🦄 Ponytropica 🦄

Hey Poptropicans! It’s Slanted Fish, popping in with the latest.

First, the Poptropica Creators released a new video introducing “6 Cool Side Characters” from Poptropica Worlds! Check it out:

And the six cool cats to be featured are…

Captain Scuttlebutt, who lets you spin the daily wheel on Home Island
Ranger Rick, who’s pretty attached to his bottle of glue 😉
Hazel and Beatrice, the elderly ladies stuck in Crispin Cave — although I don’t think “Be-a-trees” is the conventional pronunciation, Poptropica’s Beatrice is probably unique enough to go for it if she wanted. 🐝🌲
Maynard, also known as Weird Barn Dude
Charlie, who really loves her cat Whiskers
Iris Ray, whose color-changing clothes make her not so much a creeper who hangs around in front of your house all the time, but who adds to the cool factor

Those are some pretty solid choices, although, hey—Hazel and Bea-trees are two characters, not one! Anyway, who else would you add to the list?

That’s not all: it looks like our mystery narrator (who may also be the mystery blogger, and who we’ve been calling Gentle Lion which is his character’s name in the videos) has a new name: Dave. Take a look at the video description:

Well, it’s good to finally be introduced, Dave!

It also looks like Dave (or Gentle Lion if you prefer Pop names) will be doing more videos for the YouTube channel, along with Stephanie, since both have recently been pretty active on there. (And doing pretty well, I might add!)

The Creators’ Blog has been all back to Captain Crawfish lately. Captain Crawfish also confirmed with the PHB over Twitter DM that he’s “running this stuff for the time being.” Not sure how long that will be, but Poptropica’s recent tweets have been on top of their game lately, so this seems like a pretty good arrangement!

Over on Poptropica Original’s Home Island, there’s an ad for The LEGO Batman Movie! (It’s been out for months, but still, it’s a good one.) Head inside the Batcave and talk to Batman to help him stop the Joker.

Your task is to help build three Batmobiles, and you’ll be given 20 seconds to complete each one. Simply drag each piece to where it belongs, noting the shape of each part as you hover over them until you find the one that matches.

When you’ve successfully built all three vehicles, you’ll win some prizes! The Batmobile Builder assembles a LEGO Batmobile on your screen when you press space bar, and the Batarang is a handheld bat boomerang you can throw (by pressing space bar). You’ll need to de-activate one to use the other, since both require space bar actions.

Finally, this is our last call for you to enter our Halloween Costume Contest! You can enter as many times as you like in two categories, Pop Original and Worlds. The contest closes on Monday, October 30 and we’ll be revealing the winners on Halloween.

We’re also still taking art (of all forms) for Community Creations! This month’s theme is Halloween, and as usual, you have up until the end of the month to enter.

Need a little inspiration for both? Check out our list of ASGs for Poptropica Original for tons of cool costume parts. We keep adding new ones, so keep checking back!

Plus, for those of you in the know, Stranger Things—an amazing Netflix drama—released their second season this week. What does this have to do with Poptropica? Well, check out our Pop-over post for Stranger Things to find out! 👻

Stay sp00py, Poptropicans!

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Uncategorized

A store decked out for Halloween

October 25, 2017October 25, 2017 Happy Lobster

Hey Poptropicans!

It’s Happy Lobster, with some sp00py updates for Poptropica Original! First off, if you head over to the Store, you’ll find old Halloween favorites back and moved up to the front of the selections.

To celebrate Halloween coming up, the Creators have placed at the front of the Costumes section in “Newest” and “View All” sections a handful of Halloween costumes: the Pumpkin Head (which you can also activate using the hotkeys Ctrl + Shift + P without having to pay 275 credits), the Vampire Boy/Girl (which is absolutely free, by the way), and the Clown.

As for the Gold Cards section, there’s the Haunted House (miniquest guide here), the Halloween Accessory Pack* (which released last year), Followers Spook Pack, Frankenstein’s Monster* and Swamp Monster at the forefront for this Halloween. ( * indicates members only)

Moreover, the Creators’ Blog post states that the Haunted House mini-quest is “back for a limited time only,” so better get on it now because it’s not staying year-round! They also state, erroneously, that “The Haunted House is free with Membership” — but this is not the case, as non-members can get to it too (notice the “free” label on the card). Besides, why would they ever, ever make the Haunted House members-only?

Update: The Creators’ Blog post has been corrected, per our suggestion.

By the way, if you haven’t already, make sure to participate in both the PHB’s 9th Annual Halloween Costume Contest and this month’s Community Creations, with the theme of Halloween! We look forward to all your sp00py entries! 👻

Thanks for reading this post, and see you soon!

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24 Carrot Island, Dr. Hare's Revenge, Livestreams, Social Media

6 + 2 Awesome Moments on Worlds, feat. Dr. Hare’s Revenge for all and Livestream #5!

October 21, 2017December 15, 2017 Purple Claw

Hey there, good players of Poptropica!

It’s Purple Claw here bringing you all an abundance of Poptropica news!

To start off, the new mini-game Dr. Hare’s Revenge is now open to all! It’s still in beta, which means it’s not quite finalized, and you can leave feedback in a survey that will pop up after you finish a zone in the game. Here at the PHB, we’ve finalized our Dr. Hare’s Revenge Guide at last, so check out the new page for a video and written walkthrough!

Dr. Hare’s Revenge was released for members only as a beta two-and-a-half weeks ago. Also, if you’re playing from your mobile device, you get to try a new control scheme, with a virtual joystick and jump button!

The basic gist of this game is that you have to stop Dr. Hare from getting his revenge by going to different types of areas called zones and collecting all the carrots. There are four zones, each one consisting of 10 levels each. After you finish the first zone, you’ll be asked to fill out a quick survey, which will help the Creators gauge players’ thoughts on this game and plan out what to put out next on Poptropica!

Over on YouTube, Poptropica uploaded a video titled 6 AWESOME Moments in Poptropica Worlds where Gentle Lion (a newer narrator we’ve been hearing more from) shares his 6 favorite moments from Worlds. Check it out:

Here is his list of awesome moments, summarized below:

The Carrot Museum: It’s a great place to learn more about carrots, their origins and what they do.
The journey to the lair of the mole people: On Crisis Caverns Island, you’ll come across a civilization of mole people, who are in a war against the chthonians.
Finding hidden quests: You don’t always have to follow a single path! You should try to talk to every person you meet and have an eye on the hidden quests that aren’t required, but are fun!
Infiltrating 24 Carrot Island’s factory: This island is all about sneaking in the factory and prevent Dr. Hare from mind-controlling everyone in the world of Poptropica
Escaping the center of the earth: Even after you put an end to the war the mole people have against the chthonians, the supervolcano is going to erupt anyway so you have to hurry up and get out of the underground as fast as possible!
Adventures you make yourself: the ways you can costumize yourself, decorate the house, and adventure is unique and different from anyone else’s.

We at the PHB have a sneaking suspicion that Gentle Lion may be the mystery blogger over at the Creators’ Blog, since his character in this video (and recent videos and blog posts) wears the same sunglasses as the blond guy we saw in earlier screenshots.

His voice in the videos suggests he’s pretty young, which may explain his inexperience with writing. Again, this is just a theory, not proof — but he is doing a great job on these videos, so we hope to keep seeing more of them!

In other Pop YouTube news, another new-ish Creator, Stephanie, hosted livestream #5 this Friday, October 20 at 3 PM EST. Catch the archived video below:

In this episode, Stephanie spent more time decorating her house, this time exploring the members-only house expansion (extra room) feature. She’s spent the last couple of livestream episodes talking about houses, so personally, I’d like to see something new next time. I really wish they made more stuff about Poptropica Original, since there’s way more content over there.

Regardless, I found the video pretty interesting, and I’m glad the quality of each livestream keeps improving. It looks like the videos are starting to be more consistent, too, so perhaps we can keep expecting them on Fridays at about 3 PM EST. Whenever they’ll be, we can be sure to expect a new livestream every week!

Last but not least, Poptropica Comics are back! Check out the newest adventures following Oliver and Jorge on an island of nice people, then werewolves, then a sneeze-inducing moon over on GoComics (which got a redesign back in January):

The Poptropica GoComics site now has an About page, which introduces the comic and cast. Unlike the graphic novel series, Mya is not part of the comics.

There is also a mobile app for the Pop comics, but it doesn’t seem to be updated, and the FunBrain page for Pop comics has strangely disappeared. But on GoComics, a new comic strip has been coming out every few days or so, so hopefully that keeps going!

Anyway, thanks for reading this post! What do you think of these updates? Share your thoughts in the comments!

🐾 Purple Claw 🐾
🌊

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Gentle Fang

October 21, 2017October 20, 2017 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Gentle Fang, who stopped playing Poptropica for a while because she felt too old for it, but returned to it for the challenge and fun she’d missed. See below for how to send in your MPIP!

mpip gentlefang

Hey everyone! I am Gentle Fang (a brilliant oxymoron of a name). I wrote a guest post back in February with a little island history, and decided to return and do a My Place in Poptropica post for fun. Enjoy!

2012 | Introduction

In 2012, I was in second grade, and was seven years old. I always loved to visit FunBrain.com, and in the website’s games there were constantly Poptropica advertisements. The characters in the pictures I saw looked pretty cool to me, so I asked my mom if I could play.

She agreed to set up an account for me to use, although I was not allowed membership to the game. Upon entering, I clicked the first island I saw: Zomberry. I was frightened by the purple zombies back then, but now I see them as nothing to be afraid of. Since I was scared, I quickly exited out of the game. Sadly, I have no idea what my old username was.

2015 | Different school, different kids

When I was in fifth grade, I moved to a new school for the seventh time in my life. I had come from a school where I was very well-liked by the students and was very close to them, so when I moved, I expected it to be just the same as the last school. However, I turned out to be very wrong.

I met lots of kids who were very different from what I was used to (in a good way), and most of them didn’t like any of the same things I did. I got very shy around these kids, and so I had no one to be around when school was over. The work was also kind of boring to me because the curriculum at my new school was behind on what it had been at my old school, so much of it was review for me.

It was out of boredom that I went back onto FunBrain one night, and once again, I saw the Poptropica ads. I thought back to second grade and the scary Zomberry zombies, and was hesitant to join. However, I decided to do it again anyway, because I figured much could have changed as I got older.

I found that I loved the game, and tried to complete islands on my own, which was a huge challenge. I had fun changing my character’s outfits and making her hair bright turquoise. I chatted in the common rooms and even copied down some questions from the chats to ask to kids at school.

I got a very positive reaction, and found that many people who I thought were so different from me were actually quite similar. I made a few friends who I am still close to today, including my friends Isabella and Caroline. I found out that plenty of kids played Poptropica, and one even showed me the PHB, so completing islands wouldn’t be so hard anymore.

It was also on Poptropica that I discovered how much I love theater, especially musical theater. I watched as Gentle Fang cried off of the stage on Reality TV Island and how she would sweat nervously in Game Show Island, and I myself became very good at acting out the very same emotions my character acted out. After fifth grade, I joined the drama club at school, which helped me to get a ton of friends.

2016 | A break from an obsession (and forming some new ones)

In 2016, I entered middle school. I LOVED IT, to say the least. I felt like I had a lot more independence, but also felt I was “too old” for some things.

For one, I felt that it was time I abandoned the pink decorations on all of my stuff and replaced it with boring old zebra stripes. I also developed a new obsession of listening to Hamilton over and over again. And, more relevant to this story, I came to think that Poptropica was too babyish for the eleven-year-old that I was and not worth my time anymore, so I stopped playing.

2017 | Why’d I ever stop?

This year, I felt I was lacking a challenge, some sort of game that would test my logic and reasoning. I realized what I was actually missing was Poptropica. I missed the challenges the islands presented to me, and I missed the fun social interactions that resulted from it. I realized that the only thing I was actually “too old” for was my own brain.

So, I decided to give myself a mental refresh, in which I realized it was dumb to get rid of things I loved so much just because I was getting older. I quickly went back to Poptropica, replaying all of the old islands and laughing at some friends’ outfit choices for their characters.

I went back to Gentle Fang and took her for a long shopping trip in the store. I had tons of fun, and I am working on my Poptropica Worlds account now. While my newer obsession of Hamilton songs continue to play in the background, I am so happy to have gone back to my older obsession of a game that brought me great joy.

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

If you haven’t already, we invite you to send in your own. Please include your username and a minimum of 500 words, typed with good spelling and grammar, and divided into labeled sections. If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

24 Carrot Island, Crisis Caverns Island, Livestreams, Social Media

Speedrun through 24 Carrot, slow down for Home Island, and don’t forget the Antlers

October 15, 2017December 1, 2017 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Slanted Fish here with the latest report on what’s popping.

Poptropica has released a new video, and this one’s pretty unique compared to the others: it’s a speedrun of 24 Carrot Island, which shows you how to complete the island in approximately 4 minutes! It’s pretty impressive, so check it out:

The narrator’s voice is not one we’ve heard before, but it sounds like it could be a teenager, or at least someone young but not childlike as in the trailer video. This video uses some visual clips from the trailer, and I think the new voice fits the vibe pretty well. The narration packs a fair bit of humor in its quick walkthrough, only stopping once for a hilariously deep breath. I’d like to see more videos like this! What do you think?

That’s not the only new video this week — we’ve also got another livestream (#4) from Creator Stephanie! Catch the archived video below:

This episode aired October 13 (Friday). (Speaking of Friday the 13th, check out this Creators’ Blog post highlighting some superstitiously-unlucky Poptropica moments for the occasion. It’s good to see Captain Crawfish blogging again!)

Anyway, back to the video with Stephanie. The first minute is just silence before Stephanie realizes she’s on air, and then it’s off to Home Island again! As with the last livestream, she picks up on decorating her house, this time adding membership furniture like the beach themed windows along with her non-member items.

Before placing the furniture in her home, she takes a candy break — not jellybeans this time, but candy from her recent travels to Colombia! Then she starts placing her decor around the house, starting with beach windows and then carefully thinking through where to put her clock, fireplace, rocket lamp and more. Plus, she’s taking names for the suit of armor guarding the house — got any suggestions?

Just as she signs off, we can catch a quick glimpse of the recording program she’s using: Gameshow 2. So there you have that, in case you were wondering!

Stephanie will be livestreaming Poptropica Worlds every week for the foreseeable future. They could be any day of the week, but stay tuned for the next one!

In other news, the Elk Antlers on Crisis Caverns Island have moved! Though they used to be in Crispin Cave, they are no longer there — instead, you’ll now find them on top of Ye Old Cabin and Mine. Why they changed this is a mystery, but perhaps it makes a little more sense in the story as a location for pranksters to place the item.

You can see this update in action in this video by Young Hippo. Thanks also to Green Cheetah for the update and a screenshot!

As you may notice if you try it out for yourself, or if you complete any other item on your quest log, a side note will now appear beside your quest log to mark the completion of an item on the list! Pretty neat new feature to let you know when you’re making some progress. But that’s not the only thing that’s new about the quest log…

Now, when you progress to a new point, a notification will also pop up beside the quest log to give a little nudge for what you’re supposed to do or think about next. You may have noticed it in the 24 Carrot video above, which gives pointers like this one:

Cool, huh?

By the way, here’s your chance to write for the PHB: We’re working on a guide for the new mini-game Dr. Hare’s Revenge and would appreciate any help! Send us your writing and/or pictures to [email protected].

Anyway, what do you think of the new quest log updates, livestream, and speedrun video? What would you like to see the Creators do next for Poptropica? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

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