Category: Merchandise

Graphic Novels, Membership

Poptropica Party till it’s 9999 🥳🤔✨

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Though we haven’t heard a peep from the Pop Creators since the whole shutdown scare a month ago, there’s still a bit of buzz going on in the fandom. Read till the end for a symbolic surprise!

First up, membership has been made free for a while now, but now every player is officially gilded with the ‘Member’ status bar on their character screens. Plus, if you go into your account settings, you’ll find that this new status doesn’t expire until Dec 31, 9999! ✨

Meanwhile, the membership page no longer lists this obsolete feature for $2,000, but now simply states, “We are no longer offering memberships.” This matches the wording used when the free membership first appeared last month, but once again calls into question whether this spells a looming end for the game… 😬

Onto more slightly sus news, upon logging in you may now discover a new banner stating that Poptropica is using cookies on their site. Not the delicious kind 🍪 unfortunately, but the kind that tracks your internet browsing. It’s pretty standard on many websites, but this notice is new for Pop. Still, you can rest assured that Pop won’t share your personal data with third parties, according to their privacy policy.

Besides the gameplay, fans have been digging into Poptropica’s books as well. 📚 Sleepy Biker recently asked former Pop Creator Mitch Krpata, author of the last three books in the Poptropica graphic novel series, about the ages of the books’ main characters. Mitch replied that Mya is 12, the boys (Oliver and Jorge) are 10, Octavian about 30, and Jonas is college-aged, around 18–20. Now we know!

Last and perhaps the most lasting of all, invisible_b0nes shared on our Discord server, the PHC, their new and colored Poptropica tattoo, featuring Dr. Hare riding the iconic yellow blimp. Super cool! 🐇 (Speaking of Pop tats, you can find a couple more here.)

Tattoo in progress
The finished product!

Keep on poppin’ on!

~🐠

Merchandise

Cyber Monday sale of Pop merch on Zazzle 🏷️

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Remember Poptropica’s sudden pop-in to hype up Cyber Monday just a few days ago? In the last remaining hours of Monday, they followed up with another message on the PHC to announce up to 50% off on Pop merch on their Zazzle online store! ⚡️

(UPDATE – DEC 2023: The Discord appearance has been debunked as not representing the real Poptropica. The PHB apologizes for the error.)

Strange that they are only announcing this on our little Discord server, and not on any of their own channels with more followers… 🤔

In reality, most of the items are just 25% off, though there are some at half-price: the Dr. Hare Wrapping Paper, mugs of 8-bit Pixel Beev and Hare, Funny Bunny Farm, Fairy Tale and Monster Carnival, phone cases of Binary Bard, Dr. Beev the Beaver, and Dr. Hare, and throw pillows with the Fairy Tale Pattern and Dr. Hare. See more on Zazzle!

A selection of the official Poptropica merch you can buy online.

Poptropica mentions that the discounts are for a limited time only, so get on it quick if you want anything! Though they didn’t specify when the deals would end, and we’re now past Monday and into Tuesday, time is ticking on the deeper discounts.

Wondering what to get? Here on the PHB, we’ve reviewed a few of the many items on Pop’s Zazzle store, including stickers, the vintage bandana, Time Tangled wall clock, Funny Bunny hat, and Dr. Hare button. Maybe something will inspire you. Enjoy the sale! 🛍️✨

For more about all the Poptropica merch that exists, from Zazzle to beyond with toys and more, check out the PHB’s Merchandise Guide. ✨

Creators, Graphic Novels, Member Gifts, Store

New sheriffs sink Pop’s long story arc 📘🔫

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Pop in for shiny sheriff gear, enjoy how aquatic is back, and hear about what happened to Poptropica’s book series. 👀

A new month brings a new set of member gifts, and this November we’ve got some sharp shooters with a New Sheriff Outfit, New Sheriff Defender (the space bar action is reloading the gun), and… a Chicken Follower? 🐔 Bawk-ward.

Over in Adventure Outfitters, there’s a new rotation of costumes, plus the shop floor is stocked with outfits and decor from under the sea! 🐡 The last couple times this happened, it foreshadowed the re-release of an episode from Mission Atlantis Island, which is awaiting its third and final episode. Could this be the case again? 🤔 We’ll have to sea.

In other news, here’s a juicy bit of noise from a former Pop Creator! Poptropica fan artist and Tumblr blogger Sleepy Biker recently reached out to former Poptropica CEO Jess Brallier about his comment in a 2015 interview with the PHB where he shared that Poptropica had planned 12-book story arc for their graphic novel series, of which only four have been published to date. So where’s the rest? 👀📘

“All of that work — i.e., the Poptropica story — was owned by FEN (Family Education Network). Then FEN was sold… The new owners chose to pursue a different growth strategy… We have no legal right to discuss what is owned by somebody else,” Jess answered. In other words, it’s in the hands of Sandbox now. Read his full response below:

Jess Brallier’s response to Sleepy Biker’s inquiry about the fate of the Poptropica books.

Welp, we’re certainly disappointed that the current leadership of Poptropica is sleeping on this gold mine. But thanks to Jess for shedding some light on the situation! To read more insights from Jess about his decade+ of experience creating Poptropica, check out our Jess Brallier mini-series from 2021 here, here, here, and here.

Keep on poppin’ on,
~🐠

Baron's Airship, Member Gifts, Merchandise, Store

Crusades, cozy couture, and more

LJ

Howdy doodly Poptropicanos, it’s LJ with more Poptropica current events!

First up, it’s the return of The Baron’s Crusade side quest! It was back in October when we first traveled to uncharted territories with the sly sky pirate. Now, it’s back if you missed out and is available to all players.

Head on over to the Baron’s Cabin of Curiosities to begin your quest and get a chance to visit her super secret clubhouse. It sounds like we Poptropicans have an adventure waiting for us.

Moving on, two more member gifts have made their way into every member’s inventory: Cabin Cozy PJ and Crystal Couture. Well, I recognized Crystal Couture and it turns out the shawl is a recolor of the Winter Girl 2 outfit that appeared in the store some time ago. 😛 Anyway, only three more gifts to go!

As usual these days, the creators have shared some more lovely art by fans on their Instagram story. I’m always happy to see the Poptropica creators recognizing their fans and interacting with them by commenting and liking artists’ posts.

On Twitter, Poptropica decided to call out Thinknoodles to get his opinion on Goofball Island in this tweet below:

It’s random but I’m totally here for it. His Poptropica content was a big part of a lot of our childhoods and it seems the current social media manager for Poptropica is aware of his previous presence as well. I wonder if he’s going to make a playthrough or walkthrough video. What do you figure he’ll think about Goofball Island? 🤔

Lastly, all items in Poptropica’s Zazzle store— from stickers to masks to hoodies— have all been discounted 15%-25% off!

What a great way to get in the holiday spirit! Get your favorite pieces of merchandise as soon as you can to not miss out on these deals. Not sure which item to get? Maybe you can read some of our reviews which Poptropica linked in their blog post.

And with that said, today’s news has concluded. Thank you all for reading and I’ll talk to you guys in the next one. Pop on!

– LJ 🍀

Merchandise, Reviews

Pop Merch Review: Sticker Haul ✨

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’re back with more merch to review! In addition to the lovely Dr. Hare button, I also ordered some stickers from the official Poptropica Zazzle store. Check out the haul:

The stickers were custom made by Zazzle and arrived in a cardboard envelope.

As you can see, I got six stickers: the 8-bit Dr. Hare and Dr. Beev from Hoptropica, the iconic Poptropica blimp, the classic Time Tangled Island, the mid-stage Survival Island, and the fresh Fairytale Island. 🏝

The Zazzle store has plenty more stickers, though, including logos of fictional businesses, and beloved characters from Fairytale Island. 🐺

At a couple dollars apiece, and with Zazzle’s constant sales, the total of my six stickers came out to around US$12 (not counting international shipping, which was another ~$7 for me). If it’s your first time, you can get a free trial of Zazzle Black, which gives you free shipping in the US.

Anyway, on with the review! I’ll be going through these based on where I decided to stick these adhesive beauties. Let’s start with my laptop, where I placed Dr. Hare with Survival Island. 🐰🌩 (Hey, if this bunny can fling himself to space, he can hop anywhere and survive!)

Pink bunny boi on pink laptop? Yes.

Love the color combos here! Still, each sticker ran smaller than I’d anticipated: Dr. Hare was supposed to be 2″x2″, but was more like 1.25″x1.25″, while Survival Island was meant to be 3″x3″, but ended up 2.5″x1.75″. So if you’re planning to order a sticker, keep that in mind when you’re deciding what size to get! (Size options range from a tiny 2″x2″ to an extra-large 14″x14.”)

Next up we have the Dr. Beev sticker! 🦫 As with the above, Beev was supposed to be 2″x2″, but in reality was closer to 1.75″x1.25″. He was also the only one which I got printed on glossy transparent paper, so the white parts are negated and you can see through to the surface where he’s placed—in this case, my green iPad. Looking good!

Leave it to Beev.

Finally, we have the blimp and two more island stickers, Time Tangled and Fairytale. These are printed on regular matte white paper, so they come with a white outline. (You can choose the paper.)

Again, size runs small: the blimp was meant to be 2″x2″ but was really 1.5″x1.25″, while the islands were both supposedly 3″x3″ but varied, with Time Tangled being 2.5″x2″ and Fairytale being 2.5″x3″. Clearly the design shapes the size, with Fairytale looking large in its max height of 3″ while Time Tangled has a flatter design and ends up shorter.

Anyway, I plastered these pretty pieces onto my cardboard file boxes. Now I can go through my files like I’m traveling through the islands!

It’s kind of like the Poptropica map come to life, in miniature.

So that’s all six stickers! They’re all printed with pretty decent quality, are easy to use, and will look great wherever you want to stick them. 💫

Thanks to the Poptropica Creators for sponsoring this post! And thanks for sticking with me through this sticker haul review. Check out more merch reviews here on the PHB, and stay awesome!

For more about all the Poptropica merch that exists, from Zazzle to beyond with toys and more, check out the PHB’s Merchandise Guide. ✨