About

Zinnia Gardner is a mail order Littlest Pet Shop from the early days of LPS Gen 4, and was my LPS mascot during my time on LPStube.

Official description, pulled from the Hasbro website back then:

"Zinnia, the outgoing and gregarious zebra, lives in Kenya with her herd. When she’s not basking in the warm safari sun, she’s going on different adventures with her friends. Grass smoothies are her favorite and a great way to keep her cool and energized. And Zinnia's adventurous spirit extends to her vibrant zebra-striped style. Why blend in when she can stand out?!

Being far from Downtown City, Zinnia won’t be able to attend Pet Fest in Downtown City. But you can bring her home and have her be part of your own Pet Fest celebration!"

The way you'd get her was collecting 4 barcodes and mailing them in to a listed address by July 2015. At the time, she was very heavily promoted on the website & made several appearences in the onsite flash games. I think she was one of the most expensive pets in one of the mobile games too (though in that one, you could also get her by scanning the QR code). Though I didn't play enough of it to have any opinions.

To my knowledge, she only showed up in promo material and not the 2010's cartoon itself. I guess lore-wise she couldn't go to the show's location & somehow found her way at my Pet Shop instead.

As my mascot, she ended up diverging from her canon info. In my head, she's the head and lead artist of the LPSeverstone Youtube channel. She's become more laid back over the years and might've picked up an interest in rhythm games. Perhaps the occasional cocktail as well. She doesn't have a strong backstory in my Pet Shop Crew, mostly just vibing and seeing where things go.

Ok but like, why a Gen 4 pet?

For context, 'Gen 4' is how LPS community refers to the rubber-headed pets released between 2015-2017 (some sources vary on this, but we'll be using the LPStube timeline here). And they were hated. Especially after Gen 3, a massive style divergence from the older pets that already poorly recieved, and didn't even bobble!

My feelings on them are pretty mixed? I feel like I'm more willing to critizise them now as an adult, but as a teen starting out on LPStube I was a Gen 4 apologist. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact I didn't have my childhood LPS collection at the time. Let's say, spent a decent chunk of of age 9-10 grounded & left 1/2 my collection at a childhood friends house (no ill feelings on the latter, I hope they're doing ok). So Gen 4 was what I had to start out.

Originally I was going to use a different LPS as my mascot, but then I found out about Zinnia. A mail order pet. I missed out on all the Gen 2 ones, and I racked up enough barcodes for her. So I sent them over, and waited. I wonder if younger me realised how much of a load-bearing wall that zebra would become.

Designwise, Zinnia's one of the positively recieved G4s. I think that's because she had a more neutral expression, colorful design, and less of those infamous deco-bit holes. Part of the reason I latched on to her is because I felt she fit my art direction at the time, which leaned a lot into colorful palletes & cartoony aesthetics. Even though my art direction has changed a lot since then, I still feel it's true.

The first drawing I did of her, some time after she came in the mail. At the time, I wanted to be more 'flowy' and Vivziepop-esque. Also happens to be the first illustration I finished in Krita!

A modern illustration from 2024. I've gotten more angular and flatter since then. Interesting to look back on.

That being said, I did get my hands on remnants of my oldgen collection, and continued to collect with G7. I was thinking about switching mascots near the end of my time on LPStube too as an experimental pivot towards non-LPS content. Think, I'd use LPS, but I'd talk about non-lps topics like trying Linux or illustration. Zinnia still has a very special place in my heart, but I feel for that pivot a different mascot would've fit better. I was thinking either #138, #G7's 241, or a custom of Io.

Unfortunately, Youtube's changes have made me uncomfortable making LPS videos for the time being. I want to keep this page mostly positive, so I'll link a blog post with more thoughts: (LPS videos that never made it).

That being said, even if I did switch, I feel like it still wouldn't be a full replacement. She would've showed up as a 'side character', and even now I still intend to keep drawing her. As my mascot, Zinnia ended up being one of my favorite non-OC characters & during my initial leaves from LPStube she ended up being the one that stayed out on display. She kinda became an 'honorary OC' in the way I treat her.