Key Quest.

[Helena]

O_o I work in Argos, and I've never seen any Neo merch.

I dunno if they still sell them there. Where are you based? The one that sold them before was in Kilburn. @_@ o_0

I know they're not the adorable plushies, but you can buy the books and gift cards off the Target website here:

http://www.target.com/gp/search/602-6317733-5123022?field-keywords=neopets&url=index%3Dtarget&ref=sr_bx_1_1

EDIT
...when they're released in April...

*GROWLS* It's all in dollars, lol. *wishes badly for merch*

[Phlameseeker]

I'm in Essex, so a fair way south. Still, woulda thought the stock would be the same across all stores, since it is all done by catalogue *shrug*

[beanmommy]

So Neocash cards do exist, then? I've never seen them in my Target (not that I've seen anything in the NC Mall that makes me NEED to buy a card yet... although some of the trinkets are cute). What part of the store are they usually sold in?

I see that Target.com claims they are available at my local Target.

I go to my local Target about once a month, and the last 3 or 4 times I've been there, I've looked in the electronics section, with the iTunes cards, where Neopets said to look for the Neocash cards, and never saw them.

Last week I was there and I finally got fed up and asked a clerk if they had them, and he took me to a small shelf in the section with the DVDs and CDs, on the side of a rack of DVDs, where they had Neocash cards and all kinds of other cards like that for Maplestory and the Disney site and stuff like that.

They were out of TCGs though, as always. My daughter (alicekitty) always checks the TCG section when we're there and there are never any for Neopets.

[Matrinka]

The Plushies, NeoCash cards, and trading cards were all stocked up in the toy section of my local Target. They were on an endcap near the hand-held games and card games, like Uno.

I'm shocked; with my Wocky, I got a 680 rarity item going for 2mil on the Trading Post. While that is excellent for me... it is slightly unfair that, in essence, I used real cash to get an expensive Neopian item.

[Pickles]

Woo! I was going to go with my mom back to the target that had them on Monday (but not on the shelf yet), but ended up not being able to - so she went anyways, and, get this - had them go to the back and find a Gold Aisha cause they *still* (4 days later) were not out on the shelves yet.
Of course, she said she was looking one for her daughter - good thing they didn't know how old I am or they would've thought she was nuts. (They thought I was nuts when my husband and I were in there Monday night looking for them). Let them assume I'm 10, instead of old enough to have my own kids.

My sister and I agreed that we would have *loved* to see her going through and doing all that. Ah, to be a fly on the wall.

At any rate, I'm quite happy with my very cute Gold Aisha sitting next to my home machine. I could honestly care less about the codes - I haven't entered mine in yet.

[Zombie]

I was once very angry at Neopets.com's commercialization of the game. (I had an account in the very early days, when it was smaller, simpler, art was more amateur and games were clunkier, but at least it was...non-business-y? So the changes have both impressed and annoyed the heck out of me.)

However, by now Neopets is no longer a major hobby for me, so I accept the lame merchandising ploys. I will never, ever, EVER spend one red cent on Neopets so help me Sloth. And if the game becomes super unbalanced toward those who pay, then I'll have to leave. But for now I'll enjoy the free parts and simply ignore the pay parts.

Key Quest does not seem to me to be worthwhile precisely because it is partly merchandising. I mean, if I'm competing against people in collecting avatars or something I might get excited because there's the spirit of fair play. But if I'm collecting keys manually while competing against others who use real money, the competition is meaningless and then the keys are meaningless too. I mean, none of us work and play for anything on Neopets for its own sake. Like, I can see the darn 100x100 pixel gif well enough, I don't get a thrill from achieving it no matter how pretty it is. The thrill comes from the subconscious "competition" against the rest of Neopian "society" trying to achieve rare items - that's why essentially meaningless gifs have value, that's why this remains an engaging game. The instant that this play-competition becomes unbalanced, the silly gif returns to being just a silly gif and I don't want it anymore. So Key Quest means nothing to me. It might as well not exist.

I do think that Neo is going down a path of no return and will one day reach the point when it's all advertisements or enticements to spend money and no fun at all. I just hope that day is still a little ways off.

[Alex]

"Neopets has always been, and will always be free" is starting to seem more and more like a downright lie.

I'm sorry, what?

Neopets is free. You don't have to pay to play it. No moneys = site is free.

Yes, players can choose to pay money to purchase certain things, such as Premium.

But nowhere, do you have to pay simply to play. They're telling the truth - it is free.

I'm also not a huge fan of the commercialisation, but - I had to state the obvious here.

[Teelie]

It's free now but they are increasingly marginalizing the free stuff to make it that paying for it is better and offers better incentives. It may "always be free" but that doesn't mean what's free will always be worth it. This is a very subtle, very slow process. It's the frog in the pot theory. By the time you know what's happening it's too late.

[alicekitty]

So Neocash cards do exist, then? I've never seen them in my Target (not that I've seen anything in the NC Mall that makes me NEED to buy a card yet... although some of the trinkets are cute). What part of the store are they usually sold in?

I see that Target.com claims they are available at my local Target.

I go to my local Target about once a month, and the last 3 or 4 times I've been there, I've looked in the electronics section, with the iTunes cards, where Neopets said to look for the Neocash cards, and never saw them.

Last week I was there and I finally got fed up and asked a clerk if they had them, and he took me to a small shelf in the section with the DVDs and CDs, on the side of a rack of DVDs, where they had Neocash cards and all kinds of other cards like that for Maplestory and the Disney site and stuff like that.

They were out of TCGs though, as always. My daughter (alicekitty) always checks the TCG section when we're there and there are never any for Neopets.

But the last time we went I got a key quest thing and we bought a LOOOOT of

SERIES 2

neopets card packs and stuff

I even got a brown uni plushie thing and the item that I got from it was worth 425K and is in the trading post waiting.

[darkfire]

Has anyone noticed that some people (new member, dormant people) have Key Quest Tokens? Any idea how they got them?

[Siouxper]

Has anyone noticed that some people (new member, dormant people) have Key Quest Tokens? Any idea how they got them?

There is a glitch that gives people Keyquest Tokens even if they haven't been on in ages. If the person views their Keyquest Album, they will disappear

[Ange]

I got a Keyquest Token by purchasing a Starry Grundo (it was cute, couldn't resist!) and my brother got one by getting a special card in one of those card packs that has stickers, tattoos, etc. I bought a card pack too but didn't have the special keyquest code, just the prize warehouse one.

[Pink]

I got a Key Quest Token by buying a Pink Bruce Plushie and another when I was given a Plushie JubJub Plushie (I love the irony). Also, my little second cousin just got a special edition neocash card for his birthday that came with a Keyquest Album THEME! Luckily, the Target I normally go to seems to be getting fairly regular shipments of Neopets stuff, but I don't go very often. While I see no problem with buying Neopets merch, I simply can't afford my lack of willpower.