Favorite classic Neopets designs

How could I ever forget? Neopets is a classic staple of internet culture with such a long and (frankly) funny history. Did anyone expect the "game for bored college students" by Adam and Donna Powell in 1999 to become a whole franchise with toys, video games, a trading card game, a magazine, and even cereal? It tasted like shit, by the way. Or that the site's connection with the Church of Scientology was an open secret? How many people are aware that yes, the site is still online, and no, the Neopets you made on an account in 2005 and forgot about are not dead. Unless your username was purged for inactivity (rare, but not unheard of), your Neopet is very much still alive, just starving and suffering all alone for years on end. Ouch!

I'm sure there's a million articles and video essays out there about the rise and fall of Neopets over the last 24 years... because I'm frankly not up to date on everything that's happened. But for an extremely quick recap:

• 1999: Neopets launched by Adam and Donna Powell
• 2000: Neopets Inc. founded, immersive advertising implemented by Doug Dohring (Note the personal life section...)
• 2005: Neopets purchased by Viacom, Adam and Donna leave due to creative differences
• 2007: Pet conversion, customization, and Neocash introduced (dork age incoming!)
• 2014: Neopets bought by Jumpstart. Petpet Park, Key Quest, and Habitarium shut down. Totally not the beginning of a literal dark age (not to be confused with the dork age above)...
• 2015: Most of The Neopets Team from Viacom era were laid off, and a Neopocalypse ensues, among other site glitches. Also...a mobile game. *crickets chirp*
• 2017: Netdragon acquires Neopets from Jumpstart
• 2020: Adobe Flash dies, Netdragon transfers most Flash content to HTML5
• 2021: Neopets Metaverse announced... BOOOOO! Also, another mobile app in beta. *crickets chirp again*
• 2023: Jumpstart fucking dies and Neopets Metaverse is cancelled (YAY!). Dominic Law (a former player) buys Neopets from Netdragon and forms World of Neopia, Inc., promising a new era and brand new leadership team. Meanwhile, Adam Powell becomes a cryptobro, has a creator breakdown in the r/Neopets Discord server while plugging his shitty AI-assisted new game, and divorces Donna. (Hey, I thought that was notable.) Some economic adjustments made via certain rare items being given out during events, but you'll have to ask someone who still plays about that.
• 2024: The option to reconvert your Neopets to the old art via Neocash added. What will the future hold?

I played Neopets often three times in my life; The golden era (2002-2006), the dork age (2009-2010), and the Neotag era (2011-2013) before the literal dark ages. It's insane how Neopets has been around for more than half of my life and is still chugging along! However... I doubt there will be a fourth era where I'll actively play again. I also don't think another pet site will ever compare to Neopets for me. (Moderneopets doesn't quite count, because it's a fansite.) No matter how many alternative games tried to piggyback on and be a "better version" of Neopets, I could never fully jump ship. I registered accounts and tried to play so many alternatives; Ecritters, Nutrinopets, Furry Paws, Powerpets, Wajas, Flight Rising, Aywas, Furvilla, etc. Some came close, but most still couldn't fill the hole in my heart. You never forget your first...

In case you were wondering about the sites that came close to my experience with Neopet's golden ages: Aftermathzone and its remake Acitius (RIP) were my favorite, and I also got into Subeta during the Neopet's Viacom era. It was very close to becoming my only pet site because it was a more PG-13, the creator was gay (thus not being a forbidden topic), had a better economy, and community features like an oekaki and art gallery. However, I was banned from Subeta right after I got a premium account as a Christmas gift because I had an unused account I forgot about registered on the same email. This broke my friendless teenage heart, and I immediately crawled back to the consoomerism for kids simulator. Fuck Subeta, you didn't deserve my mom's money! I also really enjoyed playing Marapets during the Jumpstart dark ages, until Ian shot himself in the foot on Twitter. I'm open to trying new games, but it's not something I'm desperately searching for anymore.

What do you think about the new era The Neopets Team promised? Do you think they'll make things right by Neopet's 25th birthday? The oldest users who played Neopets in the golden age are in their thirties and fourties, and the youngest who jumped on board during the Viacom dork age are in their twenties. The internet changes, games have changed. Even Neopets knows this, since their April Fools pranks in the 2020s were about things like starting a Netflix-like streaming service and food delivery. Will Neopets prevail against Web 3.0? The ability to turn pets into UCs (unconverted) was something the playerbase has suspected TNT is capable of for years, and bringing it to the public was probably the only way to kill the off-site black market where items and UCs were exchanged for real money. I took the plunge and reconverted my old man, and I'll probably do it to more pets down the line.

Here are some old designs I'm looking forward to being easier to acquire, and some that likely never will be.

Getting these back is what I'm looking forward to the most. I fucking hate conversion and think it was one of Neopet's biggest mistakes. I hate the stupid flash art, I hate the hand thing they do, I hate how only some of the clothes look good, and the ones that do are Neocash items. And most of all, I hate what they did to the royal pets! These beautiful designs were dumbed down into children playing dress up (with some exceptions...). My dream pet used to be a UC Royalgirl Kyrii, but I figured that was a pipedream and settled for a converted one I could dress in a stupid outfit. But now this will be my second conversion in line. (Fun fact, it's possible to create crossdressing royals. I've seen a few male Royalgirls and female Royalboys on the site. GNC win!)

Mutants were thankfully saved by conversion for the most part. Many great designs are near-identical! Only certain clothes and accessories could fit Mutants, so their converted art had some personality intact. But some old art had its own charm that was lost in the redrawing process. The old old Mutant Kougra is a design I can appreciate now; I thought it was terrifying as a child!

I think some unused or scrapped mutant designs from the golden age have a lot of potential too. I don't know about you, but I think the unused Mutant Aisha is a grotesque beauty I'd love to own. The REAL Mutant Chia is also better than the stupid rotten vegetable that replaced it. Dare I say the melting mess looks better than a normal Chia? Well, it does. Sorry Donna, but Chias always sucked.

Faeries also got screwed by conversion. Most of them had such lovely art and poses, only to be firmly planted on the ground in that shitty cookie cutter new style. Especially the Aisha, the pose made up for the lack of creativity. One Neopet I was surprised didn't have an UC option until the new update is the Faerie Scorchio; When Faerie Paint Brushes were only 100k in the Hidden Tower, I slaved away every day during summer vacation (I was an idiot and only made 3-4k a day...) to get one and paint my Scorchio. I even had a plush toy from Limited Too! But when I got my childhood account back, she turned into a dumpy idiot. Well, I'm sure I'll get her back too.

(beta VS current design)

Three scrapped Faerie designs I think are equally good to the ones in-game are the would-be Peophin, Shoyru, and Eyrie. I actually prefer the blue colors on the Peophin, and the back markings on the Shoyru. The Faerie Eyrie available now is a post-conversion design, and even though I like the colors, the art of the scrapped design is a lot better. Maybe it'll be available as a Nostalgic style?

Not much to say here. Darigan not lost a ton of unique art and poses, but the post-conversion designs look like complete crap. (The Draik is a MAJOR downgrade!) With some exceptions; The Darigan Chomby and Flotsam capture the feel of the original art style, and don't reuse the tired purple palette. I say that, but the purple Darigan pets with unique art were hurt the worst. I still wanted some variety here...

I'm not the biggest fan of this color, I don't like the Flintstones aesthetic. But there were some unique designs that were also lost in translation. Even the ones that are supposed to look like unwashed cavemen have no personality! Come on! Show me someone who can really kill a dinosaur and eat it raw.

Halloweenies got messed with too, but it's mainly the Lupe that's a complete travesty. Another thing I think customization ruined was how it "chopped up" the entire design of unique Paintbrush designs into wearable items; This isn't an inherently bad idea, since I always liked the idea of crosspainting, but it looks awful in practice. What I don't like about converted Halloween pets is that it either killed the illusion that the Halloween pet really is a monster, or the unique art for the more simple designs are gone. Boo. (No pun intended...)

We're never seeing these guys again. These old designs are actually before I started playing. Neopets during 1999-2001 is a complete mystery to me. Apparently, there's a good reason for why Tigren and other old designs like the Fleye (not pictured, it sucked) aren't coming back: It was designed by a kid and thus couldn't give Neopets the rights to the design, unlike the Shoyru. These aren't the only weird old pet designs, it's just the ones I like... (I don't care about the Fuzio.) The other weird trivia about Neopets besides the Scientology was how a few pets were literally humans. For Cerpull and Tatsu, they apparently just weren't popular (?) and a poll for which gryphon redesign became the Eyrie. At least Tatsu is available as a separate pet on Moderneo...

These are some old designs I personally think have their own unique charm. Polypup was always a cuter name and had more character than the boring "domestic dog with long ears" Gelert, and I always preferred the stuffy look of the old Cybunny. Zafaras also looked better on four legs to me instead of the weird kangaroo it is now. Umbra has an image of the old Zafara in the NC mall, so maybe going back in time might be possible... If you want to see more old stuff, check out Neopets Archeology, a now-abandoned website still online, and Jellyneo's Book of Ages.

I also think some would-be Neopets that either didn't win the redesign polls or April Fools jokes have potential. The first is an option for what the Kyrii would become...kind of looks like a mix between one and a Zafara (with attitude!). There was even a throwback to it on the 2005 April Fool's day. I also love the runner up Eyrie design more than the boring one that won... Speaking of 2005 April Fool's, we were absolutely robbed from the Varwolf and Sharkaw. Why the fuck did the Gnorbu win and not these? (The proto-Gnorbu was also cuter...)

I'm curious of where this new era of Neopets is going, but at the same time I'm scared. Even during the good old days, its success was motivated by profit and advertisements with the "immersive" consoomer brands on-site. Consoomerism has gotten even worse now than it has in 2004. Neopets was kept alive even during the nightmare that was Jumpstart's era because of the "hey, remember that?" brand and the adult fanbase that operated on Reddit, Tumblr, and Discord. Side note, but do actual children even care about Neopets when Webkinz, Moshi Monsters, and Club Penguin existed? Maybe if TNT wants to bring back the 20-40+ crowd, they should also remove that pesky swearing filter alongside fixing the economy and bringing back UCs. Just saying...