Ty Girlz (tyGirlz) are plush fashion dolls manufactured by Ty Inc, the maker of the popular Ty Beanie Babies.

Aside from being great fun for imaginative fashion-doll play, Ty Girlz also come with a unique scratch-off code. The code gives your children access to the virtual world of tygirlz.com. As we all know, kids of all ages love virtual worlds and the inherent social and community aspects of these websites. Parents concerned about their child’s safety, especially in an online world that is clearly targeted at young girls, can be assured that the makers of Ty Girlz did not allow for any loop-holes. We spent a good amount of time trying to exploit (and break) the safeguard system without success.

By default, the game only allows for a very simple chat with pre-made sentences. Your girls can choose from written greetings, to non-personal questions and replies. Older players, looking for more freedom to express themselves can join “Chat Club Freestyle”. Access and activation requires a parent email address and a reply to the confirmation email. In Chat Club Freestyle girls can then type their own messages. However, to make it as safe as possible, members can only type words from a restricted dictionary. All numbers, most common names and place names, as well as inappropriate words and phrases are not in the dictionary and can therefore not be used. This is a much more reliable system, compared to other virtual worlds that only use filters. Many filters can be tricked by simply misspelling any given word, including swearwords.

TyGirlz.com members will also get their own (virtual) Ty Girlz’ room, which they can decorate by making purchases at the Ty Girlz World Mall. A salon and boutique let’s your kids change the appearance and outfits of their virtual doll. …And just like in the real world, your little shopping divas will run out of cash in no time at all. Lucky for them, making money is all fun and games.

The virtual world of Ty Girlz currently features 26 different minigames. The minigame collection offers a mix of popular casual game re-makes. Some test the players’ skill, knowledge and memory, while others are rather dull and repetitive.

If your daughter already owns a Ty Girlz Doll and she gets another one, she can simply add her new doll to her existing Username and Password. This will unlock a second room to be furnished, new free hairstyles at the salon and an additional $1000 in virtual currency. Unfortunately only one doll can be displayed in your “home”. Therefore, owned dolls cannot interact or “hang out” on screen. Changes to a doll in one room will affect the doll in the other, as they are literally the same one. This would have been a prime opportunity to make a good virtual world a GREAT virtual world…

Overall, TyGirlz are fun plush fashion dolls with the extra bonus in form of a virtual world. We recommend the online world TyGirlz.com for young girls ages 6 years and up. Basic reading is required.

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