Social Media

Pop Pinterest: Island Aesthetics 🏝🖼

Slanted Fish

Poptropica islands each carry their own unique visual vibes — and some creative Poptropicans have found a way to express that beauty through curated collections on Pinterest, the image bookmarking site! 💫

We’ll be sharing a sampling of these artful assemblages below, from fan designers g_eese, tinyprologue, haunteddisco, and gallifreyanfairytale. (Thanks to Jumpy Knight for sharing these links.) Enjoy, and be inspired!

Let’s start with a classic for both old and new players alike: 24 Carrot. 🥕 From the island’s rustic fall colors, we’re loving these interpretations filled with fuzzy creatures, simple diners, and of course, sketchy corners. (Protip: Click for full size, and click the artists’ names for the full board!)

by gallifreyanfairytale
by haunteddisco
by tinyprologue

Next up is another familiar one: Mythology! ⚡️ While the current remastered version is missing some classic sights, at least we can recall their memories with these visions of starfish and ancient architecture.

by gallifreyanfairytale
by haunteddisco
by tinyprologue

For an island with a wide spectrum of colors, from bright playgrounds to dark woods, try Monster Carnival! 🎡 This lost island rumored to return offers sparkles of light amid something sinister…

by gallifreyanfairytale
by g_eese
by haunteddisco

Going further into the archives, let’s revisit the lost island of Skullduggery! 🏴‍☠️ With its bounty of sailor’s maps, treasure chests, and ship struggles, we’re in for a wild adventure at sea.

by g_eese
by gallifreyanfairytale
by haunteddisco

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! You can view tons more Poptropica inspired Pinterest boards by clicking on the artists’ names above, including throwbacks to many more classic islands.

Enjoyed this post? Check out our post on Poptropica mood boards inspired by NPCs and OCs! Or take a stroll through our Pop Places IRL series, where we pair island locations with their real-life roots. So much to see — soak it all in and find the ones you vibe with!

~🐠

Free Membership Giveaways

PHB Membership Giveaway: April 2022

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! 🎁

Congratulations, Josep — your new membership status allows you access to some exclusive island adventures, including Arabian Nights, Ep. 2: Lair of Thieves and PoptropiCon, Ep. 2: Spoiler Alert! Plus, you’ll also get to enjoy the next month’s member 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 Josep! Keep on popping on! 😄

Steam Bundle

Mighty Hints Toward AS3 Steam Release 💥💨

Gentle Dolphin

After two weeks of island-based riddles, the Pop Creators dropped the thirteenth and final clue for Poptropica’s upcoming Steam bundle! (Visit past hints: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

“Piece together the powers of one mighty hero to defeat this island’s storied villain. But first, you’ll have to play your cards right.”

The island that best fits this description is the episodic epic of PoptropiCon. In Episode 2: Spoiler Alert, the player partakes in the popular Mighty Action Force card game (“play your cards right”). Then, in Episode 3: Reign of Omegon, the player collects the three Mighty Action Force weapons and becomes Alphaon (“mighty hero”) in order to defeat Omegon (“storied villain”).

Now that all of the hints have been given, here are our final guesses for which islands will be featured in this upcoming Steam bundle:

  1. Survival (hint here)
  2. Mythology – classic version (hint here)
  3. Galactic Hot Dogs (hint here)
  4. Mission Atlantis (hint here)
  5. Shrink Ray (hint here)
  6. Poptropolis Games (hint here)
  7. Arabian Nights (hint here)
  8. Time Tangled (hint here)
  9. Monster Carnival – with a twist! (hint here)
  10. Mystery of the Map (hint here)
  11. Virus Hunter (hint here)
  12. Mocktropica (hint here)
  13. PoptropiCon (scroll up!)

Looking at everything so far, our theory about the Steam bundle only including AS3 islands may be true after all. While it’s nice that these islands will be preserved in the upcoming bundle, it’s disappointing that older classics like Astro-Knights and Skullduggery are yet again pushed to the backburner. Maybe they’ll be accessible in a future DLC expansion? Only time will tell.

Now that the hint parade is over, all we can do is wait for news about pricing and release dates. The official Pop Twitter account stated that we should be getting more info within the next 1-2 weeks, so be on the lookout for that!

UPDATE: Yet another tweet indicates that the upcoming Steam islands may be available for Mac. The wording is a bit odd, as it seems to point toward Steam in general rather than Poptropica’s bundle specifically, but we’ll see! 🤞 If it’s true, that makes it more accessible than the Windows-only Flashpoint unofficial access for old Pop islands.

By the way, happy Earth Day from Poptropica! 🌳 You might recall this Twisted Thicket postcard from last year, but sadly, it doesn’t look like this classic island will be among those returning soon.

Anyway, which islands do you think will be present in this Steam bundle? Which islands do you hope make a return in the future? Leave a comment down below!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬

Islands, Mocktropica Island, Social Media, Steam Bundle, Uncategorized

Mega hints for a mocking island

Agent Bubbles

‘Allo Poptropicans! We’ve arrived at the penultimate point of the Steam island hints! (Visit past hints: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.)

Here’s hint twelve: “Devise a plan to reverse a mega bot-ched op. Virtually everything is on the line!”

We’ve got a good hunch on this one, although the Creators’ Blog hints that this could “be applied to two other islands.” Besides the seemingly obvious, we might venture a guess for PoptropiCon, with its hench-bots serving the robo-suited Omegon, or Game Show, where we’ve got to reverse a robot domination.

However, the Mega Fighting Bots reference (“Mega Bot-ched”) points us right in the direction of Mocktropica, once again an AS3 island.

…wait. Mocktropica?

How A Bot That: Nobody told these guys about Asimov’s three laws of robotics.

While a cult classic, Mocktropica has become notorious for its unintentional prediction of what Pop was soon to become. Many aspects of the story take a jab at the obsession with surface-level gaming gimmicks like costumes and pets, as well as removing any challenging elements.

Adding on references to former Pop Creators who had been let go by management, this island may be an odd (albeit welcome) addition to the pack. At least we can enjoy the pretty musical theme in-game again!

“Max McPatrick” was based on then-Pop Creator Mitch Krpata.
Strap In: Concussion prevention starts with sensible headgear.

What do you think about the current Pop reviving this past island? Do you have ideas for other islands that could fit this riddle? Let us know, while I sulk in the corner about the Astro-Knights neglect!

Castori honorem ~ Maryann/Smart Bubbles

Steam Bundle

Eh-Steamed Hints of the Eleventh Hour 🕚

Slanted Fish

We’re nearing the eleventh hour of the Steam island hints, and the eleventh hint is upon us! (Visit past hints here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.) 

“You must resist a biteless bug that few can see or wait some time for reality.” Will you take the bait, or wait for an answer?

Among the fandom’s guesses, two popular candidates stand out as strong possibilities: Virus Hunter or Mocktropica. The “biteless bug” could be a virus or computer bug, while waiting for “reality” could refer to situations that emerged since the islands’ first releases: the Covid-19 global pandemic or Poptropica’s pivots towards gaming gimmicks. (But would the Creators be so bold as to put the latter out there?)

Fighting viruses gets my blood pumping.
I kicked their bots.

However, we previously guessed both of these in hint #8! If it’s not one, it could be the other, which balances things out on both ends. Still, the vagueness of hint #8 also leaves room for other possibilities.

One option posited by Tough Spinner is PoptropiCon, which also follows the AS3 islands theory. Now that other episodic islands have been hinted at for Steam, PoptropiCon could be one of them — seeing as, following the eighth hint and the events of Episode 3, you solve a “puzzle” to save the Mighty Action Force heroes from Omegon, a “dire fate.”

Unmasked: A costume is good for what’s alien you.

Now that we’ve gotten a lot of guesses going, let’s take a moment to round up what we’ve got so far, if our guesses turn out right:

  1. Survival (hint here)
  2. Mythology – classic version (hint here)
  3. Galactic Hot Dogs (hint here)
  4. Mission Atlantis (hint here)
  5. Shrink Ray (hint here)
  6. Poptropolis Games (hint here)
  7. Arabian Nights (hint here)
  8. Virus Hunter, PoptropiCon, Mocktropica, or older islands (hint here)
  9. Monster Carnival – with a twist! (hint here)
  10. Mystery of the Map (hint here)
  11. Virus Hunter or Mocktropica (scroll up!)

Fans following the AS3 islands theory have been checking off the list, and among those that remain are Monkey Wrench, Reality TV: Wild Safari, and any of the possibilities mentioned for hint #8 that turn out false. Then again, maybe this theory will be debunked at the reveal of the 13 Steam islands later on. Here’s hoping! 🤞

With two hints left to go, we’ll be following along to find out which ones make the cut, and which were just wishful thinking. Stay tuned!

~🐠