Comic-Con Coverage | Jellyneo.net (2024)

2024

Neopets returned to San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in 2024. The event ran from July 24th to July 28th at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Neopets staffed its own booth separate from any merch partner for the first time since 2019. Neopets products were also available at the Upper Deck booth, What's Your Passion booth, and UCC Distributing booth.

Announcement

Neopets shared the details of their appearance in the official SDCC blog:

You’ll find them at Booth #3839 all weekend long, where you can stop by to snap a photo with their mascot, Big Aisha. They will also have a Wheel of Excitement, where you can spin for a chance to win prizes at Faerieland’s favorite attraction. They will also have NeoHoods and and a Phat Mojo Aisha plush at the Neopets booth, limited to 500 pieces.

From SDCC blog, "Neopets Returns to San Diego Comic-Con 2024 with Exclusives, Panels, More", published July 1, 2024

Neopets Booth

Neopets was at booth #3839 throughout the weekend. The theming of the booth this year was a mixture of The Void Within and the 25th Anniversary style.

The 25th Anniversary section of the booth is where merch was displayed and sold.

This area also included a backlit celebration-coloured Kacheek!

The Void Within section of the booth was around the side from the merch sales area and featured standees of Nyx and her Faellie, Juni.

A large, round overhang was placed above the booth.

It made it easy to locate the booth, even from far away on the convention floor!

Beeg Aisha was often available for photo ops.

Beeg Aisha with TNT Luna

TNT Aesop handing the mysterious brush from The Void Within to Beeg Aisha

As often happens at conventions, the line to purchase merch would sometimes get really long, and TNT would have to manage and split the line to ensure fire safety compliance!

TNT Aesop managing a split line for merch

TNT staff did not have an SDCC 2024-exclusive shirt this year. They each wore various pieces of Neopets apparel throughout the weekend!

Merch for Sale

Various pieces of exclusive and non-exclusive merch was available for sale at the booth. A menu near the checkout area detailed the offerings:

In order to make the line efficient, TNT handed out pencils and slips of paper for attendees to denote what they wished to purchase while waiting.

View on Merch DB »

Some of the merch was on display in an enclosed case.

An SDCC 2024 exclusive Aisha plushie from Phat Mojo was available for $24.99. These were limited to 100 per day and sold out very quickly each day, with some people waiting in line hours before the floor opened for a chance at one.

A similar version is expected to be available at Hot Topic at some time later.
View on Merch DB »

An SDCC 2024 exclusive 25th Anniversary Plushie Mini Pin and Lanyard Set was also available for $30. (Although made by What's Your Passion, it was sold at the Neopets booth rather than the WYP booth.) It was also available online from WYP during the convention dates.

View on Merch DB »

NeoHoods were available for $30 each. They also, for the first time ever, included a Rare Item Code for a chance at an exclusive item.

View on Merch DB »

Some celebration-coloured phone grips were available for $5 each.

View on Merch DB »

A Void Within/25th Anniversary tote bag was available for $10, but also provided for free with any purchase of $50 or more.

View on Merch DB »

Stickers featuring Juni, a celebration Aisha, and a celebration Shoyru were available for $5 each.

Four different SDCC 2024 exclusive sticker sheets were also available for $5 each.

An SDCC 2024 exclusive Void Within baseball cap was available for $15.

View on Merch DB »

Neopets: The Official Tarot Deck (Faerie Edition) was also available for $25, though not prominently displayed.

Freebies

In addition to items for sale, some things were available for free!

The 2024 Neopets calendar was available at the checkout counter.

View on Merch DB »

Postcard fliers were available to advertise the SDCC 2024 booths with Neopets merch and Geekify's Neopets TTRPG.

View on Merch DB »

View on Merch DB »

Wheel of Excitement

Also available as a sort of freebie: the Wheel of Excitement!

Spinning the wheel would earn you one of two possible cards depending on which space you landed on. These cards had codes redeemable at Grundo Warehouse.

The "Exclusive" card awarded the following item:

The "Prize" card would randomly award one of the below valuable (but not exclusive) items.

The wheel was available during limited hours of the convention weekend, and often had a very long line that would get "capped" from adding more!

Merch Previews

TNT also had in-development plushie prototypes on display. Some version of these may be available for purchase in the near future!

Slightly different versions the Aisha and Shoyru available at the convention were on display.

A celebration Kacheek and Kougra were also on display.

Special thanks to Rascle for these Kougra pictures!

Two celebration Petpets, a Doglefox and a Faellie, were also shown.

Finally, a Void Within-coloured Aisha and Faellie were also displayed.

Beeg Aisha

Throughout the weekend, the Beeg Aisha would appears at other booths on the convention floor. The location was revealed through clues on the official Neopets Instagram story.

Here is Beeg Aisha at the Upper Deck booth:

Wearing an Aisha NeoHood, with Jellyneo's macosten!

And here is Beeg visiting the What's Your Passion booth:

Working the booth!

Examining the pins!

While at the WYP booth, TNT also handed out sampler copies of the upcoming Neopets graphic novel, Neopets: The Omelette Faerie.

View on Merch DB »

The publisher, Andrews McMeel, has given Jellyneo permission to share a PDF version of the sampler for you to read!

Read the Preview »

Dani Bowman

On Thursday, July 25th, animator and Love on the Spectrum star Dani Bowman stopped by the Neopets booth for a meet-and-greet.

Dani had previously announced in May that she would be "teaming up" with Neopets to help "bring back their popularity," so this seems to have been a part of that partnership!

Partner Booths

Several merch partners of Neopets also had Neopets merch available at their own booths.

What's Your Passion Jewelry

What's Your Passion Jewelry (WYP) was at booth #1021 and offered a gamut of Neopets merch in addition to items from some of their other partners.

The Neopets merch available were display in designated sections on the walls of their booth.

A laminated menu was also available, detailing the various pins available.

Merch for Sale

WYP offered a variety of SDCC-exclusive pins, though they were also available to order online during the convention dates. They also introduced some new pins at SDCC that remained available afterward. Many of their standard offerings were also available.

WYP SDCC 2024 Exclusives in Merch DB »WYP SDCC 2024 Non-Exclusives in Merch DB»

The exclusive pins were placed in a special display case.

Meanwhile, examples of the non-exclusive pins were browsable on pin boards.

Jewelry items were on display in a larger case.

Upper Deck

Upper Deck (UD) was at booth #307 and offered products from the newly released Neopets Battledome TCG.

One wall of the booth featured a display case with Neopets Battledome TCG cards and supplies.

Upper Deck's limited edition Jhudora art print was on display, though not for sale.

View on Merch DB »

A screen above the booth silently played the Official Launch Trailer of the TCG.

In between loops of the trailer were static advertisem*nts for their limited edition art prints, such as the one for Sarah and Daisy below.

View on Merch DB »

One of Upper Deck's community managers, Ryan a.k.a. "Battledome Baddie," was in attendance, as well as Neopets Battledome TCG Product Manager and Game Designer Bobby Coovert.

Ryan (left) and Bobby (right)

Merch for Sale

Upper Deck offered the TCG starter decks for $20 each.

"Defenders of Neopia" booster boxes (containing 24 booster packs) were available for $90.

View on Merch DB »

Card Yourself

Upper Deck also offered a brand activation where you could get your own picture on an Upper Deck trading card! Several card backgrounds were available to choose from, including the Neopets Battledome TCG.

UCC Distributing

UCC Distributing was at booth #5613.

Merch for Sale

UCC Distributing offered a large array of items from their various partners, but just one for Neopets: an SDCC 2024 exclusive 25th anniversary Shoyru plushie for $24.99.

Special thanks to peophin for this picture of Shoyrus still on the shelf!

View on Merch DB »

These plushies are individually numbered and limited to 500 pieces. 100 pieces were made available each day of the convention.

Lottery Mechanics

In order to ensure effective crowd and line control as well as (somewhat) equitable access to items, attendees needed to make a reservation through the official SDCC exclusives portal to purchase from UCC Distributing. These reservations are allotted to interested attendees using a random lottery system.

The reservation guaranteed a date and time that an attendee could make a purchase from the UCC Distributing booth, but did not guarantee any particular item. Thus, due to the limited number of Shoyru plushies available each day, an attendee would have to be lucky enough to get a reservation very early in the day in order to purchase one prior to them selling out.

The full details of this process can be found on the Official SDCC Exclusives Portal FAQ.

Robert S. Campbell

This was not a Neopets merch partner nor officially attending with Neopets, but did have a cool Neopets connection!

Robert S. Campbell was the co-lead designer on the Neopets Playstation2 game, Neopets: The Darkest Faerie (billed as R. Scott Campbell). He was at SDCC 2024 to promote a new novel he has written, The Rats Beneath the Walls.

Upon noticing the logo on his poster, Jellyneo struck up a conversation with him about the development process of Neopets: The Darkest Faerie. He had worked directly with Adam and Donna on the game while employed at Sony!

Word got back to Dom, who came over to personally meet him! The two discussed changes to Neopets and ideas about how Neopets: The Darkest Faerie could possibly make a return.

Robert S. Campbell gave Dom a signed copy of his book, and Dom gave him a Void Within baseball cap!

Neopets Panel

On July 1, Neopets announced they would be hosting a panel on Thursday, July 25th. The panel was titled "Neopia Reimagined!" and took place in Room 28DE from 12pm to 1pm. The official description of the panel in the SDCC guide was:

Jason Masherah (president at Upper Deck), Dominic Law (CEO of Neopets), Bobby Coovert (associate product manager and game designer at Upper Deck), and Dean Ravenola (narrative and creative director at Neopets) join forces to discuss the licensing process, gameplay strategy, and immersive creativity involved in bringing virtual characters to life. Learn how digital enchantment is transformed into tabletop adventure through the unveiling of hot properties, licensed product lines, and emerging trends for newly innovative fan experiences.

The panel featured a discussion between Neopets CEO Dominic Law and Upper Deck President Jason Masherah about bringing virtual characters to life. They were joined by Neopets Narrative and Creative Director TNT Aesop and Upper Deck's Product Manager and Game Designer of Neopets Battledome TCG (NBTCG) Bobby Coovert. The panel was moderated by Matt Burkey from Upper Deck's public relations firm Carve Communications.

L to R: Matt Burkey, Jason Masherah, Bobby Coovert, Dominic Law, and Dean Ravenola a.k.a. Aesop

The panel was strictly a discussion among the panelists, with the last few minutes of the panel time opened to questions from the audience. There were no supplemental visual elements such as a slide deck.

Panel Recap

These are some summary notes from the Jellyneo staff in attendance at the panel, grouped into high-level topic areas.

Comments on the Neopets/Upper Deck partnership

• Neopets has been doing well in the so-called New Era and is doubling or tripling all important metrics presently.
• Aesop picked out the Negg Festival with Topsi's reveal as a robot as his standout piece of narrative content to have worked on so far.
• Upper Deck views the longevity of Neopets as a plus point in their partnership. They were attracted to the brand due to the feeling that it has a passionate and underserved community that has gone a long time without a product like the TCG. Dom agrees that the Upper Deck deal was a no-brainer.
• Bobby is happy with the reception the TCG has had so far. Aesop shares that he has enjoyed watching pack opening videos. It has been interesting to see the reception vary between the different types of social media.

What's next for the TCG

• A November expansion is confirmed! This would align with the 25th birthday of Neopets. Lab Ray and Baby Aisha cards are namechecked.
• Bobby has tried to mirror as much of the on-site Battledome mechanics as he could, which is why they picked Defenders of Neopia as the first set. He calls out the Rare Item Codes (RICs) they have lined up for the November expansion as being cool, as well as some they have for future sets.
• Upper Deck and Dom view RICs as a two-way street, onboarding people to both the TCG and Neopets itself.

Thoughts on the TCG development process

• There is a longer development pipeline with Neopets due to narrative/lore reviews. Bobby says having passionate devs helps the project be better, however.
• The previous success of the WotC TCG helped Upper Deck see the viability of this one, but they deliberately pitched for an easier game as much feedback of the WotC game was that it became too complex.
• Bobby pitched dice at the start, and was glad it worked out. The game is not as RNG-based as it appears, the better player wins 80% of the time in their tests.
• Bobby and Aesop enjoy spotlighting old characters that have largely been forgotten.

Relationship between the TCG and the main Neopets site

• There are lots more licensing avenues for Neopets due to the number of different ways Neopets can be played. Spinoffs can be aimed to attract more players rather than focusing only on the main site. Licensing also helps chase trends.
• Upper Deck like the fact that the Neopets community is international. (Jellyneo note: the TCG is currently only available in North America, could this signal an international expansion?) They feel the physicality of the product reinforces the link with the brand.

Upper Deck's plans

• Next phase will be integrating with E-Packs. Upper Deck called out the value of having knowledgeable humans on support. It is their attempt to relaunch into the TCG space after a long time away.
• Bobby speaks about the collection aspect. There was a focus on high quality art, with foils of all cards. He wanted collecting to be accessible, and attempted to balance both the collection and game aspects of the TCG.

Miscellaneous notes from the Q&A section

• Upper Deck confirmed that discussions are happening for an online version of the TCG.
• The Kickstarter for Geekify's TTRPG is given a shout out. Aesop was very happy with meeting the funding goal in just 4 hours. Narrative reviews are incoming.
• After a request for a physical Key Quest game, Dom once again appeals to the community for KQ's lost coding.
• Bobby hints there will be a Void Within expansion to the TCG in the future. Additionally, an expansion with The Darkest Faerie appearing. Says he wants to feature most characters. For most characters, it is a matter of timing: not "if" but "when." They have staggered characters and species on purpose as a hook, citing the lack of Illusen and Kougras in the original release.

After Party

There was not an after party event hosted by Neopets at SDCC 2024.

Fan Meetup

However, there was an unofficial fan meetup organized by some of the Ambassadors in attendance! The meetup took place at the Coin-Op Game Room in San Diego's Gaslamp District on the evening of Thursday, July 25th.

Although TNT was busy attending a business event at the beginning of the event, they swung by afterward to hang out! This included TNT Dom, Celeste, and Beeg Aisha. Merch partners from Geekify and Andrews McMeel also stopped by.

Cosplayers

Did you attend SDCC 2024 in Neopets cosplay? We'd love to feature you! Send us a link to a picture and, if you want, a name you'd like to be credited by.

As is typical with comic-con style conventions, many attendees came in cosplay, including some in Neopets-themed cosplay!

Alien Aisha with functional vending machine

Baelia with Beeg Aisha

A Blue Grundo

Soup Faerie and Fyora with Beeg Aisha

Fyora with the Wheel of Excitement!

A different Fyora than the one above!

Soup Faerie, Sophie, Illusen, and an Alien Aisha posing together after the Neopets panel.

Beeg Aisha also posed with some non-Neopets characters too!

Pennywise from It

SDCC regular "Bash the Piñata"

This article was written by: JN Staff

This page was last updated on August 9, 2024.