This is an article I plan to submit to the Neopian Times once I have made some improvments
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Equality For Lennies
I have strong views about some of the Neopets who reside in Neopia. Take the Uni, for instance. This was a beautiful creature, one of the most popular pets, and looked just perfect the way she was. But someone decided it would be a good idea to change her appearance. I don't think this was really necessary. Now look at the lonely Lenny- the most unpopular pet of the lot, disregarding the limited edition ones.
So why isn't it the poor Lenny who is getting the makeover? Don't get me wrong, personally I think the Lenny is dead cute, but I seem to be one of the only few who actually think that.
It seems to me that the artists are playing favouritism among the pets. Notice how the toys they bring out are also centred around the most popular pets- the Scorchio, the Aisha, the Kougra. I don't know about you, but I would certainly prefer to buy the plushie version of one of my favourite pets, like the Moehog or the Flotsam. It's getting dull having all the new releases centred around the same pets all the time. I also happen to think a real-life plushie of the Lenny would look rather good, and I would have no doubts about buying one.
Questioning why the Lenny is being ignored has so far got me nowhere. Nobody seems to have the same feelings that I do for this creature, and I'm beginning to think that if the poor Lenny disappeared completely from Neopia, then nobody would even notice.
And to return to my original point about appearances, did you know that there are only eight different colours (apart from the four basic ones) that you can paint your Lenny, should you happen to own one? If you have a Shoyru, though, there are twenty-three other choices of colour, not including red, yellow, green and blue. Why don't we see a Rainbow Lenny, a Plushie Lenny, or a Halloween Lenny? How is it that we see the same pets getting all the good colour combinations again and again? The Tuskaninny is the second most unpopular (non-limited edition) pet, and if you can get hold of the right brushes, you can paint it ten different colours. That's two more than the hated Lenny, and if you take a look I'm certain you will agree that they are also far nicer choices- like Robot, Rainbow and Starry.
So what does the Lenny have, if not popularity? I had a little tour of Neopia, and the only thing I could find which gives the Lenny some fame is the Lenny Conundrum. I went to the chat boards, to find out what people's real opinions on the Lenny are. Some answers I got were; 'It's kinda funny looking" and "It's not as cute as the other pets." Ugly was a word which cropped up many times, and one Neopian announced that they only had one because of the lab ray, then proceeded to complain about it. Only one person confessed to actually liking the Lenny.
There was also a recent poll, which posed the question: "Should we change the look of the Lenny?" and whilst 357,935 people said no way, this result was beaten by 499,291 people who think that the Lenny is indeed rather ugly. (For those of you who have problems with your mathematics, I can tell you that "Yes, change it" won by 141,356 votes.) So does the Lenny get a makeover to achieve the popularity it deserves? No. the already popular Uni gets one instead. How is this fair for the poor bird?
Why not give the Lenny a couple more paintbrushes- what would be the harm? Why not bring out some more Lenny plushies, or a new line of food?
Please Neopets- let's stop this unfair treatment and give the Lenny his chance to shine!
******
Equality For Lennies
I have strong views about some of the Neopets who reside in Neopia. Take the Uni, for instance. This was a beautiful creature, one of the most popular pets, and looked just perfect the way she was. But someone decided it would be a good idea to change her appearance. I don't think this was really necessary. Now look at the lonely Lenny- the most unpopular pet of the lot, disregarding the limited edition ones.
So why isn't it the poor Lenny who is getting the makeover? Don't get me wrong, personally I think the Lenny is dead cute, but I seem to be one of the only few who actually think that.
It seems to me that the artists are playing favouritism among the pets. Notice how the toys they bring out are also centred around the most popular pets- the Scorchio, the Aisha, the Kougra. I don't know about you, but I would certainly prefer to buy the plushie version of one of my favourite pets, like the Moehog or the Flotsam. It's getting dull having all the new releases centred around the same pets all the time. I also happen to think a real-life plushie of the Lenny would look rather good, and I would have no doubts about buying one.
Questioning why the Lenny is being ignored has so far got me nowhere. Nobody seems to have the same feelings that I do for this creature, and I'm beginning to think that if the poor Lenny disappeared completely from Neopia, then nobody would even notice.
And to return to my original point about appearances, did you know that there are only eight different colours (apart from the four basic ones) that you can paint your Lenny, should you happen to own one? If you have a Shoyru, though, there are twenty-three other choices of colour, not including red, yellow, green and blue. Why don't we see a Rainbow Lenny, a Plushie Lenny, or a Halloween Lenny? How is it that we see the same pets getting all the good colour combinations again and again? The Tuskaninny is the second most unpopular (non-limited edition) pet, and if you can get hold of the right brushes, you can paint it ten different colours. That's two more than the hated Lenny, and if you take a look I'm certain you will agree that they are also far nicer choices- like Robot, Rainbow and Starry.
So what does the Lenny have, if not popularity? I had a little tour of Neopia, and the only thing I could find which gives the Lenny some fame is the Lenny Conundrum. I went to the chat boards, to find out what people's real opinions on the Lenny are. Some answers I got were; 'It's kinda funny looking" and "It's not as cute as the other pets." Ugly was a word which cropped up many times, and one Neopian announced that they only had one because of the lab ray, then proceeded to complain about it. Only one person confessed to actually liking the Lenny.
There was also a recent poll, which posed the question: "Should we change the look of the Lenny?" and whilst 357,935 people said no way, this result was beaten by 499,291 people who think that the Lenny is indeed rather ugly. (For those of you who have problems with your mathematics, I can tell you that "Yes, change it" won by 141,356 votes.) So does the Lenny get a makeover to achieve the popularity it deserves? No. the already popular Uni gets one instead. How is this fair for the poor bird?
Why not give the Lenny a couple more paintbrushes- what would be the harm? Why not bring out some more Lenny plushies, or a new line of food?
Please Neopets- let's stop this unfair treatment and give the Lenny his chance to shine!