Best of Land: Haunted, Shrink Ray re-release, & hair PopStorms

Hey Poptropicans! Now that the final “Best of Land” challenge has ended, the Land public preview is now over (alpha version 2 is back to being members only). On Halloween, while we here at the PHB announced the winners of our 6th Annual Costume Competition, the Creators featured the best “Haunted” Land entries they received – and here they are (click to enlarge):

From Brave Owl, this is one forest we wouldn’t want to walk through at night.

From Cuddly Ring, a house of horrors with three levels of thrills.

From Dangerous Tooth, a classic haunted mansion.

From Fast Lizard, an amazing paranormal panorama.

From Fearless Lizard, a floating fear factory.

From Friendly Raptor, these are two great tastes that taste terrifying together.

From Invisible Octopus, this is one great pumpkin.

From Popular Fish, it’s a ghost ship adrift on a sickly sea.

From Prickly Fish, we’re just going to assume this gargantuan skeleton creature is reaching out for a big hug.

From Red Singer, there’s a surprise around every turn in this haunted house.

Captain Crawfish sure enjoys incorporating alliteration in his captions. 😉 You can vote for your favorite over on the poll in the sidebar of the Creators’ Blog. Right now, Brave Owl’s intricate tree and Fast Lizard’s grass monster are in the lead. Here are the results thus far:

• Brave Owl (24%)
• Cuddly Ring (4%)
• Dangerous Tooth (5%)
• Fast Lizard (24%)
• Fearless Lizard (10%)
• Friendly Raptor (3%)
• Invisible Octopus (3%)
• Popular Fish (3%)
• Prickly Fish (10%)
• Red Singer (11%)

Also, congratulations to Silver Lightning for being the readers’ choice for best “Obstacle Course” Land!

Poptropica Land is currently no longer available to non-members, but the Creators have stated that, with the help of our feedback and Land creations, they’re preparing for an official launch early next year – which may even be available to everyone (we’ll have to see)! 😀

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As mentioned earlier, Shrink Ray Island will soon be re-released as a SUI (sound-updated island), with bigger screen, sounds, and all the gimmicks of the newer islands! According to an official tweet, this update is coming in November – sometime this month! The official Tour page has even been given a makeover, now with a desktop wallpaper and printable poster (see below):

Oh look, it’s the protagonist CJ, from whom my Poptropican got that awesome striped hoodie! And… I know we’re miniature, but that’s a creepily big cat. 😮

Also, Members can now claim two new free Store costumes: the Milk Box and Bottle Cap!

(Maybe you recognize them from a sneak peek related to one of the “Inside Poptropica” videos. Speaking of videos, they’ve also re-uploaded the Shrink Ray Island trailer, but it is basically the same as the previous except for the “now with sound” emphasis and new soundtrack composed by Jeff Heim.)

As a classic island, Shrink Ray will come as a one-part story, rather than episodic (multi-part) – and according to Poptropica, more one-part islands will be released for both online & mobile starting January 2015. However, whether this means new one-part islands or just old ones re-hashed into SUIs remains to be seen. Hopefully it’s the former. 😛

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Over on Poptropica’s Twitter, two new sneak peeks called PopStorm (Poptropica brainstorm) have surfaced – perhaps a continuation of the Hair Potion idea? I still think it’d make a cool gold card item or something, and these sketches look goofily grand. 😀

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Last but not least, plans for an Android app are looking steadier! According to this tweet, it will be ready in just 5 more weeks, which at this point means it’ll be available in the first week or so of December.

That’s all for now – be sure to catch up on the posts below for all the latest Poptropica news and more! And here’s the popping bad pun for this post: Pop on like popcorn, Poptropicans. 😀