Yo Poptropicans! LJ here with a new post. How are y’all today? (Read that intro again. It’s basically a haiku. 😉)
Waterfalls: Follow this stream of consciousness.
A haiku, in my own words, is a traditional Japanese poem made up of 17 syllables spread across three lines. The structure requires that the syllables are arranged in a particular format: the first line contains 5 syllables, the second line has 7, and the final line returns to 5.
I was feeling sort of poetic recently while also feeling nostalgic for Poptropica’s glory days as I pretty much always am, so I decided to manifest that energy and take the time to writea bundle of haikus. In case the poems don’t convey enough, I also included an aesthetic graphic for each one, all made by me. I hope you enjoy!
🍄 Scattering pieces 🍄 🍄 The sad loss of all magic 🍄 🍄 Heedless conquering 🍄
🌸 Elite ninja skills 🌸 🌸 Sakura and bonsai trees 🌸 🌸 Chaos in beauty 🌸
🧟 Rising from the grave 🧟 🧟 Exploring each spooky room 🧟 🧟 The party begins 🧟
🌌 A man turned cyborg 🌌 🌌 Trio of lost chevaliers 🌌 🌌 One epic battle 🌌
🍭 Gaggle of rugrats 🍭 🍭 Lots of sour surprises 🍭 🍭 Savor the sweet gifts 🍭
🎡 Cometh the funfair 🎡 🎡 Angst and dread loom over the city 🎡 🎡 Secrets are revealed 🎡
🐖 Earliest village 🐖 🐖 Help out the 8-bit pilgrims 🐖 🐖 Three missing items 🐖
⚡Into the dream realm ⚡ ⚡ Unravel threads of evil ⚡ ⚡ A giant shocker ⚡
What are your thoughts? Poetry isn’t really my forte, and as far as I can recall, I’ve never written this many haiku in one go ━ so they might not be top-notch. Still, I had a blast creating them, and I may just write even more. If you’re feeling inspired, let your creativity flow and share your own Poptropica haiku in the comments! I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Until next time…
Howdy, Poptropicanos! I’m thrilled to let you know that the entire collection of Poptropica’s graphic novel series is finally available on our Comics page for your viewing pleasure. 😄
The Poptropica graphic novel series, written by Jack Chabert (aka Max Brallier, for the first installment only) and Mitch Krpata (aka Captain Crawfish), with vibrant illustrations by Kory Merritt, takes readers on an exciting journey with Mya, Oliver, and Jorge in the magical land of Poptropica.
You might be surprised to learn that the characters from the comics, conceived by Jeff Kinney, almost became an animated series. However, while that didn’t pan out, we were gifted with the beloved graphic novel series we all adore today. Although it was intended to span 12 volumes (according to former Pop CEO, Jess Brallier, in this Q&A), only 4 were ever published.
Enough with the chit-chat, LJ. Go ahead and get right to the exciting stories by clicking on any of the links below for the volume you’d like to read!
If you’re someone who enjoys having physical copies of the series, you can easily find them for sale on Amazon. Check out the links to the listings below.
I trust this delightful news has sprinkled a bit of brightness into your day. We have a lineup of exciting posts coming your way in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for them. In the meantime, dive into some reading—I certainly plan to! 🤓🍀
“Carnival” by XMzhier (Best Fan Art winner, Poppies 2022)
Howdy doodly, Poptropicanos! LJ here back with a Pop Fan Artist Spotlight, featuring the works of XMzhier on Tumblr (aka MN-XMPop on DeviantArt, or XM here for simplicity’s sake).
Okay, I have to confess that I first interviewed this artist for their spotlight almost three years ago (*slaps self*), but somehow overtime the draft got lost among my many unfinished projects. So, it’s safe to say that this has been a long time in the making. Let’s waste no more time to showcase and enjoy the sensational works of XMzhier!
“Veuve Noire Valentine” by XMzhier
XM shared with me that their top picks for Pop characters to create fanart for are the notorious Black Widow and Dr. Hare, and it’s easy to see why! These two wicked yet charming characters have sparked countless stunning artworks within the fandom over the years, and X’s renditions of the infamous two are no exception.
XM also mentioned that they find these two quite easy to draw since their features are naturally captivating to them. Talk about talent! Feast your eyes on this gallery of pieces that just might leave you inspired to create your own. (click on images to see them in their full glory)
If you’re eager to see more, take a look at their creations on DeviantArt (even though it’s obsolete now) and Tumblr (where they’re more active)! Just a heads up, you’ll actually need a Tumblr account to view their content.
That wraps up our spotlight this time! I hope you had a great time exploring a fellow Poptropica fan’s artwork. If you’ve created any Poptropica fan art yourself, we’d be thrilled if you shared it on our Discord server, the PHC. While you’re here, be sure to take a look at all the other talented artists we’ve highlighted on the PHB. I promise it’s definitely worth it!
Thanks for reading as always and I hope to talk to you again soon. Pop on!🍀
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!
For years, I’ve wondered who shrunk the yellow blimp I was riding on, and I have returned once again to share my air-headed thoughts on such a small mystery.
For example, the first mini-blimp like this was on Shrink Ray Island, which leads me to believe that the culprit was armed with a shrink ray. After all, those ray-guns certainly flooded the market back in the day…
…But if this is true, then who put those shrink rays to such a devious use? Some may automatically blame the classic ray-gun villains, like Dr. Hare or Director D. But I think that the most likely suspect would be Dr. Blandston, zapper of blimps! After all, I saw the doctor from Goofball Island with my own eyes; firing that blandston-ray at my blimp. Who’s to say they didn’t fire a shrink ray too?
However, the blimp mystery may not be as simple as all that. For back on Home Island, I found not one, but TWO mini-blimps! Almost as if someone used “Twin Power” on them!
…Either that, OR somebody might’ve found a way to split a large classic blimp into two smaller blimps! That doesn’t explain where the “Poptropica” logo disappeared to, though. (Unless those blimp vandals took the logo off first!)
But this isn’t too much of a problem, because there are still plenty of classic blimps to go around, thanks to the Monkey Wrench Island monkeys.
…Although, there are a few islands that don’t have blimps at all! And those islands are the episodic adventures. Survival Island: Episode 1 is surely to blame for that. After that blimp destruction, there’s no blimp on that island, nor on any OTHER episodic adventure!
Thank goodness for the Monkey Wrench monkeys, to have built us new blimps for the islands that came after those multi-part islands, like this one on Pelican Rock!
Of course, we can’t forget the most common blimp Popspiracy out there: The mini-blimps are only on the newest islands, from 2021-now. Fairytale, Goofball, Jade Scarab, and the newest Home Island have the small blimps, and the rest of the islands have classic blimps.
Maybe Glowbhax shrunk the blimps! …haha, just kidding! I’m sure you all would rather say that the 2021 mini-blimp is just a modern design that’s only big enough for stuffed bunnies… but what if that modern design was ALSO done by the monkeys? Perhaps the Monkey Wrench monkeys were trying to keep up with the times, so they made big blimps for the old islands and small blimps for the new ones!
But one small catch… What if you travel from old islands to new islands, or vice-versa?
…Well, THAT answer is probably as wild and crazy as all the Poptropica storms we fly through! Imagine crossing over a modern island like Fairytale, when a shrink ray hits you and turns your classic blimp miniature! Then when you fly on outta there and exit that atmospheric layer of shrink ray waves, your blimp turns back to normal! …Either that, or Rumplestiltskin’s magic is at hand. Who knows?
One thing I do know is that it’s lots of fun to formulate all these deductions like a detective from Mystery Train Island. The sky is literally the limit! But regardless of whether you’re on a train, in a blimp, on foot, or in the real world, my advice to you is to keep on adventuring, and keep your eyes to the skies. And keep asking questions and making guesses, too, because that is exactly how we all learn!
(This Popspiracy—Poptropica conspiracy—was brought to you by my early BlimpyTrance posts from Pop Fan Kids.)
Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy watching her full-length Poptropica fan movie, Battle Morale!
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!
BREAKING NEWS: It seems Poptropica is officially shutting down.
The news comes from a LinkedIn post by ex-Pop Creator, Lauren Kamb, who writes that “I’m announcing the closure of… Poptropica Ltd.”
According to her profile, Lauren served as Digital Advertising Account Manager at Poptropica from 2019–2022, then as Director of Partner Relations at Suit Up Games, Poptropica’s spin-off Roblox studio, from 2022 to now. So it seems safe to say she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to announcing the closure of both companies.
What’s odd is that, as of now, Lauren’s post is the only place breaking such big news. The announcement of Poptropica’s closure hasn’t yet appeared on Coolmath Games, where Poptropica is currently hosted, nor on any of its socials (nor Poptropica’s socials, for that matter).
Deplane: It’s going down for real.
But to back up the claim of closure further, Lauren’s post was ‘liked’ and reposted by many in her network, including some with connections to Poptropica and Suit Up Games. (Thanks to jeeperpretzel for the tip!)
And Lauren is not the only recent staff departure from Poptropica and Suit Up Games. Within the past month, according to their LinkedIn posts and profiles, departures were announced by Jonathan Pitcher, art director; Lance Fry, another artist whose Poptropica Portfolio we’ve featured; Justin Kelly, software developer; and Rick Hocker, director of development (side note: Rick’s profile also mentions being responsible for managing Poptropica’s big move from Flash to HTML5 and mobile).
While Jon Pitcher was working on both Poptropica and Suit Up Games, the rest of those mentioned are ex-Poptropica staff, having migrated to Suit Up Games in 2022 when the studio was founded.
With all of them sharing that they are now looking for work, the departures seem to be layoffs, comparable to the layoffs in 2018 of several senior Pop Creators. We’re certainly sorry to see them go—and anxious for confirmation on what this means for Poptropica. 🥲
Monkey Business: Our beach vacation is in ruins.
Meanwhile for Suit Up Games, we’re seeing some questionable content that may back up Lauren’s claim of its closure. On their website, the calendar which was previously offered to schedule meetings with them is now unavailable, while the staff’s name is still there. However, according to his LinkedIn profile, Joshua Mixon was Head of Product at Suit Up Games until May 2024. Plus, their job application site is down.
Also on their website, it appears that Suit Up Games is using AI-generated artwork. Taking a closer look at the image alongside their “strategic, data-driven approach” message reveals some wonky-looking numbers and charts that are characteristic of AI art not getting details quite right. This is particularly questionable considering they’ve just let go of actual artists on their team, but if the whole company is going down anyway, perhaps it’s just a minor detail.
Website of Suit Up Games with Joshua Mixon’s calendar unavailableCloser look at AI-generated image on Suit Up site — thanks to Tall Cactus for the tip!
While we haven’t yet seen an official announcement of closure from Poptropica as an entity, or any of its related companies, we did come across official documents filed by Pop to the Companies House of the UK government, where Poptropica Limited is registered.
The most recent filing comes just around the time of the latest staff departures, dated 20 August 2024. The document is an “audit exemption statement of guarantee by parent company for period ending 31/12/23”, stating that Poptropica’s parent company Sandbox International Holdings Limited would “guarantee all liabilities of its subsidiary.” In other words, Sandbox is claiming responsibility for all of Poptropica’s financial obligations. But this filing may just be a formality, since Pop was already under Sandbox. (Previously it was under another Sandbox-related parent company, Aspen Newco 1 Ltd.)
Digging further into the previous audit exemption—the “audit exemption subsidiary accounts made up to 31 December 2022″—we find a more detailed document that includes Poptropica’s older (but latest published) financial statements. While page 2 shows a loss of $154,952 in 2022, the previous year still held a profit with $86,537 in 2021. But by page 12 we can see that the cash generated from operations in 2022 was $630,857, so perhaps things were still doing alright then.
Since Sandbox International Holdings Limited has swallowed up the reporting of Poptropica’s finances, we took a peek at their docs, too. On page 35 of the document “Group of companies’ accounts made up to 31 December 2022”, we find Poptropica listed as just one of many subsidiaries held by Sandbox. Then on page 38, we find various losses noted among the company cash from operations. Disclaimer, though: we’re no experts at reading these lengthy accounting statements, so this may not necessarily spell the end for all we know.
All this to say, it’s not super clear right now how Poptropica is doing financially, since their last financial statement reflects the year 2022, and Sandbox has lumped in Poptropica’s finances with their other subsidiaries. But perhaps things will become clearer with the next statement, or with any announcement from Poptropica. We’ll see!
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