My Pokémon Collection - Part 2
Sharing some of my favourite items from the many items in my Pokémon collection!
I’ve taken another dive into my vast collection of Pokémon items and retrieved a further five items I hold dear. The choices today are classic items that were available in the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s, where my love for the franchise was at its peak. Do you remember them? Or maybe you own them too? Be sure to let me know in the comments below!
Pocket Pikachu Color
This little device played an important role in my Pokémon Crystal days. As a pretty active kid, this pedometer racked up about 32,000 steps on a good day. It would generate 'watts', which would be transferred to Pokémon Crystal via the infrared port to obtain cool items. I bought it from my local Gamestation (a gaming store in the UK that has since closed down), I think it's the only one I've ever seen at retail, and I rarely see a box online.
Pokémon Mini
Another niche product I bought back in 2001 is the Pokémon Mini (Wooper blue edition), the smallest Nintendo console ever. Only a handful of games released for it, and I remember being the only one in my group of friends to own it. It came with Pokémon Party Mini and was purchased at a UK store called Woolworths. I also bought the games Pokémon Zany Cards and Pokémon Puzzle Collection at the same time. Years later, I managed to obtain a factory sealed copy of Pokémon Pinball Mini from a gaming event and a copy of Pokémon Tetris on eBay.
Pokémon Mini English language games (complete)
You can’t have a Pokémon Mini without some games, right? Well, here’s all English released Pokémon Mini games, including the very rare Pokémon Mini Tetris, which I was able to import from Portugal. I had a lot of fun with all of these games throughout the years, especially the mini-game compilation title that came with the system (Pokémon Party Mini). Several Pokémon Mini titles were only ever released in Japan, but it would be outside my budget to purchase them.
Pokémon Battling Coin Game
Here's my coins from the Pokémon Battling Coin Game, released in 1999, but I believe I picked these up later from a pound shop, likely sold on to the store in an attempt to clear old stock. The coins are made of brass and originally came inside a plastic case, very similar to a CD. I also have some Pokéball Pouches that I bought separately that were meant to hold six of the coins.
Blastoise trading card (Base set)
As I mentioned in my previous collection post, I have a huge number of classic Pokémon cards, but this one is rather special. Blastoise belonged to an online friend called Jesse, who sadly passed away a few years ago. He would sometimes send me cool Pokémon related gifts from the US, or I would buy items from him. Years later, after inspecting my cards more closely, I realised it was a shadowless Blastoise from an early print of the base set, without the usual shadows present in later print runs. While this may make the card more desirable, I would never betray Jesse's memories by parting with it.
The merchandise in the UK was awesome back then! The Pokemon Battling Coins looks really great, we have never had them in Poland, however we had Plastic Tazo, Triangle Tazo, Metal Tazo. But I think Battling Coins have their own "battle mechanic" which must be interesting 😁