As many of you are aware, GANZ has not announced any new Webkinz plush pets in the past few months. The last new plush was the beautifully crafted Narwhal. We can now officially state that there will be no new Webkinz plush in 2019 and that the Narwhal will be the final plush toy of the “first generation” of Webkinz plush.
Our reasons for making this decision are three-fold:
- For any toy to be produced at an appropriate price, a minimum number need to be produced. Our retail orders for our new styles, even great ones like the Narwhal, had fallen below this minimum.
- Our attempts to move plush sales online through the eStore and Amazon did not meet our goals.
- After 14 years and over 500 unique pets, this generation of the toy line had run its course.
The reality is that at times every toy brand needs to take a break, evolve and reinvent. Many of the biggest toy brands in the world – My Little Pony, Transformers, Strawberry Shortcake – have had times where there were no toys on retail shelves.
Will this impact Webkinz.com? Not at all. One of the big developments in the past few years is the acceptance of online purchasing. When we launched Ganz eStore in 2008, many players didn’t understand the idea of buying “purely” virtual pets. Now we’re all used to buying virtual items and we’re happy to say eStore use has been going up! Many of our new eStore virtual pets have been well received and are among our best looking pets ever! As we’ve said elsewhere, GANZ is committed to Webkinz.com and with our desktop version coming soon, the future of the game is strong.
Will Webkinz plush be back? Definitely. GANZ was born as a plush toy company and lovable plush will always be near to our hearts. We have had many discussions about future products and how best to bring those products to market. We can’t say anything more about this at this time, but we do hope to have some more announcements later in the year.
In the meantime, you can still find Webkinz plush at Ganz eStore, and through other online retailers. All available plush are “while quantities last,” so if there is a specific pet you’d like, you will want to order it soon.
We’ve all had great experiences with our Webkinz plush and have those favorites that we feel closest to. While we may be taking a break from making new styles, our incredible range of amazing plush toys will forever be a core part of Webkinz World.
GANZ
When Plush does come back eventually, I suggest going back to your roots. Create pets with the same original charm as the first ones, and you will be successful.
I’ve been playing since 2007 like many of you, and I’m really going to miss seeing these lovely toys; I grew up with Webkinz (again, like many of you) and I still have tons of these plushies. My only issue is that how am I going to get more codes to adopt more pets to keep my account going? I don’t have eStore points and I’m not about to get some. What does this mean for my account?
You can still find plush pets on Ganz eStore and other online retailers. You only need to adopt a pet once a year to keep your Full membership. Otherwise, you’ll still have access to your account as a free player, albeit somewhat restricted. If you choose to become a Deluxe member, you don’t need to adopt pets at all, though you do get a free pet with a 1-year membership.
Hi Sally, thank you for the reply, but what do you mean I don’t need to adopt pets at all if I’m a Deluxe member?
Well, you don’t have to adopt a pet every year to keep your access up if you have an active Deluxe membership.
Don’t forget that you get the initial 5000 bonus points plus 3000 eStore points every month with your one-year Deluxe membership, if you add that all up, you have enough to buy at least 3 NEW pet codes without buying any more points if you don’t want to. One year Deluxe is your best deal for your dollar!
I also forgot that some virtual pets are available for USD rather than eStore points, so there’s still lots of ways to extend membership that don’t involve eStore points :)
and BUY those memberships at half off…SOOOO Worth it..(just put 3.00 away per month and by the end of 12 months you will have the money you need :)
If you can find some at thrift stores or retailers, stock up on a few. That way when you need to add a new pet to your account you have one. That’s what I do. I search for them and hold on to them until I need to keep an account active.
Oh no! This is so sad! I’ve been playing Webkinz since 2007, and my first plush was a tree frog. And since then, I’ve collected over a hundred plush. I’m not too fond of buying virtual pets though. This is mostly because if something ever happened to your account, you wouldn’t have anything, but at least when you buy the plush, you still have something. I hope there will be new plush soon! :)
Saddening news, but am relieved that at least they will continue making them at some point in time.
Thank u for the announcement…..love this…Will Webkinz plush be back? Definitely. GANZ was born as a plush toy company and lovable plush will always be near to our hearts. We have had many discussions about future products and how best to bring those products to market. We can’t say anything more about this at this time, but we do hope to have some more announcements later in the year.
I hope the codes on the pets we have will still be good. I have a lot of pets I have not adopted. I like the virtual ones too and have many of those as well. Hope the new version will be as good as our old beloved one but I guess things have to change.
Unless otherwise noted, Adoption Codes do not expire :)
This makes sense from my point of view as a long-time player and actually reflects how I feel about all the Webkinz products, both physical and virtual. When I first started playing back in 2007, the online game was just an add-on that convinced me to start collecting Ganz’s adorable plushies instead of other brands. But now my Webkinz budget is completely spent in the eStore. I have actually given away most of my physical plushies to friends’ youngsters who were too young for the online game – they were excited to have them because they really are fantastic toys – and have kept only a few favorites for myself. I really appreciate that Ganz isn’t sentimental about these things, because I believe it strengthens a brand when the company is willing to evaluate how loyal customers are currently interacting with the product, honestly admit when a once-crazy-awesome approach isn’t working anymore, and free up resources to support what is working. Thanks for all your work, Ganz!
Aw, that’s sad. I remember how excited I used to be to go to the local Hallmark store to pick out a new plush Webkinz, but at least we still have the virtual pets! Thanks for continuing to evolve, Ganz- I still love Webkinz after all these years (started playing in 2007)!!!
Me too, fancyduck58! I remember saving my allowance money for weeks in order to buy a special Webkinz pet and hoping that the local Hallmark would have it in stock, or begging my mom to take me even when I didn’t have the money because we were in the area and I wanted to know if the new plush pets had come. However, with as many plush pets as I have (and no longer have room for in my bedroom :D ), admittedly, the online pets are becoming a more popular option for me. Not that I dislike the plush toys AT ALL. They are great quality toys that are very fun. I just don’t need 100+ of them sitting in my house, which I think is why the plush toys haven’t been top sellers. Their biggest customers, people who have 100+ Webkinz, don’t need more plush toys in their house, but they do want more Webkinz. I do miss the days of plush shopping, however. Sigh… :)
I miss shopping for the plushies too, pinkiecupcake, but I’ve probably got well over 50 Webkinz so it will save on space! But still, it’s not the same as the excitement of walking into a store to see which plushies they had in stock. I still have some that I haven’t adopted so I still have that to look forward to. :)
Very sad. I have been on Webkinz for a very long time and my favorite Christmas present was always a new Webkinz animal. I hope you guys end up making more plushs eventually. They are very well done and so cute.
Sad day