Category: PHB Series

Here’s where you can browse through the many posts we’ve shared on the Poptropica Help Blog, sorted by series.

Community Creations

Community Creations: August 2019

Spotted Dragon
community-creations-logo

Hello once again everyone! Spotted Dragon here bringing you the August recap for Community Creations! August’s theme was movies & TV and the featured work is not in any particular order. Be sure to check out all the featured artists!

No clue what’s going on? Go see our intro post.

Top 5 Picks

Hollywood Diva by Miss Eligon

Oh, Kirk. You either love him or hate him. There is no in between… Anyway, what a simple and great piece! The humor is super fun and the color scheme works really well with the Back Lot background. I love the shine in Kirk’s eyes and the graphic shading style. It’s just so sassy and wonderful. Find her DeviantArt here.

Poptropica Endgame by Magniventris

Wow, stunning! Marvel’s Endgame was an exemplary inspiration for this month. The poster design is iconic and the character swaps are fantastic! I mean, Black Widow is just a perfect fit, right? I love the dramatic lighting, serious posing, and intense expressions. Amazing work! Find her DeviantArt here.

Poptropica Villains Portrayed by Spongebob by Gentle Dolphin

Alright, not only is this video hilarious, but it is also highly creative! Each scene is amazingly accurate, great for Poptropica and Spongebob fans alike. I find the “as portrayed by” trend of videos to be super funny, like c’mon, you had to have chuckled at this one at least once, right? The amount of effort put into collecting these clips is obviously great, and I’m impressed at the amount of villains that were included! A wonderfully unique submission to say the least. Find her DailyMotion here.

Beauty and the Ringmaster by Meganf123456

Another wonderful video entry! I love seeing the creativity here. Tying in the story of Beauty and the Beast to the tragedy of Ringmaster Raven was an excellent connection. Like our other video feature, the effort put into editing this piece is loud and clear, especially considering the amount of original artwork put into it! Fantastic job. Find her YouTube channel here.

Screenshot Runaway by ANNE14TCO

Oooh, exciting! As if you paused an action movie, this screenshot style of artwork is very creative. It demonstrates a lot of movement displayed in one shot, proper intensity and all. Seriously, the caption, deep lighting, and expression in this piece is appropriately dramatic. Makes me feel like I’m looking at a real movie scene! Stunning. Find her DeviantArt here.

Honorable Mentions

  • Wizard of Oz AU by ray-of-flight
  • Reality TV Island by WitchyArtistGal
  • Doctor Hare Elements Forms by thehypercutter

Wow guys, I was totally blown away by your submissions this month! An absolutely amazing job done by all participants. Keep it up, because I’m excited for next month!

September: How Do I Participate?

Community Creations is a cool series for anyone in the Poptropica community to join in on. To sum up what it’s about, it’s basically a chance to show off your artwork, creepy fan-fics, Pop clubhouses, costumes, and anything else that pops into your mind.

If we really like the piece you submit, we will feature it here on the PHB! As long as it relates to that month’s theme. So what is September’s theme? September’s theme is…

Seasons & Weather!

With summer coming to an end and school starting up again for many of us, I think that focusing on seasons this month would be pretty apropos. While some may already be missing the summer sun, I’m sure some of us are already looking forward to the spooky season of autumn! Every year, the weather just seems to get crazier and crazier, huh? Might as well turn that crazy into creativity!

So, what are the limits on your creations? Well, that may just be up to you! You could design stylish outfits inspired by the four seasons, or maybe submit some action-filled fan-art of Dr. Cumulo Nimbus! Perhaps write some fan-fic about facing the harsh winter on Survival Island, or even draw what it’s like to fly your Potpropica blimp in a storm! Your options for creativity are endless.

  • Comment below with a link to whatever you’ve created OR share it with me (SydVC aka Spotted Dragon) on DeviantArt, Twitter, or Discord.
  • Results: I will feature 5 of the submissions as well as 3 honorable mentions.
  • Limitations: Nothing NSFW, and make sure you relate to the theme.
  • Due Date: I will take any entries before the end of this month. Submit as many things as you’d like!

I will always be sure to let you know I have seen your creation. Bonus points if you make a compelling description for your piece! While quality counts, I’m mainly looking for something to simply catch my eye, so don’t be afraid to join in!

So what are you waiting for? Go make something awesome!

~SD

Poptropica Portfolio

Poptropica Portfolio: Nate Greenwall, 2.0

LJ

What’s up, Poptropicans? It’s time for another Poptropica Portfolio!

Today I’ll be featuring the works of an artist we’ve showcased before (the very first Pop Portfolio on the PHB, in fact) — the amazing Nate Greenwall (aka Shark Boy Guy), who worked with Poptropica for nearly 11 years from May 2007 to February 2018. Anyway, let’s get into it!

Greenwall helped design much of Poptropica’s merch over the years including books, toys, shirts, and more. Even the Dr. Hare’s Lair LEGO set that sadly was never released was designed by Nate. Poor Dr. Hare… that would’ve been so cool. I totally would’ve bought it!

Greenwall has also contributed to a whole host of Poptropica’s main assets like the old friends page, the photo booth, island backgrounds, and too many other things to list! He took part in the design process from beginning to end — starting with the wireframes and flows all the way to the final product.

In addition to the bigger features previously mentioned, he also created various advertisement content for Poptropica. Here’s a cool looking Toy Story 3 ad he worked on back in 2010.

When Poptropica was developing their mobile app, Greenwall was responsible for redesigning a lot of the game’s essential systems such as the costumization feature, item inventory, and icon (every so often).

Plus, shout-out to former PHB staffer Brave Tomato for being quoted in Nate’s portfolio from her My Place in Poptropica PHB post:

And finally, take a look at these sketches from the early stages of the island designing process. It’s pretty neat to be able to see some of the brainstorming and preliminary outlines done before an island’s release.

As you can see, Nate has contributed plenty to the game we love during his time with Poptropica, and it’s sad he was released in such an untimely manner. These days, he creates mockups and prototypes for the online furniture and decor retailer, Overstock.

Interested in learning more about Nate and his other projects? Head over to his personal website to see what he’s up to; you’ll find lots of extra Poptropica stuff there too!

I hope you all enjoyed this look into yet another poptastic Poptropica portfolio. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all of the other artists we’ve featured here on the PHB — you won’t be disappointed!

As always, thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you in the next one. Pop on!

– Lucky Joker🍀

Pop 5

Pop 5: Tear-Jerkers in Poptropica 😢

LJ

How’s it going, Poptropicans? I’m Lucky Joker and today I’ll be counting down the top — or should I say pop — 5 most tear-jerking moments in Poptropica! Keep in mind that this list represents my personal opinion, so your list may differ from mine. Anyway, let’s get right into the waterworks! (**Warning: Spoilers ahead)

5) The Wreckage of Poptropica (Super Villain Island)

After the job of collecting the totems from Poptropica’s most evil villains is done, it’s revealed that Dr. Jupiter (the person who sent us on this journey) was really Zeus all along! He betrays us and steals the totems we’ve retrieved in order to make himself the most powerful villain who’s ever lived, and to take over all of Poptropica.

Once he gets away, a cutscene plays out showing Shark Tooth, Mythology, and Mystery Train Islands completely destroyed. There’s something tragic about seeing the beloved past islands we’ve once explored and saved laying in ruins. I could imagine if this island was sound updated and had a sad piano or violin track playing over it, it would make the scene even more dramatic.

4) Count Bram and Annabelle’s Reunion (Vampire’s Curse Island)

Unlike all the other picks for this list, this moment is actually not a sad one, but still manages to get you emotional. After years of being cursed as a vampire and having Katya — who he believes is his wife — not want anything to do with him, Count Bram is finally happy when we break the curse and reunite him with the love of his life, Annabelle. We witness a very heartwarming moment as he finally is able to rest in peace.

3) Scheherazade’s Confession (Arabian Nights Island)

Scheherazade demanded Samhal the genie to relinquish his magic abilities to her, and after, went on a rampage ignited by her hunger for power — becoming a mere reflection of her father, the sultan. It’s later revealed that she was only acting up because she was yearning for something she missed greatly: her father’s attention. After he became sultan, he rarely showed her any affection because he was too concerned about his riches. When she opens up about her feelings, he begins to cry. That’s a sentiment everyone felt in that moment. I mean, c’mon, just look at her adorable little drawing of them happy together.

2) The Destruction of the Magic Orb (Twisted Thicket Island)

At the climax of the island — after you’ve gotten past all of the creatures and into the center of the forest — you encounter the Elf Queen and discover that the woodland creatures have been the victims of this story all along. All they want is to live in peace. The Elf Queen explains the orb’s importance to us when all of a sudden, the developer and his construction crew raid the forest and destroy the magic orb, leaving the woodland creatures in a vegetative state. Tsk tsk, greedy Poptropicans.

1) Ringmaster Raven’s Story (Monster Carnival Island)

Though this one is more of a series of moments, there’s no doubt that it’s a very sad tale: that of a boy who just wanted to feel welcomed and accepted by those around him, but wasn’t because he was different. Sure, he went about coping in the wrong way as he sought to seek revenge on the citizens (most of whom were innocent) by making them his servants through hypnosis — but really, all he wanted was acceptance, and I think that’s something we all can resonate with.

At the end of the island, we turn him into a laughingstock of a circus act through more hypnosis. So it’s on with the circus life for Raven, now dubbed “The Incredible Chicken Man.” The poor bullied bird boy never got his happy ending. 😢

Need a tissue? No judgment. Anyway, that’s it for this Pop 5! Do you agree with my choices? What other moments from Poptropica do you think deserve to be on this list? Sound off down below! Pop on…

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Bring back old features

LJ

What’s up, Poptropicans? Lucky Joker here popping in with a brand new Pop Petition! Here, I’ll be listing what I would like to see added (or in this case, re-added) into the game to make the game even more enticing. Let’s pop right into it, shall we?

1) Multiverse

In my opinion, Multiverse was one of Poptropica’s best features. It was first introduced to the game in the summer of 2009 and offered a great hangout-with-friends experience in the largely single-player-based game that Poptropica was and still is.

Sure, we have our common rooms. However, they’re not as good for meeting up with specific friends (and even posed a challenge for us when organizing our most recent Poppies party). If that’s not bad enough, most of the minigames were withdrawn along with the removal of Multiverse. These include: Paint War, Hoops, Pathwise, Soupwords (one of my favorites), and Sudoku (my absolute favorite!). I hope Poptropica can convert Multiverse into AS3 (their newer game engine) soon.

2) Friends Page

“LJ, there still is a friends page, silly. What are you talking about?”

Right you are, anonymous reader — and I really like it too! The wallpaper and sticker wall customization is a plus, and the friendship interaction options such as the like button and message board are things we didn’t have before. On the downside, though, there’s a ton of stuff missing that I took for granted on the original friends page.

Firstly: pop quizzes (Tall Melon also talked about this in his Pop Petition guest post last year). These have been gone a while — even before the old friends page was replaced. It was nice to be able to show a bit of your personality through answering various things about yourself, and it was just that little extra something to do when you were bored.

Second: in-game stats. On the current profile page, it displays how many islands a person has completed, but not which ones exactly. It was really convenient to see which islands you’d completed by viewing your medallion collection. Now, you have to go to the map and check more carefully… oh wait, some of the islands aren’t even there anymore (more on this later). Also, the battle ranking and tribe tiles are completely gone. Not to mention only 25 of your friends will show up on your friends list at a time. If you have any more than that, sorry!

3) Costume Collector

screenshot from Magic Heart in Poptropica

Although this feature at face value may seem pointless considering we have a costume closet with a much larger capacity of outfit space, it actually had some good use, and it’s sad to see it gone.

For one, who wouldn’t want three extra costume slots, am I right? Also, I know a few people who had rare pieces stored in their costume collector from years ago. They were pretty upset when those were suddenly gone. Creators, please bring this feature (and our costumes) back if at all possible! 🤞

4) Original Islands

graphic from Reddit

This is probably the feature that everybody definitely wants back. Just recently, many of the older islands were removed.

Some of Poptropica’s greatest adventures — the ones that shaped most of our childhoods and made Poptropica what it is today (like Counterfeit, Nabooti, and Cryptids) are no longer playable. It just isn’t the same without all of our beloved islands on the map, and in fact, it feels like a huge part of the game has disappeared (after all, 29 of the 42 islands are gone!).

I can only hope the Poptropica Creators are actively working on bringing these islands back, and all of the other features for that matter.

As some of you may know, these features are still accessible through idk the glitcher’s teleporter link, but Poptropica’s vast majority of players are unaware of this and don’t have that option.

I’m sure there are more features we’d all like to see make a comeback in the future, but that’s for another Pop Petition. So, what do you guys think? Do you agree with my list? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Thank you all for reading, and I’ll talk to you in the next one. Pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Pop Places IRL, Red Dragon Island

Pop Places IRL: Red Dragon

Spotted Dragon

Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL!” Miss the series? Today I’ll be taking you to Red Dragon Island and comparing it to its counterparts in real life. And if you like the sound of that, be sure to check out other Pop Places IRL posts.

So… where in the real world is Red Dragon based off of? Well, we already know that the island is based on the Magic Tree House books, so where is that based off of? The answer to that question is right in the novel’s description!

“Jack and Annie are headed to a land of fierce samurai and great beauty, the capital city of Edo (now the city of Tokyo), in ancient Japan in the 1600s. They bring only a research book to guide them and a magic wand with three special rules.”

Japan it is, Poptropicans! Wait, wait, wait, hold on… what about Main Street? What about Jack and Annie’s hometown? Well, “Frog Creek, Pennsylvania” is sadly a fictional city, but Pennsylvania’s neighborhoods match up pretty well anyway!

  • photo: Shadyside Pittsburgh (wikipedia.org)

Okay, now we can head over to Old Japan. We have many sites to see here, foremost being the imperial garden that our Poptropicans come across during our adventure. Basho’s Garden, which we visit later in the game, offers a similar setting. At both locations, we see beautiful Japanese trees, flowers, and huts over water. Looking at the IRL version of the scene, things seem pretty accurate!

  • photo: Best of Old and New Japan (kimkim.com)
  • photo: Exteriors of Japanese Houses (pinterest)

Moving on, we come across the Great Bridge before truly entering Edo! The resemblance of the bridge is uncanny to the Shin-kyo Bridge in Nikko Japan, which demonstrates very similar architecture and color.

  • photo: Nature & Nikko (tokyocheapo.com)

Next we have East and West Edo, which then lead to the fortress and the secluded lake. Red Dragon shows us a marketplace, paired with a stunning landscape, bonsai shop, and more. Though times have greatly changed since the days of Ancient Japan, its rich history can still be seen in the distinct architecture and environment.

  • photo: Sawara (japan-guide.com)
  • photo: Old Edo (muza-chan.net)

Even the Fortress in game mimics the classic Japanese architecture used in palaces and castles. Perhaps some stylistic choices were taken in Poptropica to add some more pops of color?

  • photo: Himeji Castle (japantoday.com)
  • photo: Imperial Palace Tokyo (japanvisitor.com)

Before we wrap up our trip through Tokyo, who could forget about the unique apparel and characters that we come across on the island? Geishas, sumo wrestlers, and ninjas alike are memorably encountered.

  • photo: Culture of the Kimono (tsunagujapan.com)
  • photo: Geisha in Kyoto (pinterest)
  • photo: Sumo Legend (asianews.it)
  • photo: Ninja (jpninfo.com)

Pretty cool, right? Many people in the community agree that Red Dragon Island has some of the most beautiful scenes in Poptropica. Makes me want to go visit Japan! 🙂

That wraps up our post, so what do you guys think of the comparison? Does Poptropica accurately capture Japanese culture?

Sayonara, Poptropicans!

~SD