A ToyVoyager is a toy on a random journey, tracked on this website. It relies solely on the actions of the people it comes into contact with to help it on its way. Each ToyVoyager has a travel tag with a unique id number - anybody who finds one is encouraged to come to this website and update its travelog to say where it has been and when. Over time this becomes a history of the ToyVoyager's adventures.
The first thing to do is find the ID Number on the Travel Tag. Enter this into the 'Found One?' box on the homepage and click 'Go'. You will then be taken to the Travelog for the ToyVoyager. Please write an update to say that it has been found - it means that the original owner knows that somebody has rescued it. If you are not logged in you will be asked to login/register before you write the update.
Click the 'Update this Travelog' button (top right of the screen) to write your update. Once you have written your update, you can decide whether you want to take it places yourself for a while, send it out to other members of the site who have offered to Host ToyVoyagers, pass it on to somebody else or release it back into the wild for somebody totally random to find.
People often feel like they have to take it on a journey before they can write an update, but it is fine to write one update to say that it has been found and then to add more updates later on about journeys and releases.
You don't have to go anywhere special to do an Update: you can just show your home town or everyday life!
Well you could do, but keep in mind that each ToyVoyager has an owner somewhere - the person who originally set it up on the website. If you find a ToyVoyager you become its Temporary Guardian, you are one of the random people it has come into contact with on its journey. You are responsible for helping it on its way, either by taking it places yourself, by passing it on to somebody else or by releasing it into the wild again. It doesn't matter if you keep it for a long time, but please keep updating the travelog to say what it is up to - remember that somebody somewhere is desperate for news!
You can update the Travelog as often as you like. However, as a minimum each of the following scenarios should be recorded:
- Finding a Toy Voyager
- Releasing a Toy Voyager
- Taking the Toy Voyager to a location
- Completing a Mission
All of the above should be recorded as separate Travelog updates.
Life Missions are things that the ToyVoyager hopes to achieve during its lifetime. They can help to give a focus to its journey and are set by the ToyVoyager's mentor. You can see a ToyVoyager's missions when you look at the Travelog.
The Life Missions are set up by the ToyVoyager's Mentor when it is first registered on the website.
If you find a Toy Voyager, have a look at its missions. You may be able to help it to complete one of them. Ideally when completing a mission you should upload a photograph as evidence.
No. If you can help the ToyVoyager to complete a mission then that's great - but please do not feel under pressure to do so. Missions are something that the ToyVoyager will try to achieve in its lifetime and it may take years of passing from person to person to do so.
Anywhere you like really. Take it to a theme park, to the shops, to your place of work - anywhere. Nothing is too boring or too exciting to be worth an update - it all counts as part of its journey. So update as often as you can, even if you think that where you have taken the ToyVoyager isn't 'update-worthy'!
When you decide that it's time for your Toy Voyager to move on, you have several options:
1)Look for Hosts in the Forum
2) Send it on a ToyVoyager Trail
3) Hand the Toy Voyager on to somebody else directly.
4) Leave the Toy Voyager in a safe place for somebody else to find.
Examples of safe places:
- Holiday accommodation
- Pubs/Cafe's (with owner's permission)
Please do not leave your Toy Voyager on public transport, bus stations, train stations, airports etc or anywhere where it could be considered a suspicious package.
You could take your ToyVoyager along with you, remembering to update his/her travelog each time you go somewhere of interest, or if you manage to help them to fulfil a mission.
Alternatively you could pass your ToyVoyager onto a friend or colleague who is going somewhere special, or who could enable a mission to be completed. This will mean that your ToyVoyager is safe and will (hopefully) be returned to you after their trip safe and in one piece (again, hopefully!).
If you want to release a ToyVoyager into the wild, you might like to consider the following:
* Leave the Voyager somewhere that is sheltered from the elements (ie. under cover or inside a building)
* Leave the Voyager somewhere that is not too obvious, but where someone else could find him/her fairly easily if they are observant.
* Some of the best places to leave Voyagers seem to be at major tourist attractions, touristy towns or places where there are lots of people passing through (cafes, bars, and castles seem to be our most successful drop-off places).
* Please don't leave a ToyVoyager anywhere where it might be mistaken for a security risk; likewise don't take photos of your Voyager anywhere where your actions with a camera might be misconstrued (e.g. in high security areas like airports or at places such as schools without permission from staff who work there).
(N.B. We cannot guarantee the safety of your ToyVoyager - they are all dependent on acts of human kindness to be kept safely then passed onto someone else ... but there are an awful lot of nice people around, so fingers crossed!)
However you help a ToyVoyager to travel, please do update their travelog, and upload photos of your adventures together whenever possible.
Once you set your Toy Voyager off on its travels, it is dependent solely on human kindness to help it to continue its journey. You can minimise the risks involved by handing it on to somebody else directly, rather than leaving it somewhere for somebody to find.
ToyVoyagers.com cannot be held responsible for any of the ToyVoyagers registered on this site.
It is perfectly fine if you don't have a photo for each update, most mentors will be happy just to see a text update on the Travelog. But you will see if you browse the website that photos really do make a travelog come alive. Keep in mind that a picture that you may think is mundane may be of real interest to people viewing the travelog. The idea is that the journey will continue forever - sometimes the ToyVoyager will be in a famous place with spectacular scenery, other times it will be sitting on a desk in somebody's office. If you have any problems with photos - either resizing them or uploading them or any other questions, please do contact us because we can probably help you. In the past people have sent us large versions of the photos to resize and email back to them. We have even scanned some in. so please try to upload photos of the places it goes to whenever possible.
Registration is completely free of charge and always will be. We are a friendly site - we won't send you spam, and we will never pass your details on to anybody else. If you like you can sign up for the Newsletter (fairly infrequent - once every two or three months).
Once registered, you can create your own ToyVoyager free-of-charge, join in on the Forum, offer to host someone else's ToyVoyager, or send your own ToyVoyager on the journey of a lifetime!
If you register, you can use the My Voyagers screen to keep a track of Toy Voyagers that you have a particular interest in. These might be voyagers that you have created, come across on their travels, or that you simply want to watch. Click on the My Voyagers button on the menu bar to access the screen.
As well as having them on an easy-access list, you also receive an email each time one of your 'watched' ToyVoyagers has its travelog updated. So you never miss a thing!
To add Toy Voyagers to this list, find the Toy Voyager using the View Voyagers screen, open their Travelog and click on the Add to My Voyagers button.
1) Decide what to use for your ToyVoyager.
You can get free ID numbers and Activation Codes from us - just send us a PM - or you can buy TravelTags from the online Shop. You can also buy ready-to-go ToyVoyager bears from the shop too.
2) Activate the ToyVoyager on the website.
Whether you ask us for a free ID, or you buy a tag from the Shop, we will give you all the information you need to create your own ToyVoyager and activate it on the website.
This means you get the travelog, you can create a profile and set the life missions
3) Begin the adventure! Either look for Hosts in the Forum, send it on a ToyVoyager Trail, release it into the wild, pass it on directly to someone else or take it places yourself.
The 'Currently Hosting' section of your profile is based on the last update on the travelog. If you were the last person to write an update, you will be listed as being the current host. However, you may have sent the ToyVoyager on to someone else who has not yet updated the travelog. In this case you may want to stop the ToyVoyager from showing up as one that you are 'Currently Hosting'. Go to the travelog of the ToyVoyager that is no longer with you and edit your last post. Set the 'I am writing to say that this ToyVoyager' box to say 'has been released'. Then when you look at your profile, it should no longer show them as being currently hosted by you.
We call them 'Togs'. Go to Control Panel and select Choose Togs. When you first join, you get one month's worth of Togs. You can see the expiry date on the Choose Togs screen in the Control Panel. After this time they will disappear from your username. You can get your Togs expiry date extended via the shop. We ask for a small donation towards keeping the site running (we really appreciate it!). You can also 'gift' them to another member, someone may gift them to you, or we may award them to you in special circumstances - it's our way of saying thank you for some of the great things that people do for the website.
We have had to set a limit on the file size of uploaded photos to 200k. If yours are bigger than this you will need to resize them. Alternatively you can upload them to a photo-sharing site such as Flickr or Zoomr and then reference them in your travelog updates.
We don't currently have a picture resize facility here. So you have a couple of options for reducing the size of your photos: You can either do it using some software such as PhotoShop: we use a free program called Irfanview (visit www.irfanview.com). Or visit a website dedicated to shrinking people's pictures - such as www.shrinkpictures.com
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