Customizing VS Paintbrushes

Customization instead of Paintbrushes?

After leaving for a few months, I came back on Neopets, only to find that pets were now able to get customized. I saw this and decided that collecting customization items would be my new hobby on Neopets. Saving up for the lab ray can be rewarding, but it takes a lot of time and money, so why use the lab ray or paint your pet, when you can customize? People always ask me: ”Why are you so into customization?” I give them a few reasons:

1. Customization allows you to “paint” your pet a colour no one has ever painted them before. Of course you might come along some other pet that has the same clothes, but being able to customize your pet makes it unique in every single way. You don’t need to buy an over expensive paintbrush just to have the colour you want. You can do that with customization too. There are tons of clothing items that pets can wear.

2. Not only do paint brushes cost a lot, Boochi can come along and blast your pet into a baby. This makes your beloved colour, that you spent so hard on saving, disappear. Clothes don’t disappear. Whenever Boochi might come along, you can either decide to keep your pet baby, or use the Starter Paintbrushes we are all offered at the start. Customization is therefore a really cheap way to “paint” your pets.

3. Changing. After painting your pet, you might get tired of seeing it that way all the time. However, you don’t want to waste your NP that you spent saving up for a few months. So you can put clothing items on your pet. This changes the view of it, and makes it fun to look at. Or you can not paint it at all and just leave it with a few clothing items.

4. Originality is a big word and plays a major role in customizing your pets. You can put something purple with something red. Or maybe you like the pink items more. It doesn’t matter what is playing inside your head, you can always combine them. Customizing is an easy way to save NP. You can recreate the image that is playing inside your head, and you can create the pet you have always wanted without spending a lot of money on it.

5. Backgrounds. Backgrounds affect the mood of your pet. Try putting a happy pet onto a “Rainy Day Background”. This makes it have a major contrast which is really fun to look at. There are many types of backgrounds, and many affect your character and the way people see it. Backgrounds are also quite cheap and easy to replace.

6. On special days, new clothing is released for each pet. The wide variety of the clothing, and all the different items, is great to mix and match. You may have a dress for your Ixi from year 11, mixed with shoes from year 10, mixed with accessories from year 9. Paintbrushes will always be the same. The clothing released from the paintbrushes will always be the same. There is never a unique piece of clothing from the paintbrushes, because when someone has it, all the people that have those paintbrushes have it. Not everyone has the same clothing on the same pet that you have. This makes it unique and fun. (see originality).

7. The NC Mall. Many people buy clothing from the NC mall. You cannot buy paintbrushes from there. There is a wide selection of clothing available at the NC Mall (I think it is the biggest category there). Not only do they have many different accessories, they have wigs too. Of course you might want to think of spending real money before you buy something from there, but the NC Mall is very rewarding. The clothing that comes from the NC Mall is called “Special Clothing” in my book. It is animated, meaning it moves. The gold on a necklace moves and expressed how shiny and valuable it is. Paintbrush clothing doesn’t have this. Plus, not all paintbrushes have clothing that comes with it. Also, sometimes TNT gives us free NC. This NC can be used buying clothing items, or other items for your pets. Also, the clothing from the NC Mall is easy to get. It is almost never stocked out (unless there is a themed holiday of some sort) and allows you to get easy access to the things you want to buy. If new clothing is stocked at “Unis Clothing”, people have to fight to get it. Newly released items in Neopia are always expensive. Once something has been out for a longer while, the prizes start to drop. Paintbrushes are always expensive if you want a really fantastic paintbrush. The NC Mall never goes above the limit of something. Dresses are normally stocked for about 150-200 NC, therefore never exceeding the limit.

8. The Customization contest also plays a good role in why customizing is good. All the pets are clothed differently. There are tons of different themes, and the prizes are good. New ideas can be obtained from here. Plus, for all the people that love customizing, it is a great way to share and chat about ideas. There is no such contest for paintbrushes. Therefore you should customize instead of paint your pets.

I never get tired of customizing my pets. There is always some idea in my head for the next customizing round and I never regret buying customization items. After writing this, I noticed that my pets are quite happy with the customizing, so I won’t stop. I am not saying painting your pet is bad. I’m saying that you are way easier off with customizing instead of painting your pet. I agree, some colors are nice, but you should think to yourself if it is really worth it. I myself have a baby pet, BUT I still customize it by putting on a background. I hope you liked my article, and I assure you, there will be more to come.