Category: Member Gifts

Member Gifts, Membership, Paradise Island, Sneak Peeks, Store

Let’s taco ’bout some new store items 🌮

Gentle Dolphin

Hey, Poptropicans! This update comes in two parts: one new sneak peek, and hundreds of new items. Let’s pop right in.

Last week, Poptropica gave us a sneak peek of an upcoming feature called Poptropica Airways. Needless to say, it left many fans curious. And this past week, the Creators shared a new teaser image on Instagram, of two characters in front of a taco truck (“Taco Loco”) manned by the same girl who also mans whatever the latest food stand is on Home Island (currently, ice cream). Is this related?

  • “Another sneak peek of some new things in the works,” from @PoptropicaCreators on Instagram.

Whether or not this is another remodel for Home Island with tropical trees, we’re also wondering, could this be related to whatever Poptropica Airways is?

And who are the other characters? They seem like player characters—the girl wears the Sweet Strawberry summer dress from the store, and the boy has the exact look of “Got Game,” one of the default Haxe characters. And there’s a pet puppy. Could this be a new multiplayer space? What’s your theory?

In other news—and this is a big one—the three main stores on Home Island have all received massive shipments of new items. We’re talking hundreds of items across the shops, the most we’ve ever seen!

The Poptropica store currently has 44 costumes (practically double the usual), 4 followers, 4 powers, 4 pranks, and 15 miscellaneous items. That’s 71 items in total!

A few new items can be found within this large gallery of goods. We have 6 trendy outfits: Summer Cool*, Sunny Sport*, Natural Breeze*, Gossip Girl, and Coolin. While 9 new items have graced the miscellaneous section, 3 of them are actually new: Slime*, Rainbow Balloon*, and Instant Camera*. (* = for members)

Speaking of members, a few formerly-exclusive member gifts are up for purchase in the store (for members only, of course). These include: Stylin’ Outfit*, Cool Outfit*, Party Popper* (one of this month’s member gifts), Flamingo Floatie*, Watermelon Purse*, Drone Flying Follower*, Popsicles*, and Hover Scooter*.

Why give these exclusive items for a limited time if they’re going to be available in the store down the line? Sure, they’re still “exclusive” to members, but they’re no longer limited edition. And buying a member gift at a later date does mean they aren’t free like before. This might be a good thing, as it makes the items more easily available, while monthly subscribers can still be the first to have the shiny new thing, though others may later catch up to their collections. Thoughts?

Member Gifts are touted as “exclusive.”

The pet store lineup has kept the same items, but there are three new accessories: a Unicorn Horn (slightly different from the Rainbow Horn), a Pink Tiara, and a purple Beanie. In Haxe, the visual quality of these items has become noticeably pixelated. Looks like this part still needs a bit of work.

  • Pet store in Flash.
  • Pet store in Haxe, where items appear pixelated.

The clubhouse store probably received the largest update up to this point. Across its five sections, the clubhouse store has 197 items, most of which are brand new! There were so many, I had to group each category. Behold!

There’s plenty of cool stuff to decorate your clubhouse with, so make sure to save some extra coin! Prices range from 25 credits (for simpler items like balloons) to 2000 (!!) credits (for big motor ships). Slanted Fish and I took some pics with some of these new furnishings to show you what they look like in-game:

So it looks like the Creators are well on their way in creating options for customization for Poptropica’s future in Haxe. Let’s hope the island migration from Flash to Haxe sees similar progress! What other items and features do you want to see in the game? Share your ideas in the comments!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬

Member Gifts, Membership, Pets, Store

Poppin’ shoppin’ with Vibes 🎉

LJ

What’s up, Poptropicans? It’s Lucky Joker here popping in to bring you the new member gift bundle and all the latest updates to stores (plural)!

The Party Popper, one of August’s member gifts.

The items this time around are pretty cool and are Poppercini (a parody of the old-school Tamagotchi virtual pet), Colorful Clothes, and Party Popper! I actually really like this set quite a bit. If I wasn’t sporting my tribal gear for our Tribal Tournament, I would totally throw these items on.

When you press the space bar while carrying around the Poppercini, the little gadget will open up on your screen, and you can see what your digital pet (a simple circle with antennae and limbs) is doing. It only has two moves, really: sleeping (catching z’s) or eating (what appears to be pizza).

The Poppercini “pet” in action.

The store has been restocked with lots of familiar looks, but a few new outfits too. Another thing to be glad about is that only 12 of the 32 available items are exclusive to members only (that means 20 are available to everyone)!

This week’s items are:

  • Costumes: Spring Fling, Unicorn Girl*, Navy Raglan Outfit, Rib Wrap Outfit, Chomper Outfit*, Red Heart Outfit*, Clover Kid Outfit, Lilac Star Outfit, Friendly Face Masks, Galaxy Girl*, Bookworm Kid, Retro Robot*, Sweet Strawberry, Firefighter, Vibes*, Rainbow Ride
  • Followers: Narf Follower, Mini Astroknight*, Noodle Guy Follower*, Charlie the Chocomonkey*
  • Powers: Wind Power, Electrify, Torch, Phantom*
  • Pranks: Egg Launcher, Inside-Out Power*, Sneezing Powder, Silly Streams*
  • Misc: Notebooks, Marshmallow Roaster, Hiking Shoes, School Backpack*

A * indicates the item is for members only.

It’s cool to see a few new costumes this time—including one (for members only) that is simply (and perhaps hilariously) called “Vibes.” Non-members can also enjoy a new “Sweet Strawberry” summer dress and a “Rainbow Ride” hoodie with a flair of Pride. Each one is just 75 credits!

Our Poptropicans are not the only ones that have access to style and flair, though, because the pet barn store has also been rotated about. You can’t dress a Poppercini, but you can certainly dress your kitty (or other, more modern-age Poptropica pets)!

The items this time around include Pink Afro*, Cool Cap, Flower Headband, Black Pointed Bangs, Tear Drop Glasses*, Hero Mask, Grey Beard, Eye Patch, Spike Collar*, Pink Tutu*, Flower Necklace, Blue Bow, Zomberry Eyes, Yellow Dead Eyes, Stars Eyes*, and Cute Blue Eyes*.

As always, everything here is really cute—well, maybe except for those Zomberry Eyes. You could probably use some of these pieces to create an adorable tribe-inspired look for your pet as well!

There are also some new options for clubhouse decor! There are a total of 20 furnishings and accessories now, with 9 of them being available for paying members only. We’ve got bikes, lights, and more—check ’em out:

That wraps up the latest materialistic updates, but that’s not all that’s going on in the Poptropica universe. In case you missed it, we’re hosting a big Tribal Tournament this month here on the PHB, so check out what’s poppin’ in our post below! And don’t forget to participate in this month’s Community Creations—the theme is “tribes,” which fits right in with our tribal festivities.

I hope you all are staying safe and well, and I’ll talk to you soon. Pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Bonus Items, Member Gifts, Membership, Store, Timmy Failure Island

Face it: masks save lives 😷

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish here to unmask some updates on July’s new member gifts, store items, and the return of an island! Let’s get started.

It’s the start of a new month (did the time almost slip past you?), which means a new set of member gifts! And this time, Poptropica has joined the pandemic panic with a set of Fun Face Masks. Summer vibes have also arrived in the form of a Flamingo Floatie and Watermelon Purse.

With the face masks, you get three in one: there’s one patterned with the blue mouth of Medicine Man from Shark Tooth Island, a translucent light blue mask that’s also worn by one of the merchants on Arabian Nights (hey, I thought member gifts were supposed to be original items!), and a green monster-like jaw, which doesn’t seem to have a connection to any island.

  • Whipping up a traditional Shark Tooth delicacy.

Non-members, don’t worry — you can get in on the face mask fun too! There’s a new item in the store called the Friendly Face Masks, which comes in with three variations and costs 250 credits. Interestingly, the item card says “Member Gift” on them, indicating that they were probably intended as such at first before the Creators did us a solid by making these bad boys available for everyone. These come in red, white, and black:

Plenty of other items have popped up in the store as well. The good deals to grab this week for 75 credits each are the Fruity Cutie, Lazy Days* (seriously aesthetic pineapple shirt alert! 🍍), Dangerous Waters, Cool Boy Plush, and Coconut Drink. Also noteworthy: the plush of the character formerly known as Shark Boy is now simply Shark Plush*. Fireworks* have also hit these virtual shelves in time for the Fourth of July! 🧨 Scroll down for the full list of items.

This week’s items are:

  • Costumes: Friendly Face Masks, Boho Chic*, Fruity Cutie, Lazy Days*, Dangerous Waters, Waffle* (round), Waffle* (square), Lumberjerk (female), Lumberjerk (male) (oddly, this one is tagged Poptropolis), Game Show Robot*, Cool Boy Plush, Shark Plush*, Rockstar, Furry Monster 4* (somehow there are two different costume cards both with this name), Mech Pilot* (oddly, this one’s carrying a fish), Tofu Dog, Hot Dog, Big Burger
  • Followers: Dolphin*, Deer, Mini Astroknight, Dryad
  • Powers: Raven Swarm*, Hypno-Powder, Fireworks*, PopGum (fire)
  • Pranks: Octo-Prank, Hypno-Powder, Zombify!*, Silly Streams
  • Misc: Coconut Drink, Cool Boy Plush, Shark Plush* (yup, these plushes appear here too), PopGum (fire)

A * indicates the item is members only.

In other news, Timmy Failure Island is back to being available for all—but only on Poptropica’s Haxe build! (Thanks to PERCY JACKSON1010 for the tip.) This means that non-members can now venture into its common room store and see Quippy in Timmy’s iconic red scarf.

That’s all for this post! But stay tuned… we’ve got some great festivities planned for this month here on the PHB. Here’s a hint: you may want to get your Poptropican dressed up. Maybe a face mask would look dope with your ‘fit. If you’re venturing out IRL, though, you’ll definitely need one! 😉 😷

~slantedfish 🐠

Bonus Items, Haxe Javascript, Member Gifts, Membership, Store

Classic Islands are back, but not forever

Slanted Fish

Hey, Poptropicans! From the (temporary) return of classic islands (!!) to hot new summer items, there’s a lot to cover in this post. Let’s get started.

Players have been requesting the return of the classic, old school islands since they vanished from the map last July. Although there’s a backdoor way to access them, the popular demand ever since their disappearance has always been to officially reinstate them into the game itself. And now, they’re back!

Four monochromatic, nostalgic pages of glorious classic islands await.

The Creators have been listening, and this week they finally decided to bring back the classic islands. Though the team is still busy porting the islands to the Haxe Javascript build of Poptropica, they figured they would let us play the old islands while Flash is still available. To get started, find Early Poptropica Island on your map in Poptropica. Either the Flash or Haxe version will do…

…But as you can see, there is one major catch: it’s for members only. (Non-members, fear not: we’ll get to how you can join in on the fun, too.)

If you are a member, though, you’ll get a screen inviting you into Early Poptropica Island. Clicking “Play” will redirect you to the old Flash login page, where you’ll need to enter your login again to be brought to Early Pop.

From there, you can hop onto the blimp to travel across the various classic islands, as pictured earlier in this post. (And if you need them, we’ve still got guides for every island.) Keep in mind, however, that since this is old technology (Action Script 2), these islands can sometimes be buggy.

Why members only? Reddit user theodoor03 reached out to Poptropica support to ask this question, and shared the following response he received: in short, “Because of the islands’ age, they require a good deal of extra maintenance per player. [Poptropica] simply would not be able to support every player trying to access them right now.”

If you’re a non-member, don’t worry. You can still play the classic islands with the aforementioned backdoor method, which is to use idk’s Old Island Directory (also listed on our Glitching page). There are just a few more steps you’ll have to follow compared with before Poptropica’s members-only update, which are all outlined in the notes of the teleporter tool.

Happy exploring—while you can! Since Flash will be gone at the end of 2020, there’s only about half a year left before these islands are no longer playable, membership or not. Make the most of this moment!

Some players have reported seeing a new cinematic trailer video for Poptropica when logging into the Haxe build. The 30-second clip animates a sea of familiar islands, from iconic ones like Mythology and Arabian Nights (where Scheherezade is summoning… herself?) to classic ones like Twisted Thicket and Zomberry Island. You can watch the epic video here.

Could this be reassurance that some of these older islands will return in the future after Flash? (Hopefully for all players, too.)

Another week, another store update! Here’s what’s in on the first week of June. In total, we have 21 items in stock, 9 of which are for members only. Most notably, the Graduate costume is free for all! (And while you’re flapping about in these robes, take a moment to read the PHB’s 2020 commencement address as a note of encouragement for all Poptropicans!)

This week’s costumes are: Graduate, Spring Fling, Unicorn Girl*, Clover Kid, Lilac Star, Hiker Cutie*, and Wild Child*. (Lilac Star and Clover Kid are relatively cheap at 75 credits.) For followers, we have the Deer*, Chick, F.R.E.D. (from Galactic Hot Dogs), and Classic Pack*. Just two powers this week: Snow Fall and Flower Planting*. In pranks, there’s Hypno-Powder*, Silly Streams, Squirrel Prank*, and Bunny Wand. Finally, in miscellaneous: Marshmallow Roaster, Hiking Shoes, Classic PopGum*, and Balloons. (* = members only)

According to the Home Island billboard, store items will continue to rotate weekly, just as they have for the past couple of months. Huzzah!

And finally — it’s not only a new week but a new month, which means member gifts! June kicks off summer in the northern hemisphere, so the three flavors of Popsicles are quite fitting here. Members can also throw it back to 2015 with the Hover Scooter and Drone Flying Follower.

Like its real-life counterpart, the Hover Scooter (also known as a hoverboard) doesn’t actually hover, but simply glides, as shown in the gif below. Your Poptropican also suddenly puts on shoes to ride it.

The Hover Scooter and other June member gifts in action.

That’s it for this post! Share your thoughts in the comments—what islands do you want to see return in post-Flash Poptropica? what stands out to you in the new cinematic trailer? why is Poptropica bringing back a dead trend?—and we’ll see you next time. Stay safe, Poptropicans. ✊

Gentle Dolphin contributed reporting to this post. Thanks also to Purple Claw (former PHB staff) for tipping us off on several news items.

Bonus Items, Fan Art Features, Member Gifts, Membership, Social Media

Folklore figures: wear ’em, draw ’em, join ’em

Gentle Dolphin

Hey, Poptropicans! We hope you’ve recovered from the flash of shock we gave earlier this month and are ready to dive into what else April has in store.

The April member gifts promise a blast to the past with three costumes based on some famous historical figures: Cleopatra, Sire Lancelot, and Pocahontas.

Speaking of the last costume, it looks oddly familiar. The Pocahontas costume bears a striking resemblance to Sacagawea in Time Tangled Island.

TimeTangled_Sacagawea

And what’s more, she’s fully customizable, even for non-members! So even if you’re not a member this month, you can get at least one of the member gifts. 😉 Just head on over to 1805 A.D. (the Lewis and Clark expedition) on Time Tangled Island, and you’ve got your two-for-one Native American look.

sacagawea customizable

(Creators, next time maybe don’t imply that distinct iconic characters of shared ancestry, yet different time periods, are interchangeable by their appearance?)

On Instagram, Poptropica challenged artists to draw Ned Noodlehead in their style and to share the drawings with the hashtag #NedNoodlehead. Interesting that they chose Ned, the comic shop kid from Super Power Island—one of the old school islands that have disappeared from the map.

Within a day, creative fans got to work, and Poptropica featured some of the Ned Noodlehead art on their Instagram story. Check out these magnificent Noodlehead doodles! Think you could give it a try, too?

Recently, Poptropica has been promoting Timmy Failure Island on various channels—social media, the Creators’ Blog, and even the Home Island billboard. (Did you know that Timmy Failure has its own Disney+ movie now?)

But something odd has happened: Timmy Failure Island, which was formerly free for all, is now only available to members. Unlike with previously member-locked islands, this time non-members won’t even get to play a demo before hitting the paywall message. (Thanks for the tip, Perfect Fish.)

Strangely, the message refers to “early access” for Timmy Failure Island being for members only, even though the island came out in 2015. Did they just forget to change the wording, or are they working on revamping Timmy Failure for the Javascript (post-Flash) project and letting members beta test it first? Whatever the case, let’s hope it isn’t a failure.

Thoughts on this month’s member gifts and the fate of Timmy Failure Island? Want to share a Noodlehead doodle with us? Drop them in the comments!

Also, check out the other stuff we’ve got going on in the posts below! Join us for Community Creations (current theme: “stay at home”), take the 2020 PHB readers’ survey, and get some ideas for passing the time in quarantine with some good old Poptropica.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬