If you've somehow missed the eighteen times we've discussed it in Chatzy, Pokemon turns 20 this year and is celebrating with lots of merch and a new event Pokemon every month from now until December. While it didn't hit American shores until 1998, Pokemon debuted in Japan two years earlier, in February 1996. Initially a quiet release, word of mouth was substantial, and by 1997 Japan was wholeheartedly embracing Nintendo's latest RPG. Reception was so positive that Nintendo decided the game was worth releasing in other regions. They took a gamble and made a big hype campaign for Pokemon's western debut - the anime and the game released together, with the trading card game launching a couple months later. This was definitely a risk - what sells in Japan doesn't necessarily sell in other places, and a big deal was being made out of this fledgling series that rested all its' hopes on a very buggy and unbalanced game that came out on a system many considered long past its' prime. Nintendo COULD have had this blow up in its' face.
But it all paid off. Kids flocked to the series like nothing else, and reviewers praised the game's strong points - as poorly-balanced and badly-coded as the game was, it was just plain fun and introduced concepts that were rare in 1998, most notably the complete party customization. Again, it took a little time - according to Bulbapedia, many stores were initially unwilling to sell the card game, apparently believing it wouldn't be popular, HAW - but it took significantly less time to catch fire in the US than it did in Japan. No doubt the big push from Nintendo helped. By 1999, Pokemania was in full swing.
And brother, what a time to be alive.
Before I go any further - the name "Pokemania" was coined by a number of outsiders looking in on the phenomenon (speaking of, some also called it "The Pokemon Phenomenon"). I'm talking adults who were watching in confusion as kids fell in love with 151 Japanese cartoon animals, folks like newspapers, magazines, and third-party groups who released unauthorized guides to the franchise that often had errors but always had heart. Pokemania began at the end of 1998. It built up throughout 1999, and in fall of that year it reached its' peak. It remained strong throughout 2000 and had a grand sendoff in the form of Pokemon Gold and Silver, then slowly began to ebb away in the early 2000s as Pokemon degenerated from a worldwide fad to simply a cornerstone of Nintendo, an established household name brand people always know. By the time Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire released, Pokemon was just another franchise - albeit a tremendously popular and successful one.
Some of you might be a little too young to remember Pokemania, others might be a tad too old and didn't really pay attention when it was happening, considering it just another kid's thing. But me? I was the perfect target audience. For the first year of its' existence, I didn't really notice, but circa September 1999, I finally got hooked and had the ride of my life.
There's a lot I could talk about. The cards, the social interaction, the Game Boy games. But for the purposes of this post, I'm going to zero in on the toys. I've taken photographs of almost all the Pokemon toys I own, the vast majority of which are from 2001 or earlier, and I'm going to go over them in detail here.
Note that for all my posturing and fancy talk, I'm not much of a collector. These are toys that I heavily played with as a kid, and a lot of them are dinged up. You're not going to be seeing pristine museum pieces here. This is a part of my childhood laid bare for your amusement. That said, on with the pics.
