All that's Treat is not Trick

     The first items to be compared, and to continue with the spooky spirit, are the Magical MSP Poogle Plushie and the MSPP Plushie. Two items which look undoubtedly similar except for the Magical MSP Poogle Plushie’s beautiful and colourful aura which make it the treat, while the MSPP Plushie looks like a plain old plushie thus it is the trick. However, the treat hides a very serious trick! Playing with this plushie will turn your Neopet into an MSP Poogle. On the contrary, the normal plushie does just what it says on the box.

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:No, the magical plushie indeed hides a secret and it can be misleading.

     Keeping on with the eerie theme, we have the Magic Ghost Marshmallows and the Ghost Marshmallows. Two items with very similar looks except for the mystical blue aura surrounding the Magic Ghost Marshmallows, branding it the treat. Contrary to the previous items, feeding your pets this treat will not turn them into marshmallows, however it will fully restore the hitpoints of any Ghost Neopet. At the same time, the Ghost Marshmallows are normal candy which can be roasted on your bonfire, making them the trick.

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:No, the magical marshmallows conceal a trick of their own, even if it’s only targeted at specific Neopets.

     Delving more into food items, we have the Chocolate Omelette and the Clay Omelette. Clearly with its scrumptious, thick, outer layer chocolate, the Chocolate Omelette is the treat while the similar but less delicious looking Clay Omelette is the trick. Having said that, both treat and trick are simple food items, which will always break down into their ⅔ counterparts the first time they are consumed. No hidden tricks here!

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:Yes, both omelettes are simple food items and both act the same way with the treat just being more appealing.

     Next on the list are two faerie dolls of the best element in the whole wide Neopia; water. Due to the beautiful blond and turquoise hair and the vibrant blue colours, the Rainbow Fountain Faerie Doll is the treat while, despite their very similar designs, the Water Faerie Doll is the trick only by the process of elimination as the latter is still a beautiful doll. Both dolls are simple toys which don’t hide any secrets to them and are readily available throughout Neopia.

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:Yes, both dolls act as toys and the trick can be defined as less vibrant with more dull colours.

     You might think that these two stamps are exactly the same. Same Kiko, same background colour, same shape of the stamp. Upon closer inspection, you can notice that the One Hundred Million Neopoint Stamp states a much higher value on the stamp - thus it is the treat - compared to the Mystery Island Kiko Stamp which is the trick in this case. Even though the Mystery Island Kiko Stamp is the trick, its price cannot even be defined, while the One Hundred Million Neopoint Stamp is available on the market. Therefore, the treat stamp tricks you into thinking it’s more valuable, while it is not.

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:No, because of the undefined price and supply difference, the Mystery Island Kiko Stamp should in theory be the treat.

     We have all collected and bottled at some point in our lives some sand, after a long day at the beach. And certainly, we would prefer the long, slender, perfectly cylindrical bottle such as the Bottle of Blue Sand - or the treat - rather than a distorted bottle such as the Sands of the Water Faerie - or the trick. Unexpectedly, as was the case above, the distorted bottle has no stock in the market and its price is undefined making it much more elusive.

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:No, the long bottle is much more abundant while the distorted one is extremely difficult to get hold of.

     The next two items might be the most subjective on the list. On one hand, we have the Magic Cookie, which in my opinion is the treat and on the other hand we have the Chocolate Chip Cookie which I believe to be the trick. The magic cookie has that delicious gloss over it, something that the chocolate counterpart lacks. However, the magic cookie can be used to cure Sneezles while the other one is a normal food item.

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:No, the magic cookie has real magic of its own and it can catch you off guard.

     Last items on the list are two very similar looking items, from the shape, to the colour up to the gloss. However, the detail that makes the Fifty Dubloon Coin the treat, compared to the Five Dubloon Coin which is the trick, is the subtle engraving of a pair of bones around the skull which can truly make you confuse them. Despite that, the Fifty Dubloon Coin carries secrets of its own as it is more expensive than the Five Dubloon Coin in both the Neopian Central as well as the Krawk Island market.

     All that’s Treat is not Trick?:No, the Fifty Dubloon Coin conceals its own secrets for its price.

     This is just a selection of almost identical looking items which might or might not hide tricks under their sleeves. If you got confused by the way the hypothesis was tested, consider this scenario. Imagine you are given a choice between each pair of items. Naturally, you would choose the more aesthetically pleasing, the more elevated, the more intriguing item; and you would consider it as a Treat. However, imagine using that said item and you find out it doesn’t function as you expected, be it for better or for worse. It doesn’t matter if you have been pleasantly surprised, it was still a Trick! As long as the treat item had more to it than meets the eye then the hypothesis failed.

     Out of the eight examples given, only two confirmed the hypothesis and the other six rejected it. This is an expected result if I am to be honest, as for similar looking items to exist in Neopia then it means that one of the two functions differently. It just happened to be the case that the more aesthetically pleasing items were the ones to hide the trick! It’s interesting to note that for the two that confirm the hypothesis, both items function exactly the same. That is to say, it was never the case that the trick had its own secret. Lastly, there were a few cases where the trick’s trick was actually its price. Given the option between the two items, only judging by its appearance you wouldn’t be able to make the correct decision to maximise your profits. Now, get on Trick or Treating and be aware of tricks disguised as treats.