Oh boy. Made a promise to myself I'd try to post, if not everyday, at least do a catch-up post at the end of the week. We're now halfway through December, I've only commented on the first 2 days, and I still don't have a Seasonal Attack Pea. Well, better late than never, right (takes a side glance at all other side projects that have fallen to the wayside...).
I'm going to guess if you're going to read one of my day thoughts you're going to for all of them, so I'm just going to fit them in all one spoiler. Also, if I don't have anything to say about something (either the visual gift, prizes, or the entire day) I'm just gonna skip it:
DAY 3:Prizes: Christmas Tombola Guy is funny, who needs a sleigh and a batch of Raindorf when you have surfboard. The book is a very nice rerelease.
DAY 4:Comic: Cute & funny. I like they did foreshadow the Snow Chomby in the first panel. I can only imagine how annoying it can be being a Snow Building Judge when you come to a snowman of a Neopet (or Petpet) and hope that it isn't an actual Neopet trying to pull a fast one.
Prizes: Covered in Snow wearable I could see getting some seasonal use, especially for Relic Neopets.
DAY 5:Comic: So, if I'm interpreting it right, this comic also has a nice setup. At first you see the panels with a Baby Acara, mature Blue Acara, and Elderly Acara. First thought is that this is the same Acara and we're glimpsing him celebrating Christmas at 3 points in his life. Then the full bottom picture reveal it's actually a family of Acara, a grandparent with his two grandkids (the mature Blue Acara revealed to actually be an older kid/teenager.
Then again, looking closely, the tree changes in the background. For Baby & Elderly boxes its a much simpler decorated tree, but mature Blue Acara and bottom picture is decorated with tinsel, rainbow lights & few fancy baubles. Also the Baby box has a slight filter tint, which you could say makes it look like an older photo? So maybe this is the Elderly Acara's life (the mature Blue Acara being him as a young adult) and the bottom image showing him keeping the spirit alive and passing it down to his grandkids.
Eitherway its a heartwarming comic.
Prizes: Our first day with all new items. Most notable is probably the Baby Holiday Bib, yeah for more Baby clothing (though it's also another typical baby clothing item, I can imagine Baby Neopet owners hoping for more unique clothing. Heck, the comic shows the Baby Acara dressed entirely as Santa, have a complete Santa set be available for Baby Neopets).
Also the Y25 Plushie kind of feels random: Why is it a Christmas Yurble? Why is it just called "Y25 Plushie", what about it besides the balloon makes it an embodiment of Y25? Also, we don't have a normal Christmas Yurble Plushie, making this extra odd. Actually we do have a Christmas Acara Plushie and a Christmas Acara MP (not to mention a batch of items with "Blue Acara" in its name), so why not make on of those the prize to keep the Acara theme?
DAY 6:Animation: Uh oh, looks like
my concerns for Reginald may have some credence. Dark implications aside, it is a pretty neat animation. Embarrassed to say it took me a while to realize that the figure in the shadow wasn't a Cybunny but the Shadow Usul, lol. Also, Reginald just shrugging off the sudden sense of tension and ignoring the hauntings going on around him is funny to think about, "a sudden chill. Floating book? Shaking portrait!... eh, typical Wednesday in the Haunted Woods. Now where in the paragraph was I?".
Prizes: Our first stamp, nothing too interesting. Fitting book, though being this one restocks (something I'm still unsure if I like them including as a prize) it makes sense how it would end up in Reginald's book collection.
Story: Don't remember if this is where the "first" story segment happened, but feels fitting to talk about it here as anywhere else. Orion is back (and he and Reina seem to know each other?) though this time looking worse for wear and rambling about stopping the Advent Calendar. Reina tries getting more info from him but he rants about finding a lyre that has been giving him nightmarish premonitions. Reina is able to get him to lie down though has no intention to stop the Advent Calendar. Setup for now, it certainly has shock factor to see Orion again so soon and in a disheveled state.
DAY 7:Comic: Now I know
this is something some species of penguins actually do, but I can't help but to think of the movie Pebble and the Penguin. Though I'm curious if this is the Darblats first time doing this or just the first time he was caught. Well at least the Darblat pair has a nice small pebble nest to keep at least one egg warm.
Prizes: Boy, two doozy of prizes; impressive for a pair of what are essentially rocks! Rock Petpets (which were previously pretty expensive) have one of the best set of Colours with how creative TNT got with them; Christmas Rock already existed but never stops putting a smile on my face being a lump of coal!
And now probably one of the best items they've made recently: A Pebble! Aka P3 version of a Rock! This is brilliant, whoever thought of this deserves a promotion. Not only is it a cute idea for a P3 in general, but also I feel pushes the boundaries a bit on what a P3 can be. While we've had non-bug P3s, they're far and few between. And there are plenty of really small animals which a P3 can be based on: A fish, a clam, a shrimp/krill, a frog; the Pebble shows it doesn't even need to be an animal: a mushroom, a flower, a pixie, a worm-wyrm, a barely hatched egg, a tiny robot, etc.. Just like the Pebble could maybe take a Petpet species and develop a P3 around it. Plenty of possibilities, though P3s being Random Event items plus unable to be detached does serve as a boundary which would need proper feature implementation to satisfactory resolve.
DAY 8:Cut-Out Ornaments: Why does the Fir have a face but not the Jinjah? Also maybe should have suggested pasting the cut-outs to thicker paper like cardboard or index cards as not to be very fragile or possibly curl up.
Prizes: Like seeing a rerelease of a TCG card, even if that one wasn't that rare.
DAY 9:Comic: Got a pair of sweet ones next. The first one is yet another subversion. Elementary school art class assignment (guess Mr. Lupid doesn't teach the younger grades?) and its making a present for your parents. A Baby Lenny makes something from clay (spoiler, its a mug, which means the teacher would have to have put it in a kiln, for elementary school) though looks confused (not sure why, maybe more concerned?). At home they do some nice diversion by having the first picture frame showing the whole family together, though all the other picture frames foreshadow the twist: the Baby Lenny didn't make the mug for their parents but their big brother (what they don't show is that, since the little brother got the gift for the big brother, that means the big brother is in charge of getting a present for their parents, and he's not going to be able to get away with a handmade gift...
)!
Prizes: Nice we got the mug for those of us with a brother who also plays Neopets... even though that likely means they also have one (though it is a Coffee, aka food, item so at least has some use and possibility or becoming rarer). It's the thought that counts, just like them giving us more School Supplies.
DAY 10:Comic: Did you think we were done with shaking family dynamics? Day 9 was simply the nuclear family, but family comes in many shapes and forms: a single parent, lesbian couple (all same species, not sure if that's implying the child is from insemination?), Little Timmy makes an appearance showing love for his grandparents, a family with a disabled member (in this case the father is in a wheelchair), and finally a gay couple (of all different species) which also maybe applies the child has a disability (being deaf and/or mute so is communicating in sign language). With Neopets more widely supporting LGBT+ discussion as well as giving representation to those with disabilities, I'd like to think this day was very much appreciated.
Prizes: So we got the 2 mom pictures and a book celebrating different kinds of families (I wonder if they originally were thinking of doing a "Heather Has Two Mommies" parody but decided to make the book more inclusive). I maybe would have included a third item which represented those with disabilities (maybe something like "Origami Hand Signs") but the book covers all grounds.
... Oh, and a Rod of Supernova which gets stolen by Pant Devil. I'm laughing silently on the inside.
DAY 11:Animation: Subtle shoutout to the Snowickle TCG card. D'aw, it's the first treasure of its hoard.
Prizes: OH BOY! It's the crash the market prize!
But it's not a stamp this year, but rather a popular Petpet: the Snowickle! And that's not all, the Christmas Pattern Negg and Ice Hissi MP were also expensive in their own right.
Also, THIS should have been the day they did the Rod of Supernova joke.
DAY 12 13:Comic & Prizes: Um, TNT, Moltara is STEAMpunk, there is no electricity. For the comic you could have made the wire an air or hydraulic pipe and then have like a Kiko plug the hole with an (extra) bandage. As for the prizes, I think you could come up with something more creative than a Christmas tree shaver(?).
DAY 14:Comic & Prizes: And a happy Borovan Day to Island Builders... I don't play Island Builders...
DAY 15:Animation: Okay, that's a cute idea, reflecting the Bython's original reveal.
Prizes: Christmas Bython are cute, looking like red and green candy canes (at least to me). But if you want a normal Bython, don't worry, TNT got you cover with a Purple Petpet PB. Oh, and then yet another random "Y25" item, this time cookies. Okay, I gues Bythons like cookies?
Story: Oh, yeah, there was a story going on. Orion wakes up to still see the Advent Calendar running much to his dismay. He gets into an argument with Raine who doesn't want to cancel the AdCal as it gives many happiness for little proof. And so Orion goes to get the proof. I'm going to guess it's going to be the lyre. While I'm sure Orion is right, at the same time I'm on Raine's side here; Though I'm more thinking what is cancelling the AdCal going to do to stop the nightmare vision Orion has been seeing? He says it'll give time for Neopians to prepare, but prepare how that'll make them any more ready than most Neopets already are? If anything Orion should convince the Raine to give out any extra Feel Better Soup, Roxtons Trusty Bowie Knife, and Bundle of Burning Birch Wood from last year (if they want to be really kind instead of the Bundle can give a decent freezer like Randomly Firing Freeze Ray).
DAY 16: It was a day.