Attention Poptropica comic fans – the bad news is, Poptropica’s pausing posting comics for 90 days, according to this tweet. But there’s better news ahead: the first entry in the graphic novel series begins tomorrow now! It’s called Mystery of the Map – keep reading for the first couple of pages!
And the series has begun over on the Creators’ Blog! Below are the first few pages (click to enlarge images), written by Max Brallier (author of Galactic Hot Dogs) and illustrated by Kory Merritt (Poptropica comic artist). So Mya (Oliver’s sister) and the mysterious Octavian make their debut at last…
Stay tuned to the Poptropica Help Blog (and Twitter) as the story unfolds! 😀
Next up – Arabian Nights, Ep. 2: Lair of Thieves is now available on the Poptropica iOS app! It was also made available to Android users about a week ago. Anyway, if you need a walkthrough, check out our Arabian Nights Island Guide!
Lastly, here are a few more Realms that Poptropica featured on Twitter this weekend with the comment, “You’re building beautiful, amazing, and loving.” That last one does give off a Valentine vibe!
That’s all for now – stay popping, Poptropicans. 😉
Hey Poptropicans! First of all, there’s been a change of plans regarding the release of Arabian Nights, Episode 2 (Lair of Thieves) – although it was previously reported that it would come out Nov 25 (Tuesday) for members and Dec 11 for all, a more recent tweet is now saying that early access for members will start Dec 11, and everyone else must wait until Dec 30 to play. 😦
@musicjamfan Early access for members is Dec 11; and public launch Dec 30. Apologies if we caused the confusion. Thanks for checking in.
In the meantime, check out our Behind the Scenes: Overview & Theory post to find out more about Arabian Nights: Ep. 2, with scene backgrounds, plot ideas, and more!
As the most wonderful time of the year approaches (with the kids jingle-belling and everyone telling you ‘be of good cheer’), it’s time for Poptropica’s annual holiday wish list! Click here to print out your very own 2014 copy, and be sure to check out the PHB’s Merchandise: A Guide to Poptropica Shopping page for info on the plethora of Poptropica goods available!
(UPDATE: As Brave Tomato and Limelight have pointed out, if you look closely at the personalized T-shirts and hoodies, you’ll see a few former PHB authors’ Poptropicans on them: Shaggy Tornado on the pale blue shirt, Icy Comet on the pink hoodie, Green Boa’s name on the gray hoodie, and Super Thunder on the hot pink shirt. Subtle shoutout – thanks Pop Creators! 😀 )
PopStorm #7 recently popped up on Twitter – this one’s an a-meow-zing collection of fat cats. Aren’t they just purr-fect? 😉 Fur real though.
Last last week saw Poptropica comicsreturn after a little hiatus, but it looks like we only got two more strips since then before the Creators declared another break. However, our young Frankenstein monster-creating heroes will be returning in 2015!
Did you know that Poptropica Creators sit at home wearing big orange beaks on their faces while conferencing about common rooms for the app over Google Hangout? Well, that’s what this tweet and picture tells us. Not exactly sure who’s who, but from the list we do see a “Chris” (update: it’s Chris Messner) and “Jeff” (Kinney? Heim?). Thoughts? 😛
Anyway, that’s all for now! This post’s bad pun is: what’s popping, Poptropicans? Oh wait – that’s the catchphrase we use for comments around here… well, how about an answer to the question? Popcorn’s popping, Poptropicans. 😉
Among the many projects Poptropica is currently undertaking, Shrink Ray Island is being remade into an SUI (sound-updated island) – but not just that, there are going to be new characters/costumes! Like all the classic islands, it will still be a full island, rather than an episodic one. Poptropica tweeted this screenshot of a couple of characters wearing recycled trash:
That’s not all – they’ve also created a new YouTube playlist called “Inside Poptropica”, and of the clips currently in there, two now three of them are new! The first one shows Creators attempting the audio for different weird voices for “I’m a skull in a jar” (for the Lockwood & Co ad), another one shows the rendering of the Milk Box Head character depicted above, and the last video is just a silly ten-second clip of a Poptropican with a disco afro affected by the Big Blue Zomberry power dancing inside the Club Nouveau Riche on Game Show Island. Watch the playlist below:
Behind-the-Scenes: Dr. Lange rejected art & Poptropica comic book?
Poptropica continues to tweet more behind-the-scenes images, as they have been doing recently. Check out this cute doodle of Dr. Lange from Virus Hunter Island! (It wasn’t quite the look the Creators were going for, though, so it was rejected.) Still, what a cheery doctor. 😀
Another sneak peek they tweeted was this illustrated comic page (not strip!) of an untold Jorge & Oliver adventure with Vikings – and apparently, it’s coming January 2015! The colors are more saturated, too, so if this is what it looks like, perhaps they’re planning to make Poptropica comic books available in print! (They didn’t exactly confirm this yet, but that’s my guess!) It would be pretty rad. 🙂
Forgotten Islands to 3DS next week
Some time ago, we mentioned here on the PHB that Forgotten Islands, the fetch-questy Poptropica game currently available on iOS, will be made for the Nintendo 3DS as well. Well, this upcoming video game has a release date now: October 14th, which is next Tuesday!
The storyline of Forgotten Islands is not the same as any island on the online version of Poptropica, and if you’d like to check out what it’s like, take a look at the PHB’s Forgotten Islands Guide under MiniQuests! The 3DS version is likely to be the same as the iOS version, however.
Poptropica app to Kindle Fire
Poptropicans with a Kindle Fire, there’s good and bad news: Poptropica is working on an app for this device, but it won’t be around until early next year. (If everything goes according to plan!)
@PerezJesus11 Sorry, but probably not until Feb or March of 2015. Long, legal, frustrating, corporate, ugh, story. 😦
Poptropica has tweeted some pretty cool Poptropica Land creations just in the past week or so (they’ve been calling them “today’s Poptropica Land WOW!”). Here’s a gallery of the latest “WOW!”s:
Speedy Cactus’s water monster
Magic Spider’s humble abode
Cheerful Turtle’s big house
Serious Bird’s communal living quarters
Nice Ghost’s divided house
Messy Lion’s “WOW-WOW!” to Poptropica
Great uses of the new Props feature! For more tips and tricks on making the best out of Poptropica Land, be sure to check out the PHB’s Land guide. 🙂 Stay popping, 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. 😀
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! 😮
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