Where's Dot on Mattycollector.com?

The Comic Con exclusive version of Dot will NOT be sold on Mattel Collector's website.

But don't despair.......I talked to someone at Mattel's customer service line and they assured me that Mattel would not be that cruel to us! Since they did put out the 3.05 update for everyone, that is a good indication that Dot will be available more widely. It just won't be the exclusive version that was only available at the San Diego Comic Con this past weekend.

So please don't feel you have to buy it off Ebay now as the only way you will ever get a Dot.
Patience has always paid off with this game of UB Funkeys! Unless you want to be the first to have something (I'll admit there is some value to that!), if you just wait a bit, most of us will see the characters we want show up at a Toys R Us, Walmart, Target, or Kmart!

Exclusive UB Funkeys Ladybug Dot from Comic Con is on Ebay!

Dot is on Ebay! I have placed a picture (with a link) on the sidebar of this blog. The seller has written in the product description that there will only be 2,000 of these exclusive Funkeys released. They were exclusive to Comic Con in San Diego, but we're watching out to see if Mattel releases anymore.

Mattel's New Collector Website opens soon!

We had heard that you could buy the exclusive UB Funkeys Ladybug Dot on Mattel's new Collector website: MattyCollector.com So far there are none there available, but we'll keep you posted.

It doesn't open for a few days, but you can sign up now for their email newsletter.

I'll add more to this post later today. I just wanted to quickly post the URL that I just got after calling Mattel's Consumer Relations line. My google searches turned up with nothing on the URL for the new website, so I thought others might be searching for it as well.

Just want to give a "thanks" to Bryan12589 and Prolo245 for the conversation about this on the FunkeyFanForum that prompted me to do a bit of research to get more information.

More later..........

New Funkeys for 2009 ~ Hidden Realm

***News Flash....As of Dec. 9th, 2008, the 4.0 update is here! Please see my latest post for more: UB Funkeys Hidden Realm ~ It's Time! *********


Thanks to Bryan12589 who posted on the Funkey Fan Forum, we were alerted to these new pictures that are on Figures.com for Hidden Realm Funkeys to be released in 2009. And there's also a picture of Dot, released as a limited edition character for the San Diego Comic-Con 2008.

Good News about Gem Shard tracking!

This is huge news in the UB Funkeys game! Mattel fixed one of the most frustrating parts of playing the game. We no longer need to track the games in which we won gem shards anymore. With the last update, 3.05 Dot Spot, we can now see if we won a shard for the game by putting your cursor over the trophy. But I'm not sure how to tell if you get a shard when you don't have the trophy yet. Hmmmm

Maybe you should still keep track of the games that you win shards if you don't have the trophy yet!

The Dot Spot ~ Update 3.05

We got another update today, 3.05, The Dot Spot.

This is very interesting because I didn't think Dot was coming out anytime soon.

If you haven't found it yet, The Dot Spot is in Funkeystown, near the Fish Fountain. I included a map with the picture so you can see the large red diamond showing the location of The Dot Spot.

Were any of you surprised to see this today?

This is a good time to remind everyone to make a backup copy of your U.B. Funkey game files. If it has been a while, it's also good to do it again if you made progress in the game since the last backup.

SPOILER warning........Picture below.........If you want to be surprised later, don't scroll down..............

Here's a picture of Dot's game. I'm not sure of the details yet, but it looks like it should be fun.

Dream State single UB Funkeys at Toys R Us

I received an email today from Joseph G. who was kind enough to share the news that he found some Dream State single Funkeys at Toys R Us. We're still not sure whether there are just a few individual stores that have put the Dream State and Chat Funkeys out in error. The latest word from Mattel is still August 1st. But I think I'll still check in on my local TRU, Walmart, and Targets!

There is one bit of advice Joseph had to share with anyone who finds a single common Ptep Funkey at Toys R Us ~ watch out that it rings up correctly. The single Ptep that he bought rang up as $16.99 which would be the price for a double pack. It appears the sku isn't coded correctly, so watch out for that so the store can correct it if it happens to you too. The sku (or UPC) for normal Ptep is 027084658651. You can also use that number if you call TRU first and ask them to look it up on their computer to see if it's in stock before you drive over there.

Thanks Joseph for that news.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks also to the anonymous poster who left the comment about the Dream State singles on Ebay & Amazon.com
I added the widgets on the blog's sidebar showing Waggs and Vlurp. I'm not recommending that anyone pay those prices, but it is fun to look at them!

I checked out Ebay after I got the comment below, and there is a Ptep and Drift listed. So that confirms that Drift is coming out as a single. Hurray! The patience will pay off for those who didn't give in to the temptation of buying the starter hub just for Drift (but I'm not saying I blame you if you did buy it!! I completely understand!)

OH! One observation I need to share is that both the Ebay seller and Joseph are in New York. So right now it appears New York has an edge on this!

What's new in the world of UB Funkeys this week?

There are some little things going on in the world of UB Funkeys this week. There are little odds & ends to share, but not enough of any one topic to write about, so here is just a random list:

1. There is a new bonus code: bogglethemind2256 that will get you a foul smelling bone chair and 50 coins. Thanks to all who shared that. It appears that the original source is Cuddles who is on a couple other forums, and should get credit for being the first to report this!

2. The official date of release for the Dream State Funkeys is August 1st *, although someone on the the Speakeasy has found the Chat Funkeys at a Walmart, and someone on the UBFunkey.com forum reports finding Ptep at a Target. Not sure what's up with that! There is nothing new in the stores around us!
* (my source for the release date was a Mattel C.S. rep during a call for technical help, not inside information. Previously they would say "mid-August", so let's hope Aug. 1 is the newest date & we see them out on schedule!)

3. The pictures of the Chat Funkeys mentioned in #2 are shown in 2-packs, however "Mellafunk" of the FunkeyFanForum asked a Mattel customer support rep. about that and was assured that the Chat Funkeys will be released as singles.

4. Augiewan of the the Speakeasy has information (and pictures!) about UB Funkey Flash drives and speakers on his blog. He has reported about other products to come out such as plush Funkey characters, and the flash drives appear to be the first "non-vinyl, non-playing pieces" to hit the market.

5. Supposedly an update did come through on Sat. July 12 to fix the password problem, however I never got it.


6. I called Mattel to try to fix an "incorrect password" problem we had on one of our login names.
The customer support rep. had me email my "users.rdf" file to them. I received a quick reply via email which read:

Thank you for contacting Mattel regarding your Funkeys Software.
There are three potential causes of the error message you reported.

Currently we are experiencing an intermittent problem with our server that produces an incorrect password error. We expect a solution by July 12, 2008.
Since this problem is intermittent, you may be able to log in
now.

Firewalls may block access to the server. If you have not
already added Funkeys as an exception to your firewall you may wish to do
so. If you have received an update in the past via the Funkeys Software,
your firewall is already configured correctly.

The error above is indistinguishable from an actual password problem, so we would like to verify that the information is correct. Please note the information
below:

[our login names & passwords were listed here]

Please print this document and store it in a safe place.

Thank you again for contacting us. If you have any questions or concerns in the future, please feel free to call us at 800-803-9611, Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 7:00 pm, ET, and Saturday, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, ET.

Sincerely,

Mattel Consumer Relations

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My initial reaction to the email was to think it was a nice response and I appreciated receiving it, but I tried to log on again and I still get the message. But my problem is slightly different because the login name disappears when I try to log in.

I'm on my own with this problem, aren't I?

How to backup your UB Funkey games files

*** After the 3.2 Update, this might not be necessary with the game files stored on the Mattel server ***
I don't know any details about this since the update hasn't worked for us yet, but I will continue to edit this as I learn more.

You've probably heard the warning before from others to backup your user files before you download an update, or you might have learned from experience like I did and lost your files.
I realize this is long overdue on this blog to give some step-by-step directions on how, and many people have asked, so I'll give it a shot.

Basically you just want to make a copy of the file named "profile.rdf" (and users.rdf) for your username. I just copy the entire "data" folder in a new place so I have a copy in case I need to replace it after an update.

{note: please see comment section, some good information from Revvinon.}

Where do you find this data folder? You can do a search to find it on your hard drive, or look under "Program Files" on your hard drive (C drive):

Program Files/ UBFunkeys/Radica Game/Data/ (then you will see the list of all your usernames & a "system" folder)

[Vista users ~ please see this post. There is a different directory to find the data files that you want to copy]

It's probably best to save your copy to an external source such a disk or flash drive. That will safeguard you against any PC problems, even outside of the UBFunkey updates. Computers are known to crash for other reasons.

But to keep it simple, you can create a new folder in your Program Files. This has worked for me so far. (This post will be a work in progress as I come back to make it clearer and add some screen shot pictures. Comments are welcome to help me make it clearer for all levels of computer users. Thanks!)
Create a new folder, under Program files and call it UBFunkeys Backup Files (or whatever you choose). Then copy the data file from the Radica Game folder. Then paste it over to your new folder called Backup Files (or whatever you named it).

IF you need to restore your files later, simply copy that profile.rdf from your backup folder and paste it (replace) in the folder called "data", under the correct username. You'll also want the users.rdf file. Please see the comment by Revvinon in the comment section

The Chat Funkeys are out???

If you haven't seen over at the Speakeasy, the Chat Funkeys were spotted at a Walmart in Colorado. No such luck for us in Northern Va. We checked out the closest Walmart and all they had were the original starter kits and Funkiki Island Funkeys. It was disappointing!

If you do find the Chat Funkeys in a store near you, still remember the warning from my previous post, and if you haven't created your unique Funkey name yet, hold off until sat.

Do Not create a Unique Funkey name yet!!!!!

I've been hearing a lot about users getting locked out of their games, because their passwords were no longer working . This has been happening after many have created a unique Funkey name.

Liam did not have any problems, but I was hesitant to create one for myself. So I called the Mattel support line. Their advice is DO NOT CREATE A UNQUE FUNKEY NAME yet. They estimate that the problem should be fixed by July 12, this saturday. So we should get a new update then. {blog edit on July 12: We didn't see an update today!}





So if you haven't created that name yet, please hold off! It's for the Chat Funkeys, and the estimated date for that release is mid-August, so there's no rush for that name! {blog edit July12: Chat Funkeys were found in a Walmart store in Colorado as reported on the Speakeasy site a couple around July 10th, but none in the Walmarts in NoVa as of today!}

If you have already been locked out of your login name, please call Radica/ Mattel's Customer Relations Helpline:

In the USA & Canada: 1-800-803-9611. Their hours are 9:00 am - 7:00 pm Eastern time Monday - Friday, and 11:00 am- 5:00 pm on Saturday.

In the UK: 01628500303

In Australia: 1300 135 312

Is Mattel throwing us a "Bones"?

Many of us are wondering why the new Dream State starter kit contains a Series One character, Bones. There are many of us who are buying the new hub just so that we can get Drift, the first character we've seen on the market from the new Dream State 3.0 series.

It has felt like a long wait since the Speed Racer series was released and all the die-hard Funkey fans have been waiting eagerly for the first signs of the Dream State series. Most of us were in a lull, starting to loose interest in playing the game after our hunt for SR Funkeys was over & we played all the games. Then finally on June 10, the updates came through. It was a teaser. The excitement started again. We knew we'd see the new Funkeys soon. Then, there it was! On June 13th I found the new Dream State hub at the Toys R Us. But it was a bit disappointing because, like most funkey fans, we already have Bones. We can see from the new updates that Drift's game is in Funkeystown, therefore we would still not have access to the new zones yet.

So the wait continues. What is going on? Is Mattel just throwing us a bone? Something to hold our interest while we wait for the rest? My bad pun is that they are throwing us a "Bones".

Granted, it is a "starter kit", intended for those just starting out on the game. In that case, Bones might be a good character for them because they don't have it yet, and they will have access to Magma Gorge.

Thanks to "mellafunk" and "prolo245" and "wisteriatayu" (and thanks to Luli for her contributions as always) on the Funkey Fan Forum who got me thinking more about this. If you have an opinion on it, please join in on the conversation over on our forum, or leave a comment. Mellafunk has started a poll on our forum, take a minute to weigh in on your opinion.

Here are possible theories for the inclusion of Bones in the Dream State starter kit:

~ The new zones aren't ready yet, so Drift was released since his home (game & mart) are located in Funkeystown. That would also be a reason for including a series one Funkey.

~ Did Toy R Us release this Starter kit too early? So far it's the only store we've found it and there are no other choices of the other 9 Dream State funkeys to purchase yet. And now there's a long lag before we've seen anything else.

~Could this be just another marketing ploy to get us to buy more?

~ Is the Bones in this starter kit special, and different than the original Bones in series one? I tend to think it's not different because a new one isn't listed on the updated checklist by Mattel.

My biggest problem with the release of only this hub with only Drift from Dream State is that the packaging advertises "Unlock Daydream and Nightmare Zones". As this product is currently packaged, as it stands alone, that statement is not true. Part of it might be true, as the Nightmare Zone (called "Nightmare Rift") is unlocked in the sense that the portal is in place. If you were already playing the game, you would have received this 3.0 update through an automatic download (new hub not required if you already have one). However, we still do not have access to it until we can buy a Vlurp, Ptep, Sprocket, or Snipe. And we have yet to see the Daydream portal unlocked at all.

My question to anyone who has installed the disk from this Daydream hub for the first time ~ Did the Daydream portal unlock for you?

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