merch – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by HPuterpop. Enjoy!

Hey fellow Poptropicans!

I’ve got a real head-scratcher for you today, one that takes us all the way back to the golden age of Poptropica merchandise. You might even call it a Kanji Secret. We all remember the awesome official plush toys that were released alongside the action figures, and super-fans may recall the unreleased early prototype plush toys that never saw store shelves… but there’s another plush toy waiting to be discovered, calling out to us from the past…

I wish we could go there!

Red Dragon Island marked the 19th island addition to Poptropica, a collaboration with the Magic Tree House series. Adapted from Dragon of the Red Dawn (Book 37 in Mary Pope Osborne’s series), the island transported players into Edo-period Japan. Among its memorable characters was Yokozuna, the towering sumo wrestler who served as one of the game’s most iconic boss battles. Players had to outmaneuver his charges and stomps until his own rage caused him to fall out of the ring. His design drew from authentic Japanese culture: his very name signifies the highest rank in sumo wrestling. Some fans even speculate that his look may have been inspired by WWE’s “Yokozuna”, Rodney Agatupu Anoa’i. Beyond the fight itself, the character was given nuance — fierce yet deeply adored by his fans.

Recently, a Yokozuna plush toy surfaced in an eBay listing, and it’s quite an anomaly. Yokozuna, remember, is the formidable sumo champion from Red Dragon Island, released back in 2011.

This sent me down a rabbit hole. I scoured the Poptropica Creators’ Blog archives, dug through old press releases from 2011-2014 (when the toys were hitting shelves), and searched for any promotional material. The result? Nothing. There is absolutely no official record of a Yokozuna plush ever being announced, promoted, or sold.

Now, you might be thinking, “This (exorbitantly priced) plush toy was probably a fan creation.” But after getting my hands on it, I can confirm that the build quality is nearly identical to the official Poptropica plush toys from back in the day. It has the same distinctive felt details for the hair and clothing, the same fabric used for the eyes, and the overall professional construction that marked the official line of merchandise. A fan-made plush of this quality, especially for a less-mainstream character like Yokozuna, seems highly unlikely.

It all begins to make sense once the context is fully considered: Red Dragon Island launched in May 2011 for members (and June for everyone else), while Jazwares’ physical Poptropica toys hit Toys “R” Us shelves just a few months later, in August. The plush I found matches the official line’s quality but lacks retail tags: a hallmark of pre-production samples. And considering Yokozuna’s prominence as one of the Red Dragon Island’s bosses, it’s logical that the character would’ve been considered for a plush toy.

Sure enough, when I asked the eBay seller sweetsweet, they replied with exactly the information I was expecting:

(Shoutout to sweetsweet for the friendly and fast reply! Their store is a treasure trove of rare memorabilia, so check them out if you’re a collector.)

I’m really fortunate to own this rare piece of Poptropica (and Magic Tree House) history. The Yokozuna looks right at home along with the rest of his plush friends and The Dragon of the Red Dawn, the pages in which he first came to life.

Case closed… or at least, mostly.

– HPuterpop

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by HPuterpop. If you did, you might also enjoy reading more about his upcoming Poptropica-inspired game in development, Poptropica: Legends.

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!

Hey Poptropicans, big Pop drop: the official Poptropica merch store, teased about a month ago, is here!

And there’s plenty to choose from: clothes, stickers, notebooks, phone cases… 54 items now and more to come, say the Pop Creators. (You can also send your ideas!) Take a look at these beauties, for starters:

The official Pop merch store is hosted on Zazzle, which means “they make and ship all the products for [Poptropica].” Right now, there’s a discount of 20% off if you use the code BESTZAZGIFTS at checkout. That’ll probably come in handy, as the items can cost quite a bit, ranging from US$4.95 for the lowest-priced sticker to $91.90 for Dr. Beev pattern high tops (our beloved Beev has quite a bit of merch here!).

Items are sorted as Apparel and Accessories (hoodies, T-shirts, party glasses, socks, tank tops, hats), Stickers (blimp, Herc’s Hero Hut logo, Zomberry clown, Poptropica logo), and Vintage Distressed Pattern (with a jigsaw puzzle, face mask, and more — also, you might recognize this as the background the PHB uses!). Browse the Pop shop now!

By the way, this isn’t Poptropica’s first time on Zazzle! For a few years starting in 2009, they used to sell different T-shirts, wall stickers, and posters there, but they haven’t been available for a while. To see what else Poptropica sells IRL (or used to sell), check out our page on Poptropica Merchandise: A Guide to Poptropica Shopping. 🛍

Whether or not you’re getting the real-life gear, you can still treat yourself to a shopping spree on Poptropica: The Actual Game!

The in-game store has gotten a few updates since last week, with new costumes like the Pumpkin Pleasure and Aqua Rebel, and a couple new powers: the Levitation Spell Book (which has you shout out “Volantem Levitatio!”) and Spark Shower Wand (check out our gif below):

While you’re in Poptropica, you may notice a new ad for The Croods: A New Age, a Dreamworks animated movie which will be in theaters in time for Thanksgiving. Check out the Pop Creators’ video of the mini-game, where you ride a creature named Chunky to collect bones and avoid baddies, in the end winning your very own Chunky Follower!

The Pop Creators also recently released a video for another ad, which you may recognize as it’s been around for about two months now: it’s for American Girl: Courtney’s Island, and contains plenty of prizes!

Also on Pop, you may notice something a little different from the bottom left corner: instead of the usual video ads, this space is now playing a slideshow of some recent Poptropica fan art!

Part of the fan art slideshow includes this piece featuring Gentle Dolphin with the *Jersey Devil*, by the PHB staffer herself!

You may have seen some of them spotlighted on the Creators’ Instagram stories, which we’ve also shared on the PHB. Pretty cool to see it within the game browser, too — and an improvement compared to ads. 🙂

In other news, Poptropica has disabled the Avatar Studio, the much-loved tool that allowed us to view player characters by entering their username. It’s not too surprising, given that Poptropica hasn’t linked to it on their site for a while now. However, the ASG still works.

Fortunately, you can still access the AS via this link on idk’s website, which simply loads the Shockwave Flash (SWF) from Poptropica’s files. But with Flash’s end coming up, it’s not guaranteed to last.

That’s it for this post! So, will you be getting any Poptropica merch? Or just sticking to the virtual store? What items do you want most? Share with us in the comments!

👋 Want to dive deeper into the Poptropica fandom? Connect with Poptropicans on our Poptropica Help Chat (PHC) Discord server!