Celebrating the 10th Neopies Anniversary: Top Awards

     In celebration of the Neopies 10th anniversary and the start of the next Neopies, I’ll review the best three categories of each of the Neopies past, and shed some light on the winners; who deserved the award and who I think got snubbed.

     The First Annual Neopies (2009/Y11)

      Neopians woke up one day to a brand-new event: The Neopies. There was a new category every day with four Nominees, re-capping the events of the past year, as well as new items and characters introduced, of which they had to vote for only one. Whoever got the most votes after time expired won the category. In return, the voters got a simple prize: “Best of 2008 Ribbon Necklace” or a “Red Toadstool”.

     The categories for the first ever Neopies were simple, funny, and sometimes a little bit strange! There were 10 of them, as follows: Best Neopoint Item. Best Neocash Item. Best News Day. Best Game. Best Site Event. Best Hero. Best Villain. Best Advent Animation. Best Places To Live. Best Smile.

     Some of these categories were instant hits, and in later years became classic staples in the Neopies, such as Best Item, Best Site Event and Best Advent Animation.

     My Top 3 categories out of those were:

     1.Best Villain:

     Parlax / Roothless / Ylana Skyfire / Commander Gormos.

     Ylana won with 39% of the votes (Well Deserved) She’s one of the coolest Neopian characters ever.

     2.Best Game:

     Let It Slide / Super Hasee Bounce / Smug Bug Smite / Spacerocked!

     Super Hasee Bounce won with 51% of the votes (Deserved) While all of those were great games to play, Super Hasee Bounce took fun into a whole new level - with lots of balloon popping action - plus I was really good at it.

      3.Best Smile:

     Commander Gormos / Dr. Death / Rufus / Dr. Sloth (Our Master.)

     Now this was a really strange category, but I guess with so little time to prepare and not many happenings, they had to whip something up, and they came up with this. It’s a real shame it wasn’t repeated in later years though.

     Rufus won with 49% of the votes (Snub) Dr. Sloth got snubbed. Dare I say otherwise?

      The Second Annual Neopies (2010/Y12)

      After the great success of the 1st Neopies, the second instalment saw many changes. First of all, a Neopies Host was introduced: a Blue Elephante named Ellsworth with blond hair and an exquisite taste in suits (although we always see him wearing only one – a navy-coloured Tuxedo and matching bowtie.)

     Of course, the Host can’t just present the winners with “nothing,” so a Neopies Trophy was designed: a small, golden statuette that resembles a winged faerie, standing on a dark pedestal with a golden plate that has the winner’s name engraved.

     The number of categories was raised from 10 to 15, some returning like Best News Day, Best New Game and Best Site Event, but most of the categories were new this time around, for example, Best New Avatar, Best New Petpet (both also becoming instant classics;) Best Mystery Capsule, Best NP Wearable, Best NC Wearable, Best New Key Quest Token & Best New Key Quest Mini-game (can you feel the wave of nostalgia hitting you hard yet?) but a lot of the old categories were scraped or replaced, such as the Hero & Villain ones, replaced with Best New Character.

     In addition to all of the above, 15 unique prizes were created for voting. You could win a Commemorative Program, a Who’s Who Book, a Neopie Statue Vinyl Figure, a wearable Backstage Pass, a Snack Pack, and many more. This was the first and last time those items were handed out as prizes, as we will see yet another change in later years, thus making them really special and very rare.

     My Top 3 categories were:

     1.Best New Avatar:

     10th Birthday / Carnival of Terror / Discarded Plushie / Mutant Graveyard.

     Winner: Discarded Plushie (Deserved) This is one of the cutest avatars TNT ever released.

     2.Best New Character:

     Captain Arf / Clara / Lulu / Rosie.

     Winner: Clara (Deserved) After all she helped discovered Moltara. However, it’s Rosie who got to be the cult classic, with her pink dress and hat and silly dancing. I bet she could win the Best Smile category as well.

     3.Best Piece of User Generated Content:

     Pet Spotlight (Poogle Snowbeast who eats books) / Random Contest (Robot Weewoo) / User Gallery (Pumpkin Patch) / User Lookup (Pandaphants.)

     Another strange category I wish wasn’t discontinued. Encouraging Neopets players to create their own content was always one of the best site features, and getting to vote for your favourite makes it even more exciting to try harder at the contests.

     Winner: Pandaphants User Lookup (Snub) While I personally adore the cute Pandaphants and have two of them attached to my Neopets, I think the life-sized, built-by-hand Robot Weewoo deserved to win.

     Honorable Mentions: Deserved wins in Best New Key Quest Token (Baby Gelert) and Best Site Event (10th Birthday Celebration.) Also, the Royal Boy Kacheek won the Best New Neopet Colour while the Maraquan Usul was snubbed.

      The Third Annual Neopies (2011/Y13)

      This edition of the Neopies ran for 17 days, meaning there were 17 categories. There were some new categories this time again, and the prizes system was changed. The voter gets rewarded with an already-existing item, like codestones, bottled faeries, books, charms and stamps. However, if you vote every day, you get a final special prize – your own “Neopies Golden Trophy” to take home and display on the mantle. This may have undervalued the actual trophies a little, but the category winners still accepted their prizes with a big grin on their faces.

     My top 3 categories were:

     1.Let Us Never Speak of This Again:

     Key Quest Quitters / NC Mall 13 Days of Trick or Treat Event / Tarla’s Tour of Mystery / Uni Clothing Shopkeeper Redraw.

     This was the first time a “bad” category was revealed. An to be honest, they weren’t all that bad, really. Not when compared to what was to come in later years anyway.

     Winner: Key Quest Quitters (Deserved) People who quit on their opponents right when they’re heading to the final square and win the game caused some serious rage on the Neoboards, as that was very unsportsmanlike. TNT had to release a KQ rating system to discourage this behaviour.

     2.Best Cameo Appearance in a Plot:

     Captain Rourke / Kanrik / King Altdaor / King Jazan

     There was only one plot: The Faeries Ruin, and they all appeared in it.

     Winner: King Altador (Very Well Deserved) He bravely led the team protecting Brynn and Hanso from legions of shadow wraiths as they tried to reverse the spell that froze the faeries.

     3.Best Caption Image:

     Caption Contest 1076 (Dr. Sloth at therapy) / Caption Contest 1107 (Good Night Mr Coconut) / Caption Contest 1138 (Moehog Knight) / Caption Contest 1161 (Pteri of Doom vs Red Pteri of Doom.)

     Those were all iconic caption images that spawned memes and items that still exist to our day and time.

     Winner: GOOD NIGHT (Very Well Deserved) I don’t see any other caption that ever gained such a cult following. And the Hissi’s fance top … hilarious.

      Honourable Mentions: Best Neopoint Background deserved win by the Beautiful Desert Oasis Background. Zombie Petpet Paint Brush snubbing Imposter Apple for Best Neopoint Item and Transparent Paint Brush getting snubbed in Best New Paint Brush in favour of the Maractite Paint Brush. And finally, the last day which just had The Best Plot – The Faerie’s Ruin as the only nominee.

      The Fourth Annual Neopies (2012/Y14)

      Not much was added here. The formula used in the 3rd Neopies worked, and so it was carried onto the next year. Same number of categories (17) and same prize pool for voting. Even the categories were pretty much the same. The final reward for voting every day was “Neopies Carpet Background.”

     My top 3 categories were:

     1.Best New Neopet Colour:

     Mutant Acara / Woodland Tonu / Camouflage Krawk / Water Kyrii.

     Winner: Water Kyrii (Snub) All the other three were snubbed as it could’ve gone to any of them, as they are all fantastic. My choice would’ve been the Mutant Acara.

     2. Best Site Shopkeeper Revamp:

     Hubert’s Hot Dogs / Neopian Action House / Igloo Garage Sale / Collectible Sea Shells.

     TNT introduced this category as the site was taking a new art direction, and major uphauls were being done for most of the images. Ironically, a lot of the shopkeepers are still not updated to this day (Neopian Pharmacy Elephante Nurse for example.)

     Winner: Collectable Sea Shells (Deserved) A win for the Maraquan Aisha as she got a really cool new look.

     3.Best PPL Petpet Name:

     Salty the Mutant Slorg / Sherlock the Leeble / Patrick the Slime / Winston the Urchull.

     Another new and hilarious category. Whoever thought of those names deserve a huge pat on the back.

     Winner: Winston the Urchull (Deserved) But Patrick the Slime saw the opportunity and grabbed it as well. Very close second in my opinion.

     Honorable Mentions: Deserved win for Lupe Knight Outfit in Best Species-Specific Wearable. I have a Lupe that is still wearing that outfit until now, even though it’s getting rusty. Krawk Island Disappearance also deserved to win Best Site Event.

      The Fifth Annual Neopies (2013/Y15)

      Once again, 17 categories were up for voting and not much was changed. Neopians started feeling the organisers are getting a little bit lazy. The final reward for voting every day was “Neopies Dressing Room Background.”

     My top 3 categories were:

     1.Best Heard Around the Office:

     Kid Hawk / Dragona / Mr. Insane / Viola-DJ Skellington.

     Another new, hilarious category.

     Winner: Dragona (Deserved) Her quote was hilarious "My lack of memory is amazing. I sent myself an email to remind me of something, and about .6 seconds later I get an email and get excited and look to see what it is." I wonder if it has anything to do with her obsession with socks that she didn’t think about anything else.

     2.Best Revamp:

     Games Room Revamp / Battledome Revamp / Dailies Revamp / Roo Island Revamp

     Winner: Battledome Revamp (Deserved) The BD got a long overdue overhaul with improved Arenas, challenger stats and animations. However, it’s been stuck in Beta since then with lots of needed additions and upgrades not yet implemented.

     3.Best Species Specific Wearable

     Festive Bori / Fantastic Ixi / Programmer Grundo / Arid Ruki.

     Winner: Fantastic Ixi (Deserved) It is a really cool outfit and my fortune teller Ixi likes to wear it all the time.

     Honorable Mentions: Best NC Mall Collectible Item went to Fyoras Collectors Dress, even though Hanso and his hair were really popular that year, so it was a snub for Hanso Collectors Wig. Also, with the new Battledome came some new challengers, and the prize went to the Neggbreaker. It was a deserved win for the overgrown Hasee who terrorised the Festival of Neggs and led to the discovery of the Mysterious Negg Cave. Also, in the Best New Neopet Colour, the Mutant Lutari, despite being a great colour, snubbed the Robot Bruce, in my opinion.

      ........ To Be Continued in Part 2