Super funny video! I also made a video about Webkinz competitors. Good to see others keeping up with all of this lost media!

watching this with my webkinz owl that I picked out at a toy store because I thought he was cute, named Harold, then went on the website for 15 minutes, got bored, never went on it again, and just hung out with my boy Harold for years to come.

You don't hate Adobe Flash, Athena. You hate the fact that it ended. We all do.

omg the new ones look so generic nooooo TToTT i know i’m biased to the original ones because of nostalgia but the new ones feel like such a downgrade

i think one of the reasons i loved the original webkinz was because of the realistic stuffed toys. other toys looked really cartoony and exaggerated the eyes and stuff. webkinz reducing their toys to just knock-off beanie babies kind of reduces most of the charm in my opinion. :((

The biggest reason why the new Webkinz plushes are such a downgrade (aside from how generic they look) is the lack of playability. Most of the old plushes were lightly stuffed and were sewed in a way that you could make them stand up and "walk". On the other hand, the new Webkinz toys are stuffed firm and in a permanent sitting position. They're made to be placed on a shelf and looked at, not for playtime.

when baby athena said "there's going to be LOVE in the HOSPITAL" i burst into laughter and accidentally spat out my food

If anyone is wondering why the original Webkinz Classic was "left in the dust" it's because the game was built on code that they can no longer change because of how old it is. Hence why updates to classic have been very minimal outside of new virtual pets and furniture.

i'm a regular webkinz player still in the year 2023 as a 21 year old, but one time I got tipsy and entered in my password wrong. This made me so distraught I cried while emailing webkinz support, telling them the name and species of 5+ of my pets. The next morning I realized I just made a typo 😭

Webkinz are 18 years old?? The aged me so bad. I’m glad I managed to keep most of my Webkinz collection they were a huge inspiration to me as an artist

i remember the educational part of webkinz! there was a quiz game you could do on different topics. i remember i always liked picking the health topic and i learned when you get a tooth knocked out, you can put it in a glass of milk or hold it in its socket to help before you can get to a dentist. that's like, the only thing i remember learning from those quizzes that actually stuck with me lol

Rescue Pets always just reminded me of Pound Puppies which in both cases made me be like "why would I want to play with a toy that always looked depressed no matter how much I loved it? I'm depressed enough as it is, I don't need the toy's help" lol I did have like six Webkinz though.

As a kid I collected Webkinnz, I had a total nearing 75 physical pets (not even including the digital exclusives like the Hop bunny) at the peak which I had all up until a natural disaster that happened in 2016. But despite the loss, I was also...16 and it didn't bother me in the moment, I didn't even realize how much I missed them until 2019 when my best friend at the time came home from a disney trip with an original tiger (which retired in like pre-2010 even) who was one of my first webkinz ever that he found in the disney rainforest park and bought for me. We're no longer friends, but I still have the tiger (named Wyatt when I asked said friend to name him) and I honestly bring him everywhere with me like a small child because he fits in my jacket pockets lmao

I'm 30 seconds in and I'm here to tell you I was also a Webkinz fiend as a kid. A little undiagnosed ADHD me obsessed over these little things so much so I genuinely have about 120 of them.. I wish I was lying. It's a collection that spans years but it's honestly nuts. I spent hours just watching webkinz videos on KZfaq and I love this somewhat lost media dearly

NO ONE TALKS ABOUT THE SINGING SHINING STARS OMFG both my sister and I had one, they all sang the same song, AND IT WAS SO ICONIC FOR US. I think about it every day. Thank you for this video...... your service to the world is unmatched...

As somebody with around 150 webkinz and who runs a kinztagram account, I'm excited to watch this 💕

The jar of hearts phenomena but is sending me, I have such a vivid memory of practicing it every night and feeling like I was ready to go on American idol and actually performed it for my parents one night, surprisingly on a night that they weren’t fighting lmao Also I made my own total drama island with my webkinz all the time, with actual death for them, so that may explain some things

Not everyday I get to see two of my favorite KZfaqrs dissect my childhood

I’ll never forget the backlash of Beanie Babies 2.0 changing their art style. Which ultimately led to them retconning the design back to its original state. And had Snootz address it in his webisodes. Where he explained they had been changed into, “strange creatures” because of magical bubble gum. Oh, and seagulls were the series’ overarching villain.

The "Be Beariffic" song from Build-a-bearville TO THIS DAY gets stuck in my head and often gets confused for the "bananas" song people use to remind them how to spell the fruit. I remember a scary amount of the words to the song if not all of them 😆

"I assured my mom 'N-n-no, it's an investment!'" ah yes, Webkinz stonks...Athena be like "You know, I'm something of an investor myself". And that "Oh hell nOoOoOo" at 2:37 was just chef's kiss. I will say, the panda is actually pretty cute! The reason why pandas are black and white that researchers came up with is that the white color provides camouflage during the snowy winter and the black helps them blend in when they hide in shady bamboo forests. While adults don't really face predators, panda cubs on the other hand are vulnerable to predators like snow leopards, Asian black bears, eagles, feral dogs, and yellow-throated martens (similar to a weasel). All giant pandas are also owned by the Chinese government, including those not born on Chinese soil.

One of my little sisters still has her Shining Stars Dragon, needless to say it's seen better days. Also, while I've never played Webkinz, I do have this really cool Gazelle from the Signature Endangered Species line. Compared to a regular Webkinz plush, the Gazelle is massive, so it surprised me when I saw the 'W' symbol on the flank.

When you were talking about Beanie Babies 2.0 I immediately had another memory pop into my head... the McDonalds virtual world called (you guessed it) McWorld. In 2009 I think they gave out Beanie Babies in the happy meals and you could register them both on McWorld and Beanie Babies 2.0. I only had a McWorld account at that time (I was a McDonalds obsessed 10 year old) and even with that McWorld is completely lost media nowadays and McDonalds will never plan to bring it back any time soon. So yeah I will always miss McWorld as well 😢

In high school as a fun nostalgia trip a bunch of us would get on Webkinz together and hang out instead of doing our work. We also did this with Animal Jam and another online flash game we recently discovered at the time called Bin Weevils.

I was a Webkinz kid through and through but I miss Shining Stars and Build-a-Bearville terribly.

the bookmark at 17:56 that made me laugh was the "How to Cook Corned Beef Brisket" one I don't know why but it killed me also I'll admit when I was a kid playing beanie babies 2.0 I had a crush on snootz lmao

I had a MyEpet. It was the only pet game I played DAILY growing up. There was supposed to be an extension of a theme park located in the middle of the map that was always under construction. It never came out. But there was an arcade,Vet, Spa, adoption agency and a home where you can play with your pet. The Arcade was were you can get coins in order to buy small outfits for your pet. I still have my MyEpet. I think there's a newer version as well that I've seen at Target

LPSO has a dedicated group aiming to bring it back. I'm loving watching them work on it.

I got my first Webkinz when I was 4, I’m 20 now and have 150+ Webkinz. I still play the classic version every now and then. The love will never die❤

LPS VIP and LPSO were really fun despite the obvious jankyness in development and lag in both. I was so upset LPSO only lasted a year, it opened and shut down it's doors on my dad's birthday haha. Those and Bearville was what I played growing up, though I did end up with the Shining Stars frog. The site was even laggier than the LPS ones for me though so I lost interest and only played it twice lol.

Athena P and Izzzyzz uploading the same day? I'm thriving

I got into Webkinz after Littlest Pet Shop Online shut down. I still get Webkinz plushies every once in a while. Something interesting about Webkinz is the fandom. Lots of use people Webkinz plushies to make their own series on KZfaq.

the reason there's two different names for the lps plushies is because they were two different virtual worlds. i remember spending HOURS on lps vip and slightly less hours on lps online but still getting really upset when they shut it down and replaced it with. a short lived pinterest clone no one remembers??? i wasn't even as mad that they shut it down as i was that they replaced it with That also rescue pets had a 3d version that was more of an rpg than a standard virtual pet game. it's my white whale of dead virtual worlds

As a veteran webkinz player who still plays both versions every day, I appreciate this video very much ❤

The CHOKE HOLD that lps had on me when I was a kid is INSANE lmaoo I still have most of my collection

With Rescue Pets, I always thought the sad eyelids were supposed to get happier/stop drooping over time, because you "rescued" the pet and gave it love and nurtured it and all that. I mean, of course, the eyelids stopped drooping because of typical wear on the stuffed animal, but it seemed like a cool way to explain why the eyelids stopped drooping so much over time. In other words, I know I didn't just come up with this myself; I swear I've heard it/picked it up from somewhere as a kid.

Watching this just reminded me of Pound Puppies and the strange ass show that went with it. On another note, I would love to see you cover the littlest pet shop cartoon I have vague memories of

there was a build a bear ds game too! had nothing to do with bears you owned but you could make up to 3 bear ocs and they had a house based off of the box and stuff, used to love that game

I honestly thought I missed all the WebKinz things but I soon as I saw that shining star pink poodle a wave of nostalgia hit me and I realised that no one can escape WebKinz

That Shining Star song was by The Manhattans (a group formed in Jersey City, not Manhattan...I know this because I actually lived in Jersey City for a bit) and it's from 1980. And yes, it really is a beautiful song that's timeless. I know some people like to think Gen Z aren't into music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s but I assure them, we very much are. Heck, my favorite pop group remains ABBA. Music really is a powerful thing. Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. Music is the universal language of mankind, for it is the ability of letting your spirit run free. This is why Disney movies are so successful, because they let music do all the work to put the story together. That aside, when you mentioned Beanie Babies, now THAT unlocked something. I still have both an Elvis Beanie Baby and a literal SQUIDWARD one too! I also have a Beanie Baby "knockoff" that I got back in Puerto Rico in 2009. You see, Hard Rock Cafe had these collectable bears at their locations for a bit and when I was in San Juan in June that year for my birthday, we were the only ones in the restaurant and when they heard that a kid was so into rock-n-roll and wanted a tour, they treated my mom and I like ROYALTY! To the point they gave me a free sundae and a Hard Rock San Juan bear. I've checked for prices of the bear I have online, and while there are San Juan bears that sold for 22 dollars, that's not the one I have...because mine is dressed up like a PIRATE! And that Old San Juan located closed back in 2011! So mine is quite rare.

My god this is the first time I’ve heard about Sea Pals in YEARS. I remember my mom buying one of those every time I’d visit this aquarium up in New York. I don’t remember much else about it and it seems like there’s little footage of it left online. I thought I was going crazy but I’m glad someone else remembered this game.

very hype for wow wow wubbzy lore, that show fascinated me with its style, like i was definitely not the target audience anymore when it happened but i just loved lookin at it.

My first stuffed/virtual pet was the Shining Stars Penguin. I'm pretty sure they were either a little cheaper than Webkins, or my parents were hoping that since it wasn't the same brand my brother and I wouldn't get as obsessed and looped into buying a million. Smart strategy, but I remember Shining Stars being so boring and the theme park area never opening despite "coming soon" always posted. I did end up having a webkins birthday party to fill the void, but honestly my favorite was Build-a-Bearville. There was a lot of customization, I had a rooftop garden, and the VIP tour guide feature was so enticing it had me on every day.

It's been too long 😭💖 Glad Webkinz still exists; I still remember my first few. Very first were Lila the dog and Gino the cat when i was 6 OMG THE SHINING STARS DS GAME

holy crap seeing the rescue pets in this video felt like a flashback. as a kid i saw them every so often in stores unlike webkinz which i don't remember seeing much. i think webkinz, rescue pets and lps online were the only virtual word plush we had in NZ

I was so obsessed with webkinz as a kid, I didn't have a whole ton of plushie but I played it SO much. I'm 24 now and I still have dreams about it even though I haven't interacted with it at all in like a decade

I LOVED webkinz so much, my first one was the plain Chihuahua. I loved that puppy more than life lol

omg i loved bearville as a kid and i had a huge collection and played it basically every day

Full honesty: my childhood was kinda rough, and I got my first Webkinz-a pig-at a particularly hard and traumatic time. For security reasons, I guess, I still sleep with him. I love that lil floppy pig so much, I hope the Webkinz classic doesn’t go anywhere, at least once a year, I check up on my profile lmao

I do remember the educational parts of Webkinz . There were quiz and math games that paid better than all the other mini games and I remember Webkinz toons to this day.

“Why did ‘Jar or Hearts’ have us all in a chokehold?” BECAUSE ITS A GOOD SONG ATHENA. CHRISTINA PERRI IS AN ICON.

All I remember from Weebkinz is I spend too much of the FREE coins they gave us for buying the stuffed animal and either spent all of it on clothes or furniture and suddenly I couldn't feed the poor puppy. I quite immediately

Was literally discussing my shinning stars pig to my boyfriend a few weeks ago but couldn’t for the life of me remember the exact name of the brand. This video unlocked many core memories for me

I'm obsessed with how much footage you have of yourself as a child. It's absolutely hilarious. I'm sure similar footage exists of myself and my siblings, but it is buried on some old hard drive deep in my family's basement, I'm sure.

I immediately felt nostalgia with the shining stars one because I still have a Labrador one after years and it's still a huge comfort object for me-

Webkinz is that one thing that we all remember but don't at the same time

i ADORED the lps plushies, i had no idea they were online too, i just loved anything LPS at the time. of course ive lost everything since then, but thank you for the nostalgia ♥ i also still have a very select few of my webkinz i managed to save from the moves lol

If Athena reads this, can you do Let's Go Luna? It's a PBS kids show about a literal talkimg moon. The logistics of this show make a lot of sense! 😂

I wanted to adopt all the rescue pets as a kid and I remember wanting the doghouse that came with them

Man, I LOVED webkinz when I was younger! I've been planning to hop back on for a stream one day and see the nostalgia! (And maybe try the webkinz next) I have all my old plushies, besides the pink poodle. I have NO IDEA what happened to that thing. I'll probably try to get my hands on a second hand one tho. One funny story I have for one of my webkinz plushies is of my cookie dough hamster, who I got from a chunk e cheese! It was a little crazy cuz I never saw a prize that good in that place! And I got the plush with my all tickets!! And do you remember that old, VERY laggy part of webkinz that was the hamster ball run thing? God, I want to play that again! That was so fun and nostalgic! (And REALLY glitchy, but still I want it back!) I actually had a shining stars plush, too! It was literally my first ever plushie! I got it when I was either 0 years old, or one years old. I got the blue dragon, and that plush probably made me love the color blue, and absolutely ADORE dragons! I named him sparkle, cuz he has sparkley tinsel in his fluff! Probably one of my favorite plushies! (Never got a star from it cuz I was one and the only thing I cared about was just the plush, not going onto the website. And I wouldn't have been able to understand anything on the website) I remember having another plush from another webkinz like website, but I don't remember what it was called. It was werid, tho. The actual plush is a zebra, but with elastic, stretchy hair (who's hair got snapped a lot unfortunately). Its kinda like monkey noodles on a plush, except it breaks incredibly easily. I remember going onto the website once and being kinda scared of it. It was werid! I'll go find the plush later and say what it was, but it was certainly strange... Edit, I found the website of that zebra! Its called zibbies. Apparently it's actually almost EXTREMELY rare cuz theres not a lot of info on it on the internet. I can't even FIND an image of my zebra! Which is unfortunate cuz the only one that doesn't look werid is the zebra. In fact, I quite enjoy my zebra!

Fr tho- a collab between Athena and Izzy would be the dream we’ve all been waiting for

omg yes! i remember these!!! i remember being SUPER into Webkinz and the Build-A-Bear one when i was a kid. i wasn't a huge collector or anything, but i did have quite a few and spent a lot of time playing the online games on my grandma's computer with dial-up internet.

I had a massive shining stars hyperfixation as a kid but I never actually played the online game. I could never get it to work. I did collect the plushies and had the DS game though which was an absolute banger

I played Beanie Babies 2.0, Rescue Pets My e-pets, and LPS VIP. Beanie Babies 2.0 was memorable because they legit would just choose unrelated videos from youtube to play on the homepage. Also they played licenses music in the game. I remember playing my e-pets and there was a game where you would move the dog to catch food, and when you caught one, a ding would play. Years later I did the pacer test in gym class and immediately recognized the ding as being identical to the one in Rescue Pets

Sadly I never got a shining stars plush even though I always wanted one. However I LOVED Webkinz and Build-A-Bearville!! Both of those are my childhood addiction lol. I still remember my first webkinz- a lil kinz black and white cat.

Classic webkinzs is still playable, thank God, I love going back to it

Oh my god Athena and Izzzyzzz collab would literaly make my year

I had the shining star pink poodle and blue dragon. This unlocked so many memories!

Please make a full video on Snootz. He has similarly been stuck in my mind from the early 2000s. These shorts had fully fucking arts including one where he goes to real world TY HQ. I need someone to speak on it.

The ty girls ad reminds me of the Barbies website back around that time. Like it looks so similar to that

I was also obsessed with webkinz!!! I had 62 and when the game recently closed I downloaded the app to my computer so I can still check in with my babies!!!!! When you said 18 years old my mom said “ha! You’re getting old!!” 😭😭😭😭 Edit: I have Webkinz Classic!

This video unlocked a ton of childhood memories for me

webkinz and build a bearville were my life as a kid, i had like 80 webkinz and 30 build a bears and i still have most of them lying around somewhere

THANK YOU for bringing up shooting stars i honestly thought it was a fever dream for a while bc no one else seems to have played it. i lost my only one in DETROIT MICHIGAN when i was like 5 but my mom consoled me by saying her soul was in the game so she was still with me and it was fine. so imagine my horror when a month or so later i open the site and it’s GONE. it was my first experience of existential dread knowing ally the floppy eared bunny’s soul was doki doki literatured into the abyss while her corpse rotted on the streets of detroit. and she spent her last moments alone, thinking i had abandoned her when i MISSED HER SO MUCH. this was so traumatic for me that i remember it as like a creepy pasta where the page flat out said “we’re bankrupt :(“ and “we’ll miss you…” and had pictures of all the animals with sad faces INCLUDING my bunny but like honesrly that could have been real bc i think this is how i learned what bankruptcy was can anyone verify?? but yes i am still haunted by this and yes i am medicated why do you ask!!

I played Shining Stars, Webkinz, and Beanie Babies 2.0 all at the same time. I loved Webkinz as a virtual world better than the others, but I still really enjoyed it all. And I was obsessed with the Shining Stars movies... So back on the old website, there used to be a button that said you could eventually make movies WITH YOUR OWN PETS. Like the theatre in Webkinz. Anyways I was so excited for that update... which never came. 😭

I also low-key cried a couple times during this episode. Thanks for the passion project. It wasn't mine to hold, but it ran parallel to some friends and events I knew.

My son’s favorite plush is the Jellybean Pup. I bought myself one and he saw it on the shelf, tag intact. It was love at first sight. We now have four (just in case)! Webkinz are the BEST!

8:19 OHHHMYYY GOSHHH MEMORY UNLOCKED I HAD THE SINGING BEAAAR

Just found out about your channel like a week ago and I've been watching a lot of your videos and got here to this one. Webkinz were my childhood. I still collect them when I can find them in thrift stores. Obviously I'm also boased to the old designs but the new ones are okay on everything I've seen except the unicorn that one just looks terrible. I also saw somewhere that the Webkinz Classics designs seemed more like they were built for play and I agree. Ever since Ty changed their designs to the big eyed Beanie Baby like style for everything all other toys had to follow suit.

You should ABSOLUTELY make a video about the TY series

someone finally talking about beanie babies 2.0, which was a MAJOR part of my childhood bc i was not into webkinz, i feel SO SEEN. SNOOTZ SHORTS WAS MY MAIN ENTERTAINMENT ON THIS LAGGY ASS LAPTOP GROWING UP! tysm for talking about them omggg

Nice vid Athena. Can't wait to see your Wubbzy lore video.

Some of my earliest memories are polar plunge, smoothie moves, mining in the cave and absolutely not understanding what the point of spree was

I had Shining Stars as a kid. I LOVED space and anything star related. The fact you could name a star after yourself AND the fact they had a dragon, I was sold.

I literally had the frog and blue bear shining star. My mom got them for me for Christmas. you awakened a barried memory.

You bringing up rescue pets unlocked a deep part of my brain. I literally had one and I didn’t remember till now

My rescue pets was my absolute JAM! I remember finding the pink dog one at a random thrift shop after ballet one day and checking in every day to see if the theme park finally opened! Not going to lie I have been looking for that series again and figured it was lost to time so thank you for mentioning it!

Omggg finally someone talks about Bearville that was my childhood but no one else says anything about it sobss I also had the Shining Star pink poodle but the website never worked when I went on it!!!

Thank you for this video you have finally given me a origin for one of my favorite toys from my childhood

Webkinz. I have had a couple of these stuffed animals and I loved them. Also, I loved seeing you happy receiving your webkin. It’s cute

I loved playing with all my Webkinz as a kid and I loved Shining Stars too! I have the red macaw shining star plushie and my first webkinz was a cocker spaniel I named Butterscotch, I still have all my plushies. This video brought back so many memories. You just got a new subscriber!

Omg it was so great to hear you talk about shining stars, I was starting to think it was too niche for anyone else to remember! One specific memory I have was this Pac-Man like game in the arcade that had a very specific little jingle when it started up! I also remember that the whole site took forever to load 😢

SLEDDER!!! I was a big Build-A-Bearville kid, but that picture of the beanie baby stuffed animal you didn't recognize gave me flashbacks! I remember hosting a whole surgery for one of my kitten stuffed animals and Sledder was the doctor. I miss her man! 💙

OMFG you just DESTROYED me with nostalgia with the My E-Pets Rescue Pets! I completely forgot those existed but you just unearthed an ancient childhood memory and I am now going to search the entire Internet for any and all scraps of the toys and website.

i REALLY appreciate you bringing up kookeys because for the longest time i couldnt find anything about them online and thought id imagined it

From the ages of like 10-12 I was OBSESSED with jar of hearts. I don’t know what this phenomenon is but honestly, the song still slaps

THE AMOUNT OF SEROTONIN THIS VIDEO HAS GIVEN ME OMG, as a LONGGG time Webkinz collector (300+) and Kinztuber (just stopped last year when I was like 17), seeing u talk about this and the modern webkinz is giving me all the happiness

holy shit tysm for talking about shining stars!! i got my 1st and only one (she was a penguin & i have her around still somewhere) BEFORE i got my 1st webkinz. only went on the site once cuz i was like 6 and could barely use a computer, but the penguin plush was very cute

holy shit. that frog i had was a shining star. it was a gift from a friend or a thrift store find or something but im pretty sure i still have him and i remember him still having the tags on. ill definitely have to go look for him. thank you for finally showing me what he is

I can’t thank you enough for this video. For years, I’ve been trying to figure out what the three sites I used to go on were. I knew Webkinz, and I knew another was TY, but that was it. Turns out Beanie Babies 2.0 and Rescue Pets Epets were what I was missing. I can’t describe how much this has bothered me over the years, even if it’s a fairly inconsequential thing, and someone finally knew something about it. And PLEASE watch those BB 2.0 videos. It’d be funny to see!