By Judith Schoolman
NEW YORK - The world of shopping by computer is about to take a big, virtual step.
Although online catologs are now almost old hat to PC enthusiasts, a new service on the World Wide Web will offer virtual toys -- the kind that reside in your computer, can't be broken, and can even become a collector's item.
The Virtual Toy Store opens for business this month. It offers three-dimensional toys -- dolls, stuffed animals, jets, helicopters, rockets and dinosaurs -- that can only be played with on your computer. These toys, for children as well as adults, are computerized images that have three-dimensional moving parts and make sounds.
While they can't be hugged, they also can't be thrown at a younger sister, put in the stove or pulled apart.
Coming quick on the heels of the computer-animated smash hit, "Toy Story," virtual toys are an idea whose time has come, said Byron Preiss, president of Byron Preiss Multimedia, developers of the Virtual Toy Store and other entertainment software and CD-ROMs.
Generally, shopping online holds few surprises. Buyers know the sweater, book or fruit basket they are ordering from the dozens of catalogs that now have online editions. Shopping at the Virtual Toy Store is a little different.
As computer users click on the company's Web site, they see a Currier & Ives-style toy shop, with toys, wrapped in boxes, sitting on pedestals.
Users click on the toy they want to buy and for a fee, download it into their own hard drive. It is not until the toy is downloaded into the user's computer that the full contents of the box are disclosed.
"There is not a lot of mystery on the Web. So I think the fun is actually buying this," Preiss said.
The Virtual Toy Store is starting with 12 toys but Preiss said the service should expand to 24 items in three months. Eventually, puzzles and games will be added, he said.
The number of each toy is limited, he said, so there is a potential for trading and collecting.
To purchase the virtual toys, which cost $1.99 to $4.99, users give a credit card number, which is encrypted to prevent unauthorized use, or call a special telephone number on their screen.
Preiss said the Virtual Toy Store's goods are similar in style to those depicted in "Toy Story," animated by Pixar Animation Studios in Richmond, Calif.
Computerized toys such as the ones offered in the Virtual Toy Store are a positive alternative to many of the current video games which often have a violent content, said Dr. Julia Robertson, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Louisville.
"I'm positively inclined," she said of virtual toys, even though she has not seen the product. "So many video games have no constructive aspects other than discharging frustration."
"The use of pretend or symbolic play is very important for children," Robertson said, and allows children to play out feelings in a good form.
Computer toys only become a danger if computers are "used as a babysitter" or if the child "substitutes this for other face-to-face interactions."
Online toy stores may be the newest shopping outlet, but currently are not a threat to the giant chains such as Toys R Us or Wal-Mart. Online shopping for toys -- both the kind you can hold and the kind you can play with on screen -- is a drop in the bucket of the $18.7 billion Americans spent on toys in 1994. That figure is expected to rise by 4 percent this year.
Online shopping in all categories is in its nascent stage and accounts for around 1 percent of the $62.6 billion in catalog sales in general, according to the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group.
The Virtual Toy Store's Web site is located at http://www.byronpreiss.com. For more information on the Virtual Toy Store, call 212-989-6252, ext. 123.
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Have a question or solution to making your money go farther? You can write to Judith Schoolman c/o Reuters, 199 Water Street, 10th floor, New York, N.Y. 10038, or E-mail at JUDITH.SCHOOLMAN@REUTERS.COM. She regrets she cannot answer letters personally but will try to address them in future columns.