Topikachu: When Pokémon came to America
On August 27th 1998, Pokémon made its debut outside of Japan at an event in Topeka, Kansas. To mark its 25th anniversary, we spoke to those who attended this historic event.
For two and a half years after its initial launch in February 1996, the hugely successful Pokémon Red and Green had dominated Japan, with eight million video game units and over 400 million trading cards sold there. The Pokémon anime had become Japan's highest-rated kids’ television show, and over 600 Pokémon-branded products were available during this time period. The franchise eventually made its way overseas in the form of Pokémon Red and Blue, releasing in stores across the USA on September 28, 1998. But Pokémon’s American debut actually occurred just over a month earlier, at the very first Pokémon event outside of Japan, taking place in Topeka, Kansas. A city proclamation was made by the mayor to declare the city would be renamed “ToPikachu” for the day, something it repeated twenty years later in 2018 for the release of Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee.
It was the first stop on a nationwide rollout of Pokémon across America, with hopes that the franchise could see huge success in the country, just like it had in Japan. This free event took place on August 27th 1998 at Forbes Field, Topeka, at the Topeka Air Industrial Park between 11:00 and 14:00 (come rain or shine). The event featured a variety of Pokémon-themed activities such as Arts & Crafts, opportunities to watch episodes of the anime, meet Pokémon characters in costume, a chance to play Pokémon Red and Blue before anyone else, and a dance-along called the “Hoke Pokémon” where kids were taught a Pokémon dance.
Schedule:
11:00 - Registration
12:00 - Pokémon toy drop and Master Training
12:00 to 14:00 - Various Pokémon themed events
Events:
Hoke Pokémon (Dance Fever)
Pokémon Preview (Cartoon screening)
Pokémon games (Arts & Crafts)
Pokémon Play (Game Boy Games)
Pokémon Pit Stop (Drinks & Snacks)
Master Training Session (Meet the Monsters)
It was also the first time the Pikachu Volkswagen Beetles (coined as “PokéPatrol” but known as Pikabugs) were on display; they went on to promote the franchise in the years that followed. The star attraction was the Pokémon toy drop, in collaboration with the Greater Kansas City Skydiving Club, where it was reported between nine and a dozen skydivers jumped out of aeroplanes dressed in bright Pikachu-yellow-coloured outfits. Attached to them were vibrant parachutes, and as they descended to the ground with a trail of smoke behind them, around 750 Pikachu plush toys were thrown out of the planes too, each with their own tiny parachute. On the ground below, children ran out onto the field, desperately trying to grab one of the cute little Pokémon for themselves.
To celebrate twenty-five years since that historic event, we were able to track down some of the attendees, who were happy to share their memories of that special day and give their perspective of what the event was like through their eyes.
One of the attendees that day was Shayne Roberts, who made a request online eight years ago, attempting to track down the shirt given away at the event in memory of their grandpa, who used to wear it. When I contacted Shayne, he told me he had located the original shirt and kindly shared photos and his story with me. He was only three at the time of the event, but still has some vivid memories of the special day he shared with his grandpa.
Shayne Roberts:
For the day it's somewhat foggy of a memory, I remember standing on a hill holding my grandpa's hand, it was a whole field of kids and you could hear helicopters overhead. I clearly remember my grandpa going "look!" And pointing up at them as they began throwing Pikachu with cute little parachutes out the side, then he nudged me and said "go get one!" I went running down the hill and one slowly fell into my arms... Only for a bigger kid to yank it out of my hands.
My grandpa found me soon after crying on the ground, with a plushie for me, which I distinctly remember not wanting at that moment because I wanted the parachute more than the plush. I don't remember too much else, but I know that I got a copy of Red, a fat Pikachu pencil topper and the shirt in my size when I was there too.
Brian G was another kid who attended the event at Forbes Field that day. He was also fairly young at the time, and while he admits his memory of the event is a little foggy, he kindly provided his memories for us, which we have printed in full.
Brian G:
I’ll start by saying I don’t remember too much. The thing I do remember is that it was the promo for the release of the card game. There were people dressed like Pokémon characters. I remember there being a Pikachu and I think the starting three from Blue/Red. There was definitely a VW Beetle that they had decorated to look like Pikachu. This was like 1999 and the new Beetle was kind of the cool car of the time. I mean the hype around it almost compares to like when the Tesla came out. Hell, half the people there were excited to see the Beetle— like it was a major selling point to the event. They temporarily named the city [Topikachu], which I thought was great. I was probably 8 when that happened.
I seem to remember them dropping some kind of promo material from an airplane at the event. But it was weird because, like… Forbes Field, where the event was, was a really random spot. Like it’s literally an Air Force base and a racetrack. I want to say we showed up late, though. But I do remember that because Topeka was an early adopter of Pokémon, it was big.
Karl Fundenberger went along to the Topikachu event with his friend Alex. Surprisingly, the story he sent over to me includes a confession of what he and his friend got up to that day…
Karl Fundenberger
In August 1998, my little midwest city renamed itself from Topeka to ToPikachu, and hosted the national launch of Nintendo’s new Pokemon game. The event was held at our military base - the only place with enough fields to support all of the running and shouting children drawn by Nintendo’s heavy marketing blitz.
The spectacle of the event was the Pikachu drop. A cargo helicopter hovered over the grass field and dumped out 750 plush Pikachu toys, each with a special fabric parachute. The crowd of hundreds of children and adults rushed the field to grab the Pikachu, but of course, there were not enough to go around.The event also had lots of other things to see and do. My friend Alex and I ran around from tent to tent, collecting as much free swag as we could. Bouncy balls, game cards, and tiny figurines lined our pockets. We piled all our trinkets together, and offered to trade a younger kid all of this shiny stuff for his fuzzy Pikachu. He agreed! We swapped bounties and ran, probably knowing that his parents would never have approved.
If you’re out there, kid, I’m really sorry, that was a jerk move by me and Alex.
Out of all the people we spoke to about this event, we were super thrilled to hear from Alyssa Buecker, who generously provided us with a detailed account of how she first became familiar with Pokémon and her Pokémon-themed day at the Topeka Air Industrial Park, complete with a treasure trove of photographs!
Alyssa Buecker:
My very first video game console was a Nintendo Game Boy, and my second was a top-loading NES with a dog-bone controller. A lot of my game cartridges during that time period were procured for me by my mom from garage sales, pawn shops, and video rental stores that were going out of business or selling games that weren’t popular.
For that reason, many of my games did not come with their protective plastic cases or instruction manuals. My mom somehow managed to figure out that you could order protective sleeves for NES cartridges directly from Nintendo, and that they would also sometimes send along instruction manuals if they had them (and if you asked nicely)!
By ordering these items, she must have gotten our information into some kind of database at Nintendo, and we would occasionally receive promotional materials in the mail. I remember getting a VHS tape with trailers and advertisements for upcoming Nintendo games, and one of the features was a live-action skit with a real actress portraying Ash Ketchum’s mom explaining the world of Pokémon. I was instantly hooked.
Some time after viewing this video, I then got a letter addressed to me from Nintendo inviting me to the “U.S. debut of Pokémon” to be held on Thursday, August 27th 1998 in Topeka, Kansas. I lived in Kansas at the time, and with my name, age, and address being in Nintendo’s records from said previous purchases, I assume that’s how I got the invitation!
Alyssa Buecker:
I’m sure it was a hot day with it being August in Kansas, but it was also sunny and a beautiful day. It took place at an airfield, so everything was inside tents in the grass.
I remember registering and getting a “Master Trainer” badge on a lanyard (which I still have!), a punch card for all the different activities and booths, and handfuls upon handfuls of promotional toys—plastic Pikachu figurines, bouncy balls with tiny plastic Pokémon inside, all in wrappers with stickers that said “look for Pokémon toys from Hasbro this fall.”
One of the tents had several TV screens that were playing the Pokémon animated show in Japanese. I distinctly remember seeing parts of an episode that featured Misty and Staryu. All of the original Pikachu Volkswagen Beetles were parked behind the main area of tents, and all of their trunks were open so that attendees could play the original Red and Blue Pokémon Game Boy games via emulators hooked up to CRTs built into the cars themselves.
At one point, someone in a Pikachu mascot costume came out and took photos with all the kids.
Alyssa Buecker:
And then the “main event” was skydivers, dressed as Pikachu, jumping out of airplanes over the airfield itself and parachuting to the ground, while also dropping plush Pikachu into the crowd below. This part ended up being pure chaos; only children were supposed to be allowed to run into the field and collect the fallen toys, but adults were trampling kids and snatching them all up themselves with no kind of intervention from staff. I did not end up getting one of the stuffed animal Pikachu myself and I remember being quite disappointed.
Other than that one minor pitfall, I have very fond memories of the event as a whole and I feel extremely grateful and lucky to have been able to attend. Being a lifelong gamer and Nintendo fan, I think it’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
Ever since the ToPikachu event and first learning about Pokémon, I have been a diehard fan. My main nostalgia is still for the original 151 Pokémon and the Red and Blue games, but I’ve loved keeping up with the series in various ways throughout the years.
Alyssa Buecker:
One year after ToPikachu, I was also lucky enough to attend an event called the Pokémon League Summer Training Tour ‘99 which was also hosted by Nintendo and toured malls throughout the United States. At least one of the original Pikachu VW Beetles made an appearance at this event as well, and it was fun to see it again and get a photo of myself next to it wearing my handmade Team Rocket cosplay.
After competing in the Pokémon Game Boy tournament at the event, one of the Nintendo event staff noticed my costume and approached me. They linked their Game Boy to mine (which was a transparent Atomic Purple Game Boy Color) with a link cable, and traded an official Mew over to me. I still have this Mew on my Pokémon Blue cartridge, and the original trainer in the Pokémon’s info is listed as “Mario.”
The Pokémon series really speaks to me as an animal lover, collector, and gamer. Everything came together perfectly to create a game that ended up meaning so much to me at that time in my life, and has brought me years of entertainment and nostalgia since.
We were able to locate some video footage taken at the event, which was originally posted to Facebook by a local radio station (WIBW) from their archive.
Michael Hayes, who managed to grab some of the Pokémon swag on offer, provided a brief yet enjoyable story of his experience that day.
Michael Hayes:
Hi there, this is my story of that special day. Everyone was lined up on a line and had to wait for every Pikachu to land from the airplane they came from. I went there and snagged the first Pikachu that was around my group of kids. My friend didn't get one but instead got a video cassette with like 3 episodes on it. Also, [I] got an extra large t-shirt I used as a pajama shirt. I don’t own any of them anymore, sadly.
Emilio Tetuan told us about an unfortunate turn of events once he returned home from the event with his Pikachu bouncing ball…
Emilio Tetuan:
I only received a little bouncy ball with a Pikachu in it since I didn’t get the stuffed Pikachu that they air dropped. Funny story, after I got the ball, I was at home and could care less about that bouncy ball. I did however really want the Pikachu inside of it. I found a flathead screwdriver and began tearing apart the ball. I was 6 or 7 years old at the time, in the process of getting that pikachu out, I cut my hand with the flathead screwdriver. I got the Pikachu out but ended up taking a trip to the emergency room to get my hand cleaned up haha.
Finally, we have a heart-warming memory from Selena Ann Juarez, who spent the day at the Topikachu event with her father, who sounds like he also had a great time!
Selena Ann Juarez:
So I was about 4-5 years old when I went. My dad took me with him. I remember that there were Pikachu falling from the sky which was crazy! My dad asked me to get one for us so I would run out to the field and get one. I remember seeing the cars that looked like Pikachu and thought they were so cool. And I didn't get to play any of the games but I remember watching my dad play it and I had fun watching. I wish I would have played but I did get to (eventually).
I remember seeing tons of kids and we played with our Pikachu and hugged the giant Pikachu walking around. My dad had the biggest smile plastered on his face all day and I remember that the most about going. I wish Topeka would do that again so we could experience that magic again with a new generation.
Editors note: Topeka was renamed Topikachu once again twenty years later in 2018 to mark the release of Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee
Additional photographs
According to a report from The Capital-Journal at the time, just 24 hours after the Topikachu event, a helicopter crashed into Forbes Field, just 200 yards away from where tents had been set up for the event. The report went on to confirm that the pilot and two mechanics walked away from the crash with minimal injuries. If the crash had happened a day sooner, Pokémon's introduction to America could have been a very different story.
A quarter of a century has now passed since Pokémon made its Western debut, and despite the hype it generated, the organised event did have its shortcomings, which were hopefully improved upon as the tour continued across America. As time goes on and memories begin to fade, it’s important that we remember the origin of all of this, and I hope that this feature has played a role in making that possible.
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed their memories of the first official Pokémon event outside of Japan, when Pokémon came to America.