Top Ten Most Talked About Items in Neopia
The format of this list is a picture of an item, its Name, Type (i.e. battle magic or petpetpet), Current Approximate Worth, and Description, followed by a paragraph of further information.
Most of the items in this list are the items many people wish for, but could never afford (Moltenore, Wand of the Dark Faerie), but inexplicably, there is also a bonus item (number 11, I suppose): Pile of Dung.
Six items have a Current Approximate Worth of 3 million NP or more, up to a guesstimated 100 million NP for WOTDF. Five have Apprx. Worths of more than 10 million. The lowest approximate worth, other than the "bonus" is 45,000 NP for a Hand Painted Scarab.
Apparently the crux of this article is that people talk mostly about items that are uber-expensive, and only the richest could ever hope to have.
Neopets is Now in the Cards!
Most of this article is devoted to teaching how to play the new TCG, the rules of the game. This doesn't do anyone much good without the cards, which I imagine come with a listing of rules, anyway.
The most useful explantaion (to me, anyway) is a page where they describe the different types of cards in the game: Basic Neopet, Experienced Neopet, Hero, Villain, Equipment, Something Has Happened!TM, Item, and Location. Location cards will not be released until future expansion sets.
Beginners Guide to the Trading Post
This is very much a "Beginner's Guide", listing information that you are very likely to already know if you are enough into Neopets to be interested in the magazine. I am sorry it didn't include a section on Trading Post ettiquette; while it did mention anything that isn't an unbuyable is better off sold in a shop, it didn't mention people will hate you if you use the trading post as a gallery, keeping others from seeing what items that are for sale are in the post...
Perfect Neopets Products
Very sparse information about neopets merchandise, although the two pages do show some large drawings of Neopets in different poses than we're used to seeing them. Oddly, though, they include in a grouping of four pets 3 black-outline cel-shaded pets (Grundo, Tonu, and Kougra), and one soft-shaded (Eyrie). The Kougra's butt has been chopped off hastily (not as visible in this picture as it is on the real page), making me wonder even more about the production team of the magazine. I know the Neopets' artists do better work than this, and it is a shame to see their work shoddily thrown together through poor editing.
But onto the "article" (aka "advertisement"), they mention Neopets PlushiesTM, Pocket NeopetTM, Neopets Voice Activated Pets, and Neopets: Trading Card Game. Most of the information is repeats of what has already been stated in the Neopets Merchandise News on the site and/or the Trading Card Game website.
Gallery of Evil
Feature on a few of the 1-player battledome challengers from the Gallery of Evil: Shadow Usul, Spider Grundo, Meuka, Commander Garoo, Count Von Roo, and Vira. A brief story on the character, Location to get as a challenger, Hit Points (original, and how many additional per win), Abilities, Attacks With (which icons the character's weapons and attacks give), Defends With, and the weapons the character uses with images.
How to Draw: Illusen
Ah, finally, an interesting article, and surprisingly one that isn't trying to sell us anything! The cover artist, Jeff Amano, walks us through the process of creating the cover with a nice sense of humor: "After the fine folks from Neopets decided on Illusen for the cover subject, I did about 2,000 sketches. Well, Okay, maybe only about 6-7. I was just trying to get a raise." It doesn't so much live up to the "How2Draw" part, in that after reading the article, you probably will not be able to draw Illusen any better than you can now. However, it is an in-depth look at the process used by a professional artist to create such a work.
Plushies on Parade
Large pictures and several pages, devoted to all the plushies that have been released by Neopets. No, not the Number Six plushie, we're talking Neopets Merchandise here. Along with each pet or petpet type they have released in plushie form, they have smaller images of all the colors of that plushie that have been released, and date of release for all the plushies. Interesting, I guess, if you need a checklist to make sure you've gotten every single neopets plushie ever made, and/or you don't feel like looking back through the on-site merchandise news.
Discover the Secret of the Volcano!
It seems we're in store for a new game like Neopets V2 or the Coltzan's Crown Quest. A blue Acara named Mora goes to get her fortune from the Island Mystic, and instead learns the dormant volcano is coming back to life. We are given a link,
Table of Contents
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Neopoints to Ponder
