Category: Guest Posts

Guest posts are blog posts that are written by Poptropicans who are not staff writers on the PHB team at the time of writing. Interested in contributing? Check out our “Write for the PHB” guide under the Contact tab up top.

Guest Posts, Pop 5

Pop 5: Best Dressed Characters in Poptropica

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post from Purple Paw, who’ll be sharing a list of her favorite fashions in Poptropica. The following is the author’s opinion only. Enjoy!

Heyo! I’m Purple Paw. You may know me from Discord, and also from my Ramble Review on Twisted Thicket Island. I’m back with a second guest post, this one highlighting the best-dressed characters in Poptropica! 

We can style our own Poptropicans any way we wish, with hairdos, accessories, clothing, facial markings, and more. But it’s not just our avatars who have a sense of fashion; popular preexisting friends and foes from across the islands also rock some spectacular looks, and they’re who we’ll be talking about today. So grab your camera and don your flashiest outfit, ’cause we’re going on a tour of Poptropica’s greatest fashionistas!

5: DJ Saturday Nite (Zomberry Island)

We start off the show with none other than the disco star of Zomberry Island, DJ Saturday Nite! With that swirly pink-and-purple dress, giant silver star glasses, and chunky headphones, there’s no way I could lead a fashion tour without including her. Despite the zombie apocalypse that’s swept her island, this star shines on. Hers is an outfit that’s fit to boogie, that’s for sure!

4: Director D (Spy Island)

Surely this is a look we can call fashionable. It may seem simple at first glance, but that crisp white suit and formal bow tie make for quite a tidy, prim outfit. And who would’ve thought that the stylish hairdo is really a toupee? As the leader of the Bald And Dangerous (B.A.D.), he may be up to no good, but Director D has got a fashion sense to rival even the greatest Poptropican stars.

3: Scheherazade (Arabian Nights Island) 

Now this is a look you can’t ignore. First off, that hairdo is one of the biggest eye-catchers in Poptropica, with a shiny golden band propping up that poof of hair, alongside a wisp of shiny bangs to top it off. The elfish ears and gold earrings give off a true Arabian Nights genie look, as do the smoke-like tail in place of legs! But the bursts of flame on her hands tell you that she’s no dainty fashionista. She’s the dangerous leader of the Forty Thieves, and she’s not to be messed with!

2: Medicine Man (Shark Tooth Island)

The best and most exclusive part of this outfit is, of course, the giant blue tribal mask covering the Medicine Man’s entire head. The shock of green leaves, rows of teeth, and large eyes tell you that he’s no ordinary tourist. The smiley-face necklace and prim grass skirt adds to the tropical island look that is essential for Shark Tooth islanders, and the wooden spoon lets you know his profession: standing on a platform atop a palm tree, cooking up healing potions! For a spiritual healer, the Medicine Man sure has a spectacular style. 

1: Poseidon (Mythology Island)

And here it is, winning the Poptropica-wide fashion show in the number one spot: Poseidon! This Greek god may live in an underwater cave, but the sea water hasn’t ruined his good looks one bit. With his starfish-bearing crown and powerful trident in hand, he lets you know right away that he’s king of the seas. The glittering pearl necklace just adds more to the ocean theme, as does his teal-colored skin and pristinely wrapped purple-and-white cloth. The main attraction, of course, is the mustache, resembling kelp as it waves gently in the tugs of the tide! No, Zeus — Poseidon is not “all washed up.”

That just about concludes our fashion tour! I hope you enjoyed traveling from the deserts of Arabian Nights, to the tropics of Shark Tooth and more as we admired some of the greatest fashion styles throughout Poptropica. Let me know in the comments who your Pop 5 best-dressed Poptropicans would be!

—Purple Paw

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Purple Paw. If you did, be sure to check out the many other Pop 5 posts on the PHB!

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.

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

Ghost Story Island, Guest Posts, Reviews

Ramble Review: Ghost Story Island 👻

Slanted Fish

Welcome to another Ramble Review! This guest post comes from MaryannTheConqueror, who will be rambling about Ghost Story Island.

Now for the first and only island that I remember actually making me teary-eyed! Ghost Story is one of the best examples of Poptropica testing their limits for what kinds of stories their audience will enjoy.

Other than a couple jokes and one of the character’s names being “Henry Flatbottom,” this island has a relatively subdued tone, with a dark and cool color scheme, contrasting to the bright and at times childish other islands.

It’s spooky, with the whole ghost theme and one of the few examples of voice acting in the game, but not desperate in its attempts to scare the player. It uses elements of gothic horror to create a sense of unease without excessive jumpscares or gore.

Ghost Story also shows Pop’s ability to handle more mature themes, without being “edgy” or going too far beyond what its target audience should be able to handle. The characters hang desperately to the past, while avoiding it at the same time, resulting in the ghost’s inability to leave the mortal realm.

While there are many stories within this story, they are all connected to each other, leading to a satisfying conclusion. And they say you should avoid mentions of death in children’s media!

As much as I can rave about Astro-Knights (coming up soon…), this island certainly deserves more attention. While I can talk about the creativity of other islands until I’m blue in the face, Ghost Story is best appreciated for showing the variety in the stories Poptropica can tell.

Sometimes we can have wacky fantasy, or thrilling crime solving, or just plain childlike fun, but we can also have calmer, slightly darker tales that may not be as flashy, but can leave just as deep of an impact. While Ghost Story takes inspiration from comedies such as Ghostbusters, it also has themes of grief, handling past mistakes, as well as the difficulty to not only forgive others, but ourselves.

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by MaryannTheConqueror. If you did, be sure to check out the PHB’s own review of Ghost Story, and stay tuned for more Ramble Reviews! And of course, join in on the fun on the PHC Discord.

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.

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

Guest Posts, Reviews, Twisted Thicket Island

Ramble Review: Twisted Thicket Island 🌳

Slanted Fish

Welcome to a new PHB series called Ramble Reviews! This will be a collection of thoughts and opinions from rambling Poptropicans from our PHC Discord community taking a look back at past islands. We hope these posts (and more are coming!) can be a space for fellow fans to read and discuss.

Please welcome the first writer for the series, Purple Paw.

I’ll start by saying, Twisted Thicket is one of the most important islands Poptropica has ever made. It’s not often you see environmentalism portrayed in a kid’s’ game, especially not in this setting, where the message is clear, and yet it is incredibly fun and enjoyable all the same, without being too harsh. I knew right from the start I had to talk about it!

Twisted Thicket is one of the shorter islands, although most times, it’ll take one longer to complete, due to all of the slightly more challenging puzzles hidden within. Your task appears simple at first: rid the forest of the horrible creatures that are terrorizing the town, and help Burt Diamond and his Lumberjerks destroy the magical terrain and build his casino. But the story of the forest goes deeper than that!

The first time I played this, I hoped very much that the island would not end with the forest being bulldozed and the magic destroyed. And as soon as I reached the Sacred Tree Hollow, I saw how kind and innocent these animals actually were, and that they had only acted hostile in defense of their home. What a twist, right?

Twisted Thicket is simply enchanting in every way possible, from the glowing blue mushrooms to the lit-up flowers to the tangled clusters of dark green leaves. And yes, the Tree Hollow is one of my absolute favorite places in all of Poptropica. The Creators aced the setting, characters, and plot, and I will never tire of replaying this island.

The story highlights the misunderstanding between nature and human settlements, and shines an entirely new light on how to fix it. But that certainly doesn’t mean it’s a solemn island; there’s the perfect amount of tension, action, beauty, and storytelling to keep you engaged and having fun the entire time.

This island is a perfect example of the Creators’ old heart and caring, an island that showed they cared about making a true story, and sending a real message (unlike the nonsensical fetch quests we’ve been seeing more recently…).

Troll, from Twisted Thicket

Because of this, Twisted Thicket has got true potential, a meaningful plot line, and is a real gem on the map. I don’t believe the Creators would let something like this go so easily, and if they’ve got half the heart they used to, they’d be working as hard to preserve the Twisted Thicket like we did all those years ago when we first played.

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Purple Paw. If you did, be sure to check out the PHB’s own quickie review of Twisted Thicket by Lucky Joker! Stay tuned for more Ramble Reviews from Purple Paw, Incredible Fire, Magic Flipper, MaryannTheConqueror… and maybe more! And of course, join in on the rambling fun on the PHC Discord.

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.

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

Guest Posts, PHB Parties

You’re invited to celebrate Dr. Beev Day! 🐿

Slanted Fish

Note: The following event is not organized by the PHB, but will be taking place on our Discord server, the PHC! Hear it from MaryannTheConqueror…

We, a group of Poptropica Month participants, have decided to announce a very special day for all Poptropicans, in honor of a very special character. Even though the Poptropica Creators hardly acknowledge him, this character is much loved by the Poptropica fan community, which is why we have decided to hold this event:

🐿 In Honor of the Great Dr. Beev 🐿

  • What: Beev Party!
  • When: September 15, 2020 (Tuesday) at 12 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Central / 10 a.m. Mountain / 9 a.m. Pacific — for other time zones, use a converter. It may be late night Tuesday or early morning Wednesday in some parts of the world.)
  • Where: 24 Carrot cinema common room (Flash version) and the PHC (including voice chat!)
  • What to prepare: Anything Beev related!!! Stories, theories, fan art, your love, etc.

In addition to partying it up in the cinema on 24 Carrot Island (home of Dr. Beev’s inferior mirror, Dr. Hare) and hanging out on the PHC, we’ll also be playing through Mocktropica Island to find the elusive picture of the beloved beaver-doctor in the trash can. Some of us may also be making videos in honor of this great character and his takeover, so keep an eye out for those. Mark your calendars and join us for a fun time!

We will not stop showing our support for the great Dr. Beev until the Poptropica Creators give us a Dr. Beev costume, beaver pets, and maybe even an entire Beev Island! (And it better not be for members only, or there’ll be rioting in the common rooms…)

Update: Here’s a video announcing everything mentioned above!

Castori honorem

See you on the PHC and in Poptropica! 🎉

MaryannTheConqueror (with IsaacEntertains, Theo’s Ghost, TheOrangeHe, and Mess of a Being)

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by MaryannTheConqueror. If you did, be sure to check out Poptropica Month, the fan event that’s spawned this upcoming Beev party! And of course, join in on the fun on the PHC.

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.

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

Guest Posts, Social Media

Join us for a month of Poptropica videos! 📽

Slanted Fish

The following event is not run by the PHB. Hear it from Isaac, one half of the YouTube channel Dimension Bros, which makes videos about Poptropica and other fandoms.

Hey everyone! I’m Isaac, and along with my best friend Theo, we’re Dimension Bros on YouTube. For the past few weeks, Theo and I have been thinking of what we should do to celebrate Poptropica’s 13th birthday coming up this September. And so Poptropica Month was born! Watch and read more below:

The idea for a Poptropica Month collab came after we started bouncing ideas back and forth about what videos we would make to celebrate Pop’s birthday and decided that our usual 8 videos a month schedule simply would not be enough of a celebration for such a great game. We wanted to make more than 8 videos, but with school coming up for us, that seemed out of the realm of possibility. Enter… the rest of the Poptropica fandom!

We invite all video creators/enthusiasts/YouTubers to join us during the month of September in uploading Poptropica videos. Whether you’re new to sharing on YouTube or you’ve already got a channel with other content, you’re welcome to join this collab! If you’ve been considering starting up a YouTube channel, maybe make a Poptropica Month video as your first video to get off to a good start—after all, there’s a community already here to support you.

Isaac (left) and Theo (right), the Dimension Bros on YouTube.

How can you get started? After watching the video above, take the next step by clicking the link in the video description, which will guide you through joining the Poptropica Month Discord server, sharing the link to your channel with us, and sharing your Pop Month video(s) with us on the Discord server. We’ll include all the Pop Month videos in this master playlist for all to enjoy.

Any kind of video goes, as long as it relates to Poptropica. This could be a simple let’s-play or walkthrough, a top ten list (or a Pop 5, per PHB tradition), a theory about your favorite island, a Poptropica-based song or speedpaint… anything you can imagine! Like to cook? Bake a Poptropica cake! Comedy skits? Maybe you could do a sketch about the Poptropica Creators and their never-ending secrecy of when we’ll be getting the old islands back. Make as few or as many videos as you like—you don’t have to stress about uploading non-stop Pop content like we’ll be doing on Dimension Bros.

Also, you don’t need super fancy equipment to make a decent video! Most Dimension Bros videos are filmed on our phones and edited with iMovie. (There’s free editing software for Windows, too.) It’s more about the creativity than the tools, so don’t be afraid to try with what you’ve got! Just take a look at my setup for videos—yes, my laptop is on a cardboard box.

Behind the scenes of a Dimension Bros video.

Even if you don’t participate in uploading any videos, Poptropica Month is for everyone to enjoy. So when September arrives in just over a week, be sure to go support all the videos posted to the master playlist.

Looking forward to seeing what types of videos you guys will upload for Poptropica Month! Also, NANOBOTS FOR THE WIN!! WHOOOOO!!!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Isaac from Dimension Bros. If you did, be sure to check out our feature post for Dimension Bros as well as our other Poptropica YouTuber spotlights for more video ideas!

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.

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