thoughts on the wretched wocky? (some of the unconverted ones like the darigan wocky look so good but that blank unappealing not-quite-smile of the regular wockies makes me so, so angry for some reason. theyre looking at me the wrong way and im taking it personally)
I feel like Wockies have always had a bit of a problem standing out, as they are very plain Neopets—they don't really have a unique "hook". Dozens of Neopets have manes and fluffy tails, and Aishas have you covered if you're looking for something cat-like.
That said, I would argue that Wockies at least stand out in their stocky, incredibly fluffy body shape. If Aishas are house cats, then Wockies are basically Pallas Cats, only they hate the world slightly less. (They're also the most huggable Neopet, and I stand by this.)
Visually, they're super simple; just a chunky body with a mane to break things up a bit. I do have to state that I really don't care for the pink manes on the base colors though—I guess they were trying to match the ears/nose, but it looks a bit clashy (especially on red Wockies) and the brown eyes only worsen this. I think a darker/lighter tint of the base color or a neutral would've worked better there. Thankfully this is solely a problem with the base colors though, as most paint jobs have a more fitting mane color.
Of course, I can't talk about Wockies without talking about customization:
I'd argue that Wockies were one of the worst species conversions out there. At a glance, they look similar—until you notice that, inexplicable, the entire face completely changed. The rectangular eyes and awful thick eyebrows look so much worse than the original design. (Also, the feet are too pronounced on the converted design, but that's beside the point.) And what's weird is that there was literally no reason for this change, and it in no way relates to the actual conversion requirements—the artist seemingly just woke up one day and decided that they really, really hated Wockies. An absolute shame.
Elderly: This color combo literally just came out last month, but it's already a standout for me. These guys have a really charming elderly cat look, complete with slightly ruffled fur, Siamese and tabby markings respectively, and a folded ear on the males. The clothes are also, for the most part, nice neutral colors (though I find the female's hair curlers jarring, especially due to how the eyebrows clip over them. They can be removed though so no worries there). What's also great is that the base colors are lovely in and of themselves if the clothing doesn't do it for you.
Darigan: I have to give the Darigan Wocky points for one simple reason: it's one of the only converted Wocky colors that fixes the godforsaken rectangle eyes, which already makes it look better than a lot of Wockies. Beyond that though it's also a pretty solid color all around. I'm usually more of a purple Darigan person, but the red does work here, the giant horns are fun, and the mottled markings a nice touch. The UC has a wonderfully grumpy personality, but the converted version sticks to the design pretty perfectly otherwise.
Plushie: I feel like Plushie Wockies manage to make the original pink manes work, mostly because they're using a nice salmon pink combined with a more neutral blue, and they also made the eyes pink instead of having them be brown for no reason. The UC has a super cute body shape, but even the converted version still retains some very nice colors and patterns (though it does low-key bug me that the stitch line isn't properly centered on the face). Good stuff!
