Blackened fruit items, r180

[munduses]

My question is, were blackened items (blackened watermelons, blackened pineapples etc.) handed out at some point in the distant past? Does anyone remember? They are all r180 now, and only the Blackened Banana goes for a cheap prize (due to King Skarl). I need all blackened items for my gallery, and I'm just wondering where they originally came from and why they are r180/retired.

Still, they're not that expensive for being r180, around 9-10k, so it makes me believe there must've been some mass release of them in the past (now I'm just repeating myself, ain't I). Maybe Battle for Meridell? If there wasn't, how come there's still a huge number of them circulating the market? Does this mean there's some way to obtain them, other than from user shops/trades? As far as I know, r180 items are not given out by random events, or as prizes in quests. They are retired after all.

Sorry, so many questions about such a small matter
I'm just trying to get away as inexpensively as possible *snicker*

[Twizzler0171]

I think you can occasionally get them from Coltzan's Shrine. I'm pretty sure that's where most of mine have come from, anyways.

[shapu]

They used to be able to be purchased at Merifoods, IIRC.

Perhaps it was desert food. I'm pretty convinced it was one of the two.

[Jerch]

Skarl used to give them from time to time.... I think.
I'm not that sure if it's really him, but I'm positive that one of the dailies used to hand them out.

[wandersong]

If i remember correctly, they were leftovers from an old plot, the 1 that involved Brucy B maybe? I need a plot refresher . Anyway, I remembered that during the plot, all the foods sold in food shops from the land involved had dispoiled food, like broken corn pyramid, scorched and blackened foods. But the food went back to normal after the plot finished. I think i had quite a number of them on my old account (which was frozen). I'm actually rather amused by that fact that King Skarl gives out blackened bananas, he must have stock piled quite a few but doesn't want too eat it himself?

So unfortunately i think the only place you can get them now would be Skarl or Coltzan's Shrine.

[Rachel]

Out of interest, what theme does your gallery have?

[munduses]

Thanks for the help everyone! I googled a bit after that what wandersong said, and I found info about a plot named "Brucey B and the Lucky Coin" which took place in 2001 (never heard about this one). Apparently Sloth took over Sakhmet City, and all the homes and shops were destroyed, or something like that. Makes finally sense with the blackened fruit.
Well, I think I'll just buy them from user shops now. Thanks again!

Out of interest, what theme does your gallery have?

It's a black-and-white/greyscale gallery. I collect items that completely lack colour or any shade of colour. I'm quite meticulous about what gets qualified as greyscale and what doesn't Don't even get me started on the number of Neopian Times Issue 3s that have been sent to me...
Anyways (now that you got me excited) I usually do a zoom of the item if I'm unsure, e.g. this balloon isn't in greyscale. If you look closely there a tiny bit of yellow pixels scattered around the edge of the balloon. And besides, the white is actually a very light shade of blue.
It's so fun!

[Jerch]

After some digging, I've verified that the blackened fruit items originated from Meridell...(and I'm pretty sure that Skarl did give them out....)

See http://www.neopets.com/nf.phtml?nf_date=2002-11-25

Ooh er... something rather nasty has happened to the foods in Meridell. This latest bunch all seem to be completely black!
...

It had to do with the Darigan plot...

[Rachel]

Out of interest, what theme does your gallery have?

It's a black-and-white/greyscale gallery. I collect items that completely lack colour or any shade of colour. I'm quite meticulous about what gets qualified as greyscale and what doesn't Don't even get me started on the number of Neopian Times Issue 3s that have been sent to me...
Anyways (now that you got me excited) I usually do a zoom of the item if I'm unsure, e.g. this balloon isn't in greyscale. If you look closely there a tiny bit of yellow pixels scattered around the edge of the balloon. And besides, the white is actually a very light shade of blue.
It's so fun!

That's the theme my gallery has, although i'm pretty lazy in making it and haven't added to it in a while...

[TDG]

To clarify - the scorched desert foods came about during the Brucey B plot as sloth had mwahahah'd them.

The blackened meridell food came about after Darigan got the orb in the original meridell plot and BZZZZAAAAPPPP!'d them.

Then a couple of years later somebody asked the editorial why Merifoods was still stocking blackened food, and they were promptly retired