Hello PokéFans! Long time no see! I've been busy and, to be honest, I haven't really been thinking about Pokémon that much lately. Shocking, I know, but I'll try to get back into the PokéSpirit soon! For now, I wanted to share something that I only recently realized existed—something that combines three of my deepest passions (Halloween, Pokémon, and plushies): Halloween Pokémon plushies!
It seems that at least a couple sets of these have been released by The Pokémon Center since as early as 2008. The fact that I was previously unaware of their existence leads me to believe that someone was purposely keeping me in the dark as part of some vast conspiracy to prevent me from being happy. The good news is, many of the plushies are still available on Amazon and other online retailers! They aren't cheap, but judging by the quality of the plushies from The Pokémon Center that I own, they should be well worth the price.
2008's set is painfully cute. That Piplup! I'm going to be having dreams about that Piplup until I get my hands on one. Chimchar is just as sweet with his stash of lollipops. Croagunk is the only one from this set I could find on Amazon, and he's pretty great, although Glameow probably wins for being the most adorable/seasonally appropriate...and then there's Halloween Golbat, which is just a regular Golbat with a tiny orange hat. Golbat, you even suck at Halloween.
The entire 2008 Halloween set is available at ToyWiz for extremely reasonable prices! Come to me, Piplup.
The 2010 set consisted of Pikachu wearing a purple witch hat and holding a pumpkin, Umbreon carrying a lantern for some mysterious reason, Espeon with a candy sack, Gengar with a pointy witch hat and pumpkin, and Sableye as a not-entirely-convincing witch. I want Gengar the most out of this set, but Espeon is a close second. I normally like Sableye quite a bit, but I'm just not feeling her as a witch.
Next up is 2011's set, featuring the best (?) Pokémon from Black and White! First up is Minccino as a prince...fairy thing, and Purrloin is pretty cute with her candy pumpkin and mask. Lampent is the clear winner of the bunch. He doesn't even need a costume, since he's already terrifying. He just gently caresses a Pikachu-shaped pumpkin while staring deeply into your soul. I don't know how I feel about Axew. Is that supposed to be a witch costume? Is he wearing a cape or some kind of bowtie? Finally we have this year's Pikachu, wearing a Halloween scarf and a tiny top hat. 2011 kinda phoned it in.
I couldn't find confirmation as to whether there was a similar 2009 set or not. Searching just seems to turn up this "Cut" Rotom, and I'm not even sure how that's supposed to be a Halloween edition. Because he's orange? They could have at least wedged a lollipop into his wheels. Whatever, I still want him.
