Maxine Clark’s Biography

Hello Bearville boys ‘n’ girls. Sorry I have been so inactive – I have been really busy. I am trying to post every Friday sooooo…yeah. I wrote this short biography for you guys… awkward. Anyway, the next post will be about the app ‘Bear Valley’. Enjoy!

Maxine Clark’s Biography

Maxine Clark is the founder of our beloved Build-a-Bear Workshop. Born in Coral Gables, Florida in the USA on the 6^th of March, 1949 (now 69) she has revolutionized Teddy Bear history, and has created one of the most well known stuffed toy companies.

When she graduated from the University of Georgia as an honorary doctor, she decided to work at a retail store. It was nice at the start but it was starting to lose its touch.

One day, Clark was shopping with one of her friends daughters; her brother was a collector of TY Beanie Babies. They couldn’t find anything new. Clark’s daughter’s friend suggested that they could make their own. And that’s what they did.

In 2006, Clark wrote a book titled, ‘The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart’. Now, Maxine Clark’s company owns around 200 Build-a-Bear Workshops in the world.

BuildaBear/Play Review

Hey y’all! Today I think I finally got this site working so I am happy to finally give you the review you’ve been waiting for. (I am writing this late at night so I am tired – excuse my spelling LOL.) Enjoy!

Well I am greeted on the front page with videos. Bearville Alive videos I just watch on YouTube with better quality… ._. Not to be a hater but this is the truth kids. *sigh*. There are two buttons; Games and Videos. Now you would assume that pressing the games button would sort out the games, and that the other button would sort out the videos, But nope. The buttons are useless. So, after a bit of scrolling, I have found a few games! *cheer* (They are not the Bearville Minigames.) Anyway, lets try them out.

Ball Bounce is not an original Bearville.com game, but it does remind me of one. Now, I keep pressing to play the game but the same thing is happening – it is taking me to the Build-a-Bear Workshop homepage. I cannot play the game ;-;. Lets hope the rest aren’t like this…

…and the rest are! I am beary, beary surprised by this. Letter Rearrange, Rocket Launch and Dodge Ball do not work. #Horrified!! Build-a-Bear made ‘o’ thy amazing BuildABearville.com, and then they do this? They could be doing soooo much better.

OK, this might just be my computer, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t boys and girls. Apparently this is why they shut down Bearville??? There has got to be a better reason that this. Maybe if they have a major update, I will do an updated review. 0.5 out of 5 stars. Harsh, I know. But this is what they have made. Now, before I go cry in a corner about this monstrosity, I just need to tell you that the next post will be in two days, and it will actually be a fact file about Maxine Clark! Until then, stay tuned for more. Stay pawesome! *rage quit*

-The Broken Bearville Blogger

 

App Review: The Honey Girls

Hey Bearville Boys and Girls! Today, like I said yesterday, I will be reviewing one of Build-a-Bear’s apps, ‘The Honey Girls’. Now I just want to put out there that I really do like the Honey Girls! They are cute, and they are pawsome singers, but this is the app I am reviewing and I am not going to be biased.

Before we start, I just want to say that this is taking forever to download xD. This takes up 128MB which in my opinion is a lot of space. This is rated 4.1 stars on Google Play and is free for download but has in-app purchases. Before we start, do you guys like the Honey Girls? What are your favourite songs? Here is a link to a playlist of there songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnzXkAPgN9f_3RsfU457zq1KtnHliM0CW.

The home screen holds 4 sections – ‘The Honey Girls NEW’, ‘Selfie Center’, ‘Music Games’ and ‘Music Video Maker’. There are also 3 other buttons for ‘Help’, ‘In-app Purchases’ and ‘My Selfie’s’. We will first start with ‘The Honey Girls NEW’.

The Honey Girls NEW

Here are 12 things to do, with 3 of them costing real life money to do. We can meet the band, Viv, Teegan and Risa while we can also play the HG’s songs and preview the girls’ theme songs. We are also able to watch HG videos, although you have to purchase Risa, Viv and Teegan’s.  In ‘Meet The Band’, we get a ton of info about the band and members. You can also read 3 facts about each of the members at Meet Teegan, Viv and Risa.   At ‘Play Songs’, we get a selection of different HG songs to listen to. They even come with lyrics! As I said before, you can preview the other girl’s songs, but without the lyrics.    At ‘Watch Videos’, we can watch the HG’s music videos, but you do have to pay for the other girl’s songs.  I think this section is good, but I wish you didn’t have to pay for a lot of the stuff.

Selfie Center

The name is pretty self-ie explanatory. You just take photos and add effects such as borders and stickers. It is a bit annoying however that the best effects are only usable when you pay for them. There isn’t much to it. They are savable so if you are someone who always posts there selfies to social media, or sends them to friends, you are able to do so. Honestly, I am not that impressed with this section. You can’t even flip the camera. If you always like to add effects and filters, I honestly don’t recommend this.

Music Games

There are only 2 games available so I hope they are good xD. There is the ‘Drum Beat Game’ and ‘Guitar Rock Game’.

The ‘Drum Beat Game’, is one of those musically repeat memory games. They will hit a note and you have to repeat it. They keep going adding on beats that you have to keep remembering the order of. After a number of levels, it gets very tricky. In this game, Viv is hitting beats on her drum that you have to repeat. I quite like it – it isn’t too hard and it never gives the player the feeling of failure. You cannot lose in this game.

The ‘Guitar Rock Game’ is the exact same thing except that it is Risa playing her guitar. I kinda wish there was a bit more variety in the games. There could of been where you could control what they played and how they played, something like that.

Music Video Maker

In the ‘Music Video Maker’, you can find a song that you like and learn the lyrics. In ‘Lets Record’, you are able to record yourself singing, while there are still lyrics on the screen. Like ‘Selfie Center’, you are not able to flip the camera. In ‘Customise’ You simply just customise your videos.

I think this app is OK but it takes up a lot of space yet there is limited stuff to do. I believe this app wasn’t as good as it could of been. I am not a hater but I do not think I shall be keeping this app after the review.

***3.6 Stars***

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog and that you continue to stay tuned to my blog if you like what you read. Tomorrow I will be reviewing the new Build-a-Bear/play site if it is working! Remember, if you didn’t like this blog, you might like the next. Until then, stay pawsome!

-The Bearville Blogger

 

 

 

My Top 10 Favourite Things About Bearville.com

There were tons of pawsome features on Build-A-Bearville but here are my top 10 favourites.

Number 10. Registering Your Bear:

So you had just gotten your bear and you were ecstatic to bring them to life on Bearville. All though putting in the Animal ID and Keycode was a bit boring, It was all worth  it when you saw your furry friend run up to you and you hearing that triumphant trumpet.

Number 9. Chloe’s Blog.

Until about the end of 2014, there was a blog written by the red head all Bearville citizens knew as Chloe Rocks. I don’t remember the posts too well, but for some reason I remember her blog called ‘Tomatoes’ vividly… .-. I dunno, I just found them entertaining.

Number 8. Craftshop:

In the videos section of the site, there lived a mini series of videos called Craftshop. Dana, the host showed us DIYs that we could do. I just found them entertaining to watch though there were not too many of them. There were other mini series on BuildABearville but Craftshop definitely stood out from the rest. There are still a few of the videos living on YouTube.

Number 7. Gardening:

I remember when the gardening feature was added – I think it came in 2013. I ended up buying the sun room and I would come in every day and tend to the plants needs. There was one special thing that happened to me when I completed the level 1 skill of gardening. I received a seed called the ‘Mystery Seed’. I was worried something bad would happen if I planted it but curiosity got the better of me. At the first few stages, a little house grew in a tree. I thought, ‘Aww, cute! A birdhouse! Maybe it will attract birds…’ But when it got to its last stage, it was no longer a birdhouse. It was a tree-house you could enter! I never grew up with a cubby or tree house so I was just overjoyed with it.

Number 6. Fishing:

I know there will be players out there that will disagree with me but I always really enjoyed fishing. Every time I caught an expensive fish, I would feel so proud. Sometimes I would get pawsome items instead of fish. Of course, the best part was selling them and getting tons of bear bills, but there were a number of bugs there.

Number 5. The Music:

I always loved the Bearville music, and I always will. I spent most of my childhood listening to it after all xD…You have no idea how happy it makes me that there is an hour long video of them on YouTube! If you want to listen to it, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_KVgkyenTI. I am actually listening to it as I write. It is beary upbeat, fun and happy. I don’t have much else to say about it.

Number 4. The Events:

When it was nearing a holiday like Halloween or Easter, there would be a special place opening. Like at Easter, you could visit the Easter realm. In Halloween, you could visit the Haunted House. My favourite was going to the North Pole at Christmas. You could Ice-Skate, drink hot chocolate, play with the Elves and more.

Number 3. Fashion:

I absolutely loved collecting the newest outfits and showing them off. I was never a style stalker in real life, but I certainly did in Bearville. I remember once I traded this really cool purse for a super beautiful dress. On the last day of Bearville, I remember that they had brought back a ton of old clothes, and I dressed up as a geek/lamb. xD

Number 2. The Chloe Show:

Yes, Chloe Rocks didn’t just have her own blog, but she had her own talk show too! I remember I joined Bearville in March 2012 and I ended up only seeing one show. That one show was really cool though. In 2014, I actually requested for it to come back and Bearville told me that they would consider it. – Never happened. I guess it was just a 2011 thing.

Special Mention. The Games:

I really loved those games. Not the newer ones like ‘Rocket Launch’ and ‘Rearrange Letters’. No. I am talking about games like ‘Beariffic Beats’, and ‘Safari Photo Shoot’. My personal favourite was ‘The Pie Eating Contest’.

Number 1. The Sockhop Dance:

There will be many players that have not heard of this. This was an event I believe was held in 2014 in the gym. This was also when the Sock Monkeys came to Build-A-Bear Workshop. Correct me if my info is inaccurate. It was definitely my favourite Bearville memory. You would receive the move ‘Sockhop Dance’ Where you would kind of jump around and wave your arms like they were made of jelly in slow motion xD. I just found it very silly and fun. You would also receive a pair of colourful socks. There is still and there will always be a Sockhop Dance sized hole in my heart. xD

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog post. Next time I will be reviewing ‘The Honey Girls App’. Until then, stay pawsome!

-The Bearville Blogger

 

 

 

Bearville Shut Down!!!!

Hey Bearville-Boys ‘n’ Girls,

As you might still be raging, I thank you for reading this. For a start, here is a link to a petition to Bring Bearville Back: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-bring-back-bearville.

I have been on YouTube watching many Bearville.com videos (bv.com songs, fan made shows ect.) and about 85% of the commenters on videos I have seen are only commenting about how sad or upset they are about Bearville.com shutting down. I have not yet seen any internet wars about peoples’ opinions. Everyone is agreeing with eachother.

So apparently, Bearville was shut down do to the company trying to make apps, Bearville Alive videos and they’re new website ‘Bearville.com/play’. First off, in my opinion, the apps are nothing special. ‘Santa’s Merry Mission’, ‘Promise Pets’ and ‘The Honey Girls app’ can’t even compare to what BuildABearville was. Bear Valley is a bit different. I will get into those apps in a different post though. Can we register our furry friends on those apps?  Nope. Can we meet new friends on the apps? No, no, NO. As for the website which is here: http://www.buildabear.com.au/play/, the website doesn’t even work properly on my computer, phone or tablet. That is just sad. Lets be honest, the Bearville Alive videos are cute, BUT come on! They are only like 2 minutes long and they come out once a week. Build-a-Bear has so much money! They can do way better than this.

Over the years, Bearville made Build-A-Bear lots of green. I got my first BAB because of how much fun I had on Bearville. There have been many complaints from past players of Bearville claiming stuff like “I wasted $200 on Bearville!” “I am never buying anything from Build-a-Bear again!”. It is more than crystal clear that fans are NOT happy with this new direction Build-a-Bear has taken. Rumour has it that it shut down because Maxine Clarke the CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop sold Bearville, but for now it is just a rumour. This has not been confirmed.

The next post will be about the top 10 best things about Bearville. I hope Build-a-Bear opens their eyes and realizes that this new direction is bad for business and that Bearville gets reopened bigger and better. This is not #Beariffic. Until then, stay tuned for more!

-The Bearville Blogger

 

About The Bearville Blogger

Hey Bearville-Boys ‘n’ Girls,

I’m an anonymous blogger who talks about all things ‘Bearville’ and ‘Build a Bear’. I talk about things like the new Bearville Alive videos, Build-a-Bear itself and Bearville and I share my opinion on them.

I first started playing Bearville.com in 2012 and I currently have 4 BABs and 1 BABB.

Disclaimer: I am not an official Build-a-Bear blogger. I am just a beary huge fan that likes Bearville and blogging.

My next blog will be about Bearville.com and how people have reacted to it shutting down. Until next time… Stay beariffic!

-The Bearville Blogger