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
Thank you so much for this information. I’m looking forward to seeing what you will be doing with the ‘Next Generation’ of plush toys in the future. I miss the unboxing videos but look forward to what the new ones will look like. Do what you need to do and we will look forward to what you have up your sleeve for us next! In the mean time…I get more pets that I don’t have to find more storage space for!!!! : D
Thank you. So many of us have been waiting all year to hear the official word on what exactly is going on. I’m not sure why you waited so long. It may have been because you just couldn’t bear to tell us, or you’d hoped that time would ease the pain, or whatever the reason. I think we had all sort of figured it out by now anyway, and resigned ourselves to the idea of an all virtual WW. I am holding on to the hope of GANZ plush “future products” and looking forward to enjoying more plush in the not-too-distant future. Again, thank you for finally addressing our concerns, and telling it like it is.
My first plush was a pug for my daughter. I got hooked on Webkinz :) I will be forever grateful for the plush pets.
Very, very sad and sorry to see this. My first Webkinz was the English Bulldog. Lol I’ve purchased many, more than I care to admit to, and hope they do return in the future. My greatest regret was not being to get my hands on the Gold Pegasus, lol.
Have you tried eBay?
I understand. Although I really hope that WEbkinz produces more plush soon, maybe a year or two from now, but hopefully not like, five years. Also, i really hope that future plush are more creative than the more current plush coming out. It is very sad to see that there will not be any new plush for a while though.
About a month ago, in the suggestions forum, I suggested an at least temporary partnership with Build-A-Bear Workshop. The post is still there, but so far no replies.
It’s been a great run for the plushies and I’m sad to see that end, even though I understand that things have to change to keep our great community operating. I love all of my plushies and my virtual pets and look forward to the next generation!
It just seems to be because you guys are making the desktop app, that much seems obvious enough. Although, there is the very real possibility that, while in the near future this may not be an issue, one day, the game could very well close down. Having the physical plush at least ensures you got some product out of the game, there were many webkinz imitators back in the day of which have all closed down which I still have the plush for, at the very least. It could very well happen that the game will close down, and all virtual-only pets would then be lost to time and memory, which isn’t a very good sign. Webkinz was founded on the plush pet idea, that’s what was marketed to me 10 years ago. If you need to take a break while this app is running, fine, but this seems quite suspicious to me, especially the point about y’all continuing. It’s kinda sad when it’s obvious a labrador or horse skeleton is reused with only a pattern change in the estore, hence why I don’t bother spending money on blatant recolours that again, have no physical product attached. I don’t find this a good decision objectively, and hope it to change, at least when it seems more feasible.
If you guys are taking a break from plushes and focusing on estore, can you please at least fix all the broken items you sold us. I have about $50 worth of broken items that still haven’t been fixed at all since they stopped working during the year ten updates.
I just got a ragdoll cat plushie and a sheepdog after reading this. I’ll admit, it is sad, but I find comfort in the fact that Webkinz plushies won’t be gone forever, they’re just taking a break for a while. :) I have a feeling that when they do come back, they’ll come back with a bang! In all seriousness though, Webkinz and it’s plush animals have been a huge part of my life, and still is, despite me being above the age demographic. (I was going to say I still get on Webkinz to play around daily, but from me saying that I just bought two new webkinz plushies earlier, I suppose that’s a given. XD)
I sooooo love your WKN UN! Do you think that you will have to change it? Future newbies will be confused. The rest of us will be nostalgic. I am having difficulty finding the plush that I want to be able to complete certain collections. Do you have any advice, other than Amazon?
Aw, I don’t know if I think people will be that confused — there are things in the site alone that’ll probably make it clear plush used to exist (i.e., still being able to enter codes from them). Love your username, too, WebkinzPlushLover! :) And Beckinz, have you tried eBay?
Yeah, there are also default ads and things that show plushies. I think since plushies have been such a big part of Webkinz, it’ll be hard to just completely erase any trace of them. Also, thanks for liking my username too, dinosaurtracker13! :D
Wow, thanks! I just now realized how fitting my username is for this topic. XD My advice is fairly limited, I got the ragdoll cat and sheepdog at the Ganz eStore plush section, if that helps at all. (I don’t know about any others, but some plushies like the butterscotch bunny are unavailable now at the Ganz eStore plush section now.)