Category: Islands

24 Carrot Island, Sneak Peeks

Beware up there, maybe a hare…

Slanted Fish

UPDATE: The special event (the mini-quest as described below) can now be accessed via the map. On Instagram, the Creators announced that the event runs only until Monday, September 17. Win that new limited edition robot suit while you can!

Hey Poptropicans! Carrot all to see what’s new? 🥕

The Poptropica Creators posted a sneak peek on the official blog that’s meant to be for a “special event launching this Thursday.” This might look familiar to some of you…

sneekpeek

In case the crate of carrots in the pic and the 38 carrot emojis on the Creators’ Blog weren’t enough of a hint, this smells a lot like it’s got something to do with 24 Carrot Island villain Dr. Hare. Specifically, this is almost an exact scene from the entrance of the old mini-quest Dr. Hare’s Secret Lab (but the signpost is new).

Since the store is now getting refreshed with new stock every month, the card for Dr. Hare’s Secret Lab hasn’t been there for some time. However, if you’ve got the card in your inventory, you can still play it—in fact, this update is live, but the only changes are aesthetic: the addition of a new sign, music, and a recolored robot costume reward.

For those who don’t have access because you may not own the card, wait until Thursday for the official release of this “special event.”

Dr. Hare’s Secret Lab came out in 2010 and has been available in the store until about four months ago. Guess it’s nice to see it return, at least. 🥕

<・)))><<

Counterfeit Island, Pop Places IRL

Pop Places IRL: Counterfeit

Spotted Dragon

Pop Places IRL Header

Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL,” Poptropicans! You read the title: SD here to compare scenes from Counterfeit Island to the places in real life (IRL) that it was inspired by. Enjoying the series? Be sure to check out other Pop Places IRL posts.

It may be pretty obvious, but Counterfeit Island is supposed to take place in real life France. Many scenes, including Main Street, were made to resemble France’s aesthetic environment—in particular, the country’s parks and natural landscape.

photo: Paris Park (mothernaturenetwork)

Aside from nature, we can’t forget about Downtown Counterfeit, and the more man-made features of the island! There’s the internet cafe, jazz cafe, and more. Mmmmm, if only there were more bakeries, like real-life Paris!

photo: Downtown France (expedia.com)

Moving back into nature, the Countryside was also a significant location in Counterfeit. Home of the Inspector (or should I say, *spoiler* Black Widow), as well as the last place where Balloon Boy’s feet touched the ground. Aren’t both cottages cute?

photo: France Countryside (travellerspoint.com)

On the opposite side of the island, we visit the Docks. I wouldn’t go so far as to say France is known for its docks, but that doesn’t mean its without them! I’m sure they reek of fish, just like any other place where fishing boats sit (no offense, Fishy!).

screenshot: Counterfeit Island Docks (Thinknoodles on youtube)
photo: Sainte-Maxime (autoeurope.com)

“What else could there be???” you ask. Well, we got everything above land, so time to head below! The underground tunnels we venture through in game may well be based on very real Catacombs of Paris. These famous catacombs include a series of tunnels underground the city that contain human remains. Spooky!

photo: Catacombs of Paris (europe1.fr)

Lastly, we can’t forget about all the artwork! I mean, this is Counterfeit Island after all, home of our friendly neighborhood art thief. In the Museum Fantastique, we see many well known paintings, including (but not limited to) The Scream, Starry Night, and Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies. And that’s not even mentioning the (spoiler alert) paintings in the secret room at the end of the quest!

Did you know that Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream, two in paint and two in pastels? One of the painted ones is in The National Gallery in Norway, and the other is in The Munch Museum.

photo: The Scream (nationmultimedia.com)

It would be quite a hassle to include all the artwork in this post, but be sure to check out our Ancient Artworks of the Counterfeit Island Museum tour for a closer look at them all if you’re interested!

While not all the displayed paintings correspond, I think it’s safe to assume that this museum was inspired by France’s most famous museum: The Louvre. In fact, this art museum is the largest in the world and displays such pieces as the Mona Lisa! However, the museum in Poptropica is certainly not as grand as the real thing.

photo: Louvre (eghamat24.com)

I hope you enjoyed this post, because that just about wraps up our real-life tour of Counterfeit Island! I kinda want to visit France now…

What did you think? Have you ever seen these famous paintings in person, or been to any art museum? How about France? Be sure to let us know which island you want us to feature next in this series, as well as what places you think other islands resemble!

Au revoir!

~SD

Cryptids Island, Pop Places IRL

Pop Places IRL: Cryptids

Spotted Dragon

Pop Places IRL Header

SD here with another “Pop Places IRL” post, everyone! Are you sick of me yet? This time around, I will be comparing scenes from Cryptids Island with the scenes it was inspired by in real life (IRL). Check out our official guide for the island here.

Even though Main Street seems pretty ordinary, you actually end up visiting many real places in Cryptids Island! In fact, I’m sure you’ve heard of many of these locations.

Let’s start off with what may be the star of the quest… Nessie! The Loch Ness Monster is from, well, Loch Ness. If you were unaware, it’s a large body of freshwater in Scotland. As one would expect, it’s famous for its aquatic monster sightings!

Whoa, Nessie!
photo: Loch Ness (viator.com)

Other than Nessie, we also search for the Yeti in the Himalayas, a huge mountain range in Asia. Like in game, there sure are monasteries in the IRL mountains! We also visit the Himalayan Mountains, particularly Mount Everest, in Time Tangled Island.

photo: Ki Monastery (thehikinglife.com)

After the mountains, our Poptropicans attempt to capture the infamous Chupacabra in Puerto Rico! Sorry goats, but I don’t think you could pay me enough money to go face that beast IRL…

photo: Puerto Rico Mountains (kevin on flickr)

Talking about beasts, up next is New Jersey! And that means the Jersey Devil. Am I bringing up bad memories for anyone? If you ever visit, maybe you should stay closer to the city, just to be safe…

On the outside looking in.
photo: New Jersey (businessinsider.com)

Finally, we visit the Pacific Northwest in pursuit of Big Foot. This location may be a bit broad, but roughly includes states like Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the US. They are known for having the most frequent Big Foot sightings!

photo: Pacific Northwest (kenmoreair.com)

I think that’s it for the real-life Cryptids Island tour! Have you been to any of the places we listed? Or better yet, have you think you spotted any of these cryptids IRL?

Where would you like us to go next time for this series?

~SD

Back Lot Island, Pop Places IRL

Pop Places IRL: Back Lot

LJ

Pop Places IRL Header

Hey, how’s it going, Poptropicans? Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL”! Today we’ll be touring the super stellar streets of Back Lot Island. Let’s pop into it!

Sunset Boulevard (model for Sunrise Street in Poptropica) is a 22-mile street in Los Angeles, California that stretches all the way from downtown L.A. to Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It has many restaurants, parks, and attractions such as the Cinerama Dome and Will Rogers State Historic Park. I think Poptropica depicts the pizzazz of this famous street pretty well, although there may not be a rabble of crazed paparazzi following you around everywhere you go in real life.

flickr.com/photos/pattirichmond/

It’s safe to say that Queequeg’s Coffeehouse is based off of Starbucks. You can tell pretty much at first glance. Yes, I know—Starbucks isn’t exclusive to L.A. or anything but hey, there are a whopping 105 locations in the city, so it’s not hard to find one. I wonder if the creators took the number of locations in L.A. into account being that there are two different Queequeg’s on the same street. Seems feasible, don’t you think?

eater.com

The TCL Chinese Theatre, formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, is the world’s largest IMAX theatre and is a grail destination for tourists, located on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Poptropica portrayal looks very similar to the one IRL!

sideshowtoy.com

The newly opened DreamWorks Theatre in the Universal City community of L.A. is already a popular attraction that plays the latest DreamWorks films in 4D! How cool is that? You can see that Poptropica mimicked the DreamWorks logo with the boy on the moon; however, instead of him holding a fishing pole, he’s on a laptop. Maybe playing Poptropica? I have to say I like Poptropica’s parody a little better, hehe.

dreamworks.wikia.com/wiki/DreamWorks_Wiki

Madame Tussauds is a very famous tourist attraction in Hollywood that contains over a hundred wax figures of various celebrities from different eras. Among them are Audrey Hepburn, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe. Monroe is one of several figures standing in the lobby, alluring onlooking pedestrians to enter the famous museum.

Audrey Hepburn: philanthropicpeople.com, Elvis Presley: contactmusic.net, Marilyn Monroe: flickr.com/photos/22179009@N05/

Well, that about wraps up today’s tour! I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at the comparisons of these marvelous Poptropica scenes as well as their equally marvelous IRL counterparts while learning some things about them.

So, have you visited any of these places? Share your experience in the comments section below. Also, be sure to check out our previous Pop Places IRL posts if you haven’t already! Thanks for reading as always and I’ll talk to you in the next one… pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Pop Places IRL, Time Tangled Island

Pop Places IRL: Time Tangled

Spotted Dragon

Pop Places IRL Header

Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL” everyone! SD here with a Time Tangled Island edition, where I’ll be taking you through some scenes from the island and matching them up with scenes in real life (IRL). Since you literally travel through time in the quest, we actually visit a lot of famous places! Of which many have changed over, well, time.

Let’s kick things off with Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world (above sea level) and odd location of the Statue of Liberty model in game! We also get to meet Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in Poptropica, the first confirmed climbers of Everest in 1953. Sadly, our Poptropicans probably wouldn’t have been able to climb it as easily IRL. Would you want to visit the Himalayas someday?

screenshot: Poptropica Mount Everest (poptropicasecrets.com)
photo: Mount Everest (financialtribune.com)

Next up, let’s take a look at the Statue of Liberty! It was built in France, but today resides in the New York Harbor on Ellis Island (which is technically also a part of New Jersey!). In Poptropica, we get to return the statue to 1882’s France. The model is, well, a bit smaller to say the least.

photo: Statue of Liberty (messynessychic.com)
photo: Statue of Liberty, NY (commons.wikimedia.org)

After returning the statue, your Poptropican ventures to the Graff House in 1776. Also known as the Declaration House, this was the home of Jacob Graff and the place in Philadelphia where Thomas Jefferson wrote America’s Declaration of Independence. The resemblance is uncanny, huh?

screenshot: The Graff House (wikihow.com)
photo: Declaration House (ushistory.org)

If you’ve played though Time Tangled Island, you know we’re just getting started! In 1387, our Poptropicans visit Timbuktu during the Mali Empire, which occurred in West Africa from c. 1230 to 1670. You may recall returning some salt rocks, visiting the Timbuktu Inn, and repairing a puzzle of King Mansa Musa while here! Doesn’t the architecture look familiar?

photo: Mali Empire (edu.glogster.com)

After visiting the Mali Empire, Edison’s Workshop in 1877’s New Jersey is next. We primarily get to help Edison out with his phonograph in game, but he’s famous for inventing many other items as well! Today, a Memorial Tower and Museum is up in Menlo Park to honor the inventor. What do you think is his best invention?

screenshot: Edison’s Workshop (wikihow.com)
photo: Edison’s Workshop (theatlantic.com)

Following the workshop, we have the Aztec Empire of 1519’s Mexico. Like the Mali Empire, the Aztec culture had great influence on its area. The Poptropica Creators seem to have implemented their architecture pretty well into the game!

screenshot: Time Tangled Island (sea25ful on youtube)
illustration: The Aztec Capital (uncyclopedia.wikia.com)

Next, let’s visit Leonardo da Vinci in 1516’s Italy! As an artist and inventor, one of da Vinci’s most famous paintings was the Mona Lisa, which we got to see in Poptropican form! Which of his works do you admire?

model: Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop (Krisztian Palmai on youtube)

Later, we get to peek at Lewis and Clark’s 1805 Expedition. Like some other time periods our Poptropicans visit, it’s not like we have a whole lot of photos to compare with the actual event. Still, the expedition had a big impact on how today’s United States of America came to be!

illustration: The Lewis and Clark Expedition (myinterestingfacts.com)

Afterwards, we stop be a tourist destination that I’m sure we’re all aware of: the Great Wall of China. Our Poptropicans get to check it out in 1593, but it’s still up today! Have you ever walked along the Great Wall?

photo: The Great Wall of China (travelandleisure.com)

One of the last stops we have is the Vikings in 831. Other than in Time Tangled Island, we also get a glimpse into the world of Vikings in Mystery of the Map Island!

illustration: Viking Ship (snopes.com)

Finally, we have Ancient Greece in 328 BC. You’ve probably learned about this time period in school, but that doesn’t make it uninteresting! What are your favorite tales from Greek or Roman mythology?

photo: Facts About Ancient Greece (natgeokids.com)

Well, I think that’s it for our real-life tour through time! Did you stick around this long? Maybe one day, we can add the dystopian future to this post! 😉

What did you think? Have you been to any places that show monuments related to these time periods? Where would you like to go next on “Pop Places IRL”?

Until next time!

~SD