Webkinz was a storm that took over the United States in 2005. The stuffed animals were adorable, high quality, and best of all: you could have your plush friend come to life online through the Webkinz website. Kids were given the opportunity to play games with their pets and decorate their houses. While this was a major attractor to Webkinz it all fell back on the fact that Webkinz were top quality toys for kids of all ages.

As 2016 came and went, the kids who had been collecting Webkinz for their entire childhood were now entering middle school, high school, and for some even university. Unfortunately, this was the peak of the internet’s “cringe culture” phase. An era of the internet where those with special interests that fell outside of the norm were labeled with terrible names and ostracized. This bullying combined with becoming “too old” for toys caused many avid collectors to stop collecting. 

As a result Webkinz stopped making their classic plushies in 2018. Rather than acknowledging the external issues affecting the popularity of their newer pets the company decided to move forward with a complete brand redesign to release in 2020. The brand moved from soft, semi-realistic plush that were able to hold many different body positions to stiff pets all with the same base body shape. Their eyes are large and exaggerated and no longer can the limbs be posed and moved. It was very clear that this was in an attempt to catch up with the “gas station” beanie boos that were becoming popular with very young children at the time.

In comes TikTok. TikTok becomes the platform to put an end to cringe culture. Special interests, nostalgia, and mental health are common topics in this space. This has led to a substantial rise in the sharing of collections. Whether those collections be dolls, video games, squishmallows, or trains: they have all found a place on TikTok. The world is moving to accept the interests of others regardless of what they might be. With this new resurgence and respect, collectors new and old have been pursuing Webkinz once more. Except, Webkinz like we knew and loved don’t exist anymore. In their place lies soulless imitations. 

Some pursue collections, some pursue nostalgia, some are new to the brand… but all buyers have one thing in common: they are buying secondhand. Hundreds of thousands of dollars go to the secondhand Webkinz trade instead of into the pockets of Ganz. Fans have been begging for years now to return to the older formula of manufacturing. Recently Ganz directly antagonized their fanbase by making an Instagram post about how the new pets don’t need plush to be special. This petition is here to tell you, YES. THEY. DO. Your online pets are becoming glorified NFT’s and the fanbase you had left is now dwindling. We, the fanbase, WANT to give you our money. You make nothing worth purchasing anymore.

My recommendation? Make a small line of “classic” pets. Take 3-5 designs from the estore that are very similar to pets released during the peak of Webkinz and produce them. Each signature on this petition is a person who promises to buy at least pet from that line, if not multiple. If you are going out of business you might as well take a last ditch effort and listen to your fanbase before you do. This is your chance to revive your brand and rival squish-mallows like we know you can. Stop making us dump our money into resellers and take advantage of this stuffed-animal-surge online.

Please, from the people who have been supporting you for almost 20 years now, bring back our favorite stuffed animals.