Tiki Tack Man - Broke? by m_and_m_crunchy |  |
MUSTY ISLAND - Recently, when my Neopets and I frolicked happily (lol) to the
Mystery Island to visit our old friend the Tiki Tack Man for our free daily
Tombola draw,
he looked up at us sadly and said, "Oh! I'm sorry! I've just given the last
of my Neopoints away! Before I can start the Tombola again, I need to raise
[amount of Neopoints here] Neopoints!" and then asked us to donate. I donated
500 NP, and then left, terribly upset.
I could almost imagine this as a scene in a movie, with theme music from that
famous show, "Jetsam" playing in the background. "Den-den-den...dah-dah-dah,"
followed by a bone-chilling scream as the victim (the poor Neopian looking for
a free game), you know, screamed. Sorry, I'm going a bit crazy here, but this
is my first Neopian article. Anyway, back to the subject at hand...
I'm sure that many Neopians like you and me have realised that the Tiki Tack
Man seems to be running out of Neopoints lately, and is asking kind passing
Neopians to donate money for a fund so that his Tombola can operate once again.
Well, I find it rather odd that the Tiki Tack Man would need so much Neopoints
to run the Tombola. The last time I checked, it was probably about 150,000 Neopoints
or so. My two Neopets, Joopu, a spotted Kacheek; Magizafara, a green Zafara;
and I decided to find out why - I mean, as most of you (especially you Newbies)
would agree, 150,000 Neopoints is a lot of Neopoints! I decided first of all
to make a list of all the reasons why he would need that much Neopoints
1. To buy faeries and codestones for prizes
Well, when you consider this option, 150,000 Neopoints isn't really a lot.
After all, the average faerie these days cost anything from 3,000-10,000 NP,
last time I checked, and codestones vary from 2,000-5,000 NP! Well, with 150,000
NP he could buy 30 codestones or faeries - well, I don't think that's a likely
option because he would probably give out 50 codestones/faeries an hour!! Also,
since he lives in Mystery Island, he could probably get free, or discounted
codestones from the Training School.
2. To give out money to Neopians he feel sorry for
Well, we have all once in our Neopian lives, gone to the Tombola, hoping for
a rare prize, like maybe a Har Codestone, etc., and be disappointed when we
get that measly bottle of blue sand ("...used by the native Islanders to dye
their jeans!" Whoop-dee-doo)...but then!...oh, wonderful day!!! "...The Tiki
Tack Man feels sorry for you and gives you 163 Neopoints!" Well, with 150,000
NP, he could provide 'booby Neopoints for 1,500 Neopians - not really a lot
considering there are about 20 million active Neopians in Neopia, and maybe
15 million who tried their luck at Tiki Tack Tombola - so I didn't really think
that was likely either.
3. Rental for his booth
Since it would be pretty hard to guess how much the Tiki Tack Man would be
charged for the rental of his booth, I decided to base my calculations on the
rental for a store in Plushie Tycoon. Well, I think it costs about a 1,000 NP
a week for this, plus maybe 102 NP more a day for a late payment. 150,000 NP
is far too much to pay for a rental a week!! Besides, his booth is situated
in Mystery Island, one of the richest worlds in Neopia, what with the Training
School and Tour of the Island costing 50 NP and all, and one would expect that
his rent would be heavily subsidised because of this. So, scratch Number 3 as
well...
4. To buy tickets for his draw
Well, on to my next theory - to but tickets for the draw. Okay - I must admit
I was a bit stumped with this one, as I didn't know how much a book of tickets
cost. But I guess, since tickets are made of paper, etc., etc., it would be
the same price as a Neopian Times Issue 3 (5-30 NP), and maybe some colouring
pencils for the numbers (250 NP - Okay, I'm not too sure about this one - I
know my prices aren't too accurate but this is relatively speaking...) it would
cost at the most 280 NP for the first book at the maximum, 255 NP for the minimum,
and 5-30 NP for each subsequent book until his pencils went stubby. :) Okay,
that's about 4,500 books of tickets!!! And a book would probably contain 500
tickets!!! Now, 2,250,000 tickets is quite a lot, but not too much considering
my previous calculations of 15 million Neopians playing Tiki Tack Tombola -
so, now we're getting somewhere!
5. To buy a kazillion booby prizes
Now, bottles of sand cost about 1-5 NP and other Tombola merchandise such
as palm fans and slippers cost 5-20 NP via the Shop Wizard, so we're talking
about maybe 50,000 bits and pieces lying around here! Well, if the Tiki Tack
Man did give away the last of his Neopoints, he would probably be more cautious
the next time and not give away so many Neopoints - therefore needing more merchandise
- so...Point 5 gets a tick! :)
Okay, I know all my points involved a series of mumbo-jumbo, and probably not-so-accurate
calculations, so, the bottom line is, the Tiki Tack Man probably uses the Neopoints
for buying his tickets and prizes so, why not donate money to the him when he
runs out of Neopoints for the following reasons:
* You get to play Tombola once more
* He's not scamming you for Neopoints
* You don't have to donate a lot. 10-5000 NP or whatever will do - every
Neopoint counts!
* You'll 'get' your Neopoints back when you play Tombola and win prizes
Bye, and I hope to see you sometime in Mystery Island playing Tombola!!
I hope you enjoyed my article! Special thanks goes to the Mystery Island tour
guide for letting me wonder around Mystery Island aimlessly without actually doing
anything productive, like training my pets or going to the Haiku
Generator. Also, please Neomail
me whenever you want to discuss my article and offer comments or suggestions.
Please check out my
guild, We Rule! Guild, as well, which is, coincidentally, in version 2.0,
Neopian Times, and hopefully join!! Thanks again! |
