Chef Bonju Avatar Solved

Two and a half years ago, many Neopians were wanting more difficult avatars to obtain rather than the easy clickable ones anybody with no effort could attain. Well, my friends, TNT was listening and in acknowledgment released the infamous Chef Bonju avatar on August 8, 2006. No avatar has ever remained unsolved for this length of time without someone having it until now. Oh, rumors of Neopians having the avatar have been spotted on the avatar boards from time to time. Desperate Neopians even created the Bonju avatar image on their lookup to trick unsuspecting people.

Why has this special avatar been so difficult for people to find? I asked that question to myself many times over and the one constant thing I would hear back (yes, I have voices in my head) is that the avatar that has eluded so many people over the years must in actuality not even exist. How horrid a thought that is to think of all the time spent in the culinary concoctions in Shenkuu mixing two or three different items to no avail. The following message from Chef Bonju is permanently etched into my brain: "Gaaaaahhhh! Oops! Looks like that didn't go so well. The chef doesn't look too happy, but at least you got your items back. Click here to try again!"

There are many things that bring large groups of people together and one of them is when you are searching for something lost. The interest of this one random avatar has sparked the curiosity of most Neopians at one point or another. Many guilds were formed with their mission statement as being Bonju solvers and of the like. I have read everything I have got my hands on in relation to this previous unsolvable avatar.

One guide after another had topics outlying the ingredients that were "tested" in the cooking pot. Oh and of course, the avatar wouldn't be awarded for merely making a successful combination, would it? Unsolvable problems have always piqued my sense of wonder and I lost count of the nights and years working on this very dilemma... to prove that there was a Chef Bonju avatar, despite my gut feeling to the contrary. I think what drove me to invest so much of my time and life into solving this quest was the fact that this is a challenge, a conundrum if you will.

Now with any conundrum, one must take careful steps not to rush to conclusions about theories or answers without first totally grasping the question. "If only there was a Blumaroo chef around to help you find the new Avatar..." It's obvious the not too colorful orange Blumaroo is not going to assist in providing suggestions or clues pertaining to his glorious meal he "toiled for hours" preparing. What made this meal so glorious? Perhaps because when it came down to having to wash the dishes, there was so little scrapings on the plates that it saved him quite a bit of time. Hmmm, time? Is this a time based avatar? So, not only having the right ingredients, we must pinpoint the exact time, only for the not so cooperative Blumaroo to tell us the ingredients were not successful. I sense the poor Blumaroo is going to blow his top again.

In the Cyodrake's Gaze comic, I recalled the investigator interviewing everyone about the disappearance of Hoban. What stuck in my mind was the repeated usage of the word "ate". "And we ate, and ate, and ate..." etc. Hmmm. Could the word ate secretly stand for the number eight? Maybe! What is the significance of the number 8? Well, the avatar was released in the 8th month, on the 8th day of 2006 and in the 8th year. 2+0+0=6 = 8. 888. Interesting!! Other interesting tidbits of info regarding the number "8" phenomenon are that there are eight letters in the name Blumaroo, and eight letters in the name Birthday and eight letters in the name Broccoli, oops! :) Any correlation? Probably not, but it's interesting to note that all three ingredients start with the letter "B".

Wouldn't it be pretty glorious to celebrate a cruise underway at sea with the introduction of a masterpiece meal? Or a dessert? Maybe the meal is the dessert. I wish I could come right out and tell you the time you must visit the culinary concoctions and with what ingredients you must have in your inventory. This would make things a lot easier for you, I'm sure, but TNT has strict rules preventing me from disclosing the exact procedure for the releasing of this avatar. Besides, if I solved it, then so can you, in time. *eyes clock* In the interest of self preservation, I will temporarily be disabling all neofriend requests and only allowing neofriends to contact me. Furthermore, I have chosen not to activate my Chef Bonju avatar as "proof" for others to see. The meaning to this will soon be quite evident, in time.

I applaud The Neopets Team for really challenging my brain on this impossibly hard to get avatar. I have come to appreciate how difficult it must have been for them to refrain from providing any more obvious hints to the solution of the avatar than the one provided a couple of months ago found on the birthday banner on November 15th of 2008. The banner said, "Also known as '831 days and still no sign of the Bonju avatar!'". Thank you. That was basically a huge hint or gift that they provided to us all.

With this avatar now solved, and more people soon solving it themselves, I hope TNT releases more challenging avatars that take a major undertaking so that a collaboration of many minds from all walks of life can continue to share in the glory and excitement of working together passionately and watching a problem solved in its entirety. In many respects, more documentation has evolved from this single once undiscovered avatar than in many a plot. Let us all take this time and say Thank You to The Neopets Team for doing a great job and a big thank you for the avatar makers. Good luck in your quest to solve the Chef Bonju avatar soon. Just remember, time is of the essence! :)

Author's note: Purely fictional and an April Fools joke only.