Neopets' New UCs & the hack that forced them 

Neopets back in 2005 was the perfect era

Honestly I'd love to see UC's come back, I just prefer the art over the current art style.

They should've just made that all neopet are "UC", but when you put clothes they change to the "standardized" pose. Simple

I wish they just let you pick whether you want the UC art or the dressup art from the beginning. I never was really begging for customization to be added to the site anyways.

Makes sense that UC conversion has existed through admin tools for a while. I would imagine that the corporate stance on no UCs is because customization was/is supposed to be the main way Neopets is monetized. Times have changed, however, and allowing users to pay for UCs would probably be a good move to reap some cash from longtime/nostalgic players.

YES YES YES JULIE DISCUSSING THE RECENT CRIMES

I never thought about it but it is true that the current UC pet trading system would not exist without a steady flow of illegitimate pets, when the conversion first happened I think most people just up and converted because it was the shiny new feature and they didn't know UCs would be so valueable

I remember when the big conversion happened and they were pushing the option to convert our pets “early” and my dumb 10-year old butt converted all my pets early. I had at least 3 pets at the time that would’ve been UCs if I had chilled and not done that whoops

I have so much nostalgia for UC pets. All my dream pets from when I was a kid like Faerie Pteri and Darigan Aisha had their personality stripped. If I was able to get some of those now.. it would be a reason for me to play again at age 25 and finally achieve those goals.

I kinda don’t see a reason every pet can’t have a switch that can be flipped back and forth whenever you feel like it between unconverted/converted. Then if a user feels tempted by NC stuff they can buy it and have fun, but switch back to the old look too if they ever wanna switch it up. Yet they always have an option to switch back to using nc on that pet, it just changes what portrait is shown on the side of the screen and similar. Idk why it should be as guarded as colors and things like that, it’s just a pose. I think this would keep the option open for neopets to still make money on the pets while just being a cool cosmetic option for most people, similar to any other cosmetic item that can be put on and taken off at will

As a returning casual player that was too young back then to have used neopets when UC was the thing, deciding to return and seeing all this drama has been such a harmless fun. (I'm honestly far more concerned with them fixing up the website than how pets may look like in the future, but thats another issue completely) Great vid!

Questions: - if you could resolve one neopian mystery, what would it be? - will you ever do any updated neopet tier list/top 5 list? - if you could design a piece of neopets merch, what would it be? If you have neopets merch, what is your favorite item? - if Tyra had a neopet, what species?

Neopets needs to do itself a favour, dig it’s head out of the sand and realize their main audience is people in their 20s-40s playing for nostalgia reasons 😂 For real. I’m sure 2000s nostalgia is gonna come up, especially in 2020s decade. If they allowed people to make UCs again and take the censors off the board and cater to adults? Neopets shut up and take my money in that case!

Unconverted pets potentially coming back?? Finally... After all these years I will finally get my own UC plushie bori and kougra! I knew logging in every once and a while to make sure my accounts weren't hacked or purged would be worth it! (I'll still never forgive neopets for switching to the customizable layout mere weeks after I painted my baby Lupe. She lost her bandana thanks to the upgrade and I was so mad >:C )

I haven't played Neopets in like 17-18 years, and this was a very thorough and well-made explanation of the phenomenon. Well done.

I hate to curse but this sh*t is crazy as hell 😭😭 I had no clue that this happened since the redesign drove me off because the site was too difficult to navigate. Thank you for making this summary

I legitimately don't care about neopets but hearing that the site is still alive and going through controversy is hilarious. Don't be afraid of just restating articles, I'm never going to read them and I don't think all of your viewers read them either. Just give us the info and nerd out!

As a socialist, I think everyone should have the opportunity to choose. If someone is putting all that time to earn nps for a color, just let them pick what art style. This is ridiculous

i miss the UCs! I actually stopped playing because someone hacked my account with my UC faerie wocky and it broke my heart. I would love to see a way to get them back

I hope they make all the old art available tbh!! Even the basic starter one but with the old poses

Your puppy so cute sittin' there snoozin' ♥ and they've gotten so big omg

I think I might've started playing neopets right after pets were converted which I find very funny because I always viewed them as "woah, those people who have them must be so old!!!"

I first started playing neo in 2003 but I was still pretty young when conversion happened. I'm not crazy into customization, but I love to make joke pets using various wearables. UCs wouldn't be as fun to me in that regard, but they do look much nicer overall than the converted pets. I think I'd have a mix of UCs and non UCs if they allow us to make new UCs

I am shocked at these news! I never thought I'd see the day TNT would go back on their UC decisions. If I were in charge, I'd just make it a very easy and accessible option, like what you see in UC pets nowadays: a link that basically says "would you like to convert/unconvert this pet?" and a button saying "yes". No charges, no fuss. This decision would be automatic and reversible at any point; I can convert to the UC lineart in one day and go back to the new lineart on the other. I think this would make the trading community *extremely* mad though, so maybe it's not the best way of handling the situation, heheheh

"im just gonna paint my nails" YES GIVE US THE LATEST TEA SIS

if neopets actually brings back UCs, i might play the game again. i'd give them a few bucks to turn my plushie cybunny into the old art. it was my dream as a 12 year old to have a plushie cybunny (and the much loftier and more impossible dream of having a grey ixi), but i never got to make one until long after pets had been converted and it was always heart breaking to me. after they converted all the pets, my interest in playing the game tanked and i haven't really touched it since 2010.

The new neopets art is the main reason Im not interested in playing again. Also bc my account got hacked and all my hard earned flash game money was stolen in 2005. so I already stopped playing before the conversion. I love the old art so much.

Congrats on 12k! I've been quietly watching your channel for a few years, I'm really happy for you! Also this news is so shocking, it's almost impossible to explain to other people who never kept up with neopets just how absolutely wild this is lmao

i think the best case scenario for ME and for most folks who like UC's, just not enough to spend years and billions of neopoints just hoping you'd get lucky, is that they give the option in a button on the pet page. when you click it, it will show your pet in current art, and your pet in the uc art. if you click on the uc option, boom, you've got a uc overlay on your pet. that way you get the aesthetic, BUT to the people who care about making money off it, they're not ''''real'''' ucs, its just an overlay. it's been so long now i think there's genuine value in just having a uc basic color. just for the uniqueness of the pose in general.

the site is like not even useable now, i just dont understand

I only just discovered you w/ this vid, and I like your content!! I never played any browser-based pet games other than webkinz as a kid, so it's cool to peek into this world as an outsider. I'm learning so much about the culture of pet games, lol

This was a very fascinating watch! I enjoy it when you release subtitled videos or add subtitles, as I'm deaf and need them, and I enjoy virtual petsites a lot. I've been bingeing your videos lately, and I love it when you leave shots of your pets in, they're adorable! Thanks for making these videos, they're great fun!

Just got a Lutari after years of wanted one so excited if they do make a way to make UCs. The UC Lutari is beautiful.

Pretty sad how people have to hack and steal from others' accounts and just for some old virtual animals. Reminds me of other toxic trading communities like RuneScape

TWO*FACTOR*AUTHENTICATION my account got hacked into just last year and the whole ordeal would have been avoided if this had been implemented. (I was able to get back in and get my things back, but I had to pester the staff.) Immediately afterwards I found, very easily, a site where all this stuff was being sold and I was just dumbfounded--even accepting paypal and stripe and all the usual payment processors on the site.

Seeing that red aisha struck me with that 2006 nostalgia!

this is a fantastic summation of everything I try to explain to my mom when she’s trying to sleep & shes just begging me to stop tysm again queen julie also I would love to hear more about toxicity in the pc, and the ethics of uc trading with black market contributions. The thing I want most in the World is actual data about how much the trading community relies illegal pets to sustain itself. Like just how deep does it go??? How deep!!!???

a big roadblock for me going back to Neopets is the pet limit. lemme collect em bish

Also if 99% of neopet users would rather the old art why don’t they just go back to it, I would much rather the old than this customisation version tbh. It brings back old memories and makes me happy seeing stuff from when I was a kid.

Having to earn UCs through gameplay is a good idea. Personally, as a 24 y/o with stable income I wouldn't mind them being a premium feature either, but having to earn them would definitely allow them to keep the "Special" factor.

POV You're at a coffee shop watching an art video on your phone, and at the table next to your's someone is filling in her friend about some recent drama and all the related back story. You were passively eavesdropping for no other reason than being in earshot. You're so invested even though you knew nothing about this prior and probably will never engage with this information after today. Your coffee's long been empty, but you can't pry away from this story.

thank you, I was so anxious and your video made me feel super great

As someone who has been on and off of the site since the early 00s, it brings me great joy to know they're planning on bringing UCs back. The new art doesn't hold nostalgia for me like the old art does. This whole event, coupled with the incident where a staff member unconverted their own pet and then got called out on it, is just fascinating. I can't wait to see what happens next! By the way, I'm so sorry about your account and pet. That beyond sucks. :(

One thing missing from the early explanation is another controversy-- some users got preferential treatment regarding conversion. There were a number of colors that were supposed to be set aside to auto-convert, but big-name users were allowed to keep all of their pets unconverted (at their discretion). ...in fact, looking up one of them now, he had at one point converted his Darigan Eyrie and it's now unconverted again. Yeah, I'm still upset about this. What bullshit.

2 years later and now NC UCs are available for everyone, starting with darigan faerie and grey :') it's a new and more beautiful era

They don't to bring back UCs because one word: money. UCs = no Neocash being bought. Neopets is already on its last leg.

As a guy who played neopets up untill around 2009 When you said you lost an Uc Msp poogle It stinged. As a 10 years old back in 2002 I used to think these were the cooooolest.

Omg I would love a new shot at getting a mutant pet; I just never enjoyed the updated artwork for most of them!

Yo, I don't know why the youtube decided to give me the gift of this video, but YESSS OPEN YOUR EYES TNT Pets are not commodities! You've got yourself a new sub there, ma'am

Always preferred the UCs over the converted/new pet styles when it comes to the artstyle in general. The pre-conversion pets all had some personality to their poses, the converted ones are all the same and I hate them. The Hissi got their wing-arms changed into arms with hands and fingers and I HATE THEM. Hopefully Jumpstart can snuff the UC blackmarket down with this decision.

Fantastic video! Love seeing you cover this stuff. My question for a QnA would be- what single goal in a pet sim did you work hardest to achieve in your life? Do you find reaching these goals somewhat less satisfying as an adult now that you have a different perspective on the passage of time and the value of money?

I think they should monetize on pet slot itens. Put the limit to something hight like 20 pets per account, then release the pet slot itens in the nc mall. I really don't know why they didn't do this yet ?????? Meanwhile Subeta is like "hey we have a new pet for you, to celebrate y'all can now have more 50 pet slots to unlock"

I'd honestly love to see Neopets have the really old site layout with the sidebar and little ribbon banner, that aesthetic kicked ass

i really hope getting ucs won't be too expensive, i joined a few years after the conversation and there are uc neopets id love to have but the trading market intimidates me and i don't wanna grind and advertise my pets for months/years on poundchat to get the pets i want, not to mention the significant risk of either getting a stolen uc or having one of the ucs in the trading chain be flagged as stolen because its from a user the poundchat regulars don't recognize

My most customized pets ARE my unconverted ones - you can load them up with backgrounds, foregrounds, misc. items and more if the issue is money/NC Mall. The idea of removing something so universally loved and treasured on Neopets never made sense to me.

We love you Julie

I've been on and off Neopets for over 15 years now and I've resisted converting my one UC pet (plus resisted getting my account hacked, thank god) so while I could see myself trying to get a new UC when/if they release this new feature, I kinda wish my oldie /would/ get something to mark it as ~special~ for being around that long. BUT I do agree on everything you said about "trade culture" and the illegality of it all, so if it were for /not/ rewarding hacking, then yeah, I'm all for devaluating UCs altogether LOL

If we could get the old art style for our pets again, I would definitely be more interested in playing again. They could treat them like Lioden treats muties, you can still add backgrounds, image frames, etc. just not apparel (without it looking wonky)

never played neopets, but I just want to say you have a cute dog and I enjoyed watching your illustration come to life :)

aa i totally agree with you regarding how the feature should be implemented, especially considering the damage done and what TNT had claimed over the years it wouldn't be very fair to have it behind a paywall. I'm honestly really excited for this change if it ever does go through (its also partially why I'm playing again after a long break from the game, I had basically quit because it felt impossible to ever get a dream UC and a waste of time) Also congrats on 12k!! My question to you is: have you ever had ideas for your own pet sim?

My account was hacked and my unconveted Halloween Lupe was stolen. Really gutted as I had my account since I was a kid and it had sentimental value. I'd like to see the UC trade shut down

My childhood account was my full name, the password was my first name. I was 7. It was hacked. The account still exists 18 years later but I have no access to it even with my full name as the username. RIP.

I play neopets everyday and I know TNT is so hesitant to create new UC's because the neocash system is their prime source of cash. I've always dreamed of getting a UC royal girl aisha, and if they're really going to make new UC's, I think they should do this: place a converter item in the NC mall that you can buy and use ONLY ONCE. That way they can still make their precious money, and users would only be able to have one UC per account. TNT would still make money and not have to worry about not selling customizable items anymore.

Ok i can totally do videos like this while u do ur nails or even a get ready with me/story time. Thanks so much!!! So relaxing

Theyre doing this to cut down on the UC blackmarket, if they added trophies to og UCs all that would do is open up an og UC blackmarket so I don't think they're that stupid

I'm >:(!!! RU-vid didn't reccommend me your video. I forgot to click the bell and I'm upset because I wanted that timely Hot Goss!! Anyway, love the salt and I think I agree with your opinions. As someone who recently came back to Neopets (and then fell off and came back again, and so goes the cycle), the PC is just kinda the wishful thinking market for me, and it's barely even worth it to go into it. UCs, especially, are something very desired by a lot of the playerbase (myself included) and the fact that they're not widely available just creates an opening for general bad behavior, from thinking you're better to actual illegal stuff. Not that they could've predicted all of this back when computer gaming was in its tween years, but, you know, still something to evaluate nowadays since it's been a whole 10 years, and I really do hope they change their stance on UCs, and especially that you can get your Poogle back if you'd still want it! As for a question, if you're still looking for those, just a few: 1- have you read Modelland? I saw a review of it, and boy howdy, is it a trip; and 2- What are features you'd like in a "perfect petsite" for you? Breeding? Neopets-like colors with different linearts? A battledome/coliseum? Specific dailies? The second question is definitely a longer one, tho, haha, so I understand if you can't answer it. But I am genuinely curious since you know quite a bit about game design and game feel, especially from a player standpoint!

I’m not really interested in UCs anymore so whatever TNT implements, I’m just waiting to see the backlash since it will come no matter what they do 😅

I used to have a mutant zafara and a royalgirl zafara. both who never got an UC option. if I could get UC pets again I would come back asap

The fact that the very day they gave the option to covert, people have been unconverting them. I have met a ton of them personally. The black market for UC's are majority reunconversions done by players and then hide behind the guise that all these neopets are stolen. It's easier to protect their reunconversions assets from the other players. There are people that have their pets stolen which is fine by people who crack the password and birthday which is actually incredibly easy and many, many people do that which is how they sell aged accounts and sometimes they come with ucs. They purposely look for specific accounts predominantly "a long, long time ago" status. I'm going to admit I'm completely SHOCKED. that this is such a huge deal in 2021... Like what!? After nearly over a decade of players reunconverting them

The neopets blackmarket.... My favorite encounter with them was when I didnt know my ice bori ( a color pet combo that's no longer available in any way legally) was valuable and I asked the fourms if I should paint it. I got a surprising response from ppl trying to trade with me and telling me not to do it. I didn't and Im glad I didnt. But it was very surprising! I just sit here hoping no one tries to hack it though... i love she....

I'm an owner of UC pets, but i think UC vs converted should just be a toggle you can turn on and off. You like old art. Cool! you wanna customize your pet? Cool! You can switch back and forth at will. For the obvious butt hurt most UC owners would feel towards this, just give those pets a dumb trophy on their page or whatever . But i think UC and converted pets should just be something you can turn on and off depending on what you want.

I do find it interesting that people are saying they'll quit if they implement UC's back because they've spent so much money on NC. If you enjoy customizing your pet and spending money on NC, I'm sure you'd still be able to do that? If you did that because you felt "forced" due to the change, then you probably didn't really enjoy customization to begin with? If they add UCs, I still think trading would happen as people clamor for RN/RW and Cvcv/Cvvc formats. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I do find that some pets look better post-conversion rather than pre. Also, with customization, you can cross-paint to make your pet unique in a number of different ways so there is that value as well.

As someone who didn't play Neopets before 2007 and who has no vested interest in UCs today and, nay, not even any interest in customising my neopets beyond the stuff I got/found for free: I think my opinion is the *most* valid and that is that they should make another map for people to collect to unlock a new lab ray that'll give you a chance to zap your pet into a random UC once a month. Yes. That is How It Should Be Done.

My most recent hiatus from Neopets was due to my obsessing over getting a UC then realizing it was near impossible and losing interest, so I would sooo be on board for the new UC thing!!! I'd love for it to be something you still have to work for (like how getting your dream painted pet was before the inflation) but still manageable and attainable!

For the Q&A: if you could design a pet sim from scratch, what theme do you think you'd go for?

If they want to bring something fresh, not exactly focus on UCs specifically and still make money off of the concept. What they SHOULD do is allow for the unconverted art to be obtained in some way. After, on pet days they should offer an alt art version of existing colors (not just those that existed before). Stealthy, Steampunk, Zombie etc could all have 'alt art' releases. So that every time a pet day arrives, a new alt art is released a long with a new converted color. Drop the 'UC' term. These could literally be Alternative Art options. I know you said you're not big on paying for this through the mall. However, they still have to consider what this means if people have pets they aren't customizing. They would also be making money off of this trading economy.

Spill the tea sis 💅🏼💅🏼

Amazing video as usual! Q&A - do you play much video games and if so what are some of your favorites? - what YT video have you made that you are the most proud of? - what neopet species do you consider the most overrated and underrated? - what are some of your favorite YT channels?

If they brought back UC pets for everyone I would start playing again in earnest.

Congrats on 12k! Here are some questions for your Q&A: Have you seen or discussed that the Neopets homepage is "not secure" / no https? I haven't logged in for a while this reason What are you going to grad school for? What are you excited for, for your channel or games?

As a battledomer who've put up with a broken BD for 10+ years..... I'm so happy these toxic PCers are getting their comeuppance! It's about damn time. Them claiming my 3000+ HSD pet is worthless to them.. but their cheated pet is worth so much. The site was ruined when they allowed pet trading.

Im so sad I wasnt online for this haha I sure do hope they allow this... Id love to make one of my pets into a UC royalboy Acara :3

I'm honestly surprised neopets still has a community. Since they *attempted* updating the website, it's been janky and unusable. I've been learning programming and making my own pet website, and I'm like dang, either they have absolutely no coders on staff, or don't know basic programming.

I agree that I don't want to see UCs as a premium/mall feature. I'd rather see them come back as something like a new, rare faerie quest that doesn't come through cookies, a super rare lab ray zap, a super high-tier event prize, a Wheel of Extravagance R100 prize, or something like that. If they could also release some of the UCs that got auto-converted in addition to existing ones, that would be awesome!

Ooh, didn't know you were gonna do a QnA! I guess one interesting question would be; What kind of goals on these pet sim sites do you tend to flock towards the most? Collection goals? Money goals? Perhaps rare items?

OH man, so glad you made this video! I'm never on the up and up as far as neo goes, even though my account is old as dirt, lol. I took a long hiatus, but I'm back with a vengeance. As someone who still has their original account with a legit, never-left-my-account UC pet, I'd kinda like a trophy on my pet's page as a reminder that I worked really hard to get him (was my first time painting a pet, too, outside the lab ray). I remember being SO upset back in 07 when conversion struck, but my UC pet was a slight comfort to hang onto. I'd really love to have a reminder of that history attached to my baby. As for the PC, that sounds really gross, so thank you for the tip to steer clear, and sorry you had such a bummer of an experience surrounding it. I've had a couple neo-tragedies, and I know they just gut you, even with ones nowhere near the scale of losing a dream pet.

Never grew up with Neopets, but this is GOLD.

Never played Neopets but my gosh this drama disgusts me, that people would steal something so sentimentally valuable.

as someone with a legitimate UC, I don't mind if they implement a method so long as it is still rare. I really dont care about clothes. I would much rather have a cute pose than clothes. So I welcome this. I REALLY hope it WON'T be cash related. I would LOVE if there was either some process you went through with a pet, maybe story driven that is a 'quest' system to achieve in order to have the option of unconverting a pet.This should be per pet, not per account so each pet has to go through this process to be unconverted and it's not a 'one time now you can do it' situation. I am not against there being an indicator of some sort to show which went through this and which didn't, but I also am fine if they don't. I love my UC faerie ixi, and even with a new method to get UCs my thoughts on her won't change. It is an emotional attachment and I would like for us to get back to a point when people do get emotionally invested in their individual pets for who they are and the characters they create.

*Buys an unconverted pet* *Converts it*

There have been forums for years where you could buy hacked accounts with NCs on them. For a couple of bucks, you could get valuable accounts with large amounts of NP & NC + UCs. Within minutes you'd get something people would spend years on trying to achieve. I don't know how it'd affect the trading community if they'd offer an option to unconvert pets. I do believe that it only makes sense if they put it behind a paywall or create a new monetization option for UCs. I regret converting my Faerie Xwee so much. ;~;

I remember having a discussion with a friend about light sprites on FR and how they wanted the team to re-release them for a limited time (like a release on the light flight's fest. This was before the prismatic tokens and Nymphs were added) and the discussion quickly became about how it'd be a slap in the face to people who were either there for the event and got it legit, or who saved up the hundreds of thousands of gems to obtain one. I think this is applicable here aswell. There might be a case of people who got their UCs stolen can now get them back (a stance i dont agree with, but one that was avidly described to me), but also people who did genuinely think they got a legit pet. People who spent years trying to get a UC Faerie Cybunny now lose a part of that pride? IDK something, something it has the potential to plummet the value of UCs Or it could turn out like Chicken Smoothie's re-releasing list pets every Dec 18th and just create a new market for "original" or "old UCs". Im not too well-versed in neopets, as i havnt played avidly since 2007 (though i have been logging in and out since 2016), so i admittedly dont know the community well.

I really hope they don't lock it behind account age, I had to make a new account because my old one got hacked and frozen :( all my work since 2008 gone

def think they should make the uc conversion thing accessible through the water faerie quests!

I was never a Neopets guy, so I don't have a lot of knowledge or personal stake here, but there is something that sticks out to me about all this. While I do agree that the UC traders shouldn't be rewarded or appeased with about identifying "original" UC's, it does seem likely to me that maybe this attention and drama about the UC converter is what inspired the Neopets team to implement a legal system for users to convert their pets. I don't know anything for certain, but it seems likely from what knowledge I have. And if this is true, of course Neopets isn't obligated by any means to reward the troublemakers who made all this possible, but it seems like if it appeases that minority and doesn't cause much backlash, they may as well give trophies, I guess.

Oh and by the way, I guess you weren't there when the high-profile users got frozen, right? I was! So here's a little story to fill in the gaps of anyone who's curious: After the whistleblower got banned and the original thread deleted, in the thread made directly after that one, bigjohnswife (you might know him as the guy who served as a catalyst for TNT removing the archaic homophobic and transphobic filters that existed up until this year) came in, claimed he had access to the link, and promised to unconvert the pets of anyone on the thread who asked. Naturally everyone was on board and the thread briefly went into a frenzy. Unsurprisingly though, John got frozen and, while the thread didn't get nuked, all his posts did. Afterwards, nanasprettypets (another user known for the stuff mentioned above) came in telling everyone that John got chain frozen, so all his accounts went down, and he didn't plan on returning to the site afterwards. Nana then started ranting about how TNT totally knew the link existed and that they actively conspired with the black market websites to keep it happening. She, unsurprisingly, also got frozen. While I personally would love to see John and Nana get unfrozen after the link is properly patched, I have to admit that I think the two were big effing clowns. John was most definitely banking on the assumption that the moderators weren't lurking around PC, because if he truly wanted to stir up chaos, he would've just released the link for the public to use. And Nana's assertion that TNT was "totes in on the conspiracy" is also ridiculous, she was just salty her friend got frozen. It was just dumb decisions built upon an equally dumb disregard for TNT (the sentiment would've made more sense back in the Viacom days, not so much now).

One of if not the biggest issue with UCs is the value of these pets. People really don't want just general painted pets, they all want UCs. The other tends to be certain names, usually RN, 3-4 letters, some mispells, ect.

“unethical actors”. or, you know, thieves?

Great video! Also please collab with the Neostalgia Podcast I would be so happy.

I remember dealing with the black market and UCs; it was atrocious to say the least. People who were buying unconverted pets were advised to stay off the PC, as it was highly likely that their pet was going to be reported for being illegitimate. But the illegitimacy of a pet is deniably wiped off if said pet is of a desirable name/color. I remember introducing a 4L (four lettered) UC Grey Grarrl to the forums and it was taken off my hand as easily as taking candy away from a baby.