The first time I felt like I was actually part of this community was before I started hunting for collectibles and before I started making art; it was when I decided to enlist the help of fellow TBT-folk in an attempt to create a furniture catalog island in ACNH. To this day, my browser still automatically directs me to the Nook's Cranny sub-forum when I head for TBT. I remember painstakingly flattening my island and migrating flowers and sorting through my own catalog to see what I could offer each day. With help from @/Firesquids and @/Rairu and several others, I was able to coordinate and complete the catalog island in about 2 weeks with a daily schedule of morning trades. I had already been out of a job for several months and struggling to feel useful and accomplished in something. This project helped to inject some meaning into my quarantine life.
I have always wanted art of my island-- there are some amazing map illustrations out there! I used mainly my in-game screenshots and old notes and spreadsheets for this image:
dedicated to the last TBTWC event which was both equally stressful and fun. i decided to make a switch themed after my favorite shiny pokemon, sylveon, as a tribute to the shiny hunt event plus i've always wanted a white/pastel themed switch don't mind that having bows on your screen would be so impractical
the squirtle sticker is a reference to the awesome squirtle squad
While I have tons of great memories here on tbt, this one is one of my favorites! Imagine being utterly unable to do something, and then suddenly you find you can.
Mirrors are one of my least favorite events. I really struggle with mirrors. Sometimes I feel super slow when tons of people are like - yay, thanks for giving us an easy mirror! And I'm still totally stumped.
So I had given up on mirrors, just thinking well hey, not my thing, no worries. But then came Mysteries of the Monolith. I don't know what happened, but for the first (and last) time, I was getting mirrors right! This particular mirror was Serena. The reward for being the first correct answer was the enchanted bloom collectible (which i love, and am sorry to have mangled it in my pic, lol).
After that amazing, unforgettable experience, I'm back to being stumped by mirrors.
One of my favourite memories over all my years of TBT are the mirror puzzles. I've always found them extremely fun to try and solve, and are one of the kinds of events that you can put in a lot of time and effort into solving without actually having to create anything, which is an aspect I always enjoyed, even when they are.. painstakingly difficult. So, in tribute to all the mirrors over the years, I have made my own! See if you can guess who this Nintendo character is! I don't think this one should be too hard. Here's hoping for more mirrors in the future!
One of my favorite memories is back when we had groups and thanks to a lot of people's help I got to purchase a group add-on and created Team Popsicle! I loved the popsicle collectible so much and it was one of my favorite line ups for the longest time until I found my current one. <3
I had a ton of fun events in the group and it was just an incredible time when I had more free time to hang out here. But now adult life HAHA!
Honestly there are so many wonderful memories within these forums that it would be impossible for me to put them all on the same page without it seeming convoluted. I joined the forums in 2017 simply to trade to complete home ideas that were spinning around in my head. There were so many wonderful members that helped me out. I even had a question unrelated to trading that I needed help with and I think it was Pyoopi that gave me the best solution. I still remember that all these years later because it really helped me out when I was at a dead-end with some design idea.
There was the launch of New Horizon, the hype, discussing the 'monthly' updates which sometimes was disappointing/lukewarm, but it was still great to have a wonderful community to discuss it with. All of the fun team events and the camaraderie and the regular events. The staff puts a lot of heart into each. All of the fun game nights and everyone sharing their beautiful art. There's just so many good memories that it's kind of hard to pinpoint an ultimate one.
But I decided to choose my entry based off of the Farewell to New Leaf event. I'm not sure if this is the 'best' memory, but I really enjoyed that there was an event to say goodbye to New Leaf as Nintendo shut down their servers. It was bittersweet and a great way to give one last hurrah to a game I really loved and still do. New Horizon for me hasn't quite drawn me in or have I felt the same 'magic' that New Leaf gave.
I didn't get the game right away. I had gotten burnout from Animal Crossing games. I came across a commercial on Disney where some kid hosts talked about the game and how 'we're the mayor' and can do a lot of things that we couldn't in the previous games. That really interested me and I got it for Christmas. I got it in the later years of the New Leaf era and I also met a group of friends during a very trying time of my life where so much was changing and I didn't really have many outlets.
I really enjoyed my time with them and they inspired me to design my town and homes into works that I am very proud of. Some of them are based on stories that I've wrote or am still writing to this day. Sometimes the part of the town or some room was a concept of what one of the character's home or town looked like or a certain moment in the story. But I never got to share it with them even though I really wanted to because they changed. Or maybe I held onto a dying friendship that was never there because my life was turning upside down. Either way I slowly stopped playing New Leaf because of the negative memories it brought about how things turned out. So I was really on the fence about sharing my DA and my town because of those memories, but the event really helped to be the final push to remove these people from my life. So to all of the staff, thank you for this task and the entire event. It was very therapeutic and made me remember how much I loved New Leaf in the first place.
This is based off of the Adieu to Hellish Homes task that I was really excited to show off.
I'm not really sure if anyone really got what I was trying to do with the one room full of chickens (if you saw my submission) But the idea was that it's a decommissioned school-bus turned into a chicken coop. Which is what I used the seats for to give it the allusion of school-seats. And also Kapp'ns school-bus model in the corner. The story is based on a post-apocalyptic world.
I also added the balloons for the silver task (that was fun!), the heart I was gifted by Mr.Fox because it was such a nice and sweet surprise! and the HHA wanted poster because Pyoopi, Nef, and Mistriel are wanted for crimes of some sort in this post-apocalyptic world. You be the judge of that.
My favorite memory from my time on TBT is writing on Island Journals back in 2020. That was the first time I ever shared my love for this game -- which I've played since I was a kid -- with a lot of other people, and I don't think I could've ever predicted how much that would mean to me.
In what was probably the loneliest year of a lot of our lives, it felt so warm and cozy being with everybody there. Catching up, having a laugh, being so impressed by the creativity in everyone's writing, how each island felt like it had so much character and uniqueness. I'll never forget reading about Elysium, Verdure, Tansan, Littlestar, Mapplewood, Axolotl, Pawtucket, there were so many.
Hope everyone is doing well out there! Thank you for all the kindness, it was a good time.
Ah yes, spending my middle school nights on TBT on my ipad with acnl on my 3ds until I crashed asleep soundly...
While I still do make great memories with TBT now, it was an even great part of my younger, formative years of life! I'd be bored in bed staying up late, trading, making threads, talking to friends over vms, pms, chatzy, and IRC, etc. Some nights I'd even 'compete' with others to have the most posts around midnight (I believe this feature is gone now, but at the bottom of the main page it would show who had the most posts and how many for the day?)! I've made so many friends over the years, developed a love for art, and was honestly just raised on this site and community. Nothing beats TBT when I was 11-14, the most involved I've ever been with anywhere in my life, surrounded by friends all over- being cringe and having fun for the love of the game. Thank you for all the memories, TBT! I'm glad that, even over a decade after I joined, you're still lively and up and running.
I have a lot of beautiful memories here on TBT -- such as preparing and managing New Horizons information and help threads every time a new update drops for the game. Or even being able to establish an easily recognizable NH avatar.
But the ones that really made an imprint on me were the team flags. It's been an honor to be chosen as the one to represent a part of the community through my flag designs, specifically Froggy Chairs, Melon Ballers, and Ha-Cha! Alas, I may not have been picked for Galaxolotls, but my little alien axolotl gremlin captured hearts of my fellow teammates. So it's still a win for team representation!
For my piece, I took elements from each one and arranged them all together to make my "Flag of Memories". Thank you TBT for all the wonderful memories. Here's looking forward to creating more.
I have many fond memories with TBT but one of my favourites was while hosting a Celeste event on my island.
Celeste appeared at the shrine, a perfectly secluded area to keep her in place so TBT members can come in and get their recipes, with the bonus of a nice view. ^^
Screenshot taken from my switch (mask indicating it was during pandemic times)
I really struggled with this one.
Since I decided not to use the balloons in my invitation, the only idea I had was to include them in my memories entry. Because I had so many different ideas and so many memories that I would have loved to showcase all of them in a collage type of way, but I knew there was no way I would have enough time to do them all on one canvas. I am mainly showcasing the recent farewell to New Leaf event because as I said before on numerous posts during that event I was bombarded with nostalgia. New Leaf brought me to TBT in September 2013 & I’ve met so many wonderful people on this site. I do really love getting to work together as a team so I wanted to represent the street pass silver event with the balloons, which I did with colored pencils and then cut out. I painstakingly painted those letters on and then of course had to add a little more of the silver bling with glitter, along with their strings being silver to represent the street pass silver. Another part of the event of course had been hellish homes where we had to go get judged ha ha ha via dream so I put in (but from new horizons because it’s just so beautiful) the intro into dreamland. I also put in my rep wishing on a star instead of the rep on the bed and the reason behind this is because I know a lot of people get a little discouraged with raffles because they don’t think the odds will ever be in their favor. In case y’all didn’t know, I was devastated by not getting the shooting star collectible via staff fav that fair, which at the time and still to this day is my favorite animated collectible, I entered that raffle with three spare tickets and won it! So above me in different areas in the sky are three shooting stars to represent the three wishes that I made on those raffle tickets that netted me the shooting star animated collectible. So never give hope, guys, and Thank
You TBT for all the beautiful memories!
One of my favorite memories was when I scared @FraudulentDimetrodon with my freaky fish profile picture I was so excited when i finally got the opportunity I was waiting for.
I really struggled with this one.
Since I decided not to use the balloons in my invitation, the only idea I had was to include them in my memories entry. Because I had so many different ideas and so many memories that I would have loved to showcase all of them in a collage type of way, but I knew there was no way I would have enough time to do them all on one canvas. I am mainly showcasing the recent farewell to New Leaf event because as I said before on numerous posts during that event I was bombarded with nostalgia. New Leaf brought me to TBT in September 2013 & I’ve met so many wonderful people on this site. I do really love getting to work together as a team so I wanted to represent the street pass silver event with the balloons, which I did with colored pencils and then cut out. I painstakingly painted those letters on and then of course had to add a little more of the silver bling with glitter, along with their strings being silver to represent the street pass silver. Another part of the event of course had been hellish homes where we had to go get judged ha ha ha via dream so I put in (but from new horizons because it’s just so beautiful) the intro into dreamland. I also put in my rep wishing on a star instead of the rep on the bed and the reason behind this is because I know a lot of people get a little discouraged with raffles because they don’t think the odds will ever be in their favor. In case y’all didn’t know, I was devastated by not getting the shooting star collectible via staff fav that fair, which at the time and still to this day is my favorite animated collectible, I entered that raffle with three spare tickets and won it! So above me in different areas in the sky are three shooting stars to represent the three wishes that I made on those raffle tickets that netted me the shooting star animated collectible. So never give hope, guys, and Thank
You TBT for all the beautiful memories! View attachment 579973
This is SOOOO Beautiful … I love everything about it! I can’t say enough about how it makes me feel so nostalgic … *sigh*
That little wishing face though!!
This is SOOOO Beautiful … I love everything about it! I can’t say enough about how it makes me feel so nostalgic … *sigh*
That little wishing face though!!
Procrastinated on this one so hard because I don't have one single very favorite TBT memory..
I have too many favorite TBT memories!
- Love sending out Lights every year for Xmas
- Loved baking a Yule Log (and Kransekake, not pictured) for Holiday Hundred Hunt (Christmas 2023)
- Enjoyed writing and drawing for my island journal during the New Year New Horizons event. I had always wanted to make a lot of lore for my island and make it into a cool island journal... which I know I keep saying I will finish and some day I will
- Having one of my comments become an Easter egg!
- Winning a Galaxy egg from the 2023 Easter Egg Decorating contest.. never thought I would be able to get my internet hands on one
- Celebrating the Crab Clock (and ACNL) in Farewell to New Leaf
- SPACE CAMP, the alien plush, Galaxolotls!!!!!!
- Winning a Love Potion in the 2022 Valentine's Art Contest - Traditional Art Category.. that is still one of my most favorite paintings I've ever done
- Being part of the Poliwags in the 2021 Camp Bell Tree event!
- All the art I've had done of my lil alien side character; TBT has so many amazing artists
- Nyan Cat = 2024 April Fool's event, Turnip = 2023 April Fool's event... both very fun events in which I acted a fool
- Red Star Frag symbolizing my first TBT Fair (2020)!
- Graham symbolizing this years' TBT Fair
Wish I could have included more stuff, especially for Halloween and the 2022 Bell Tree Fair and like a ton of other things
This took me too long to make this, but here's my entry!
Oh, TBT. Where should I begin? Despite knowing the forums as far back as 2015 (most likely through looking up AC fan art), it wasn't until on July 5, 2018 that I got around to joining. I didn't have a lot of memories during the first couple of years, but I do remember already being friends with @/Midoriya not too long after I joined. New Leaf was still the latest AC game at the time, so I interacted with a few other users here and there before I wasn't active as much from 2019 until early 2020 as New Horizons was getting close to release.
Blue from Blue's Clues - 2021 The Bell Tree World Championship
In 2021, I participated in my first ever major forum event which was 2021 TBTWC. The timing couldn't have been better as I had an online membership for the Switch at the time, meaning I got to participate and spectate in some gaming matches whenever I could. As you could tell with Blue peeking out from the town plaza tree, I was on team Blue's Clues. The other teams taking part were the Froggy Chairs, Jolly Redds, and the Bellflowers. My team came in last at 4th place, but that doesn't matter. Having a fierce rivalry with @/_daringred (she was on Jolly Redds if I'm not wrong) in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe competitive sessions, and making daily cheers almost daily throughout the duration of the event absolutely outweighed the last place finish. I also made a few more friends along the way. @/Midoriya was on the same team as me which was already awesome to begin with. Then I eventually became friends with @/Roxxy and @/xSuperMario64x who both were also on the same team as me, so you could say that we got a squad going! On a side note, this would be the only team event where all my aforementioned friends would be on the same team as me and would be split up ever since. In fact, it seems like rng has tried its hardest NOT to have me team up with one of them at the very least lol. The amount of points I gained in this event was 170 points!
Poliwag from Pokémon - 2021 Camp TBT
Later that same year during summer, the staff organized a Camp TBT event for the first time ever. There were three different areas that teams were split up into tasking us with a variety of activities. Because my team started in the ocean area, we came up with ideas relating to ocean stuff until we ultimately came to a conclusion of naming ourselves the Poliwags, therefore making it my second time being on a team that's blue! If memory serves me correctly, there were also the Evergreens, Buzzy Bees, the Melon Ballers, and the Crystal Ballers. How two teams got "Ballers" in their name I don't know lol. One of the vivid memories I had from this event was trying to brute force our way through solving this wildlife spotting clue that may give some people flashbacks: "The irregular bearer appears regularly if you know where to look". My goodness, it literally took us days while we were able to breeze through the other clues that came after. I legit had dreams trying to find answers to no avail. Eventually, we did figure it out which had something to do with changing up email preferences where we would then find that wild animal in the said email. I earned 345 points in this event. And because of the two major team events I participated in at the time, I have gathered 515 points overall. Sound familiar? Yes, that's how the 515 part in my username came to be! I already considered these two events to be the best ones I took part in, so I wanted some form of reminder whenever I go around in the forums.
Five animal villagers from 2022 Celebrating Diversity
The Celebrating Diversity events is one the events I look forward to the most. In the 2022 edition, participants were given a prompt to draw an animal villager representing themselves (inb4 someone says we're drawing fursonas lol), including what kind of personality they have, favourite K.K. song, favourite coffee, etc. Even to this day, I still think about it every now and then remembering the various villager designs! From left to right, I drew Sterling the Silver Fox who represents @/xSuperMario64x, Kodie the kangaroo joey who represents @/Alex10, Pag-asa the Philippine Eagle who represents myself, Kylie the kangaroo mother who represents @/Roxxy, and Tazan the Tasmanian Devil who represents @/Midoriya! They're all wearing something out of a fairytale story which I'll get into the next section. And if you look closely, they all have a blue pawprint on their cheek.
2022 TBT Fair - Enchanted Forest
I really loved the theme for this fair. Being all magical and mysterious, it felt like being in a fairytale story which is explained by the aesthetic of the aforementioned animal villagers! Oh, and that activity where we got to caption images of gnomes in different places and making funny quotes. Anyway, one of the memories I made during the event was when I won a staff favourite for the whimsical wardrobe activity, giving me the enchanted bloom as a result! I was really, really surprised because all I did was literally cosplay as Steve from Blue's Clues while Blue herself has already skiddooed into a book. Considering team Blue's Clues came in last during 2021 TBTWC, I'd like to think of holding it up for the whole team to make up for the last place finish.
There were some collectibles I bought with the bluebird of happiness being one of them. You may notice that Sterling the Silver Fox is holding one in his hands. Why? Because at the same time which is totally unrelated to Animal Crossing, I was making a car livery in Gran Turismo 7 that initially started waaaaaay back in March of that year and finished it as the event was wrapping up. He'll most likely never play the said game since he never owned it in the first place, but I can! Long story short, those dozens of hours really strengthened our friendship and understanding for each other along the way (and slowly but surely improving my drawing skills as a result). When he was looking to buy the aforementioned plush since he was a few tickets short from buying one, I decided to gift one to him to signify our strengthened friendship.
Galaxolotol - 2023 (Space) Camp TBT
Ah yes. Space. The event that @/Mick absolutely loved given the theme. We were on the Lopez split up into four teams. Being on the Galaxolotls, others were on Space Cetaceans, Moon Bunnies, and the Actually, Neverminders (yes, it really did become a team name lol). Admittedly, I don't have too many memories from this event as I was busy with work at the time and trying my best to participate in activities whenever I can. Though, I do remember the latter stages of the event where some people were turning green. Some were afraid, some embraced it... This makes it the third time I've been on a team that remotely has the colour blue.
Squirtle from Pokémon - 2024 The Bell Tree World Championship
At the beginning of 2024 and reading through the Bell Tree Direct, I was so happy to see TBTWC was returning once again after three years as I enjoyed the first one so much. After its long absence, I thought that the staff would never bring it back, but they did! I was on the Squirtle Squad facing against the likes of the Yoshi Islanders, Poyo Puffs, and the Ha-Chas! I was pleasantly surprised that my team ended up winning since my previous team in 2021 TBTWC event came in dead last. But that's not the point here. The point is, I've made even more memories during the event participating in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sessions both friendlies and competitive. I remember @/IonicKarma (who was on Yoshi Islanders!) being my fierce rival for those 12 races in which I want to say, she's a great racer and gave me a run for my bells! Other main highlights were playing Among Us and chasing down @/Xara while I was seeking and sparing her life for the entire match, and the hide and seek sessions over in New Horizons!
Town Plaza Tree - Farewell to New Leaf
Since New Leaf was the first Animal Crossing game I've played back in 2015, I chose the town plaza tree as my setting to invoke some nostalgia. Not only that, but also because of the Farewell to New Leaf event that happened earlier in 2024. It also took part when the online servers for the 3ds and Wii U were almost about to wrap up, so it truly did feel like a farewell knowing that we wouldn't be able play with each other online in New Leaf anymore. Since the game is over 10 years at this point, it felt a bit surreal that a major TBT event was focused around it in this day and age. Regardless, I really made the most of that event.
Okay, but it's amazing how I've been on a team that's remotely blue on all four major team events. I don't know anyone else whose been in the same situation as me and if there is, I'd love to know! The closest person to achieve this was @/amemome who was on Blue's Clues, Poliwags, and Galaxolotls before ending up on a non-blue team for 2024 TBTWC if I'm not wrong. Also, if I had a nickel every time I won on a blue team that is themed around a Pokemon and a water type, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice!
I want to say thank you to TBT, the staff, and the community for the memories.
In my 4+ years in this site, I’ve made many great memories that I wanted to showcase here in a collage.
First off, I joined the forums initially to trade within New Horizons, & I have encountered many kind hearted members that have helped me along my Animal Crossing journey.
In my obsession while playing New Leaf, I remember receiving free items from the generous @Liz!, so much so, that once I fell asleep IRL with my in game town train station open! (bottom, center of picture)
Along with my in game collections growing from help of fellow forum members, my amiibo card collection was also growing from wonderful trades, especially from large lots with the lovely @jadetine. (bottom, left of picture) I’m glad to have found trustworthy people to trade real life items with.
And since I don’t understand pixel size, & am not very creative, I’ve had the majority of my signatures completed by the bright & talented @Mr_Keroppi, whose positivity has helped me through the years. (bottom, right of picture)
Then in my time here on the forums, I’ve also been able to participate in quite a few fairs & holiday events. And from those, I’ve been lucky enough to win a couple of collectible raffles. I won my Cool Feather from Day 2 of the 12 Days of Collectibles raffle from Dec 2023 (top, left). I won a Red Fragment from the Luck of the Dragon event from February of this year, which has also become one of my favorite seasonal events on this site (top, right).
But my luckiest collectible win was definitely during the 2022 TBT Fair, where I surprisingly won an entire Mushroom Lamp Set! (top, center) I have kept all of these collectibles, except one that I traded away (which is the Death Angel Mushroom Lamp, so hence, the smaller picture).
One of the best memories I had though was getting a Staff Favorite nomination in the Flickering Fiends event in last year’s TBT Haunted Carnival. I’ve never ever been picked before, as there are so many talented artists in this forum, so I was happily shocked & grateful. The Sinister Lantern collectible featured in the center of my picture, is my highly prized collectible that I’ll be proud to display during the spooky season every year! The Halloween candy surrounding my picture is a nod to my entry that got the staff fav, which was a boxy pumpkin pail filled with yummy goodies & treats.
And to commemorate the forum’s anniversary celebration, (& the gradient balloon collectibles that came with this fair), I’ve made the initials be balloons colored in the style of my 3 favorite ones from this event: Cool, Rainbow, & Glam.
This was a long one, but I wanted to explain it all. This forum surely holds a special place in my heart, & I’m super appreciative of all the hard work & dedication the super staff here give towards every event & pixel they lovingly share towards us members. With much love, Happy 20th Anniversary TBT, & here’s to many years more!
The memory I decided to draw was ‘finding’ the heart of the forest in the bell tree fair of 2022. I won second place in the Behind the Bookcase design a grimoire event, and I was super excited to take part. Earning a nomination was special enough, I never thought I’d place so high! It’s absolutely my most treasured collectible, and that fair will always hold a special place in my heart
I'm no artist, but I drew my character with the sinister lantern collectible. : ) I'm pretty sure I got "branded puffin" for my prompt for the Halloween event in 2023 (or something along those lines). I had this one idea in my head and I thought it was dumb, but my sister @Chere. encouraged me to draw it. I submitted not thinking anything of it because I just enter things for fun. I remember my sister coming to me at some point telling me I won a staff favourite for my puffin and I couldn't believe it. :' ) I still think it's bad and could be better, but it's cool to know that other people liked it.
The reward for being the first correct answer was the enchanted bloom collectible (which i love, and am sorry to have mangled it in my pic, lol). 
I don't think this one should be too hard. Here's hoping for more mirrors in the future!
I really struggled with this one.
I was so excited when i finally got the opportunity I was waiting for.
