Trick-or-Treating Of Halloweens Past

Trick-or-Treating Y5 (2003) to Y11 (2009):

The first 7 years or Neopian Trick-or-Treating was a simple “event”. The first Halloween to have a Trick-or-Treat bag was Year 5 (2003) when they were given out by a Random Event. The following Halloween the next Trick-or-Treat bag was sold in the Toy Shop. It wouldn’t be until Year 7’s (2005) Halloween when Neopians were tasked to look around Neopia to get their Trick-or-Treat bags; as if they were actually Trick-or-Treating! Usually only 6 bags were available to get and they were hidden in different locations from the previous year.

The Trick-or-Treat bags were different each year and gave out a different number of items depending on the bag opened. They usually gave out candy, spooky food, and Haunted Woods or Halloween related toys, gifts, and wearables; but it was rumored each bag had a small chance of giving a Halloween Paint Brush! Here are the names of the Trick-or-Treat bags throughout these years:

Trick-or-Treat Bag (Y5; 2003)

Spooky Halloween Goodie Bag (Y6; 2004)

Ghosty Trick-or-Treat Bag (Y7; 2005)

Spooky Trick-or-Treat Bag (Y8; 2006)

Scary Trick-or-Treat Bag (Y9; 2007)

Meowclops Trick-or-Treat Bag (Y10; 2008)

Cute n Creepy Trick-or-Treat Bag (Y11; 2009)

But the Trick-or-Treat bags weren’t the only treat you could get on Halloween. On the day of Halloween everyone’s Site Theme changes to the Halloween Site Theme for that day. For one minute between October 31st at 11:59 PM NST and November 1st at 12:00 AM NST if you load or refresh any page of the site you’ll be rewarded with the Halloween Site Theme (previously the Halloween Sidebar before Customisation got rid of the sidebar layout for the one we have now) to use any time you want. It’s a great Site Theme to have for the Month of Collecting (October), if you’re a fan of the Haunted Woods, or when you’re just in a spooky mood.

The Haunted Faire Y12 (2010) to Y15 (2013):

During the Month of Collecting Y12 the first Haunted Faire rolled in. It introduced us to Vandebart Biggsby and his Apple Bobbing Tent but more importantly to the Trick-or-Treating quests. For the first year there was 9 quests in total and could be separated into 2 types: Complicated Quests and Simple Quests. The 4 Complicated Quests were special quests where you went around to several characters all over Neopia and upon completion you’ll be rewarded a special item (and one of them had you receiving special items throughout the quest). However it’s the Simple Quests we’ll be focusing on as those were the ones that gave out the Trick-or-Treating bags! There were 5 Simple Quests, each based on a Neopian World, and upon completion you would get a Trick-or-Treat bag based on that world. Each bag gave out two to four items and, while they shared some items, each had their own world themed background, Negg, furniture, and book or toy you could possibly get. They were named:

Krawk Island Trick-or-Treat Bag

Lost Desert Trick-or-Treat Bag

Moltara Trick-or-Treat Bag

Mystery Island Trick-or-Treat Bag

Space Station Trick-or-Treat Bag

Next Haunted Faire brought us a few more additions. An NC Event section was added, Y13 (2011) was Haunted Hijinks and Y14 (2012) was Edolie's Phantastic Finds, but more importantly was the Masks of Dread quests. In the Masks of Dread quests we’re introduced to Saskia, a mysterious Cybunny who has created 5 mystical and terrifying masks. She asks you to have one of your Neopets put them on and go on a quest that involves showing off the mask to various character around Neopia. You did one mask a day and while the first four were similar in style to last year’s Complicated Quests, getting rewarded special items, the fifth quest was the one where you got the Trick-or-Treat bags! This year the Trick-or-Treat bags were based on the character who gave them. Like before, they rewarded two to four items with some shared and each having unique items relating to the character the bag is based on. This time around they were named:

Bonju Trick-or-Treat Bag

Gavril Trick-or-Treat Bag

Saskia Trick-or-Treat Bag

Sidney Trick-or-Treat Bag

Skarl Trick-or-Treat Bag

It was the same case next year, Saskia was back with 5 new Masks of Dread, but with a slight twist. Throughout the quests you heard about thefts being made by another masked figure that may or may not have been given the mask by Saskia. However the quests were still done the same way as the previous year except with new masks, characters, and locations. The only other notable difference would be the Trick-or-Treat bags being based on characters and locations in the Haunted Woods instead of all around Neopia. The names of these bags were:

Castle Nox Trick-or-Treat Bag

Haunted Weaponry Trick-or-Treat Bag

Magax Trick-or-Treat Bag

Prigpants Trick-or-Treat Bag

Wheel of Misfortune Trick-or-Treat Bag

Spooky Food Eating Contest:

As everyone was preparing for Halloween on October Y15 (2013), near the end of September it was revealed Neovia was having a Spooky Food Eating Contest. Four contestants ate their ways through plates of Spooky Food and we were able to cheer one on or boo against another; being rewarded prizes by the host, Spooky Shindig Society president Tippens, for our enthusiasm. There was a wide range of prizes from cheap food and plushies to expensive Paint Brushes and Morphing Potions! Our cheers and boos determined who would end up winning the Spooky Food Eating Contest on the first of the Month of Collecting.

When the contest was over everyone began going back to their daily routine... and then the winner turned into a monster. This was no accident; as it turned out the winner was always a monster in disguise and a duo of Monster Hunters, Kell and Corbin, put a potion in some of the food to reveal its true form. The potion worked too well and immediately revealed the monster in front of the audience, causing a panic and letting it get away. With your help, Kell and Corbin devised a new plan to put the monster to sleep (being rewarded as you do each step of the process) and travel through underground catacombs vaults catacombs to capture it (finding treasure as you went). As thanks for capturing the monster and taking it away (Kell and Corbin secretly taking it back to its worried parents, the monster being just a mischievous child), Tippens awarded everyone who helped with final prizes. The final prizes, as well as the items given out throughout the event, were meant to be the replacement for the Trick-or-Treating bags for that year.

Back To Basics:

Not many players were happy with not only no Trick-or-Treating bags but also how the prizes were rewarded for the Spooky Food Eating Contest. In a Neopian Times Editorial it was said next year TNT would try bringing back Trick-or-Treating in some form but they didn’t promise in what way. That was also the year when Neopets was purchased by JumpStart and TNT had to move the servers. Due to this move TNT didn’t have a lot of time to plan a big Trick-or-Treating event, not even a Haunted Faire, but they still wanted to do something for Halloween. And so for Halloween Y16 (2014) we come full circle as we returned to the old way of Trick-or-Treating by just exploring around Neopia until we found the five Trick-or-Treat bags.

The Y16 Trick-or-Treat bags have shared and unique prizes like previous years; you getting one to four items opening a bag this time. The unique items are varied like usual, but they all had one prize being a book you could possibly get. However there is one noteworthy bag and that’s the one from Krawk Island, Little Nippers Trick-or-Treat Bag. It’s the rarest and most expensive bag because it contains a rare stamp that’s only obtainable by opening it. All the other Y16 Trick-or-Treating bags can be found on the Shop Wizard. The names of these bags:

Igloo Garage Sale Trick-or-Treat Bag

Little Nippers Trick-or-Treat Bag

Spooky Furniture Trick-or-Treat Bag

Tyrannian Weaponry Trick-or-Treat Bag

Y16 Halloween Faerieland Trick-or-Treat Bag

So what will this year’s Halloween bring? Will we see the return of the Haunted Faire and the Masks of Dread? Will we be sticking with globe-trotting around Neopia to find where the Trick-or-Treat bags have been hidden? Will there be one bag we get multiples of or will they be unique to the character or place that handed them out? And what would they contain this year? And this is all assuming there will be Trick-or-Treating this year. We can only wait and see, but whatever is done let’s remember to have fun and stay safe!