San Diego Comic-Con 2023
Neopets returned to Comic-Con in San Diego in 2023. The event ran from July 19th to July 23rd. Neopets and WYP Jewelry once again shared a booth, but with Neopets taking up a much bigger section of the booth than previously. Neopets products were also available at the Upper Deck booth, and at UCC Distributing. Additionally, this year saw the return of the Neopets After Party, held in San Diego outside the Con itself, which had not happened since 2019.
We have several photos covering TNT's presence at Comic-Con courtesy of Jellyneo staffers Herdy, Ummy, and macosten. We thank them very much for providing us with these exclusive images and coverage!
Neopets Booth
This year, the Neopets booth had the theme of "eras," celebrating the past and future of Neopets with a futuristic, vaporwave theme. This came on the back of the announcement that Neopets had been purchased from NetDragon the previous week. The Neopets booth proved very popular throughout the entire convention, with a line that snaked around the corner.
The Neopets Team were selling new, exclusive merch at the booth. As part of a partnership with G FUEL, they were selling three new flavours of the energy drink, as well as a plastic drink cup themed around the slushie cups from the site. The three flavours were Electric Blue Slushie, Loveberry Slushie, and Cheops Slushie. Buying all of them together also included a coloured rubber band that fit around the slushie cup featuring one of the vaporwave Neopets featured throughout the booth: Aisha, Kougra, or Shoyru.
Also available were pins featuring the vaporwave Neopets, stickers featuring them, a vaporwave themed lanyard, limited edition art prints by TNT Fae, and an exclusive T-shirt.
View All New SDCC Neopets Products »
Previously existing merch was also available, including the Tarot Set and the Neopets Cookbook. Erinn Pascal, one of the Cookbook's authors, was present at the booth on many days of the convention and was signing copies.
TNT were also hosting giveaways at the booth for a Neopets swag bag and VIP tickets to the After Party.
Signs advertised the Nosy Neopians podcast and the new unified homepage (which launched on the first full day of the convention).
Until Friday night, there was also a large Aisha cosplay present at the booth. This was the cosplayer who had previously been Queen Fyora in 2022. The suit sadly broke its zipper during the After Party on Friday, meaning it was not present on Saturday or Sunday at the convention.
Jellyneo staffers Ummy and Mac visiting the Neopets booth.
TNT Fae drew custom Neopets on sticker sheets to give away to customers at the booth.
During the first two days, exclusive Neopets pens (various colours, pictured left) were given out free at the booth. These were replaced with exclusive star shaped erasers (picture right) for the remainder of the convention.
WYP Booth
The WYP Jewelry booth returned with a variety of new pins exclusive to the con. They also had the exclusive vaporwave lanyard available. Later in the convention, they also had the blind box pins previously only available at UCC Distributing. WYP hosted a live unboxing of some of the blind pins over the weekend.
Upper Deck Booth
Upper Deck unveiled the TCG set upcoming in 2024 at Comic-Con, which will be themed around the Battledome. A Neopets advert was among those that played above the booth.
From Thursday until Sunday, Upper Deck were also selling a 6-set of exclusive cards for the upcoming TCG. This included a Grundo Warehouse code for a new avatar:
While Upper Deck went on to sell some of these cards as exclusives at other conventions, the Red Shoyru and Mau Codestone cards remained SDCC-exclusive. The cards proved so popular that Upper Deck had to limit them to one per customer.
UCC Distributing Booth
At the UCC Distributing booth UC Pin Blind Boxes were available, debuting at the convention. From the second day onwards, they were also available at the WYP Jewelry booth.
After Party
This year's After Party was held at Deck 655, a rooftop venue in downtown San Diego, on Friday night. The theme of the party carried over from the Neopets booth at the convention. VIP tickets were sent out ahead of time to various influencers, press, and other lucky individuals, giving access to the party at 7:30pm. General admission was via a first come first serve line that began entry at 9:00pm.
The line to get into the party went around the block!
The Deck 655 venue came with a variety of games available to play.
A special Neopets sign had also been erected on the roof.
Various pieces of merch were displayed on the tables in the venue.
The Neopets vaporwave backdrop was available for pictures.
A variety of self-service food stalls were available with signs related to Neopets.
There was an indoor bar and an outdoor bar serving drinks. Two custom cocktails had been developed for the party.
Left: Millennial Morphing Potion. Right: Fyora's Essence
Jellyneo staffers Herdy & Joe with TNT Willow at the After Party.
"Legendary" Announcement
During the party, TNT gathered the guests on the outdoor steps for a special announcement. This had previously been teased as a "legendary" announcement, and it turned out to be the reveal of John Legend as a Neopets Brand Ambassador via video. This video accidentally played without sound, but John Legend later posted the video to his Twitter timeline. This was followed by the Neopets trailer released the previous week, which included a plot teaser. The new Neopets CEO, Dominic, then made a speech about his hopes for Neopets going forward.
Cosplay
Neopets cosplayers were out in force!
The Beeg Aisha was once again available for photo opportunities.
Jellyneo staffer Ummy came to the After Party in a Taelia the Snow Faerie cosplay!
The Tooth Faerie and Dr. Sloth
Hannah
Rainbow Kougra
Lab Ray Scientist
Freebies
At the conclusion of the party, exclusive swag bags could be picked up by attendees. These included a random plushie from the 2021 key clip line, two of the vinyl stickers from the booth, the G FUEL slushie cup with a random band and one random flavour of G FUEL powder, a Library Faerie bookmark, an exclusive vaporwave slap bracelet from Geekify, and a playmat from Upper Deck for the upcoming TCG. The playmat was later made available by Upper Deck at future conventions bundled with the exclusive card set.
Additionally, the swag bag came with a rare item code for two items based on the vaporwave Aisha. These items were available for purchase from the NC Mall for the duration of the convention, but are otherwise exclusive:
TNT Attendance
The convention and After Party were both attended by many members of TNT, and they posed for a photo!
This page was written by JN Staff and last updated on August 4, 2024.
