle my cow too much am I "Molly-cow'dling" her? :-)
Putt-Putt Forever!
THE first time I saw the Arcade in Webkinz World, I had only one thought: Miniature golf course!
I have been a mini-golf aficionado since I was "knee-high to a grasshopper." When I was very small there was a miniature golf course down Gansett Avenue, between the baseball field and the Burger Chef. Sometimes on sultry summer nights we would walk there to get a Del's lemonade (there was a pocket-sized frozen lemonade stand across the street) and watch the golfers as well as the flocks of moths dashing around the big floodlights. We never played often; with only Dad working we didn't have a lot of money.
Sometimes we played mini-golf at Rocky Point Amusement Park, but again it was a rare thing. But by the time I went to work and could earn money to play mini-golf there were no more courses in Rhode Island.
In 1968, after my mom went to work part time, we finally had the money to take a vacation that didn't involve staying a week at a relative's house in Massachusetts. We went to a place one of Dad's co-workers suggested, Lake George in the Adirondak Mountains of upstate New York. It is still one of my favorite places in the world. And it had four miniature golf courses to boot! I don't recall that we ever played the big course up on the hill at the exit off I-87, but we did play the two near the lake (Around the World in 18 Holes and Around the U.S. in 18 Holes) and the small one inside the games arcade. These were mostly the old-fashioned kind of mini-golf courses, with the little barn with the door that opened and closed, putting a ball in an animal's mouth, etc. For a few years there was a tiny "designed by professional golf players" course on one corner; the lot was so small that several of the holes were on an upper level. When you putted the balls they rolled through tubes to the lower level, which made the course much more fun!
It got to the point where we'd discuss where to go for vacation and I'd suggest Lake George. Mom would give me "that look." "You just want to go so you can play miniature golf." Well, yeah... :-)
The later type of courses such as we experienced in Lake George have survived here in Atlanta as Pirates' Cove and Rainforest and Mountasia and we play them when we can (mostly when we have a coupon).
So you can see why I was delighted to find Webkinz Golf. I pretty much play one game every day. My bete noïre was hole 17 until I accidentally landed in the sand trap and realized that was the trick to getting the hole in par.
Weekly Report
AS I said, I've never been much for videogames. I think the most I've played was back when I was taking care of my mom through her last illness. I had the laptop and would play Jumpman or Pac-Man for a little while each night.
But after a week I can say I like having Webkinz for an hour or two to knock back and relax after a day at work, which is rapidly driving me mad. There are little daily tasks and a good combination of games that test different skills. Although it's primarily designed for kids I don't feel as if its simplistic, just family friendly. The word challenge game gives your mind a good workout, too, and there are trivia questions for adults.
Bathtime!
EVERY time a Webkinz bathes...
...an angel gets its wings?
Well, no, but it ups its health points.
For sheer silliness, give your Webkinz a bath. Float the rubber ducky in the water, scrub the shampoo on its head, and add lots and lots of bubble bath. Both you and the Webkinz will giggle.
I wish Willow was this happy when we got done bathing her!
Earning More Kinzcash
HOURLY events happen...well, [duh] every hour (or sometimes every two or three).
Some hourly events are promos on certain games in the arcade. You may get 15 percent extra on Cash Cow or 20 percent extra on Bananza from 2 p.m to 4 p.m., for instance.
Other hourly events are sale items. Every day, certain items are on sale in the W Shop, but some items turn up on sale only during a certain hour of the day.
There are also games that are only played on the hourly events board:
Extra Wacky Bingoz Balls: You get one extra ball for each game (1 ball, 2 ball, 3 ball).
Extra Spin on the Wheel of WOW: Self-explanatory.
The Wheel of Yum: This is mostly a food-based reward wheel, but sometimes you get a Monkey and Monkey poster or some Kinzcash. Bananas are the most common reward.
Balloon Darts: It's like the carnival game; burst balloons. Some are empty, some have Kinzcash, or you can win a hairclip, a bunny doll, or clothing items like cowboy boots.
Quizzy's Blast: Combine a dart board that constantly changes values with Quizzy's trivia. Sometimes you will answer a question correctly for five points, but if the part of the board you land on is -5, you actually get nothing for answering! Aim carefully.
Extra Wishes at the Wishing Well: You usually get five.
W Shop Coupon: Pull a cord and a coupon pops up. Not a common hourly event.
Big Button of Kinzcash: This is a very rare event. Press the big button to make some extra moolah.
Super Wheel: Like the Big Button, this option comes very rarely. It usually has larger prizes however, with the lowest amount being W500 and items like sports cars and exclusive beds.
The Magic W: This is something I have heard about, but never seen. Occasionally a rainbow-colored W like the one in the Webkinz logo will float across your screen. Click it to receive a special prize
Get a Job!
TABBY Von Meow wants to give you a job! This bespectacled orange tabby cat runs the Webkinz employment office.
Every eight hours, and no sooner, you can do a Webkinz job. These are divided into easy, medium and hard jobs which have three levels of difficulty. You work up a level after doing a good job on the previous level three times. The most difficult level, of course, pays the most. If you can't achieve that particular level after three times, you get bumped down to the next lower level.
If you can't do the job at all, you get no Kinzcash. Just like real life!
Easy Jobs (indicated in white)
• Fence Painting is a visual version of Simon. You are shown a pattern of painted fenceposts, then must repeat the pattern.
• Hamburger Cook asks you to arrange hamburger, lettuce, cheese and tomato in whatever pattern has been shown to you.
• Shoe Store Clerk has you match shoes, as in a Concentration game.
• As Doctor Quack's Assistant, you patch up patients who either have a bump, a scrape, or a cold by providing them with the appropriate icebag, bandage, or medicine.
Medium Jobs (indicated in blue)
• A Grocery Clerk must match groceries to their shapes on a conveyor belt.
• Flooring Assistant matches a pattern shown to you.
• Mrs. Birdy's Assistant types a series of Webkinz-related words in a certain amount of time.
• Piano Tuner is similar to Simon; you must play an ever-increasing pattern of notes.
As of this date there are no hard jobs.
Hint: Have a favorite job but don't see it? All the easy jobs do not appear on the board every time. If you don't see the one you like to do, go into something else in Webkinz (or log off) and then come back into the Employment Office. It should be there.
Support Your Pet the Webkinz Way
TO emphasize that you have not just simply purchased a stuffed animal, but are adopting a new friend, your first Webkinz experience happens at the adoption office, staffed by Mrs. Birdy, a matronly penguin. (Scuttlebutt has it that Mrs. Birdy has an "understanding" with Dr. Quack, a duck with a Scots burr who is the Webkinz attending physician. LOL.) For an initial adoption, you begin by picking a username. Then you are given the opportunity to name your pet and choose its sex. Then, finally, you enter the code that comes on the Webkinz tag. A little biography of your new pet appears.
With a pet you are also issued a medium-sized room and a certain amount of "Kinzcash." You are now responsible for keeping your pet happy, healthy, and well-fed. You can provide your pet a minimal good life by spending your Kinzcash at the "W Shop" for a basic bed and healthy foods like broccoli, corn, and carrots. However, thet W Shop also boasts multiple theme room furnishings such as sports, pirate, fantasy, country, etc., junk foods if you so choose, and even toys and games. So, as in real life, you must earn money to support your pets.
There are several simple daily events that you can do to manage this.
• The Wheel of Wow: Think the big cash wheel at the end of the Price is Right. You can win several different cash prizes, a couple of different food items, or a couple of different items, like a bed or a poster or T-shirt. Don't want a poster or T-shirt? You can sell it back to the W Shop!
• Wishing Well: A slot machine format in a wishing well? Whatever. certain combinations of fruits or animals give you money; a wildcard helps form matches. A wishing well will give you other money.
• Wacky Bingoz: Just like real Bingo, except with six blocks instead of five. Horizontal, vertical, or diagonal will get you $1000 on the 1 ball game, $500 on the 2 ball game, and $250 on the 3 ball game.
• Care Award: Click on the care award button daily and you get a free food item for your pet and a small amount of Kinzcash. If you do this for an entire week, you are placed in a drawing for an exclusive item.
• Gem Mining: The Curio Shop is owned by an old codger named Arte, a golden retriever who used to be an archaeologist who specialized in hunting treasure (a "golden retriever," get it?). Arte has various specials every hour—watch out! some can be found in the W Shop at a lower price, or sometimes he has only a minimal sale. W Shop coupons usually provide a better discount, but they don't come often. Arte also sells a rare item once a day, or items that are not sold in the W Shop. The other thing you can do in the Curio Shop, once a day, is search for Gems in one of five mines. You can sell the gem to Arte for whatever he'll give you for it, or you can save 30 different gems for a Webkinz Crown of Wonder, which your pet can wear (or which you can sell at the W Shop).
• Quizzy's: A dapper golden bear named Quizzy runs the trivia section of Webkinz. There is a daily trivia question and also a daily calendar trivia question. For extra points, you can answer more trivia questions at Quizzy's, which are divided into age groups from 5-6 to adult. But there are a finite number of Quizzy's questions, and once you're done, you'll need to wait for him to post more.
Next time: More ways to earn money!
The Open Door
IT had been a bad couple of weeks.
Our budgie Pigwidgeon had died on May 14. Over the summer of 2006 he'd begun developing black marks on his beak and claws, and his beak began to grow rapidly. He also had a black growth on one leg and under his lower beak. Budgies are disposed to cancer and I'm pretty sure it is what he had. The vet, however, thought it might be a liver problem and gave me special liver food for him, but he never got a chance to eat it. I came home the afternoon of the 14th and found he had passed over the Rainbow Bridge.
Since we'd talked to Jerry in April we had been looking occasionally for Webkinz at Hallmark shops, but at that point the stores were cleaned out of them. If they had critters left, they were tree frogs. Sorry to be a "mammal snob," but I'm not much of an amphibian person. :-) I had cruised the website to see what they offered, and of all the different animals I really wanted the white terrier, but nary a terrier did we find.
James had worked one day last weekend and was off today. About mid-afternoon he phoned me and said, "I'm at Hobbytown. They have pugs and tree frogs. Do you want a pug?"
I'm not much of a pug person, either, although Kristi and Kelly's two pugs are quite appealing. But it was a temptation: "Oh, why not? Sure."
Once home from work I found this little fellow on my computer desk. James had also bought himself a pug (I guess neither of us are tree frog people), which he had named "Shahak."
I took a literary track and named mine "Weenie" after Eloise's little pug, except that to tell the pugs apart I put a ribbon on mine and called it a girl.
With the code attached to Weenie's leg, I entered the Webkinz world.
How This is All Jerry's Fault
:-) a.k.a. THE INTRODUCTION
WE take an annual weekend excursion in April to the North Georgia mountains, along with several dozen of our friends, "taking over" one of the buildings at Unicoi Lodge, bringing snacks and drinks, and mostly eschewing television (except for the kids, who have a video room in one of the hotel rooms) unless there's a Braves game on, some of the multitude being baseball fans. During the long warm days, folks go hiking, visit the town of Helen or even venture north to Hiawassee, enjoy the fresh air. At night we adjourn to the common area for games, reading, etc.
Unicoi now has wireless internet, so many people were logging in computer time as we collected in the common area. Alas, apparently the wireless modem James bought for our laptop did not have good reception using the Unicoi node. I had to go outside in one certain spot to catch a strong signal.
Our friends Jerry and Sue have a little boy, Aaron, who had asked his folks for a new toy all the kids at school were crazy about. It was called a Webkinz, a stuffed animal. Each comes with a code which you enter on the Webkinz website. Once you do so, an avatar of your stuffed animal is created. You are given a room for it and can buy furniture and other gadgets, but you also must keep your pet happy and healthy. To earn more money ("Kinzcash") to buy food, other items to keep it healthy, and just plain "stuff" for your pet, you can answer quizzes, play games, do certain tasks every day, collect gems from a mine, even take a "job" every eight hours.
Jerry told us that they had helped Aaron with the games at first and enjoyed them so much they had purchased their own Webkinz critters.
"Here," he said, "I'll show you." and clicked on the website.
We admitted, it did look like fun. James plays many video games that seem to be of the adventure/military type: dodging and downing Nazis or monsters or the like. I've never been much into video games, except for a now simplistic 2-D game called "Jumpman" from back in our Commodore 64 days, which I still have on my computer in a PC version. (I have Jeopardy, which I've played a few times, Scrabble, an adventure game called "The Last Express," and something called "Sheep" [but had not played the last two because my computer at the time wasn't fast enough].) I get bored easily playing video games and would rather read.
Still, as Jerry took us on the Cooks' tour, it looked like fun. The games involved varying skills and none of them were particularly violent. There were word games, which meant it wasn't always a test of dexterity. And the little stuffed animals were particularly cute. There had been limited Webkinz at the time Jerry and his wife looked for them, so they had purchased tree frogs and even those were cute. But they came in all different varieties, cats, dogs, even cows and horses. Apparently they were sold at Hallmark stores.
I didn't realize it at the time, but we would soon be involved as well.