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Charming fan-made costumes, coming to a Cabin of Curiosities 👚

Hey all! It’s time for the reveal of the very first winners of Poptropica’s Costume Contest–which, if all goes well, will become an ongoing monthly event. All winning fan-made costumes will be free for all players to purchase!

Without further ado, let’s hear it for Bronze Eye and Shy Ghost (aka pinklightningmc) with their fashionable Love Potion Demon and Movie Geek costume entries! Personally, I can’t wait to see these fabulous ‘fits surface in the store. ✨

Faced with the Pop fandom’s awesome artistic talent, the Creators had a smidge of trouble deciding on only one perfect costume to feature and instead picked two winners. Choosing more than one entry isn’t a new trope in Pop’s frequent contests; but hey, I’m not complaining! The more costumes, the merrier. I’m excited to see what other sweet designs join these two in upcoming contests!


At the end of their blog post announcing the winners, the Creators also mentioned a new store makeover that was hinted at recently. The Baron’s Cabin of Curiosities will be arriving on Home Island any day now, bringing aforementioned fan-made costumes with it.

It’s certainly a cool-looking shop, incorporating elements of the gone-but-not-forgotten Monkey Wrench Island. But are all these cosmetic features and makeovers really necessary? I’d go out on a limb and say probably not. Which is what the majority of us in the Pop fanbase will keep saying until those old Islands return…👀


All that aside, we’ve also got two new Instagram fan art features from the Creators! These pieces of art come from a.jbox and pinklightningmc (the same person who created the winning Love Potion Demon costume).

Well, that’s all we’ve got today, Poptropicans. Let us know your thoughts on the winning costumes, and the ever-so-slightly excessive shop and Home Island makeovers. Poptropica may not be half of what it used to be, but hey, at least we’ve got fashion. 😔✌️

Until next time,

~💜

Haxe Javascript, Home Island, Store

Customization in the age of Haxe (or lack thereof)

Hey Poptropicans, you need look no further for the news—and this time, it’s all about the looks. Let’s pop in.

First, new store items are here! Poptropica actually missed last week, which is the first time that’s happened since they made the store rotations weekly.

The non-costume categories haven’t changed since the last rotation, so only the store’s costumes are pictured above. This week’s items are:

  • Costumes: Lumberjerk (male and female), Boho Chic*, Furry Monster 4 (two different versions)*, Magician (male and female)*, Friendly Face Masks, Mud Pie, Rockstar, Mech Pilot*, Clown, Pig#, Bottle Cap#, Ringmaster*, Cool Boy Plush#, Shark Plush*, Milk Box#
  • Followers: Deer, Dryad, Dolphin*, Mini Astroknight*
  • Powers: Hypno-Powder, (Cinnamon Fire) PopGum, Raven Swarm*, Fireworks*
  • Pranks: Hypno-Powder, Octo Prank, Silly Streams
  • Misc: (Cinnamon Fire) PopGum, Coconut Drink#, Cool Boy Plush#, Shark Plush*, Colorizer*

As is the norm these days, about half of the store stock is for members only. Still, both non-members and members have the chance to snag some great deals with several items at 75 credits (marked with #): the Pig, Bottle Cap, and Milk Box costumes, plus the Cool Boy Plush and Coconut Drink.

Interesting detail: the handheld plushie of the Shark Tooth Island character previously known as Shark Boy before his erasure is not called “Shark Guy” as he later came to be known, but now, the item is simply “Shark Plush” despite not being a shark but rather a dude in a shark suit. 🦈


If you’re playing in Haxe, you may also notice that a couple of NPCs have gotten makeovers! The person in front of the store is now a golden-haired girl, and the lady by the New You building has gotten a glow-up.

(You can see what they used to look like in our post about summer coming to Home Island on Haxe.)


That’s not all that’s new in looks. If you head over to the home page to create a new character with one of the default picks, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can further customize your character before diving into the game.

We’ve seen this orange customization screen before, back before “pick a character” became a thing. And new players can still access it by speaking to Amelia, the girl on the Home Island bridge. But it’s interesting to now have it show up right after picking a default character design, when it seemed the whole point of that was to skip the step of customization from the beginning.

However, when the “pick a character” update first rolled out, players had commented on how it took away from the fun of carefully crafting one’s character right from the get-go. For them, this reversion may be a welcome update. But having both a simplified selection screen and a customization screen seems odd—what about the new player who carefully selects a default character only to realize it could’ve been altered all along? Will this inclusion of both features be temporary?


Speaking of customization, there’s been a startling development: the beloved Costumizer tool—the green shirt button which allows you to “steal” clothing parts from other characters—has disappeared from most areas in Haxe. Will it return, or are the Creators sabotaging the fun in yet another way? We can only hope this is temporary, but it’s hard to tell…

That’s all for this post. Be sure to check out our previous posts to catch up on other Poptropica news, and see you at the Poppies this weekend! 🏆

~slantedfish 🐠