Merchandise

Plenty of new merch is coming in at Pokémon Centers across the world this week, including Pokémon Center Japan, where the newest apparel line is themed after the Terastal phenomenon. The “TeraCute” and “TeraCool” lines include apparel, accessories, and lots of jewelry in the sparkly style of Terastallization. TeraCool features icy and elegant Pokémon on its items, like Chien-Pao earrings for ¥1,320 ($8.54 USD), a Dragonair lanyard and card case for ¥2,200 ($14,23 USD), and, interestingly, a Frosmoth wind chime for ¥2,420 ($15.65 USD). Meanwhile, the TeraCute line stars some of the expected cuties, like Tandemaus earrings for ¥1,430 ($9.25 USD), Pikachu, Mew, Dolliv, Tandemaus, and Flittle on an acrylic jewelry box for ¥2,970 ($19.21 USD), or the same Pokémon frolicking on a sheer shirt for ¥4,400 ($28.46 USD). The TeraCute and TeraCool lines will be dropping in-store on April 27th, with preorders online beginning April 25th.

The first volume of Pokémon Adventures: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is scheduled to be available as part of Free Comic Book Day 2024, which will be held Saturday, May 4th. The event, hosted by indie comic shops across North America, offers visitors a variety of free comics and manga and is celebrated “as a way to get customers to visit the comic shops in their local community.” Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is offered as Gold sponsor title, meaning every shop that is participating in Free Comic Book Day will have them available, though quantities of popular titles like Pokémon are often limited. Customers can find a local participating shop on Free Comic Book Day’s website.

Pokémon fans in the West will find a new line of plush puppets available online now at the Pokémon Centers for the US, U.K., and Canada. The “Bite Buddies” collection is aptly named, featuring toothy favorites Fuecoco, Totodile, Greavard, Gible, and Trapinch. Standing at about 10 to 12 inches tall, each Bite Buddy hand puppet comes in at $29.99 USD. Fans in Japan won’t be left out for new plushies, as Pokémon Center Japan has announced five new favorites from Paldea and Kitikami arriving in-store on April 20th, with online preorders beginning April 18th. Pawmot and Polchageist will be available for ¥2,200 ($14.35 USD), Pawmo and Sinistcha will be available for ¥2,970 ($19.38 USD), while Finizen will be ¥4,400 ($28.71 USD). All five plushes in this drop will be available via Amazon Japan in limited quantities, beginning April 27th.

The Pokémon Center is offering lots of new merchandise for spring, the latest of which is their new graduation collection, which is themed after the orange and purple colors of the Naranja and Uva Academies from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Fans in the U.S. and Canada are getting a full line of grad gear, which includes two display figures; Pikachu in purple and Eevee in orange, a diploma frame, an insulated mug, and several pins and stationary options. Customers in the UK can find an exclusive 8 inch Graduate Pikachu plush as part of the Pikachu Celebrations line, which retails for £16.99. The graduation collection is available now online at the U.S. and Canada’s Pokémon Center websites, while Graduate Pikachu is available online via the Pokémon Center UK.

The Pokémon Center announced today its two newest collections, the first of which stars Quaxly and other Pokémon that might be found in a pond, such as Psyduck, Galarian Wooper, Swanna, and Lotad, illustrated in a watercolor style. The collection features bath items like a Quaxly spa headband for ¥1,650 ($10.90 USD), Quaxly as a bathmat for ¥4,620 ($30.51 USD), and even a set of four Quaxly bath toys for ¥2,750 ($18.16 USD). Some other interesting pieces include two Quaxly plushes, one regular and one disheveled, each for ¥2,750 ($18.16 USD), two large jewelry trays, one with Lotad and one with Galarian Wooper, each for ¥5,500 ($36.33 USD), and a reversible bucket hat for ¥3,520 ($23.25 USD). The Quaxly collection will be available at the Pokémon Center Online and at Pokémon Centers in Japan on April 6th, with preorders online beginning April 4th. The two Quaxly plushes will also be available via Amazon Japan in limited quantities beginning April 13th.

The Pokémon Center has announced their latest merch collection, Treasured Way Home, featuring Scarlet and Violet mascots Koraidon and Miraidon, which will be available on March 23rd in-store at Pokémon Centers in Japan. Merchandise like t-shirts, Nintendo Switch carrying cases, and stationary will feature the two Pokémon in their Ultimate Mode and Apex Build forms. Some of the more unique pieces from the Treasured Way Home collection include an LED framed art of Miraidon and Koraidon for ¥4,950 ($33.20 USD), a glasses case with a cleaning cloth for ¥2,420 ($16.23 USD), and even kids’ sport sandals for ¥7,480 ($50.18 USD). Pieces will be available for pre-order at the Pokémon Center Online beginning March 21st,

The special distribution of Pawmot which was announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet late last week has now commenced. This Pawmot, which is based on Nemona's Pawmot as seen in the music video of the YOASOBI song Biri-Biri, is being released to celebrate the song's physical CD & LP release in Japan. This distribution will remain available to redeem until February 28th next year.

A special distribution of Pawmot has been announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. This Pawmot, which is based on Nemona's Pawmot as seen in the music video of the YOASOBI song Biri-Biri, is being released to celebrate the song's physical CD & LP release in Japan. The Mystery Gift code for this Pokémon will be released on the Japanese official Pokémon Website around Midday (JST) / 3:00am (UTC) on March 13th, with this distribution remaining available to redeem until February 28th next year.

The Pokémon Company International and Mattel announced today the newest addition to the MEGA construction toy line, Pokémon Ash & Pikachu: Path to Victory. The 1,646-brick set is scheduled to release on February 27th, in celebration of Pokémon Day 2024. Ash, who is the first buildable Pokémon Trainer by MEGA, will stand 12.9 inches tall when built. He and Pikachu are fully articulated and meant to be super poseable; Ash’s iconic cap can even be spun backwards to mimic his battle-ready stance in the Pokémon the Series anime.

There’s been some adorable new merchandise announced this week for fans in different parts of the world, from giant plushies to pastel tea cups. Already available as an online exclusive, Build-A-Bear has debuted the latest addition to their Pokémon lineup. The new Charizard plush is the first ever Pokémon available from Build-A-Bear as their Giant-Sized plush, coming in at 22 inches tall compared to the standard 13 to 15 inch-tall Pikachu. Charizard is only available online as a bundle with his scarf and trapper hat set for $115 USD, and there is a limit of 5 per customer. My Nintendo has added some items to their rewards store in celebration of Pokémon Day 2024, including the return of some popular items.

The multinational e-commerce platform eBay announced today that they are partnering with major Pokémon card and merch sellers on their platform for the “Catch 151” auction, which is scheduled for Pokémon Day 2024. The auctions of 151 items, including expensive merchandise from collaborations and rare Trading Card Game products, will be live beginning 12:01 am EST on February 27th and will end at 12:01am EST on February 28th. In honor of the number of Generation I Pokémon, every item included in the auction will have its price begin at $1.51 USD. The secondhand Pokémon market on eBay is immense; eBay reports that in 2023, users searched for Pokemon items more than 400 times a minute globally, on average.

The Pokémon Europe International Championships are coming once again to the enormous ExCeL London event center in England. Running from from April 5th to 7th, the event will feature competitions for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet video games, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon UNITE. As with the 2022 Pokemon World Championships and 2023 Pokémon Europe International Championships which were also held at this venue, a pop-up Pokémon Center store will be available at the event, selling a wide variety of Pokémon products, including a range of items themed around the International Championships.

The Pokémon Center has announced a new line of pins coming to customers in the U.S., U.K., and Canada throughout the year. The monthly Dragon Types pins will be released in celebration of 2024 being the Year of the Dragon, with the first in the set, Garchomp, available now for $12.99 USD. Each of the 12 pins will be released towards the end of the month and is set against a translucent, stained glass-style background. While the specific Dragon-type Pokémon to be included in the 2024 collection have not been announced, they can be presumed to be about the same size as Garchomp, 2 inches tall.

While the collaboration between The Pokémon Company International and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has had its setbacks, good news has been announced for fans hoping to get their hands on the elusive TCG promo item. “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” is announced to be coming to over 1,000 toy stores and gift shops in the Netherlands, including the chains Primera, Bruna, Intertoys, Game Mania, Top1Toys, MediaMarkt and Smyths Toys Superstores, as well as smaller specialty shops. Cards are limited to one per customer and are only available as a free gift with the purchase of €29.99 worth of Pokémon Trading Card Game merchandise. The card will be available for a limited time beginning Saturday, February 10th.

The Pokémon Company International has announced plans to continue their partnership with The Wand Company, whose extensive line of collector’s quality Poké Ball Replicas has been ongoing since first announced in 2020. The newly previewed Mini Poké Ball Replica line has a 40 mm (~1.57″) diameter and will include five designs to be released throughout 2024: Mini Poké Ball, Mini Great Ball, Mini Ultra Ball, Mini Cherish Ball, and Mini Premier Ball. The first to release will be the Mini Poké Ball, which will be available on the U.S., U.K. and Canadian Pokémon Centers online, via The Wand Company’s Amazon storefront, and from other retailers worldwide beginning February 12th.

The Pokémon Company and Singapore’s largest supermarket chain, FairPrice, are bringing limited-edition OREO cookie packs with Pokémon theming to customers in Singapore. Three flavors (Vanilla, Strawberry, or Chocolate-filled) come in packages containing nine snack packs of 3 cookies for $3.34 SGD ($2.49 USD), or the 3 cookie snack packs can be bought individually for $1.71 SGD ($1.27 USD). The newly-debuted special edition flavor, Choco Banana, which features Pikachu on each bright yellow cookie, is $4.34 SGD ($3.23 USD) for the package of nine snack packs, and $2.22 SGD ($1.65 USD) for the individual pack of 3 cookies. The three regular flavors will be stamped with 16 different Pokémon designs randomly distributed throughout the packs. The designs seem to be identical to those included in the Pokémon x OREO Limited Edition cookies that were available in the U.S. in 2021, containing fan favorites like Bulbasaur, Piplup, and Pancham.

The “Legends of Johto” capsule collection by Italian streetwear design collective Dolly Noire has arrived online at the Pokémon Center for customers in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. The premiumly-priced collection consisting of seven t-shirts ($49.99 USD each) and two sweatshirts ($144.99 and $129.99 USD) is part of the larger Pokémon collection available via Dolly Noire’s website. The larger collection, which does ship internationally, includes additional pieces not available at the Pokémon Center, like Poké Ball socks and a beanie. Despite the name, “Legends of Johto” includes starters and Legendary Pokémon from both Kanto and Johto. Favorites featured include the Johto starters, Charizard, Suicune, Entei, Raikou, the Legendary birds, Ho-Oh, Lugia, and Mewtwo.

The Pokémon Company has announced the latest addition to Project Snorlax (プロジェクトカビゴン), a year long celebration of the titular Pokémon through social media and product tie-ins. The Japanese-American pop artist known as CHRIS has debuted his version of Snorlax, with its eyes unusually open in his signature style, to be featured on products and art available online and at the Isetan Shinjuku department store in Tokyo, Japan. From January 17th until January 23rd, an art exhibition will be held on the #2 Stage inside the store's main building, featuring several of CHRIS’s Snorlax-themed art pieces, including a life-size (6’11”) Snorlax titled “The Snorlax in the Dream.”

The newest addition to Pokémon animation is Pokémon Concierge, a stop-motion, four-episode project that debuted on Netflix on December 28th. Fans of the new series will be able to find new homegoods, apparel, and stationary themed after the show beginning January 20th, exclusively in Pokémon Centers in Japan and at Pokémon Center Online. The resort theming from the show is clear in this collection, which includes an Aloha shirt like the one worn by the show’s main character, Haru, for ¥4,950 ($34.23 USD) and an adorable LED lamp shaped like Bellsprout for ¥7,700 ($53.25 USD). More cute and tropical merch like the Horsea watering can for ¥4,400 ($30.43 USD), throw pillows for ¥2,970 ($20.54 USD), and a shoulder bag also for ¥2,970 ($20.54 USD) round it out.

Japanese streetwear designer Hiroshi Fujiwara’s label, fragment design, is teaming up with Italian luxury fashion brand Fendi for new Pokémon-inspired goods to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. Dratini, Dragonair, and Dragonite are the stars of the collection, appearing on t-shirts and sweatshirts, as jewelry, and alongside Fendi’s signature pattern on handbags and other leather goods. Fendi reports that the Dragonite figure, made entirely of leather and just under 16 inches tall, requires 30 hours of handcrafting, which is reflected in its $2,290 USD price tag.