Author: Slanted Fish

Hello! I'm Slanted Fish, the editor-in-chief and creator of the Poptropica Help Blog (PHB). I'm a writer, Hong Kong native, and Christ follower. My Poptropica username is slantedfish 🐠 Don't forget to be awesome!
Advertisements, Daily Pop, Merchandise, Sneak Peeks

Take it in but don’t look down – new menu, MU hat, peak peeks

Slanted Fish

It looks like another ordinary day at the rundown carrot cake factory – windows are still cracked as boards cover up the dilapidation, and inside, Dr. Hare is probably barking orders at his minion drones (unless, of course, you’ve freed them). But wait! What’s that in the top-right corner?

Seems like the Creators are planning to simplify the game a bit by combining all the tabs (inventory, map, etc) into one handy location! Also, if you click on the sneak peek image, you might notice that it’s bigger than usual – maybe we’ll get to play Poptropica in full screen or something?

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If you visit Main Street (I was on Early Poptropica), you’ll see a video ad for Monsters University, which will be in theaters June 21! Who else is looking forward to this movie? 😀 Anyway, watch the trailer for your free MU Hat! There’s a dropdown menu listing in your inventory for Monsters University, and it looks like this green advertisement tab will keep changing every time there’s a new ad.

MU hat

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Now let’s look at some recent Daily Pop peeks! We’ve got mountain climbing at Mt. Funshine, a work office, Cool Cow milk truck (likely related to Grunwald’s Cheese Factory), and even a volcanic peak. Wonder where it all ties in.

Mount Improbable – Mountaineering is too dangerous these days.

Mount Improbable

Subterranean – Bold innovations in workspace design.

Subterranean

Milk Run – We just need to crash this into the chocolate syrup truck.

Milk Run

Peak Condition – From the vault, a lost level of Poptropica.

Peak Condition

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Last week, the Creators announced the Poptropica Shop, which was covered in my previous post. One cool thing about the personalized clothing is that it doesn’t have to be your own character, so that means you can get a shirt or hoodie with any Poptropican as long as you have their username!

I’m saying this because Captain Crawfish has not-so-subtly hinted that you can get one of him, and if you’d like to do that, his username is CaptainCrawfishCreator. In fact, if you visit the PHB’s Friend Finder page, you’ll find a whole collection of usernames, including other Poptropica Creators, PHB staff, rare costume accounts, and more.

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Well, it’s about time to wrap up this lengthy post! Summer’s coming, which might mean getting tanned burnt orange if you’re a Poptropica member, surfing tidal waves, creating nanobots, or whatever it is you do when you’re bored on Poptropica! DFTBA!

Merchandise

Poptropica Shop ’til you drop – now with personalized clothing!

Slanted Fish

A whole new section of Poptropica goods are now available for purchase – Poptropica personalized clothing with your unique avatar printed on them! Plus your Poptropican’s name! It’s every Poptropican’s dream! (Well, unless you’ve got a weird name like, hm… “Sleepy Peanut”? I don’t know.)

Anyway, to check out this gear, just visit the all-new Poptropica Shop page, enter your username, and you’ll be brought to Ty’s Toy Box, where you can select from lots of different shirt designs and hoodies of various colors! There’s hot pink, royal blue, gray, and a few others of similar tints, so maybe you’ll find one you like. Shirts are US$17.95, hoodies are $24.99, and zip-up hoodies are $39.99. Remember to order to the right size! Also, it seems like they’ll only ship within the States.

For a list of all the options, as well as Poptropica’s other merchandise, check out the PHB article Merchandise: A Guide to Poptropica Shopping. They’re listed under “Personalized Clothing.”

Are there any you’d like to buy? Which one(s)? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Pop 5

5 reasons Poptropica is the best virtual world for kids

Slanted Fish

While surfing through the waves of the web, I came across an article called “Five things learned from five years of Poptropica“, which you can click to read if you’re interested. It’s written by Director D – I mean James Lema, the director of product development at Poptropica.

DubitHeader

Anyway, onto the good part! Here were 5 reasons James cited as what makes Poptropica a better kids’ virtual world than any other game:

  1. We are not building a game. Let’s create a collection of narrative driven quests.

  2. Ask for age and gender. If they want to register, ask them after they have played around for a while.

  3. 2D is faster, cheaper… and none of us know 3D.

  4. We will use pre-scripted / random chat.

  5. We are NOT Facebook for kids.

Interestingly, Poptropica started out with a staff of just two artists, one of them being Lema, and Poptropicans spend an average of 30 minutes per session on the site! If you’d like to read more, check out Lema’s Poptropica article on Dubit, which explains the 5 things more in-depth.

Want to know what we at the PHB think about Poptropica? Check out our Poptropica: Game Review article in the Cool Stuff section!

Now the question is, why do YOU think Poptropica is awesome? Let us know in the comments! 😀

Advertisements, Uncategorized

To Max Steel and moms everywhere: it could get ‘harey’

Slanted Fish

Earlier this week, PHB author Angry Wing found “Max Steel” mysteriously listed in green at the top of his item inventory. This has now disappeared, though the new “Closet” (leading to one’s costume closet) above the [also new] dashed line is still here. Subtle indeed!

max steel

Last week on Poptropica, there was a video ad on Main Streets for Max Steel, a new Disney XD TV series. Watching the video awarded viewers with a costume and super power of Max McGrath’s tech alien, Steel. Sadly, I don’t have pictures, and all I could find of this ad was a blurry YouTube video.

What could this mean? Will there be more Max Steel in Poptropica’s future, or was this just a glitch? What if we get to keep all advertisement items in the future?! That would be awesome, especially considering the Creators disabled the Poptropica Ad Transporters a while back.

UPDATE: PHB commenter Abigail informs us that “Scholastic Summer” (a book-reading challenge) now takes the top spot in the items dropdown menu. Once again, clicking on it will tell you “You don’t have any items for this campaign yet. Explore Poptropica to see what you can find!”

This could mean that we’ll only get to keep our ad items until a new ad replaces the previous one, as commenter Fruitbat7777 speculates. Perhaps they’ll release this ad soon!

Scholastic Summer

On a different note, the Creators blogged about this Dr. Hare fan art they received from Poptropican Cool Crown, complete with a Dr. Hare plush toy. Watch out… it could get “harey”!

Lastly, this Sunday (as are all other second Sundays of May) is Mother’s Day! The Creators have posted a lovely Tribute to the Moms of Poptropica on their blog (featuring the likes of CJ’s mom on Shrink Ray, Katya’s mom on Vampire’s Curse, and more).

But there’s another definition to “Poptropica moms,” and that’s all the mothers whose son or daughter is a Poptropica player! If that’s you reading this, happy Mother’s Day!

LEGO Poptropica, Wallpapers

Little Evil Genius – Dr Hare Wallpaper

Slanted Fish

Dr. Hare’s LEGO CUUSOO project has reached 6,000+ supporters, and as promised, the Creators have released a brand-new Dr. Hare drone-head, carrot-laden wallpaper for you to deck out your desktop!

The little evil genius in the pink rabbit suit welcomes you in green or blue backgrounds for multiple devices and screen sizes. If you want this green-goggled face greeting you when you look at your screen, download it for the device you want it on:

Now we’re only ~4,000 supporters away from the goal of the big ten thousand! So if you haven’t already, and you’re over 13 (or know someone old enough to represent your vote) – you know what I’m going to say next – vote for Dr. Hare’s Lair on LEGO CUUSOO to make it a reality!