We had two themes going this year, Heroes and Villains, as well as a bonus invitation for group costumes. Below, we’ll be sharing our top 5 picks from each of the two themes, with one grand prize winner for each category selected to win a Poptropica membership from the PHB!
🦸♀️ Top 5 Heroes 🦸♂️
“Amethyst Princess” by Invisible Ring
“Camp Half-Blood Cutie” by Julie
“Galdera Volcana” by Drow
“Earthbug” by Purple Paw *
“Stellar Static” by Mess of a Being
Our grand prize winner for the Heroes category is: “Earthbug” by Purple Paw! What a fine assemblage of forestry elements! 🌳 In addition to being featured here, the top 5 costumes for both categories will also be immortalized on our Costumes page. And now for the wicked…
🦹♀️ Top 5 Villains 🦹♂️
“Villain” by Dangerous Icicle
“Villain” by White Knuckle
“Hellowine” by supersiu
“Necromaker” by Jean of Pop
“Villain” by Golden Tornado *
There wouldn’t be heroes without villains, and so, of course, we had to open up the floor for some spectacularly crooked costumes as well! Among the great many stupendous scoundrel suit-ups of this season, we’re choosing to bestow the honor of the grand prize to Golden Tornado for a villain with mesmerizing biotechnology. Congrats!
👯♀️ Group Costume 👯♀️
Though we didn’t get many group costume entries, quite a few of you made a whole series of costumes on your own, which was also pretty impressive! For this year’s bonus challenge of spookiest group costume, though, the prize goes to… the Dimension Bros!
The Dimension Bros dressed up as “Evil Condiments,” with Theo as a crafty (or dare we say Kraft-y) Ketchup and Isaac as a melancholic Mustard. But since the bros already have (very long) memberships going, we’ll work out an arrangement with them to award the membership prizes to other accounts—with relish!
⚔️ Honorable Mentions ⚔️
There were so many amazing entries, we just couldn’t fit them all above! So, to give you all a bigger taste of the many creative Halloween ‘fits from the community, here’s a selection of honorable mentions:
“She-Ra and Catra” by GEAR
“Jose Rizal, National Hero of the Philippines” by TheOrangeHe
“Gato de Sangre (Blood Cat)” by Purple Paw
“Necrosed Narcissus” by JayShondae2487
“Evil Ned Noodlehead” by Ryan
“Ghost of Poptropica” by Ramubai
“Mina Ashido, from My Hero Academia” by pegs
“Eyeball498” by Thirsty Crown
“Cyberbully” by Purple Paw
Like we mentioned earlier, some of you really ran with the zero limit on costume entries and created whole casts of impressive characters. Check out this seriously cool series of costumes from Drow, with both heroes and villains in the mix!
“Terry the Terminator” (villain)
“Galdera Volcana” (hero)
“Hypno-Hero”
“Mandrill” (from Marvel comics) (villain)
“Frostbite” (villain)
“Chris Toll” (villain)
“Creepiest”
“Marvin the Mass Murderer” (villain)
Whether you put on a costume to share with us or simply observed from the shadows, thanks for joining us in our Halloween festivities! You can browse even more spooktacular suit-ups in the comments of the contest post… but hurry, before they change their costumes.
🎃 Happy Halloween, and don’t go too hard on the candy! 🎃
Hey, everybody! Yesterday, we received some exciting news from the Poptropica Creators: a new line of Poptropica merch is coming soon!!!
As we’ve seen from their wide variety of products, Poptropica is no stranger to merchandise. Long-time players may remember that Poptropica once offered certain items such as clothing and wall decals, and it looks like this new merch line will provide that and then some.
The announcement post teased a few items that will be available for purchase. We have a sweatshirt with the Poptropica logo, a puzzle of one of the game’s wallpaper, and a blue and white ballcap with the iconic golden blimp. The designs of these items are simple yet recognizable.
Are there any particular products or designs that you would like to see in this new store? The Creators will be taking suggestions until November 4th, so let your ideas be heard!
With Halloween on our front doorstep, many dedicated celebrators are making their costumes. In the holiday spirit, the Creators asked Instagram users to share their in-game Halloween costumes with the hashtag #popghouls for a chance to be featured on the Creators’ Blog! Don’t miss out on this scary cool opportunity!
Whenever we talk about Poptropica and Instagram, we also need to share the cool fan content they highlight on their stories. The Creators featured some spooky and groovy artwork as well as Lucky Joker’s Golden Guerilla costume!
Speaking of costumes, tomorrow is the last day to submit your entries to the PHB Halloween costume contest! Make sure you submit before October 30th 11:59 pm EST for a chance to win a Poptropica membership! Also, feel free to make some spooky stuff for Poptober and Community Creations, which are ongoing until the end of October.
Good luck to everyone submitting, and have a happy Halloween!
Hey Poptropicans, we’ve got a special feature for you! Have you ever thought about bringing Poptropica to school? Meet the Poptropica Pals, an official university student club who’s managed to do just that!
The Poptropica Pals operate at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and the club has been officially recognized by their student senate since fall 2019. Check out their Instagram @uri_poptropica_pals, and read on for the PHB’s interview with the Pals to hear about their experiences!
Peep the Poptropica Help Blog shout-out on the Pals’ Instagram!
The PHB reached out to the Pals and they graciously took the time to share a bit about their club with us. Here’s what they had to say:
PHB: Thanks for your openness in sharing! Let’s begin with the basics. What are your names, years, and majors?
Pals: The leadership of the Poptropica Pals includes: the president, Benjamin Cloutier, senior, communications major; vice president Trey DiGioia, senior, acting major; treasurer Eric Creton, junior, marketing major; secretary Athena Nakrosis, senior, directing major; and parliamentarian Mirielle Jaser, sophomore, oceanic geology major.
PHB: How did you get into the Poptropica fandom? How has your experience been?
Pals: We all started playing Potropica when when we were in elementary school, and for the most part have been keeping up and playing new islands ever since. The only poor part of our experiences has been the introduction of paid memberships, and the loss of some classic islands. Many of us are die-hard fans of Jeff Kinney and his Diary of a Wimpy Kid children’s book series, and this only serves to fuel the flame that is our love for Poptropica.
PHB:Why did you start the URI Poptropica Pals? What did the process of starting the club look like?
Pals: We needed to campaign to get our school to approve the club’s formation. This required a list of at least 10 group members, their contact information, and a list of elected members of the club’s executive board. We created a flier and started getting the word out that we wished to form a club at the University of Rhode Island.
We initially designed the club as the “K-Poptropicans,” a club to focus on both Poptropica and K-pop. However, at our initial meeting with Rhody Senate, there was another club up for review called “The K-Pop Club,” and we thought it best to rebrand and stick our club to one main theme: Poptropica. Although not the entirety of the student senate was on board, we got the majority approval and we were named an official school club (but at the lowest level). Since then, we have kept the club running and have recently been recognized as a next tier club due to the amount of time we have been an official club.
Poptropica meets the Rhode Island Rams and other aspects of Rhody student life on the Pals’ Instagram page!
PHB:How many have joined the Poptropica Pals? How do people respond to your recruitment?
Pals: The Pals have around 35 members currently, though attendance varies. The issue with recruitment is that it is hard to get incoming freshmen to join clubs now that the COVID-19 crisis has plagued us all. We had planned to attend the club festival on the first night of term, but that was canceled and the club took a real hit as a result. We still get the occasional email or DM on our club’s Instagram, but having that club fair would have helped in gravitating new students towards our club.
PHB:What do Poptropica Pals club meetings look like?
Pals: There are three types of meetings the Poptropica Pals hold: Typical, Executive, and Outings.
Typical meetings are meetings in which the whole club is invited, and we usually meet at the campus library, although other computer labs have been used in our campus’s main building. We usually spend the first half of our meetings discussing Poptropica news and any tips or fun easter eggs our members may have found, and we often play games in the island common rooms. Customizing our characters and trading clothing items occurs during this part too.
The second half of these typical meetings usually just entails free time, where members can play through islands or talk, and eat snacks that don’t make a mess. Of course, with the virus, these meetings have decreased in attendance, but a few online gatherings have taken place in a safe, socially distant manner.
Executive meetings are those where only the executive board members are present. Here we often discuss and plan future meetings, as well as speed-run islands to try to beat personal best times. These executive meetings help bring us closer together and bond in ways that expand the sense of community and provide us with the interpersonal skills to lead the club in a collaborative environment. Snacks are always available.
Outings are our most fun meetings. Whether it’s a trip to scope out a new computer lab, or a Live-Action-Roleplay session of the end sequence from 24 Carrot Island, our outings are a way to bring the club together and deviate screen time from time we actually spend together. These meetings can often be small groups of 5–10 people, and are held both at random and at the request of a member. The Poptropica Pals aren’t just named that because of alliteration. We really are pals — and even more than that, we’re a family.
PHB:What advice do you have for other college students interested in starting their own clubs, whether for Poptropica or otherwise?
Pals: Never let them tell you no. When you’re standing before 20+ upperclassmen and trying to explain to them why your college needs a club for an online game designed for developing children, it’s easy to let them push you around, asking questions and looking down on you. The best thing you can do is stand tall with pride, and leave no doubt in their mind that this club is something that would make college better for you.
At the end of the day, even if they tell you no, DO IT ANYWAY! Even if it’s just you and a couple friends talking about Hot Wheels or eating different kinds of jelly beans. “The Hot Wheels Lovers” and “The Jelly Fellas” both sound like great clubs to me, and if it’s what makes you happy, DO IT. Even if it isn’t an official university recognized club like the URI Poptropica Pals, that doesn’t mean it’s not still a club!
Pals: Feel free to follow us on social media — our club Instagram is @uri_poptropica_pals! Members of the executive board also run a non-affiliated meme page @poptropicaprobs.
Be yourself and people will like you.
Jeff Kinney
We hope you enjoyed this special segment with the collegiate Poptropica Pals! Thanks again to the Pals leaders for sharing with us.
Has Poptropica been a part of your school life? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments and on the PHC Discord! For more community stories, check out the PHB’s My Place in Poptropica series.
Hello, everyone! It’s Lucky Joker here with some fun stuff to share with you all today: scary moments, more fan art, and a throwback highlight for a YouTube gamer. Let’s pop into it!
On Instagram and the Creators’ Blog, Poptropica asked the community: What’s the scariest moment in Poptropica? Appropriately timed for the spooky Halloween season! Check out some of the responses below.
Here were some of the answers given by Poptropicans in the comments:
scoutin0ut wrote, “Definitely the Ghost Story [Island] ‘Are you looking for someone?’ part!! I jumped out of my seat and actually gasped during that!”
cacaocheri added, “For me, it was walking through the tunnel in Zomberry [Island].”
Gentle Dolphin of the PHB shared, “One scene that still unnerves me is the haunted house on Monster Carnival Island. I’m not a fan of jumpscares, so a creepy puppet popping out of random doors is definitely terrifying.”
What was your scariest Poptropica memory? Share with us in the comments here on the PHB, our PHC Discord server, or on Poptropica’s official channels!
In other Creator-fandom interactions, Poptropica also showcased more awesome fan art on their Instagram story this past week. Check out the poptastic gallery below (including a piece from Gentle Dolphin with the spooktacular Jersey Devil of Cryptids Island!)…
Pretty neat, huh? I encourage all of you to get creative and whip up your own Poptropica fan art too. For inspiration, we’ve got Poptober and Community Creations going!
And who knows? Your work just might get featured!
And finally, we have a video feature from the Creators’ Blog showing kid gaming YouTuber EthanGamer playing Poptropica for the first time—and since it’s an older video (from 2016), he’s playing Monkey Wrench Island, the old tutorial that has since been replaced by Snagglemast. The Creators loved his joy over the Hot Dog costume too! Give it a watch:
Hey, friends! Gentle Dolphin here with the latest Poptropica news! Today, we’ll be taking a look behind the curtains and seeing some future updates as well as what goes into the making of an island experience.
Back in May 2019, the Creators asked players for feedback on how to improve Poptropica’s friends feature. Now, in October 2020, we finally get a sneak peek of the new friends feature coming soon to Haxe!
The one feature fans requested the most was the ability to find and add their friends via usernames, which was part of the original friends feature back in 2012. It looks like the Creators will be implementing this small but handy feature back to the Poptropica Friends experience. One interesting thing to note is that it looks like you can either accept or deny friend requests from other players, similar to Facebook.
Seeing the username feature return makes us wonder if any other old features such as pop quizzes and medallions will also return to Poptropica Friends, whether immediately with the update or later down the line. We’ll have to wait and see if that’s the case.
Hopping over to Instagram, the Creators posted another sneak peek. This one is a short video showing a few kids inside a large spinning device, and the caption doesn’t give any more information. The design reminds me of a nut and bolt, so maybe it’s a hardware-themed fair attraction or observation tower? Judging by how fast it’s going, something may have gone wrong. What do you guys think?
With the Zomberry Hero special event going strong, the Creators posted a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of this event. We’ll only be covering the bare essentials, but you can read the original post for a more in-depth look of their creative process.
First, the Creators shared some concept art for the opening comic page. The artists start with a rough storyboard, then create a formal sketch closer to the game’s art style. Once the sketch is approved, the artists can then create the final piece.
Several artists also help design the various levels that players will explore, following a similar process to the comic artists. They also play a role in helping the developers understand how certain elements will work in the game.
After the art is complete, the developers can move on to animation and coding! As you can see below, the game’s assets are animated in Adobe Animate, and everything is coded in Haxe Javascript (the game’s current engine).
Last but not least, there’s the factor of sound. Not only is Jeff Heim’s music a big part of the experience, there are also the sound effects, such as the eerie moaning of the zombies. This audio sample here was made by an anonymous Pop Creator with the help of blankets!
What do you guys think of these sneak peeks? What other fan-favorite features do you wish to see return in the future, and what do you think that Instagram video is about?
There’s one week left to enter our annual PHB Halloween costume contest so make sure to submit your entries before October 30! Also, don’t forget about Poptober and Community Creations, which are ongoing until the end of this month. We love what you guys have been sharing so far, and we can’t wait so see what else you have in store!
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