Webkinz are toy stuffed animal

Stuffed animal

A stuffed toy is a toy sewn from cloth, plush, or other textiles, and stuffed with straw, beans, plastic pellets, cotton, synthetic fibres, or other similar materials. Stuffed toys are also known as plush toys A stuffed toy is a toy sewn from cloth, plush, or other textiles, and stuffed with straw,...

s that were originally released by the Canadian Ganz

Ganz (toy company)

Ganz is a Canadian company best known for distributing plush animals and collectibles. More recently it is known as the manufacturer of Webkinz, the toy with an interactive virtual-reality Internet site...

 company on April 29, 2005. The toys are similar to many other small plush toys, however, each Webkinz toy has an attached tag with a unique "Secret Code" printed on it that allows access to the "Webkinz World" website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

. On Webkinz World, the Secret Code allows the user to own a virtual version

Digital pet

A digital pet is a type of artificial human companion. They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment. People may keep a digital pet in lieu of a real pet....

 of the pet for online play. Lil' Kinz are smaller, less expensive versions of Webkinz, while the Signature collection are larger and slightly more expensive.