Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans—this is a guest post by Incredible Joker, who is piloting a new series here on the PHB. Got a Poptropica question? Ask the Joker!

Ice cubes! Now that I have gotten your attention with something as cool as I am, let me start explaining what this is all about…

Hello there, I am Incredible Joker and I will be trying out a new old idea. Back in the day, the PHB published a Poptropica fan magazine known as POPCORN or formerly The Poptropican’s 911 (you can read the archives here!). One of the segments in the earlier issues was “Ask PHB,” where the PHB team would answer your Poptropica-related questions.

And now, I’d like to bring that back—with a new flavor. As the PHB team is busy creating other amazing things on this blog, I have taken it into my own hands, or whatever it is we Poptropicans have, to host a Q&A segment here on the PHB. It’s called “Ask the Joker.”

This is where I invite all of you, dear readers, to send in your questions, anything at all — as long as it’s related to Poptropica! It can be about the game or the fandom surrounding it—from island help to glitches to crafting a fashionable seasonal outfit to fan-made art, stories, and so much more—I will try and answer what I can, helpfully and humorously (after all, you are asking a joker!). 😜

As this is just the pilot, we are still working out the structure of these Q&As, like how often it will be and how many questions we will answer in each post. It does depend on how popular this gets (or how little 😅)—so go ahead and share a question (or two or three) with me before you forget what popped to mind!

How can you send in your questions to Ask the Joker?

That’s a great question! You can use the following methods:

📧 Send an email to justaskthejoker (at) gmail (dot) com. This way, you’ll get to keep your questions a surprise when they get answered on the blog.
💬 Comment on the latest Ask the Joker post. Your questions will be publicly visible before they appear in a Q&A post, but this allows others to interact with your question if they so choose. If you don’t have an email address, you can enter a fake one in the email field when you post your comment.

I look forward to receiving and answering your questions in the next Ask the Joker! And for anyone still trying to get some inspiration for their questions, how about checking out the old PHB fan magazines?

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Incredible Joker. If you’ve got a burning Poptropica question or two, Ask the Joker for a fresh perspective!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB, and share blog posts on the PHC, our Discord server.

📰 If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in! ✨

Contests, Goofball Island

Goofball Island throws us for a curveball of a recurring dream ✏️🤪

January 10, 2021January 9, 2021 Slanted Fish

After making us wait a week longer than promised, this Thursday Poptropica finally unveiled the next winner of the Design Your Dream Island Contest: Goofball Island by Thirsty Flame!

Here’s the description from the Creators’ Blog announcement:

The plot: In a colorful and bizarre-looking town populated by joke-loving and silly citizens, the evil scientist, Dr. Blandston, has invented a device to take away the town’s color and goofiness. It’s up to you to defeat Dr. Blandston and destroy his machine before he can turn the entire island into a dull, gray, land.

It’s an interesting idea for sure — but one that has, in a similar form, appeared in the Poptropica universe. Though color snatching hasn’t been a theme of any island in the game before, Poptropica did release a book back in 2012 with a similar premise, complete with evil villain.

Pencil Warrior was a 16-page activity book where a mad scientist named Arthur Eraser tries to steal all of Poptropica with his Super Eraser, and use the stolen materials to build his own island, Evil Eraser Island. In the blank spaces of the partially erased scenes in the book, you can draw things to return Poptropica to normalcy, reversing the “colorless chaos.”

Cover of the “Pencil Warrior” activity book

Still, the book is perhaps obscure enough that Goofball Island will feel fresh for most players. Plus, having another delusional doctor in the game checks out, considering the crazes for Drs. Hare and Beev. And “Doctors” is also this month’s theme for Community Creations, so get coloring before an unstable desperado wipes things out!

Unlike with the announcement of Fairy Tale Island, which is slated for 2021, there’s no mention of when Goofball Island will be released. Presumably it’s going to be a while, what with the Creators’ current priorities on converting old islands to the new Haxe build that Poptropica runs on. The Creators also mention that they’ll be announcing more winners, though no timeline this time — it could be another week or more again for all we know. Stay tuned!

Congrats, Thirsty Flame, for dreaming up this future Poptropica island! What are your thoughts on Goofball Island? Intriguing, or just too goofy for its own good? 🤪 Share with us in the comments!

~🐠

Fan Art Features, Member Gifts, Social Media, Store, Video of the Week

Stylish packs and spider pranks 🐻🕷

January 9, 2021June 6, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, new member gifts are here, and they come in packs of three! First up is the Furry Purse Pack, with variants of a cute brown bear, happy pink bunny (not at all like the evil Dr. Hare), and a sleepy gray kitty. It’s an overshirt item, so it can’t go with jackets.

Then there’s the Snowboard Pack, which has a version with stripes of different colors, another that says “Powder” (interesting brand name?), and one with rounded lines and shades of purple.

The last batch of bonus goods are the RC Cars, or remote controlled cars, although you can’t see the remote. They come in blue (with flames), red (with lightning), or green (truck style), and pressing space bar will make the car drive around a couple times on the ground.

All in all, that’s 9 new member gifts to kick off the new year! But if you don’t have a membership yet, why not enter our giveaways for Free Poptropica Membership? That’s right, this newly launched feature on the PHB gives away free membership to a lucky Poptropican every month, and entering is as easy as 1-2-3. Get started »

While that’s happening, there’s plenty of new stuff for all players over at the store. In addition to some classics, the latest update includes 7 new items: the Floral Tee, Camo Kid, and Record Spinner in costumes, plus a Spider Prank, Jetpack, Baby Penguin Follower, and White Combat Boots. Check out the full stock in the gallery below (thanks, Gentle Dolphin):

Take a look at a couple of these new items in action below. They sure look like they could become fun common room classics in the Haxe era!

The RC Car, one of the member gifts, in action — driving around.

In other news, here’s what the Pop Creators have been featuring this week on social media. On their Instagram story this Friday, they shared two pieces of fan art as well as a snap of Binary Bard socks from the Poptropica merch store. Have you gotten your Pop swag yet?

Pop characters as humans by @hfevra (link)

On the Creators’ Blog, they shared a Video of the Week from Shade-e’s 101, who recorded himself exploring his friend’s clubhouse. The Creators mentioned how they loved seeing the Poptropica community be supportive of one another, and that you can tag your videos with “Poptropica” for a chance to have them featured!

There’s a lot more going on in Poptropica and the fandom than we can fit in this post! Catch up on other news below, like the new Legendary Swords: Match 3 mini-game, and stay tuned for further commentary about the reveal of the second winner of the Design Your Dream Island Contest: Goofball Island. 🤔⚔️🤪

By the way, if you’re a Poptropica fan who’s eager to hear about the latest news as soon as it drops, consider joining the PHC, our Discord server! On the PHC, fans can share and respond to things more immediately than we can blog about them, though of course, we’re still committed to maintaining quality records and commentary here on the blog — it just takes a bit of time. Thanks for sticking with us, and pop on!

~🐠

Free Membership Giveaways

Introducing the PHB’s FREE Poptropica Monthly Membership Giveaways! 🎁

January 8, 2021January 1, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, you read that right: the Poptropica Help Blog is starting a new initiative of giving away free Poptropica memberships!

We know how hard it can be to miss out on the special perks that members get, and we want to give you all a chance to get in on that fun. By the way, if you need a refresher on what membership has to offer, check out our Membership Tour page, updated for 2021!

All the details about the giveaways can be found on our new Free Poptropica Membership page, which you can find under the Community tab in our site menu. Here are the basics:

To enter for your chance to win, comment on the Free Poptropica Membership page and leave at least two other comments around the PHB within the month to be entered into that month’s giveaway.
We’ll announce a winner sometime in the final week of each month. If you don’t win, you can always try again for the next month!

For the full details, including all caveats and the philosophies behind these giveaways, head on over to the PHB’s Free Poptropica Membership page. That’s also where you get started on entering the monthly raffles!

We’re excited to bring you these opportunities for hopefully a long time to come. With both the thrill of a lucky draw as well as the encouragement to get involved with the Poptropica community, what are you waiting for? We’ll meet you in the PHB comments! 🥳

Keep on popping on,
~the PHB 💙

Escape from Pelican Rock Island, Fan Art Features, Social Media

Pop Quiz: 😇 Good or evil? 😈

January 4, 2021June 6, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, pop quiz incoming! Head over to Escape From Pelican Rock Island and you’ll find a new pop-up stand right in front of Bay City Bank on Main Street asking: Good vs Evil — Which are you?

Click to “Take Quiz” and you’ll get five fun questions to determine just how malicious of a person you are. The quiz is hosted on Interact Quiz Maker, so you can also visit its direct link here to take this pop quiz!

(Spoiler) If you answered like you’re an angel, your result is that “You’re a good one! Phew! You’re certainly not evil. High-five!” But if you pick even one of any of the guilty responses, you’ll get “Evil Villain! You’re a regular human who does questionable stuff sometimes. Unless you answered yes to the last question. You may be an evil mastermind!”

Thanks, BrittScarlet, for letting us know about the quiz update — as well as this next one. If you check your Poptropica messages, you might find a new one that promises new games starting in January!

Also in your messages, you may find a notification about the announcement of the Design Your Dream Island Contest winner. In case you missed it, Fairy Tale Island is only the first of a few winners — we’re still waiting to hear about the rest, which were supposed to be announced last week!

In other news, Poptropica rang in the new year with an art feature on their Instagram story: @capax_infini’s latest piece with Poptropicans celebrating. Here on the PHB, we also shared our latest Community Creations on New Year’s Day, including another piece from GEAR (capax_infini) featuring an anthropomorphic Dr. Beev with fan-made Dr. Nyah! A perfect intro for this month’s creation theme: Doctors!

If you’ve been traveling around Poptropica lately, you may have noticed the recent ad for The Croods popping up at inopportune moments, as its own ad scene with an incongruent background: the hand-drawn streets of Timmy Failure Island. You might come across it while entering and exiting buildings on Home Island, for example.

But recently, it’s gotten more ridiculous, even appearing right as you jump in your blimp. Tell me, Poptropica, why I’m having to cross the street before flying off to a new island? The game world might defy logic from time to time, but this much? What do you think?

Speaking of ads, there’s another one on the map: American Girl has returned, but this time as a bit of an Australian Girl. Check out our deep dive into American Girl: Kira’s Island, with all its authenticities and oddities, in the post below! See ya later, mate. 🦘

~slanted fish 🐠