Webkinz Copy Cats and Knock Offs

ah hello there young traveler it is I the famous jelly wizard of jelly tin what do you mean you've never heard of me before do you like Adventure collecting caring for cute little creatures dragons well I'm recruiting adventurers to embark on an Epic Quest to dragolandia where you can find all of that and more in Dragon Mania Legends a free Dragon Simulator game that you can play on your magic moving picture boxes or your mobile tablet and Windows PC hatch your dragons from an egg then pet feed name and train them to beat all the other lame dragons in battle with unique Elemental abilities for the best attack my personal Army of fajita the fire dragon crusty the Earth Dragon and Barry the bee Dragon are an Unstoppable Force what do you mean that's not a very medieval reference and even when you're not battling you can complete quests decorate your Islands start a clan with your friends or crossbreed new Widow baby dragon types to collect any of the over 1,000 different dragons just look at this jelly dragon he secretes grape jelly and he looks just like me I'm so proud I gave birth to him what do you mean we're not biologically related now is an awesome time to join in Dragon Mania Legends since December will'll unite players and bring exciting game events and mini gamess celebrate the holidays with Dragon Mania Legends by clicking one of the two links in the description box to get a dragon I picked for you choose either the jelly dragon or The Petal Dragon you'll also receive starter goodies of 100,000 gold and 50,000 food to help unlock new habitats and Advance your dragons quickly hurry and claim your favorite Dragon through one of the links in the description as it's only valid for 1 month thanks to Dragon Mania Legends for sponsoring this video and wizard voice I'm looking forward to seeing your new jelly and petal dragons join the adventure ABCA jelly Webkins is a cultural icon animals games prizes questionable doctor characters it has everything a player could want it's such a fun and creative game that it's amazing that Gans was the only company to ever use this model of tying a toy to the access of a virtual world except it's actually not amazing because it's not the only site to do that but it was the first so what does that make all of the others that tried to follow in its footsteps well I'll tell you cheap greedy imitations with no original thoughts of their own that just want to take what Webkins has for themselves because they know that it's the superior game or that's what I would have said during the height of my Webkins face and I have to say I am still admittedly very biased to Webkins as I still actively play it now but while 8-year-old me would have argued with kids on the playground about how Webkins was Superior to any game ever I I found myself wondering now as an adult with less clouded judgment if any of these Virtual Worlds that were inspired by it or used similar product models were anything more than just a knockoff and so let us delve into the world of online games with a toy that unlocks a virtual world after you put in the code or more concisely put Webkins copycats starting off strong with what I think is a perfect example of a Webkins copycat let me introduce you to shiny Stars launched by Russ in 2007 beyond the main appeal of unlocking a virtual world online with each plush like Webkins the extra gimmick of shining stars was that each plush and code also let you register a name to a real life Star which sounds cool I guess but the concept is actually pretty empty you can only choose a star from a set of predetermined constellations which makes it very likely that you're just renaming some other kid star for the the 100th time over though the name is recorded by the International Star Registry so that's pretty cool it sounds really official and makes it all oh what's that not recognized by the scientific Community Star Registry records only oh so just a fancy way of saying your star name means literally nothing Beyond this certificate that we made for it and that's a $54 value interestingly this concept isn't even unique to these plush in 2001 shining stars was a baby doll line made by Mattel that also let you name a star for free after buying one of the dolls that came in these goofy little star-shaped pouches neither the babies or the baby bears they released a year later seemed to sell very well though maybe because people already realized that star naming is kind of a scam Mattel sold the name and the concept and it was later introduced by Russ and their animal plush line and this time the toys didn't have to be cute little babies or come tucked in Patrick Star cosplay because the new gimmick on top of the existing star naming gimmick was the aspect of an online virtual world and to be honest I feel like they needed a bit of extra selling power because otherwise these plush to me just look so generic like I could go to any gift shop or Hallmark store and find almost the exact same thing despite being pretty generic looking I do think this monkey dragon and am holding a little flower are actually pretty cute but they still just seem kind of uninspired overall which does not B well for a product trying to Bank off of the success of a very stylized and very popular competing toy line there were some plush with sparkles in the fur holiday theming and attached accessories which did all help make them look a bit less basic oh and there were also a few singing plush that played a clip from Shining Star by the Manhattans for some reason [Music] in I'm not dissing the song at all it's great very romantic but something about an R&B love song from 1980 just doesn't scream child demographic to me I guess it's an interesting choice especially when shining stars even had their own jingle that played in some of their TV ads already which seems like it might have fit a little better when it comes to the online versions of shining stars they don't exactly do their plush any justice one of my personal favorite things about Webkins is how the plush compare to their virtual avatars in the game they really look like an online version of the same toy that you can play with in real life complete with their classic Webkins hairs and little eyebrows and I think if any company is going to sell a similar product model of a physical toy that unlocks a matching online avatar the toy should look similar to its online Counterpoint to fully sell the point of this is your toy that's come to life but shining stars seemed to miss this point and online looked less like their fuzzy albeit basic plush toys and more like clip art with squashed faces and big round googly eyes that don't resemble their plush at all also every one of them has this same head tilted slightly smirking slightly soulless expression I'm scared each pet could be named assigned a personality and cared for in addition to pretty standard Pet Care virtual world stuff like house decorating dress up and arcade games there were also some social elements like chatting with other players in community spaces and even a my starspace page that is definitely not trying to be like any other similar sounding social media site I have no idea what you're talking about as Scoopy as it might seem now to have a shining stars version of a Myspace page having a kid-friendly version of social media like Myspace and Facebook was a great way to draw in kids that weren't allowed to have one of their own and it really helped in growing the community and social aspect of all of these sites too and best of all most kids probably didn't even care that it wasn't the real thing because updating their my star space on Shining stars.com in 2008 was basically just like the grown-up version anyway very mature and sophisticated just ask my magical blue teddy bear named blueberry another sort of unique feature of shining stars was this animated webisode Series where the shining stars that can talk and do casual star Magic by the way go on an action-packed adventure to defeat the antagonist Dark Star who is suspiciously shaped like one of the original baby dolls in its little pouch new conspiracy theory just dropped while the animation isn't terrible or anything the story and especially the narration of the story make it clear that that this was kind of just another gimmick on top of the gimmick on top of the other gimmick to try and add filler to the game all of the characters have generic names like tiger and lion and the whole series can be concisely summed up in this edit someone clipped together of all of the times the narrator finds the shining stars in Peril oo oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no no oh no oh no shining stars shine bright forever it was really never that serious they win at the end and giant evil star pouch baby is defeated sorry spoilers I guess and apparently the Saga was continued even further or at least expanded on in the shining stars DVD search for the secret star I really wanted to at least see what the animation of this movie looked like but I couldn't find any clips of it online I also couldn't find a physical copy that would ship to Australia so sorry if you were really excited for me to leave a review on this coveted title if anyone for some reason owns The Shining Star movie or has seen it please let me know if it was as terrible as I suspect it to be and if my theory about the evil star pouch baby was right I really feel like I'm on to something there with the DVD the star naming the singing animals and all the other random extra features thrown in like the option to donate in-game currency to charity and the DS game that was so blackluster I played about 10 minutes of it total I feel like it's pretty clear that shining stars wasn't only a Webkins copycat it was also a rebooted product model that failed the first time around got piled high with gimmicks filler and marketing ploes only two failed the second time around when Russ filed for bankruptcy in 2011 the site claimed for about 4 years after it shut down that shining stars was being rebooted again but it never actually happened which really just adds insult to injury but hey at least there are a lot more stars in the sky with misspelled names that all of the shining stars kids forgot about after a few months which I would deem an overall positive to society or at least to the International Star Registry and their bank account shining stars are somewhat well known within the Webkins Community for being a clear imitation that arrived near the peak of Webkins and because of that especially when the site was still up a lot of Webkins players were not not very fond of them as was eloquently demonstrated in this YouTube video posted in 2008 that has Flawless accidental comedic [Music] timing so shining stars didn't exactly always reel in existing Webkins players despite having a similar product model but interestingly one of the longest standing unofficial Rivals of Webkins also created its own toy line with a virtual world and it garnered way more Webkins fans than I would have expected for being such a clear competitor Beanie Babies 2.0 was launched by Tai in 2008 amongst a sort of quiet back and forth stuffed animal battle between Tai and Webkins the toy to Virtual Pet cold war or colde War if you will Webkins had already been compared to the original Beanie Babies left and right during its first couple years and even resembled some of Tai's designs but with this new virtual world 2.0 for short came the opposite comparisons now instead and I think it's pretty clear why I mentioned this a bit before in my Webkins Iceberg which since you're watching this video maybe you'd want to check that out too but it Bears repeating some of these plush look really similar to Webkins unsurprisingly I know Gans didn't invent the concept of a pink poodle or anything but it did release one before shining stars and Beanie Babies 2.0 so it just seems like someone some one copied the homework and changed some of the answers not all of the 2.0 plush are unoriginal though Tai clearly has a great reputation for making really unique and adorable plush so lots of the 2.0 toys can definitely stand on their own like this monkey and skunk which are both so cute and this cocker spaniel that actually looks like a cocker spaniel instead of the Webkins generic brown dog version sorry scampers also I feel like I have to confess that I immediately became obsessed with this sheep and its three color variants and I did buy one of each right away while researching as someone who's always been overly loyal to Webkins it sort of felt like an under the table Black Market dealing please don't tell anyone and 2.0 also did a great job of making online avatars that actually resemble the plush in game no unnecessarily huge googly soulless eyes to be seen in the virtual world of Beanie land these pets can be played with through feeding grooming Dress Up house decorating and playing arcade games as similar to Webkins as the basic components are though 2.0 did have some unique features of its own pets actually appear in and interact with different areas of the world instead of only being a static little Avatar in the corner and you can take beanies on adventures that seem to function like playable quests and challenges the world of Beany land is pretty stylized and clearly has some care put into it with a currency of jelly beans a cast of Beanie NPCs and fun areas like food court club and the general store that has this super cute small town country bear theming despite clearly having a strong bias towards Webkins I think 2.0 overall seems really cute and creative I don't really think there's anything I would change about it well nothing except him this character named snoots is the host and sort of mascot of Beanie land and he mostly appears in online episodes where he goes on adventures and gets up to Wacky Antics as a kid's character I'm I'm sure he's fine he's a cool little cartoon dog whatever but that wasn't enough justification for me I don't think I would have liked him even when I was younger so you know what I'm about to say it I'm openly admitting to being a snoots hater in 2023 and I'm not sorry about it it's his voice that I'm almost 100% sure was just a random thae employee that they asked to make up a voice have a great big hug to my friend Kelo and say hi to Alex and Bud Bud his weird unscripted tents that go on for way too long I think a white horsey Nam toy py would be so cute toy py toy py it's really fun to say stop the way he tries to be quirky and relatable in a kid Type of Way by saying he likes the letter b and I love the letter B but I don't find him relatable and by the way Clifford called and he wants his look back pretty sick burn that was a good one there are over 3 hours of archived beanie land web episodes and after watching 30 seconds of snot's introduction that seemed like over 3 hours too many to be fair pretty much all of the other 2.0 Characters kind of nailed the silly cartoony and comedic aspect in these episodes I found myself genuinely laughing at a few visual gags and the comedic timing of it all and I especially love this little country bear whose grandparents own the General Store he's so goofy come on down to the bany land General store and trading post my grandma and grandpa weren't there I think he should have been the mascot instead even though snoots is kind of unbearable I still think Beanie Baby's 2.0 overall was actually a decent imitation of Webkins that had its own charm and uniqueness to it even if the concept of the plush toys unlocking a virtual world wasn't unique at its core compared to a less polished site like shining stars I a Webkins Die Hard actually think it seems like it was pretty fun just minus snoots also Justice for country bear in another major event in the code War Tai actually had another virtual world and related toy line that was launched one year before Beanie Babies 2.0 in 2007 though this site still relied on physical toys and their secret codes it replaced the virtual pet concept entirely with virtual friends virtual girl friends that is that lived in their own girl boss town as they girl bossed around that was not the tagline but I really feel like it should have been because look at these things thae girls with the classic Z at the end so you know that it's cool was a clear competitor to all of the other glamorous doll lines of the time with their big lips dazzling makeup and maybe a little overly sultry eyes and then they also just threw in the virtual world aspect to compete with Webkins too where stuffed animals have the appeal of each being their own individual species TIG girl girls varied instead by each doll's color scheme very slight changes in facial features and a single assigned personality trait to alliterate with each girl's name because why wouldn't you want to buy a doll that already proves it's got some of the traits that you're after like beautiful classy or Ooh La La the main premise of the site alongside unlocking the thae girls online was that all of the Dolls can be played with in different areas around the world that are based on real world cities shopping makeovers and socializing could be done in places like London Rome and Paris among others while this is a more unique feature on the surface I hate to say that this is yet another mostly empty detail that doesn't actually add that much to the game each city has all of the exact same features like the store hairdresser and chat room but each time just more French or whichever country you were meant to be in while basically all of the activities in these generic slightly changing backdrops with different landmarks are all pretty lame I have to say that the chat feature seems to be the worst all the doll avatars just stand there in these awkward poses it's just not very inviting I'm scared I feel like these dolls are about to make fun of me for wearing generic brand sneakers despite all of these cool girly features being advertised like give your girls makeovers Diva Decor meet the girls and dress up your room which seems like that would be the same as Diva Decor but okay thae girls looks like it was actually a pretty blackluster experience overall both compared to how well Webkins executed the concept first and also just as its own Standalone site sure the doll collection is cool if you're into collecting the same character with different colored hair over and over and there were features like makeovers and shopping and yet another Myspace page clone but it just doesn't seem like there was much care put into it if anything TIG girls wouldn't seem nearly as bad if it left out the physical IAL product aspect and existed just as an online girly social site the addition of spending $10 to $15 on dolls just to get into a website that doesn't even seem very engaging just adds an extra layer of disappointment I'm glad at least that Beanie Babies 2.0 seemed to pick up some of the slack of the missing charm this just in live from the jelly verse a breaking weather report for your YouTube video due to the overwhelming amount of product mediocrity lost media technicalities and the overall sheer quantity of Webkins imitations there's a huge Cloud Rolling In from the west and it looks like it's going to be a lightning round first up is SE Pals yet another toy line and virtual world made by Russ the creator of shining stars some positives all the plush are sea creatures functional puppets and they come in these cute little fish bowl packages the negatives they look like they belong in an aquarium gift shop the gameplay seems generic generic despite the unique underwater aquarium setting and their 3D shaded online avatars give me the creeps why is this clownfish making pizzas underwater and how is he lifting weights with those scrawny little fins there's very little footage of this game to be found online which seems very telling and I think that's also for the best bottom line is I'd rather be playing fishville more lightning round News Rescue Pets my e pets made by MGA the producer of Bratz and now also de dog the toy I'm wondering why these little guys seem so upset and why that would make me want to buy them unsurprisingly their online virtual world might be part of the reason it has nice colors typical pet care feeding grooming and arcade games but it all just seems to be missing a certain charm maybe it's the happiness in that dog's eyes why are we still here even worse than the 2D game though is the separate 3D rendered version which is so bad and so undocumented that I'll just let this clip of the laggy Lial space do the talking bottom line is little as pet shop did it better coming up next in the lightning round it's American Girl Innerstar University launched in 2010 the main selling point Beyond being able to play with your American Girl doll online is that this game is themed around a university the Webkins Academy was actually one of my least favorite game areas except for the pancake class I love you pancake class so I'm not really feeling an entire game centered around School themes to be fair though there's not actually much obvious education or learning but more Athletics school spirit and extracurriculars like diving cheerleading the library and a bake sale once again there's more dress up room decorating and challenges and achievements with a focus on making good choices and helping out your community though it looks like most of the kids that played this game didn't really learn anything and just played the cupcake making game over and over I'm pretty neutral about about this one it has fun features and the signature American Girl level of quality and attention to detail but the university theming seems like it limits its bounds more than expands them bottom line is I would play it just for the cupcake game what's that why it's the next installment precious girls club based on the precious moments porcelain figurines that two in every three grandmas has sitting around their house this site is only technically related to the Webkins toy to Virtual World model as it was overall free to playay but had premium membership that could be accessed through codes of accessories like dolls and charm bracelets but there was no Avatar of the toys unlocked online precious Girls Club had an MMO style map where you could pass by NPCs and other players while you floated around as an angel only footage of this game's trailer is available online which probably means that no one really played this unless they're grandma bought into it for them bottom line is don't let Grandma pick your virtual world for you a heatwave is coming through the lightning round next because this one is a Hot Topic Barbie Girls the girly MMO made by Mattel in 2007 this game is hot because it apparently was pretty popular though it also didn't technically have a toy that unlocked a virtual Avatar and instead like Precious Girls Club this site was free to join but premium membership could be bought online or through the physical product of a very expensive MP3 player but instead of angel wings and Bible verses Barbie Girls was more pink and mid-2000s fashion both Izzy and Lee speaks have made great videos on this site already and they seem more qualified than me to tell you all the details so I recommend checking both of those videos out bottom line is your doll doesn't have to be able to sing You songs and neither does your bear this is still the lightning round and I'm still reporting on the weather now educating you on cookies released in 2008 by 10 Vox entertainment these plush look like if Webkins had half the budget and then launched as a 2010 Facebook game full of microtransactions instead of a virtual world the online avatars look so different from their plush their eyes are too big when their plush eyes are very regular sized and why is this monkey by pedo when the rest are on all fours I don't like that he's asserting his dominance I do actually kind of like the Chihuahua though his little squinty eye bags remind me of this picture and I like that kookies claims to have had an online component that was different from Webkins with social networking and a bigger emphasis on education but is hard to confirm or deny that with basically no decent existing gameplay footage online coincidence if it was a standalone product maybe it wouldn't have been that bad overall but I think it's safe to assume that cookies was just another attempt to jump in the virtual world Toy Market while it was hot bottom line is someone tell that monkey to sit back down this is not a drill coming up next in the lightning round news is the first virtual world that panders specifically to boys move over American American Girl Barbie girls thae girls and snoots just because I don't like it tracker's 3D racing was launched around 2008 by the same makers of cookies and despite cookies having more of a head start by leaning on the success of Webkins trackers outperformed cookies by a large margin in a 3D rendered car racing game each $15 little metal car unlocks the same car in game where you can race with up to seven players at once and then upgrade your car's performance even though I've never heard of this game before I'm surprised that it saw a lot of success and I'm actually just impressed that it fully created its own unique concept bottom line is they got greedy with cookies and should have stuck to the cars we move on to bellaa the horse card game that unlocked horse avatars online I'm once again ruling this as not quite a true Webkins imitator because Bella sah didn't exactly have a full virtual world that was accessed by the cards but instead was just each horse on its own in a stall there was some feeding and grooming but where are the horse clothes or horse heavy Glam makeovers or cupcake making games I really just want to play that cupcake making game there was also bisera Adventures that had more of an RPG or Quest like gameplay to it so still only Towing the Webkins copycat line it seems like it would have been fun if you're into horses but I preferred virtual Chihuahua instead bottom line is less expensive than actual equestrianism and the cards take up less room room to the final entry in our lightning round tonight is a bit of a meta example meis also made by MGA was a series of handheld single game consoles that could be connected by USB online to enter the 3D virtual world this game was set up less like a typical virtual world with activities and mini gamess and was more just a 3D chat room slrp server slop World sandbox combo like VR chat Roblox or second life the mui handheld came in three variants of Paws brats and monsters which are all the genders you could ever need this game seems like it was very Niche but very beloved by anyone who played on it and I respect the option to be unique and play as a dancing Brat's baby instead of just hopping on Club Penguin to RP getting a penguin BF or GF like the rest of us bottom line is I'm a little confused but it looks like it's got spirit and that concludes this evening's spontaneous lightning round brought on by a multitude of toys and their subsequent Virtual Worlds looks like that pesky storm cloud is all cleared up so we now return to our regularly scheduled programming speaking of the Bratz avatars in muis this is a great way to segue into the Bratz specific virtual world of B Bratz this site was similar to thae girls in that it didn't revolve around animals or pet care but instead the Glamorous world of a Bratz doll each doll that came with a code was generic and unnamed instead of being an existing character character and came in a full kind of starter kit with a mouse and a mouse pad USB necklace that acted as an access key and a pet at first I thought it was kind of funny that a mouse and mouse pad are included as if it's really preparing you for this epic online Bratz experience but then I found out about the other accessories the hot pink keyboard the Beed webcam the sparkling speakers and of course who could forget the blinged out USB lamp the one one thing every young girl wishes she had a Bratz branded sparkly version of they were really scrambling for more products to pushier since the majority if not all of the Dolls came in this full set with this mouse included it seems like it was pretty much impossible to not get roped into wanting to complete the set of peripherals which also seemed to not have had any sort of code functionality and were just for the blingalicious aesthetic what seemed like a sort of fun gimmick to include a little starter set with the dolls turned out to actually be a pretty lame money-making tactic don't know how I didn't see it coming I guess and wouldn't you know the actual online world of B Bratz doesn't Fair much better I thought Tye girls was pretty lacking in features and a more fleshed out design but a little fun fact here B Bratz is even worse the dolls themselves can be dressed up in given full makeovers which is what you'd want from a Bratz experience I'll give them that but given the rest of the game it really seems like they probably should skipped the virtual world aspect and just kept it as a dress up game the super cool eets mentioned on the box have a total of like three interactions feed buy pet item and sometimes say generic phrase maybe not that surprising when the physical toy looks like that the mini games outside of the dress up and makeover total a very measly 14 activities alog together but don't worry it does include Checkers and the riveting Bratz U and there are some features for socializing like I am and yet another profile page where the Bratz characters themselves can leave you super cool comments like you are an original and thanks for being my friend most of what I'm seeing here points to B Brat's being one of the laziest attempts at a virtual world so far the option to chat with your doll like she's an interactive BFF has a total of six very generic dialogue options which makes me wonder why they even bothered to include it one of the stores is just called choose the in-game currency is just called points even though naming it something like Bratz bucks would have been so easy and given it at least 50% more personality and the Bratz character comments on your profile don't even sound excited to talk to you which really shows how little MGA actually knows or cares about their demographic because everyone knows that girly texting without the excitable smiley faces and excessive punct situation on the end is like a cardinal sin and something the Bratz would never do despite the $30 Bratz package promoting lots of cool features on the box it doesn't seem like there was actually much care or time put into making those features decent this game reminds me of tha girls and that it seems unnecessary to have been a toy line with a feature code when a regular social site would have worked just fine especially when there's not even a collection aspect here you can change your Bratz online to look like any of the other three total B Bratz dolls unless you count collecting the full set of blingy peripherals which I admit I probably would have desperately wanted even if those speakers look like they'd make the music sound like it was playing underwater all in all B brats just seemed like a very poor attempt to cash in on the success of Webkins and Virtual Worlds overall at the time and I really feel sorry for any kid that loved Bratz and bought into this hoping for something better just to be disappointed where B Bratz is lacking in quality though Littlest Pet Shop online is essentially its antithesis called lpso for short this game is full of quality charm style and tons of things to do I was personally never really into LPS when I was younger and kind of for a dumb reason I went to a summer camp as a kid where there was this girl that had a giant bag of them that she'd bring with her each day but she only ever let a very few select people play with them and they were really mean about it and turned it into an LPS click so from then on I just Associated the toys with like rude entitled little girls and I never wanted to play with them on my own while that might have been unreasonable I have no regrets though if I had played with LPS I'm sure I would have loved this online version of the toys lpso functioned as a kid-friendly MMO with quests item collection and skills there were different areas around the map with cute animal themed names like waggington and kittywood and the art style with all of these pretty pastels really gives it all a polished and cohesive look there were lots of little activities throughout these areas like stores and a grooming salon and little features around the world that could be interacted with like sitting on chairs jumping on trampolines and swinging on swings maybe those parts don't seem all that impressive or exciting but the attention to small details like this can really make a huge difference in whether a game seems Lively and immersive or just really static and basic and no adding in sodoku with the word Bratz in front of it does not count as attention to detail all the games around the world were accessed in the same way by visiting the area of the map where they were hosted to make it all a more interactive experience socialization was done through open world chatting and emotes and on top of everything there was even still room decorating and pet care though it seemed like a more passive feature compared to the quests and exploring lpso was free free to play but had a premium membership through the toy or the site that would unlock more features like creating and customizing your own pet without the need for a feature code which is such a cool idea I would love to be able to design my own Webkins overall it reminds me of Club Penguin with a free-to-play option and premium membership open world chat features and I guess if you had one of the penguin toys you could even search for a penguin BF or GF which is a very sought after feature and yet even though it is comparable to both Webkins and Club Penguin lpso looks like it distinguished itself with all of the Care and quality that was put into the game if only I would have been allowed to join the mean girl summer camp click this could have definitely competed with Webkins in my childhood sort of similar to lpso was Builder Bearville an MMO launched in 2007 where lpso is full of pastels and cutesy more girly details build-a Bearville is all themed just like the inside of a Build-A-Bear Workshop and I love it I've actually only made a Build-A-Bear twice in my life but every time I pass by one of the stores I always find myself catching an extra glance because the aesthetic is just so nice the primary colors the oversized sewing elements the overall theme of love and joy for your little plushy it's just so Whimsical and makes you feel good and I think that the online experience of builda Beeville does such a great job at translating that into a virtual world you've got the primary colors everywhere in a map that's designed to look like a distinguished Little Town Complete with a fashion district University Mall ice cream shop bank and even a train station that includes a boardable train and each little store and building is stylized on the inside too with all the little details to make it look like a real store or spot in town ah the joys of rping as an unpaid Cafe waiter in an online virtual world for kids a Canon event and also like in lpso these details can be interacted with like sitting on the seats or actually swimming in the water which if that doesn't sound very interesting I feel like I'm not hitting the target audience here compare that to this swimming in Club Penguin and let me know which one looks cooler okay each Build-A-Bear plush with an access code unlocks a virtual version that your playable character carries around in a little backpack which is a unique way to play with the toy online instead of being The Toy online and you can dress up both your avatar and the bear which everyone knows is like one of the best parts of owning a real life Builder bear look at his little shoes there was also the standard room decorating friend requests and chatting and mini gamess but the core gameplay centered around just exploring the world and completing quests which were found around town or unlocked as an exclusive Animal Adventure with each Build-A-Bear and on top of all of that there were special items unlocked with each plush like furniture and clothes mounts like bouncy balls and Segways which is so late 2000s of them map areas with tied in licensed characters like San Rio and item training between players all with maybe a few too many bear related puns sprinkled amongst it all even without having really been into Build-A-Bear myself Builder Bearville is clearly just dripping with charm and attention to detail and I feel like the care that was put into this game is what may have helped it stick around longer than almost any of the other sites aside from Webkins lasting for 8 years up until late 2015 which is a lot compared to the typical average lifespan of any virtual world being like 2 to 3 years max if you're interested in build-a bear as a whole or just as obsessed with all of its primary colors for some reason like I am I recommend watching this video by strawberry Sprite that breaks down its history and touches on the virtual world a bit too and finally one of the last and possibly most unique of these toy to Virtual World models that I could find is UB funkies made by Mattel if you're wondering about the name like I was it's actually both the name And the tagline in one instead of a bland are you connected or something like are you tune enough advertised with Toontown UB funkies is marketed as the site online where you're invited to play if you be funky if you be funky I don't know if anyone else finds that as fun as I do I just think it's neat UB funkies is one of the most unique of these Webkins imitators because it's actually about as far from Webkins as you can get sites like cookies my eets beanie babies 2.0 and shining stars are all pretty direct copycats but even sites like lpso and build-a Bearville with a bit more of their own added style still stem from the concept of stuffed animals coming to life online and caring for them UB funkies though aren't stuffed animals or even animals at all they're just funkies a completely original creature and concept instead of inputting a code online you snap the little figures into a magnetic Hub look the little ones riding on top of the big one the figures sometimes kind of look like animals but they can also look like ninjas astronauts skeletons aliens zombies and so much more described by Mattel's marketing VP as World of Warcraft for a younger audience this game is a true adventure MMO more than just a social space or mini game hub there's an overarching story line complete with cutscenes for each progressing Quest where the main goal is to defeat meet the evil Master Locks and his henchmen which can just rob you blind on the street by the way we're clearly very far from Webkins now and each funky doesn't let you just play as their Avatar as you waddle around but unlocks a new area of the world with new exclusive quests and items so if you're really invested in the story you'll need more funkies to get to it all maybe not the best for players that couldn't afford to buy a whole collection just to complete the game but admittedly still better than pushing Bratz branded computer peripherals that had nothing to do with the actual game I cannot get over that why do I still want to buy them all the world is so unique looking and dare I say funky its shading and weird shapes and attention to detail that are all so stylized to each area's specific theme and if that wasn't enough one of the best parts of the game is its amazing background music the soundtrack slaps as UI funky seems like it was a more boy oriented toy I only ever heard of it about a year ago but it really does look like it was a lot of fun and I wish I had a chance to try it out while it was still up a good number of all of these Virtual Worlds have at some point or currently had Revival projects in the works to bring back a fan-made Rewritten version for players who miss them similar to Toontown and Club Penguin which just goes to show how much of an impact these online spaces had on us I love that despite there clearly being so many Virtual Worlds that have existed with or without the physical product tyin there are so many people that are really nostalgic for and loyal to their personal side of choice that they played on the most even though the virtual world boom has long ago come and gone sure lots of these sites were based on Webkins and even after exploring lots of them The Good The Bad and The snoops I am still very much a Webkins girl at heart I just can't abandon my children or all the real money I've spent on it as an adult but if any thing despite some of the poor imitations I'm glad that Webkins was able to inspire a lot of these worlds that were a large part of some of our chronically online childhoods I know I'm pretty lucky to have been obsessed with the game that out of all of these still has the original game up and running after almost 20 years which is insane so I hope that whatever your favorite of these sites was even if it was B Bratz or some reason that some dedicated fans will come together and make a Rewritten version of your your favorite virtual world again too you deserve it hi welcome to jelly TV where I shout out a video that I think deserves some love for even more content about Virtual Worlds which I can personally never get enough of I recommend watching The Lost virtual world Iceberg by bajiru this video covers a ton of obscure random and just plain forgotten Virtual Worlds that have become lost media including some that I mentioned in this video but way more that I didn't so there's definitely more to see Piru clearly has such a passion for covering these that really shines through in the video especially since he actually played a lot of them himself so he knows what he's talking about he has such great research and scripting too so even if you don't care as much about Virtual Worlds it's entertaining and so funny and just fascinating so I really recommend checking out this video and the rest of his channel a huge thank you to Daniel E from ABQ Kevin Evans Brett Morgan bunzo ficano and Iris Aiden Campbell Johan a lily puff Lou Lucy likes tan and Sarah Louisa Luna Stephenson Mark Kent MW Oliver e paper Sam Pharma mags pixel puppy shapes starbit illustrations Theodore nicas Vivien Valencia and the rest of my patrons for supporting me I'd like to welcome you all to jelly land an online virtual world that you can unlock by buying the totally not real jelly doll chat with your friends eat some jelly and have a dream of a Time

Channel: Dream Jelly

Views: 127,818

Keywords: webkinz, webkinz knockoffs, webkinz knock offs, beanie babies 2.0, be bratz, tygirlz, ty girlz, shining stars, ub funkeys, u b funkeys, u.b. funkeys, american girl innerstar u, innerstar u, innerstar university, ag innerstar university, precious girls club, seapals, sea pals, tracksters 3d racing, tracksters, kookeys, barbie girls, lpso, lps online, build a bear ville, build a bearville, bearville, bella sara, bella sara adventures, my epets, rescue pets my epets, my e pets

Id: 8GZL7m7LXpo

Length: 44min 37sec (2677 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023