Virus Hunter Island: A Scientific Perspective – Part 1

Hiya, Poptropicans! As some of you may know, I’m now in college. Specifically, I’m working towards an Animal Science degree with a Pre-Vet concentration. By no means does this make me a biology or science expert, but I thought I’d share my thoughts about Virus Hunter Island! Of course, if there’s anything wrong or inaccurate, tell me! I used to (greatly) dislike this island so I never completed it, but recently I gave it another shot. 😉 Here’s the synopsis:

Somewhere in Poptropica, an unknown citizen harbors within his bloodstream a dangerous new virus. Your mission: locate Patient Zero, and eradicate the disease before it spreads. Prepare for a perilous journey to the most far-out place of all — inside the human body!

Now, besides the fact — which we all know by now — that there would be a quarantine of this person rather than a secret mission to find them, there are a few other tidbits that are interestingly misrepresented. Here’s one of the first thing the island teaches you:

Virus

“A virus uses your cell to reproduce.” This is 100% true! Viruses are what we call “obligate intracellular parasites.” I know, a fancy term. Basically, what it means is that a virus can’t survive without *you* and your body’s cells. This is why many scientists don’t consider it a living thing. It can’t survive on its own!

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PTFP Updates: Design and Features

Hiya, Poptropicans! I wanted to let you all know that besides the two recent posts, I’ve been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make this blog better for everyone. There’s still a lot of work left to do, but I am slowly and surely improving it! What, may you ask, are the updates? Well, get ready for a long post…

Header

If you remember our old header, it looked like this:

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Although beautiful and given to us by Skinny Moon, it became outdated awhile ago when Poptropica mostly moved on from Poptropica Worlds. Worlds is hard to access now, so it was time to update it to:

ptfp header

This is one of the simpler updates I’ve completed. Also, don’t worry — our title of an “Official Poptropica Fansite” still exists!

Mobile Friendly

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Trolls World Tour Ad and #NationalPuppyDay

Hi, Poptropicans! Despite a lack of posts this month so far on the Creators’ Blog, there have been some small updates recently on Poptropica and Instagram! It’s likely that like the rest of us, Poptropica has had to make some major shifts to accommodate with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The first piece of news is that an advertisement game has appeared on the first page of Poptropica map. You can also visit it on right side of the main street on 24 Carrot Island. It’s for Trolls World Tour, a Dreamworks movie coming out April 10th!

Trolls Island

Once you enter, you can talk to several of Troll’s main characters and explore the area. If you talk to Poppy, the pink troll, you’ll go through several dialogue lines and the game screen will appear. Your mission: defeat the rock music trolls with your electric guitar!

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Mashup Mondays: Star Wars

Mashup Mondays Header

What better time to enjoy Poptropica than now? In all seriousness, in the middle of this pandemic, stay safe and stay home! If you’re trying to pass the time, try watching some Star Wars movies, play Poptropica, or if you’re adventurous…combine both! I just finished The Mandalorian, and I have to say baby Yoda is, in fact, extremely cute. Anyway, get ready for some awesome art, costumes, and other Pop Wars trivia. 😉

Art

Spy Wars

First up is this art piece by Cuddly Knuckle, as shown in Spotted Dragon’s Community Creations on the Poptropica Help Blog! The theme for the month was crossovers, so it fit perfectly for a Star Wars and Poptropica mashup. Go check her post out!

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Mashup Mondays: Toy Story

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*gasp* Is this is a post? Yes, yes it is. If you remember my last post, I said “So this brings up the question: what’s going to happen to the PTFP? I don’t know. I’m never going to delete it, but I’m not sure if I’ll post again. I could post a week from now if I felt like it, or this could be it. It depends.”

Well, it’s a Monday. Toy Story 4 is out (with a 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating). I love art. I still love Poptropica in its own way. So I decided: why not make a post if I’ll have fun? So we’re bringing out the ol’ Toy Story mashed with Poptropica! I could edit this to the extreme like I used to, but I think that’s part of what made me tired of posting. I want to be genuine, to be me. So there might be mistakes or awkward wording, but the point is to have fun! Let’s get to it!

Toy Story and Poptropica’s History

Oddly enough, there have been lots of Toy Story ads on Poptropica, but not much documentation. Apparently, in 2010 there was a Toy Story/Toy Story 2 DVD ad, but I can only find this Answers.com question and this YouTube video as evidence (thanks to the person who recorded this, who is 9 years older now, which is weird to think about):

The ad consisted of a crane machine game, and the prizes were a Toy Alien costume, a Buzz Lightyear costume, and an army men effect card. According to the Answers.com response, there was a “Jenny” costume as well, but that’s not a Toy Story character, so perhaps they meant Jessie. Who knows.

Now, also in 2010, there was also a Toy Story 3 ad, which did release that year in theaters. This time, there’s better documentation, but still only one post describing it that I can find on Icy Comet’s Blog (wow, that brings back memories!). The costumes, with credit to the post and blog of course, looked like this:

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