Contests, Fairy Tale Island

A fairy whimsical walkthrough with fashionably late fan art 🧚 🖌️

Purple Paw

Hey there everybody! Purple here with a couple tidbits of news on Fairytale Island; and the long-awaited winners of its own fan art challenge. Let’s pop to it!

As you’ll see on their official YouTube channel, the Poptropica Creators recently posted a brand-new video spotlighting none other than good old Fairytale Island itself! In this video, Silent Frog from Poptropica HQ brings us on a full walkthrough of the newly released island. (For a written walkthrough, check out the PHB’s Fairytale Island Guide!)

It’s the first time we’re hearing the name Silent Frog, but it’s possible she’s posted for the Creators before without using a screen name, since her character looks familiar. 🐸

Silent Frog speaking with the prince on Fairytale Island.

If you watched all the way to the end of this YouTube walkthrough, you’ll find something especially exciting waiting in store. As it turns out, the Creators didn’t entirely forget about the Fairytale Fan Art Challenge, and decided to showcase three promised winners at the end of the video! Congratulations to criahacesium, v.a.m.p.y.r.a, and elisabethian1912 for winning the art contest. (And check out more fairytale fan art features here, here, and here!)

Silent Frog tells us that there was so much talent in the art submissions that the Poptropica team ended up having to randomly pick three winners from a hat, which brings up some suspicions about the delay in announcing the winners (which were originally meant to be revealed on April 23). How did picking names from a hat take such a long time?

We get an answer from an email that the Creators sent to one of the official blog’s guest writers, Invisible Ring, who asked them directly. Ring shared the message with us on our Discord server, the PHC:

As it turns out, they waited to release the winners in their walkthrough video instead of posting it on the date they’d promised. This isn’t the first time they’ve deserted us and only bothered to explain why after a fan directly asked them about it, but at least they apologized for their mistake and are aiming to do better!

The three winning pieces from the fairy fan art challenge

Finally, to wrap up this post, the Creators mentioned briefly on their blog that a new fan challenge will be making its appearance sometime soon. I wonder what this one could be? 👀

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all next time!

~💜

Free Membership Giveaways

PHB Membership Giveaway: April 2021

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’re approaching the end of the month, which means it’s time to announce another lucky Poptropican to win our monthly membership giveaway! 🎁

You might recognize April’s winner as he frequently guest posts and comments on the PHB: it’s Dangerous Dragon! Congrats, DD—enjoy the shiny world of member gifts, special store items, and Haxe’s one exclusive island, Time Tangled. You’ll have new things to write about!

Perks of membership include extra store items and monthly gifts.

If you’re not a member, you still have the chance (or many chances, in fact): the PHB is hosting a giveaway every month, and it’s easy to enter! Just comment on the Free Poptropica Membership page and leave at least two other comments around the PHB within the month to be entered into that month’s giveaway.

We’ll announce a winner sometime in the final week of each month. If you don’t win, you can always try again for the next month! Full details »

Congrats again to DD, and as always, keep on popping on! 🐉

~🐠

Pop Fan Artist Spotlights

🎨 Pop Fan Artist Spotlight: Gear

LJ

Howdy doodly Poptropicans, it’s LJ with the latest Pop Fan Artist Spotlight! Today’s artist I want to showcase is Gear. Gear often shares her illustrations (and more recently, mood boards) on the PHC and even illustrates for Maryann’s The Villain Saga series. How cool is that?

According to her, she thinks it’s thrilling that her art reaches a wide audience; in fact, she wants to become a Poptropica creator one day! Storyboarding and character design are two of her most favorite things and you can really see that passion manifest itself into her work. I find that each piece tells its own story (figuratively and literally) and that’s something I really appreciate when it comes to art. Check out this very diverse gallery (you can click the images to see them in their full glory):

Seriously, I think the various styles Gear’s able to produce really speaks to the talent she has as an artist. You have a more professional style that almost looks identical to the game, a chibi kind of style that reminds me of an old arcade game, and some semi realism thrown in there as well. I love it! What do you think? You can follow her on Instagram to see more @capax_infini.

And with that concludes this showcase! I hope you enjoyed this look into a Poptropica fan’s artwork. If you’ve made any Poptropica fan art of your own, we’d love for you to share it on our We-Love-Poptropica DeviantArt gallery. Also, don’t forget to check out all the other artists we’ve featured on the PHB. It’s a sight for sore eyes, for sure.

Thanks for reading as always and I’ll talk to you soon. Pop on!

– LJ 🍀

Popular Poptropicans

Popular Poptropican: Spotted Dragon

LJ

Howdy Poptropicans, it’s LJ with the second installment of our Popular Poptropican staff writer lineup! Last time I was interviewed, but today we’ll be getting to know a bit more about Spotted Dragon — longtime Poptropica blogger and host of the greatly admired Community Creations series.

1. What do you enjoy about blogging with the PHB?

Poptropica has been such a big part of my childhood, and so blogging with the PHB has really been a childhood dream come true. I remember being ecstatic when I got asked to join the team many years ago! It was a fantastic outlet for my passion for writing growing up, and I’m glad that my posts can still reach a wonderful audience. And through all the ups and downs of Poptropica, it has been a blast being a part of such a fun, creative community.

2. What advice would you give to aspiring bloggers or writers in general that you wish you had starting out?

Writing for a blog is definitely much different than writing a novel. In blogging, you really get the chance to connect more with your readers and have fun with your posts. So don’t be afraid to really let your personality shine through! And for improving your writing in general, reading is a big helper. Read lots of different things and you’ll naturally start to pick up on different writing styles and techniques.

3. What is your favorite island and villain?

Oh boy, I’ve never been great at answering this question. I have so many favorites! For top favorite… I think I’m between Cryptids Island and Counterfeit Island. Gosh, there are so many fun villains too. I do love Gretchen Grimlock and Black Widow from those aforementioned islands, but I’m also a sucker for Daphne Dreadnaught’s character design. 

4. What challenge in the game has been the hardest to complete in your opinion?

Growing up, I had a REALLY hard time with building up my boat in Skullduggery. I didn’t fully trust the loaning system, so it took me a really long time to get a strong enough ship to beat Captain Crawfish.

5. What is your favorite feature (still here or gone) from the many years of Poptropica?

Hmm, I really do love the art that goes into Poptropica, including the character design, so I might have to say that the Costumizer is my favorite feature. I have always loved making different costumes, and I especially loved when I got to save those costumes.

6. What is your favorite Poptropica item?

Back to my love for costumes, I gotta say that I love the Colorizer as well as the OG Costume Collector. I just love the versatility of customization in games! And some of my favorite costume items growing up were definitely the Vampire Girl outfits.

7. What is your favorite Poptropica Easter egg/secret/reference?

This is another tough question! I think the first easter eggs that really got me excited as a kid were the Hypnotic Costume and the Viking Suit. I felt really clever when I found those! But these days, one of my favorite easter eggs might be the PHB License Plate, because it really feels like a personal shoutout in some ways.

(LJ: You can friend her on Poptropica with the username ooolala13!)

🌟 Would you like to be the next Popular Poptropican? 🌟

To nominate yourself or someone you know, send me an email at [email protected] or a private message on Discord with the following:

  • the name of your nominee (a Poptropica name or other screen name)
  • a reason why your nomination should be the next Popular Poptropican

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one! Pop on!

– LJ 🍀

Clubhouse, Store

Trend Report: Rumplestiltskin cosplay and empty promises 😼

LJ

Howdy Poptropicans! It’s LJ here reporting on the final weekly store update of April.

A good selection of outfits were added in Adventure Outfitters, including the look of Rumplestiltskin from Fairytale Island (check out our guide and review!). We even got a couple of knights appropriately for sale too. Neato! The total number of stock is 24 (which is more than the usual 18) and only 8 are for members. Prices range from 75 to 350 credits.

We got a few new fairytale themed items in the side sections as well. You’ll notice an adorable cat-i-corn topper when you first walk in (I’m totally picking this up!), and if you go to the right you’ll see a legendary sword and a big (or should I say little?) bad wolf follower. So cool!

The clubhouse furniture store items have also been rotated. As far as I’m aware, the “new” items include a lantern (first pic), a wooden vanity (second pic), and a turquoise soda machine (last pic). I put “new” in quotations because although the items weren’t featured in the store last time, they’ve been available in Adventure Outfitters for weeks now. So yeah, nothing technically new, just thought it was worth pointing out. 😛

Also, a belated happy Earth Day to all! Although April 22 was a big day on Poptropica for the release of Fairytale Island, the creators also took the opportunity to celebrate our planet with an Instagram post. The caption includes encouragements for greener living and a Wendell Berry quote: “The Earth is what we all have in common.”

That’s all the updates for now, but before I close off this post, you know what update is lacking? Hmm… where are the results of the recent fanart contest? We were told the winners would be announced on the 23rd yet here we are three days later, and nothing — with no word on what the holdup is. Come on, creators.

Empty promises from Poptropica? Yuck.

On the topic of art, be sure to participate in this month’s Community Creations; the theme is bugs. Who knows? Maybe an idea will crawl its way into your head. Anyway, it’s time to sign off now. Pop on!

– LJ 🍀