Ready for some spooky action? Halloween is coming at the end of this month, and the new Lockwood & Co. ad on ad streets seems to be in the right spirit (I found it beside the mill in Survival Ep. 5).
Inside the building, once you find the three ghosts (in the rattling teapot to the right, the cracked mirror on the left, and rocking horse at the top) – you’ll win the Skull in a Jar follower, which says “I’m a skull in a jar” in a deep voice when you click on it. Creeeeeepy. 😛
(UPDATE: The Creators’ Blog mentioned this little thing in their post about Lockwood – “Not a flamin’ skull, unfortunately, but you can’t have everything.” Could they, perhaps, be talking about the greatest Poptropica band of the days of yore? Hmm. 😉 We were pretty cool, but our glory days are over.)
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More behind-the-scenes from Twitter
Poptropica has been on a roll recently on Twitter, and over the past day they’ve released even more awesome behind-the-scenes (BTS) images! For even more BTS pics, see the PHB posts below.
Lastly, Poptropica finally rolled out the anticipated furniture feature to Land earlier this week, and they’re calling it Props. Great for making your Land a little more homey! You can read more about it in our Poptropica Land guide, but we hope to update you guys with more specifics soon, so stay tuned. 🙂
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PoptropiCon, Ep. 2: description & poster
Thanks to Sneaky Panda for the tip that the description for the second episode of PoptropiCon (titled “Spoiler Alert”) is now up on the official Tour page! Here’s what it says:
The winner of the PoptropiCon costume contest will earn a one-of-a-kind prize. See if you can put together the ultimate villain outfit, but beware — the action at this convention is about to get real!
Looks like noon is approaching, and the cosplay contest is about to begin…
They’ve also added a new printable poster to the Tour page, and it looks pretty cool! You can view and click on it below. (thanks to Slippery Raptor for the tip!)
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Of course, the big news of this week is that Arabian Nights Island: Ep. 1 is now out for members, and for non-members, everyone can finally play Survival: Ep. 5! More info and helpful links about that in HPuterpop’s post. 😉 Have a great weekend, Poptropicans!
Hey Poptropicans! A new common room has been added to PoptropiCon Island: Facili-Tee, located right outside the convention center! Funny that they released this after the island came out, but at least we have a new common room… that hasn’t happened for the past two islands. 😛
By the way, have you found the special “7” balloon in the common rooms yet? It’s quite rare, so it may take several tries, but you’ll win a snazzy 7th birthday costume if you manage to pop it. Good news: the Creators say they’ll be turning up the frequency of the balloon’s appearance, so there’s now a better chance of finding it. 🙂 Here’s a video from HPuterpop showing what that looks like:
Poptropica’s birthday party only lasts through September, so once the month ends, so will your chances to get the special costume and free balloon in the Store – so pick those up quick! Also, you can click here to check out the recap of the PHB’s celebration of Pop’s 7th birthday. 🙂
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Poptropica Music tour page
Poptropica Music now has its own page, which you can find here. It currently advertises the Volume One music album, and while you can listen to previews of the first two tracks there, you can hear previews for all the tracks on their actual iTunes and Amazon pages.
If you like listening to Poptropica’s music, check out our Behind the Scenes page, where we’ve listed links to where you can listen to these tracks online through Poptropica’s own files! (Be sure to read the simple instructions on the page to get those links to work.)
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Mighty Action Force = Avengers?
Have you noticed that PoptropiCon’s “Mighty Action Force” parodies some of the characters in Marvel’s The Avengers? Gold Face is Iron Man, World Guy is Captain America, and Elf Archer is Hawkeye or Black Widow (not to be confused with the Black Widow of Counterfeit Island!). It checks out:
Anyway, just a heads-up that you can find cool trivia facts like this and more on all the PHB’s island trivia pages, which are all listed under the Island Help hub page. For more PoptropiCon trivia, click here!
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Daily Pop: legendary E. Vile & furniture
Among all the recent Daily Pop sneak peeks, these two in particular may be of interest – first is “Props to You”, which features the Legendary Swords villain E. Vile in his spectacular helmet (and your rocket) as decorations in the PoptropiCon convention hall, and the second is a preview of some furniture, most likely as an upcoming feature for Land (Labs). Here they are:
Props to You: May your legend never fade.
Furnished: Set the place up however you’d like.
Will we ever see a return for Legendary Swords? They used to promise a battle arena at the end of the quest, but this message has inconspicuously been removed from the ending for some time now (after they failed to deliver on it for three years, I might add 😛 ). RIP. 😦
As for Land, it’s likely we’ll get to play with furniture sometime soon, to further develop the many cool houses (among other awesome things) people have been making — but for now, maybe the PHB’s Land (Labs) guide will help you members get started with this cool feature if you want some tips.
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As is typical in these days, the action in Poptropica doesn’t stop — so be sure to check out the other posts on the PHB home page to catch up with all the news! Stay popping, Poptropicans. 😀
Hey guys! We already know that the BoxTrolls ad has been showing up on some islands, but two new ads have popped up too. Unlike a lot of ads, these don’t come with a “quest” or “game”, just a video for one and a click for the other.
First up is Disney Infinity, which now includes superheroes. You can find it on Reality TV Island. All you have to do is watch a video to earn your prize, which is a “Bring on the Super Heroes” power. When activated, a screen appears with a few Marvel super heroes, but that is pretty much it.
The second ad is for Mr. Peabody and Sherman, coming to Blu-Ray and DVD on October 14. You can find it on Steamworks Island, and all you have to do is click it to earn your two prizes: a pink Cake Costume and a link to take Penny’s Personality Quiz (which tells you somewhere you should visit).
Also, the Creators recently featured some more awesome new Land creations on their Twitter page:
Rough Peanut’s deli
Big Raptor’s house
Creepy Gamer’s statue
Fierce Wolf’s “Despicable Me” minions
Neat Beetle’s… awesome house thing
Amazing work! The Creators even said that Big Raptor’s creation was their favorite yet. It’s kind of hard to see, but the interior design definitely is detailed. 😉
Hey Poptropicans! This is going to be another mega-post on the many Poptropica-related things happening recently – but while you’re reading the PHB, don’t miss out on the new BoxTrolls ad, Survival Ep. 5 for members, the upcoming “Home” feature, and more news from the posts below! 😀
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Poptropica: A Story You Can Play
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a beloved story. No wonder it’s been made into two movies and a stage musical (and even other video games). Because we consider story to be the most important part of a Poptropica Island, this, too, was both a challenge and an opportunity when bringing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Poptropica.
How do we re-tell a familiar tale, full of beloved characters and situations, while adding an unpredictable new character: the player? How do we make the player a part of the story without changing the story, but allowing the player the sense of freedom and control that a video game requires?
[To read the rest of Poptropica’s entry, click here!]
Since its third year, every year, Poptropica has celebrated its birthday in the month of September – but never with an exact birthday date mentioned. This year will be Poptropica’s 7th year, and in response to a question from Slippery Raptor, Poptropica revealed over Twitter that Poptropica’s birth took the entire month of September (2007) — hence the celebrations being not on any one single day.
This year, however, they’re planning to have their festivities on the 18th – which is this Thursday! We can probably expect a birthday costume with a “7” b’day balloon, and maybe some balloons in the common rooms. In the past, they’ve also re-released retired items — we’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for this year’s party!
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More featured Land creations
Poptropica Land: alpha version 2 may have been around for a while now, but the Creators are constantly being impressed by all the elaborate creations Poptropica members are making. Here are the latest to be featured on their official Twitter(click to enlarge images):
Cool Speck: crystal home
Golden Leaf: ship
Messy Lion: not quite sure what this is, but it’s cool!
The PHB has previously mentioned Jeff Heim, Poptropica’s resident (and very talented) music composer — and while the recent release of Poptropica’s first ever music album may be unavailable to some due to cost, listening to Jeff’s Soundcloud tracks is totally free!
If you haven’t checked out his Poptropica collection in a while, you may now notice that he’s added several new tracks, mostly owing to the recent Survival and Mission Atlantis episodes.
In the comments of the “Science Fair” track, you may even notice Jeff’s response to HPuterpop saying that he “uploaded this track in part because I noticed you used it at the end of your Survival 3 Walk-through video”! Awesome.
One of my personal favorites, though, is the jaunty little tune that is PoptropiCon’s main theme. It just builds up to sound really epic as you get into it, plus it can get pretty catchy. 😀
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Don’t miss out on all the other cool things happening in Poptropica lately — you can catch up with all the PHB posts below! Keep on popping on, Poptropicans.
Some Poptropicans have noticed that, in their medallion collections, a new blank medallion has been inserted between those of Survival: Episode 1 and Mythology. If you hover over it, it says “Home not yet completed.” But what exactly is ‘Home‘?
Well, a few recent Daily Pop sneak peeks might give us a hint — and from the looks of it, it’s a “hub” area that involves character customization!
Iconic: Whatever you want, with the press of a button.
One Stop Shop: Say hello to our bundle of joy.
Just a Trim: Or an entire makeover, if you’d like.
Over on Poptrickia, Nice Hawk has uncovered that this “Home” world will be for Poptropica’s mobile app (currently available on iOS), and you can see the design still follows the “sky island” theme of the app’s “tutorial” island. Here are some sneak peeks, courtesy of Poptrickia:
In the first scene with the blimp, the blue box is for the logo of the island you last traveled to, and from here, you can enter the two customization buildings: the Bundles Shop and New You.
The Bundles Shop sells gold card costumes and items from the Store, but whether this will cost real money on the app remains to be seen. New You contains a barbershop with a Colorizer, where presumably you can change your hairstyle and colors. There are also three pedestals — perhaps a costume closet of sorts? We’ll have to wait and see!
Cosmoe on Main Street
Remember Cosmoe from the Funbrain graphic novel Galactic Hot Dogs? (By the way, GHD is publishing its first book in May 2015!) Anyway, Cosmoe has appeared a few times on Poptropica before, but now he’s here on Main Streets of islands like Mythology! If you click on him, you can chat with, Costumize (works for boys only), or friend him. (The Princess Dagger prize pack has also returned in places like 24 Carrot!)
If you chat, you can ask him a few pre-scripted questions: who are you? (Cosmoe) what’s in your hand? (my Goober Sword) and why are you standing here? (I’m waiting for Princess Dagger)
Earlier, we found that Cosmoe’s username was npc:cosmoe, but this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. If you add npc:cosmoe now, you’ll find a random character wearing a birthday cake (was the account hijacked? however, it still shows as Cosmoe on the Avatar Studio).
New PHB page: Mystery of Shark Boy
Remember the PHB posts about the disappearance of Shark Boy? Well, now all the data we’ve collected regarding this strange case has been compiled into a new page, so you can get the whole story all in one place! Click here to check out our new article, also found under the “Cool Stuff” tab!
Poptropica vs. Thinknoodles
Recently, Poptropica has decided to create their own video walkthroughs narrated by Captain Crawfish — but what’s interesting is that, despite advertising on the Creators’ Blog and even the Poptropica homepage itself, the “official” walkthroughs are still not as popular as those of Poptropica player Thinknoodles, who also narrates his guides, but has videos for every island on his YouTube channel. Check out the view counts of both their PoptropiCon Ep. 1 walkthroughs — the numbers don’t lie!
The Creators only have video guides for PoptropiCon Ep. 1 and Survival Ep. 5 so far, and for both, it looks like Think is still in the lead, despite both being released on the same day! Noodle on, I say! 😛 (Also, doesn’t anyone else wonder why Crawfishy doesn’t use his own peg-legged avatar in his videos?)
You may remember when the PHB posted some highlights from Nate Greenwall’s Poptropica portfolio earlier, but over on his Facebook profile(that is his personal account, so be respectful if you choose to contact him!) are a few interesting glimpses into life at Poptropica HQ! (Click to enlarge pics.)
The white board we have at work hasn’t been erased for about 7 years.
Practicing my Hadoken skills.
Lunch with some of my fellow Poptropica co-workers.
Some of our Poptropica merchandise hanging around our office. Now we just need to build a ball pit and fill it with plush toys.
Isn’t that little doodle of Binary Bard cute? And that’s a lot of Poptropica toys – I don’t think some of it has even been released before, like those badges in the corner or the big print of the pink rocker girl! 😮
The winner of the PoptropiCon costume contest will earn a one-of-a-kind prize. See if you can put together the ultimate villain outfit, but beware — the action at this convention is about to get real!
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