Newly established company RES Interactive LLC will officially launch Tootsville.com, a new line of plush toys with an accompanying virtual world, on July 4 with events at Jacksonville and Orlando Fun Spot locations, according to reports from the Orlando Sentinel and Orlando Business Journal.

The plush elephant toys, or "toots," can hook up to PCs via USB, enabling children to register and create an online version of the toy in the Tootsville.com virtual world, similar to Disney's Club Penguin and Ganz's Webkinz franchises. Once logged in, users can decorate their virtual homes, play games, listen to songs, and chat with friends.

Tootsville.com offers free accounts, but children will need to subscribe for a paid monthly account to access other features, such as premium games, special events, collectible pins, "toot" customization, and the ability to purchase clothes, house decorations, and songs.

Currently in beta, the site has approximately 3,000 users so far. RES Interactive president Louis Pecci expects Tootsville.com to grow its membership to 50,000 by the end of the year and to 1 million by July 2009. "We expect about 60 percent will pay the $5.95 membership fee." Pecci also hopes to further extend the virtual world with multiple licensing agreements: "everything from clothing to backpacks to toothbrushes."

According to Pecci, the word "toots" has already been tagged as a "bad word" on Club Penguin. "We're definitely on somebody's radar over there," he said.