What are Pokeballs made of?

[GengarEatBanana]

I'm guessing it's not comprised of metal, or at least not very hard metal. Isn't it shown that Pokeballs can break in the anime? I'm not sure, I'm not really an anime person >_>

 

[Vulpes]

Lower-quality balls—normal Pokéballs—might be made of copper. Higher-quality balls—Great Balls all the way up to Master Balls—might be made of silver of varying purity. The reason being that silver is the most electrically conductive element, followed by the cheaper copper. I think there's a good chance that Pokéballs convert Pokémon to electromagnetic energy, so that would be important.

 

[Torterra Trainer]

Well, I think that Poke balls are made out of a light, thin metal on the inside, but I don't know what the outside would be. I think the inside of the Apricorn balls don't really matter, it's the outside, since the color of the apricorn determines the properties that the poke ball will have. That's why regular poke balls and master balls look different on the outside.

Maybe all poke balls are the same on the inside, but the outside skin determines the strength or special capabilities of it.

 

[Eeveeanne]

A good theory and all, mostly the same as I have.
You still don't have to shout at loud "Come on out!" or something, I prefer the system recognizes your hand-movements too.

What comes to the material current Poké Balls are made of, I'd say it's some ingredient found only in the Pokémon World. Possibly close to a light metal. I personally can't believe they're made of plastic.

I believe what ever it is, its made from a material similar to Apricorns in the pokeworld. that's why Kurt could make specilaized pokeballs.

 

[Lugnut]

I would assume its something like Carbon Fiber? Its a strong substance that still has a very low weight.

 

[Trainer G]

I believe what ever it is, its made from a material similar to Apricorns in the pokeworld. that's why Kurt could make specilaized pokeballs.

Maybe the frame inside is made of Apricons, and the shell of some light metal?

 

[League]

Lower-quality balls—normal Pokéballs—might be made of copper. Higher-quality balls—Great Balls all the way up to Master Balls—might be made of silver of varying purity. The reason being that silver is the most electrically conductive element, followed by the cheaper copper. I think there's a good chance that Pokéballs convert Pokémon to electromagnetic energy, so that would be important.

I think that what pokeballs do is something along Fox's lines, because it makes the most sense as to how both capture and storage work. Otherwise, they may just space out / scatter the molecules making up a pokemon for storage, and regather them when the pokemon is sent out. (I'm pretty sure that I got this idea from Tron Legacy...)

Or they could maybe just scatter the common elements, and store the others.

That said, pokeballs would, I'd think, have a strange application of various rare earth metals.

 

[PKMN Soldier Bonvie]

Metal is mandatory for conductance in the internal circuitry (preferably silver, as there is less natural ohm strength to weaken the power). As of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, it's safe to say that an Aura Crystal is embedded near the core or internal shell of the pokeball. The circuitry would be used to energize the Aura Crystal. Probably utilizes a small watch battery to keep it running. Wouldn't be surprised if the routine visits to the pokemon center are used to recharge the power supply. Likely utilizes collapsible, curved blades that withdraw to allow for the re-sizing of the pokeball.

In fact, I could theoretically design the Devon Pokeball series alongside blueprints to explain how the process works scientifically. (Note that the Aura Crystals are required to explain any of it.)

Edit: Following Vulpes, the ball itself may or may not be made of metal. It's the internal circuitry that's definitely made of metal. As for the "conversion" of Pokemon energy, it's far more likely that it's not due to any man-made technology that can do the conversion, but a utilization of the Aura Crystals (which appear to be reasonably capable resources for mining and what-not) that themselves somehow work on the piezoelectric effect. I agree that the type of material utilized would definitely effect the capability of the pokeball. With the Aura Crystals no longer having a natural connection to their "mother earth", that they require a separate energy source to energize them, thus a voltage source, as mentioned above.

 

[Cyber Jet]

I think they are made of metal or some kind of super hard,shrinking magic plastic.

 

[Egghatch]

They're obviously made of magical plastic!

 

[PKMN Soldier Bonvie]

That's called a built in speaker.... Is an iPhone just a screen and plastic?

 

[Lilkaykaygal]

not realy sure but i remember in that episodes where Jessie released her Dustox, she was able to stomp on Dustox's Pokeball quite easily

 

[MageLeif]

The outside could be made out of a metal somewhat like steel and aluminum. For all we know, Pokéballs are VERY durable and don't seem to rust. Only the hardest of forces could break Pokéballs (or mostly-strong forces as seen in the anime). The inside would be where all the microchips and data can be stored. Because the Pokéball expands and contracts, I would imagine that the metal-ish product would "thin out" when it expands. When the Pokéball is in its shrunken state for storage, the walls would be a little bit thicker.

If you ever look inside of a Pokéball in the anime, the computer chips only seem to make up about 33% of the the insides or so. When the Pokéball shrinks and expands, the chips could easily slide into place assuming that there are little groves to give them some wiggle room.

 

[Agent Gryphon]

Consider the anime when a pokeball got thrown at someone like Jessie or Ash, it obviously hurt and they even got that lump on their head so whatever it is, has to be hard (But as Lil said, how does it explain that Jessie can obviously step on it so easily, unless she's just that strong, but I imagine anything could hurt if you have it thrown at your head hard enough).

Although the anime alone may be unreliable. Why did Ash so easily break Snorlax's pokeball in one Orange Islands episodes by just dropping it on a rock and then other pokeballs that TR have taken to the skies suddenly fall out and land on the ground unharmed.

 

[Feralize]

According to the anime, when the release mechanism on the Pokeball is pressed, it materializes a Pokemon that can be massive, not to mention heavy. Pokeballs, with said massive and heavy Pokemon inside, somehow fit the Pokemon inside, and apparently weigh very little. I'd like to know what materials the inside is made of, personally. There must be something to make the Pokemon inside both weightless and devoid of any mass whatsoever, while retaining the ability to attack (thus how captures may fail). Dimensional distortion of some sort?

 

[Continent Turtle]

I vote unobtainium.

 

[voidcritter]

Okay, I did make the "magic and Nintendium" post a while back, but that's more or less what I actually believe Pokeballs are made of.

MAYBE I SHOULD ELABORATE.

TVTropes basically sums up my views on the Pokemon world here. I believe Apricorns have some sort of mystical property that makes them suitable vessels for Pokemon-much like how some plants in the real world are said to have magical properties, like warding off evil spirits.

In prehistoric times and some ancient societies, people hadn't perfected the skills needed to carve out and refine Apricorns to where you could have a reliable Pokeball, so people walked with their Pokemon and used traps to capture them.

During the Dark Ages/Middle Ages, people had FINALLY perfected a decent technique for converting Apricorns to Pokeballs. This was the standard Pokeball for many centuries, but around the time of the Industrial Revolution more durable ones made of steel and other metals came about. These non-Apricorn balls had Apricorn extract/gel on the insides, retaining the magical qualities of the original Pokeball while still being more durable.

Their design was more or less the same kind that young Samuel Oak uses in the movie with Celebi. Despite being more durable than the original Apricorn balls, these were still prone to denting and rusting.

Sometime in what would be the equivalent to our world's 1960s/1970s, Silph Co. created a new kind of Pokeball. Like the steel balls it had a mixture of Apricorn extract/gel on the inside, but instead of metal it was made of a Nintendium-like plastic compound. EXTREMELY durable, and no one knows the exact chemical composition of it outside of the company itself.

Oh, and by the way, the word "Pokeball" is a genericized trademark, just like Band-Aids, Jello and Q-Tips. Silph Co. has the trademark on the name "Pokeball" and its balls are the only ones marketed as such, but people mostly refer to all capture balls as Pokeballs regardless of their manufacturer.

Silph Co. and the Devon company hold, between the two of them, pretty much the monopoly on Pokeballs--think of it like how Microsoft and Apple are with computers. Though, Silph Co. makes more revenue than the Devon company by a small margin.

 

[P N N K]

I think Poke'Balls are made of a high grade plastic material, and there is a mechanism inside that beams the Poke'mon down to a very small size, thus explaining the red light that beams out of a Poke'Ball. But the higher performance Great Balls and Ultra Balls would be made of maybe carbon fiber and the like, and probably have a stronger and higher quality laser capture system, making the effectiveness in catching Poke'mon double or triple.

 

[sonic10158]

It definitely is covered (inside and out) with something water-proof

 

[cityvillain]

Which made me wonder, is the pokeball inspired from Foongus & Amoonguss??

Or are they manmade pokemons? O_O