A plush toy with a code on the tag that unlocked a virtual version of itself in a browser world of rooms, games and a doctor. The record's entry for the first toy-to-screen craze: by 2008 the animals were sold out in shops, the codes were traded and stolen, the site had millions of daily visitors, and the phrase 'the tag is the toy' was said by parents who had paid for a bear to get a login.
Correction: the site is still running as Webkinz Classic and has never been closed. The record's status is 'dying' because the craze ended around 2010 and the servers did not know.
Someone remembers the day their first pet's year ran out and the site asking for a new code, and asking their parents for another bear on that basis. The record files this under the first renewal.
A toy shop in 2007 with a hand-written sign reading 'no Webkinz until Thursday' and a queue of parents who had come on Wednesday anyway. The record notes the Thursday delivery sold out by noon.
The record notes that the plush was the password, that the password expired after a year, and that the whole business model was a soft toy with a subscription attached.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
