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Customisation Spotlight Changes Discovered!

Posted by noileh on July 29, 2026, 6:00 pm NST

A new FAQ was discovered today, which appears to tease the upcoming changes to the Customisation Spotlight that were previously announced in late February.

TNT has not made a statement today about these changes, so it's not clear when they will take effect. However, new contests typically start on Mondays, so it's possible that we could see these changes implemented as early as next Monday, August 3rd.


To start, there will now be a monthly themed contest in addition to the weekly contests. Monthly contests will either pitch a theme such as "a day at the beach" or have an item-centered theme, in which a specific set of items will be displayed and users must make a customisation using at least one of the items. Item-centered themes will have different requirements for each category (i.e. a set of NP items for NP customisations, and a set of NC items for NC customisations).

Both contests (monthly and weekly) will also feature a new category for submissions: Styling Studio. This will be separate from the current "Neopoint" and "Neocash" categories and be specifically for pets wearing a pet style.

Users will be allowed to enter 2 pets in each monthly contest, and 2 pets in each weekly contest. Pets will not be allowed to be entered in the weekly and monthly contests simultaneously.


The next change is a big one—prizes will be added! All contest winners (weekly and monthly) will receive an avatar, in addition to the existing trophy that goes on your pet's lookup. Winners of the new monthly contest will receive an item prize as well. Winners of the Neopoint category will receive an openable goodie bag of some sort, and winners of the Neocash and Styling Studio categories will receive a new type of NC capsule. The weekly contest will not award item prizes.

Because of the addition of prizes, you will no longer be allowed to participate on side accounts. Even though the item prizes are only tied to the monthly contest, the FAQ gives a firm "no" regarding side account participation across the board.


And finally, voting will be restructured. Instead of voting on a single pet on a scale from 1 to 10, you will be shown 2 pets at the same time and asked to pick your favourite. Both options will be from the same category (NP, NC, or SS) for fairness. It's not clear if they will expand the number of votes you can cast per day, which is currently capped at 100.

The FAQ also suggests that the winners will be determined purely based on community voting, with TNT only stepping in to investigate misuse or abuse. In the current contest, voting is used to select the top pets, but members of TNT ultimately select the final winners.


Stay tuned for a JN guide regarding this contest!

In the meantime, what do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments!
Make a Comment!

There are 37 comments below. Add yours!

I've entered the Customization Spotlight every week for years and have NEVER won. I've seen some winners that looked like copy cats or just not very good customizations. Hopefully this will be more fair and non discriminatory for those who can't afford to pay to win
by sunnshinegrrl on July 29, 2026 6:18 PM NST
the contest was recently restricted (as of march 30) to 2 pets per user (previously it was unlimited). i think that plus the removal of side accounts, and the addition of a pet styles category, should help!!!

maybe they'll make it so there are more than 3 winners too?
by noileh on July 29, 2026 6:22 PM NST JN Staff
I posted a custom on a facebook group years ago and next week someone won with my custom (I didn't have the items yet), but I've never won this thing once 🥲
by brenda_bbm on July 29, 2026 6:40 PM NST
Well I got third place this week and now they add prizes super happy about these changes though
by bonju on July 29, 2026 6:50 PM NST
I think the changes are nice overall, but I wish item prizes weren't added, since so many people use side accounts for pet storage and would enter on their sides, now they will need to transfer that pet to their main just to enter... including allll the gift boxes if it's an NC wearables pet? Blah! That's a really big detriment to a lot of creativity, especially since a lot of Mutants, Babies, and Maraquan pets have to rely on NC items for any customization variety, as there simply isn't enough NP item diversity.

Maybe they could make a special paint submission category- they're doing it for Style Tokens and they have unique capsules with just those paint brush colors in mind, so potentially it's not too far off an idea? They'd probably be concerned about clutter and bloat in voting categories though.
by veeblackwell on July 29, 2026 7:19 PM NST
I love the fact they made a pet style section, because I’ve been thinking this for awhile now.. About how it was unfair to those that make such great customizations and then a pet style wins.(Not that they can’t be done well, but there is a massive difference between customizing a Neopet and using a pet style and working around it.

Also love they’re doing themes now. The item thing is interesting too, so that might spark some nice creativity! Making it so you can only enter 2 pets was already a good idea, makes it so those that didn’t get seen, might get seen. (Idk if that made sense..) ANYWAYS! I like the changes they’re doing!
by reiryokuryuu on July 29, 2026 8:01 PM NST
I've won a few times YEARS ago. Wonder if they'll award the avatar to previous winners too?
But I'm excited for the changes! I love customizing, so it'll be fun to have themed contests and such.
by _rodeo_ on July 29, 2026 8:40 PM NST
I sincerely hope the avatar will be awarded to past winners. I've won before but it's so difficult to win I would love if the avatar could be awarded for past winners. I will cross my fingers!
by tycooncorb on July 29, 2026 9:13 PM NST
I sincerely doubt that they will award it to past winners because unfortunately they can't tie it to a trophy since the trophy belongs to the pet, not the user and that would open the door for pets to be lendable for a free avatar

currently there is no public archive of past contest wins - the contest page only goes back to the beginning of this year. if TNT has a private archive, they could potentially do something to award it to all of the users since the winning entries are listed with the username that owned the pet at the time it won

I would not hold your breath though
by noileh on July 29, 2026 9:37 PM NST JN Staff
I seriously hope they change it so we can still submit our side pets to the weekly contest. Especially after all the money a lot of us put into moving items around and extra pet spaces.
by hannahxeva on July 29, 2026 10:08 PM NST
I seriously hope they change it so we can still submit our side pets to the weekly contest. Especially after all the money a lot of us put into moving items around and extra pet spaces.
by hannahxeva

YES!!! How is this challenging us. Two pets? That's it. I have over 20 pets on 1 account. ALL of them took time, money, trading, boxes, wishing...and we can show 2 of our pets? WTH? Not happy with this. Don't care about the prizes.
by katina_choovanski on July 29, 2026 10:44 PM NST
You can show two of your pets PER WEEK, you can still show all of your pets over time!
by ohsounicornly on July 29, 2026 11:49 PM NST
So is this 2 pets per NP category, 2 pets per NC category, 2 pets per Style category, and 2 pets in the monthly? so up to 6 pets a week? and 2 separate pets in the monthly? ahhh either way I'm excited, much needed changes
by lexronomicon on July 30, 2026 12:38 AM NST
"You can show two of your pets PER WEEK, you can still show all of your pets over time!"
by ohsounicornly

^ Just not your side pets. That's my issue.
by hannahxeva on July 30, 2026 12:49 AM NST
Would this inflate specific items for the contest?!
by neodressup on July 30, 2026 2:14 AM NST
Not being able to enter on side accounts is a HUGE bummer. If they're going to do this they need to finally let us transfer neocash items freely between our Neopass linked accounts without spending boxes every single time. This also means side account pets will have to live on your main account indefinitely while you try to get them a cc trophy. They should lift the two pet restriction if they're going to do this, some people have aspirations to get multiple pets trophies eventually and at this rate it's going to be even more unobtainable/take even longer to even enter every pet enough times to be seen. Not cool TNT.
by drackonwood on July 30, 2026 4:03 AM NST
I’ve won on a side but never my main. This hurts accounts immensely. I don’t see the point in having a side now when there’s nothing you can do on them.

Otherwise a lot of the changes are nice like styling being separated out
by nightshadeswiftswing on July 30, 2026 5:19 AM NST
"you will no longer be allowed to participate on side accounts."
................
TNT this is awful! You let us, encourage us, to link our accounts in one neopass. But we: have no ad-block on sides, cannot enter pets on sides, cannot freely send items/NC to sides...

x_x so glad I am not spending so much on neo anymore. other sites appreciate me~
by meejans on July 30, 2026 5:44 AM NST
The added item rewards just remind me of when they tried doing this with the BC, and it was majorly objected by the community. Like I can get the reasoning WHY they would add prizes, but this is gonna be very heavily contested by the public
by annie123 on July 30, 2026 8:13 AM NST
I’m personally frustrated that side accounts participation is nerfed. I don’t mind switching up the pets I enter weekly if that’s what has to be done, but I don’t even have space on my main account to even accommodate the 2 I enter on my side, which leaves me in a really crappy position. Maybe if they gave us more pet slots for our mains, this wouldn’t even be an issue for most people and they’d be less angry over the amount of money they had to spend in boxes just to get the pet set up to be entered on a side in the first place.
The avatar not being retroactive is equally frustrating as well. And frankly, bullshit. I worked extremely hard for my 2 wins, and now I kind of feel like they amount to nothing.
by izzyilluminaudio on July 30, 2026 8:32 AM NST
this contest has needed an overhaul for sooooo long, from the beginning of it's inception honestly hahaha. Glad TNT is taking a stab at it, and hope they are open to making adjustments as needed
by jawbutch on July 30, 2026 9:22 AM NST
I'm not familiar with this spotlight, I tried entering one last week but wasn't sure if my pets were visible to the voters after the "entered into the upcoming" tag disappeared.
by peri on July 30, 2026 10:26 AM NST
I hate that side accounts won't be able to participate any more. There's so little those pets can do as it is. Really, TNT?
by mrsfrodo1138 on July 30, 2026 11:50 AM NST
These are all great changes, this will allow for more diversity in potential winners across the board for everyone.
by thesign2 on July 30, 2026 12:30 PM NST
The only change I wish they'd make is allowing us to enter in each category at least once since they're making a third category for tokens. I know that the 2 pets per contest is a measure to avoid the contest being absolutely inundated, but if we could even do something like 1 NP, 1 NC, and 1 Token I'd be a lot happier
by beanz on July 30, 2026 2:28 PM NST
Of course they add an avatar and prizes right AFTER my pet just won, rip
by biediep on July 30, 2026 2:45 PM NST
@lexronomicon the FAQ says

"All spotlights can be entered each week, and up to 2 pets can be entered in each one. You will only be able to enter a single pet into one spotlight at a time. That means that you cannot submit the same pet into both the regular weekly contest and the monthly themed contest; you will have to pick one or the other. You can, however, enter 2 pets in the Weekly Contest, and then enter 2 different pets in the Themed Contest! "

but the way the current contests works is 2 NP & 2 NC (4 total) so it's hard to say. The FAQ says "2 in each spotlight" and then says "2 in the weekly" which wouldn't...be the same thing lol

I'm guessing it'll be like how it works now --- 2 NP, 2 NC, 2 SS, 2 monthly (and none of those can overlap)
by noileh on July 30, 2026 5:56 PM NST JN Staff
I think these sound like good changes! This revamp is long overdue. Hopefully the voting images are bigger. I was also hoping the avatar would be retroactive, but noileh's explanation makes sense.

That's a great question about the specific contest items inflating. Since I assume it's necessary to own the items, resellers will just buy them all up as soon as they are announced.
by meredith_eldridge on July 31, 2026 1:37 AM NST
Customization Contest was always my favorite contest on Neopets! I always wanted it revamped, so I saw the latest changes with max pets at 2 per account/mode and the larger pictures with good eyes! The vote system seemed unfair as it was, to be able to enter with 86 or more pets per player.
I am glad they are making these upcoming changes, EXCEPT the change about not being able to participate on side accounts!
I have 5 side accounts, each with a lot of pets, 2 of them being themed accounts.
I dedicated LOOOOOOOTS of time and REAL MONEY to customize them, so why is it unfair if I can enter with 2 each account (2 x 5 = 10)?
Even in the remote chance of winning, one will not be winning with more than one pet per round, being rewarded just once.
Is it unfair for people who only use 1 account? NO.
We all have a choice to have 1 main account and up to 4 side accounts; if one person decides to have just 1 account, it is their choice, not an obligation.
Not to mention that I suspect that customization is what gives TNT the most money... so why upset those who actually purchase it?
by yuina on July 31, 2026 3:05 AM NST
Hope they do away with item prizes and allow side accounts


all my best nc is on my sides....
by stuffie on July 31, 2026 4:57 AM NST
It doesn't matter how creative one is with customizing to acquire votes. It's all about how many friends/guildmates one has and how much time one has to advertise for votes on neoboards and such to ask for votes. I have entered many times over the years with multiple pets each time. Either my pets never popped up to be viewed or people voted on pets that were not even cute IMO, but to each his own. I stopped even entering...
by msstarshine2003 on July 31, 2026 7:29 AM NST
Oh gosh I missed the part where there will be an item/wearable requirement for them... even if the items were 50% common dailies drops, the inflation on the item prices would go insane. I've dealt with the inverse of items I sought for months to years to customize my side account pets (NP items) joining the Quest Log, which while it feels bad to have "wasted" my investment, I can at least be happy for others who may have wanted those items and never had the chances to buy them before

But if the NP items are anything even above r90's, with how much those have bumped up with the Illu-dora quest prize refresh and the Taelia prizes and her being key to accessing the Ice Cream Cart av + her new coin.... yeesh I can't imagine how that would go.
by veeblackwell on July 31, 2026 10:44 PM NST
Oh I didn't realize they already made the voting images bigger lol, I've always used a script.

There is no way to advertise for the custom contest, hopefully it stays that way.
by meredith_eldridge on July 31, 2026 11:32 PM NST
I think these are positive changes because as someone who never bothered to enter or look at the Customization Spotlight, these changes might actually make me participate.
by jawsch on August 1, 2026 9:11 AM NST
i made pets on sides specifically in the hopes of spoiling them with trophies. not being able to enter them is an awful change :'(
by guardianrooko on August 2, 2026 3:40 PM NST
yall find something wrong with even the most positive changes i'm ngl I need to stop reading the comments on these seeing all the whining makes me sad
by milkyymintt on August 3, 2026 9:45 PM NST
Is voting from side still fine?
by babselchen on August 7, 2026 12:40 PM NST

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