I want to start by saying I do not think Zumbuddies are a good choice right now for kids that get easily frustrated or impatient. I also do not think they are good for kids under five. (This may change in the future because Ganz is still trying to work out some kinks with the programming.)

The plushies are really cute and nicely made. The kids play with them more than any of their other Webkinz plushies because they like to flap their wings and have them “fly” around the house.

Adopting our Zumbuddies was trouble free. We signed into Webkinz, went to the code shop, put in the code and headed to the magical forest. In the forest, we chose Zumwhere and saw the new section was unlocked.

We entered and started to play with our first Zumbuddy. He was hysterically happy at all times, threw a ton of parties and never asked for anything. He also never gave us any Zummies so we could buy treasures for our Webkinz to put in their rooms or furniture for the Zumbuddy rooms. It turns out there was a glitch. Webkinz fixed the glitch so that the Zumbuddies ask for goodies and toys and give out Zummies. We adopted our second Zumbuddy and cleared the web browser’s cache with high hopes for a new and improved Zumwhere experience. However, now they won’t get happy enough to throw a party. It frustrates kids to no end to spend all their Kinzcash on food and toys and then have the Zums never be happy. To have them be rude and growl if they don’t get them things fast enough or to change their minds and growl anyway isn’t a lot of fun, either.

(They are currently spoiled and thankless little critters, so you may want to have a little discussion about their ungrateful behavior and why it is wrong for people to act that way with your kids at some point during their first interaction with their new Zumbuddy.)

Overall, I am happy we bought some Zumbuddies. We still like our two very cute plush Zums and enjoyed exploring a new area of Webkinz world. However, I am not buying Zumbuddies for the other kids’ accounts until the kinks get worked out and we see Zumbuddies that are more thankful for what they get. It is too hard for a child to spend hours trying to achieve 100 percent happiness, only to have a Zumbuddy that is having every whim met drop down to 60 percent happiness from the 82 percent the child finally got it up to.

Have you had a good experience with Zumbuddies?

Now, the bad news. I know they’re not going to have Zumbuddies in Book Cellar for a month or two and everyone wants one ASAP. So, I looked around and they aren’t coming up for pre-order on Amazon yet. It seems like Justice will be carrying them on October 28th, though. It looks like a bunch of online retailers I’ve never used has them, too. I think I will check my local Hallmark store and if they aren’t there, I’ll try Justice.