Adorable Halloween Pokémon Plushies!

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.

Pokémon Airlines

my Woobat is in like the top percentage of Woobats

Gonna try to do more Pokémon art these days, so look for it here or at my deviantART page. :)

TM Trouble

A lot of buzz has been going around about new features in Black and White, namely that TMs can be reused. This makes sense; when I buy software or a DVD, it doesn't explode after one use. So now we don't have to stress out about which move to teach to what Pokémon. They can all learn Thief if we want them to! This is a special breakthrough for me because maybe, for the first time ever, I'll actually use a TM.

In the previous 4 generations of Pokémon games, I never used my TMs. Like, ever. Any of them. Not because I couldn't find them, or didn't care for the moves they held, or because I had some stupid notion about keeping my Pokémon "organic". I didn't use them because I was saving them. For what? Naturally, the ultimate Pokémon team that I never actually bothered to put together. You know, the perfectly balanced, fully EV trained, level 100 power team, each with a move set carefully planned to be unbeatable. I was saving my TMs for SuperAerodactyl and GigaHitmonchan.

So any time I'd think, "Hey, maybe this Pokémon would benefit from a new move," and start to boot up a TM, I would reconsider. Once I used it, it would be gone. Gone gone. It wasn't like Rare Candy, where I at least had a chance of picking another one up. With a few exceptions (like ones sold in shops or Game Corner prizes), there was only 1 of each TM in the entire game.

I think my hesitation may be trauma from wasting a TM doing something really stupid in Blue, like teaching Dig to a Diglett, but most likely the problem is rooted far deeper. I do the exact same thing with real life objects: I save them up thinking that they'll be more useful in some future event which, of course, never comes. I was so desperate to be the well-prepared ant (as opposed to the foolish grasshopper), with my giant stash of TMs just waiting to be used in the right moment. Instead I was just a dumbass lugging a giant sack of laser discs around Kanto.

Sidenote: I didn't just do this in the early games. My TM sack in SoulSilver is just as heavy.

Countdown to Black & White!

Just 4 more days! Don't forget to stop by a GameStop store for their Celebi giveaway. You don't have to buy anything, just go lurk in a dark corner, switching game cartridges so you can download 4 of them on all your different games. >_> After you get Celebi, take him to Ilex Forest in HGSS to unlock a cool time travel Easter Egg! Be prepared to battle!

If you haven't preordered already, I highly recommend going through amazon.com. Both Pokémon Black and Pokémon White offer $10 rebates (good for purchases on amazon.com) if you preorder! So you can buy the game now, then buy some accessories (or this adorable Zorua plush) later!

For the record, I ordered White. I will eventually get Black so my boyfriend can play with me, but I wanted White first. My decision was mostly spurred by the fact that the exclusive area (White Forest) looked really cool. >_>

Top 5 of Gen 5!

I am aware that it is not Tuesday, yet I am still doing a top 5 feature. Days of the week don't control me.

Gen5 has been criticized from the very first silhouette leaks of the new starters for having horribly stupid-looking Pokémon. All I really have to say to that is HAVE YOU LOOKED AT GEODUDES? THEY ARE ROCKS WITH FISTS. Also, stop taking a video game targeted towards people 1/3 your age so seriously (like I'm one to talk.) Anyway, these are my five favorite Pokémon from yet-to-be-released-in-America Black & White!*

#5. Desukan / Cofagrigus

Kudos to Nintendo America's translation team for creating a nearly-impossible-to-pronounce American name for this guy. Co-fa-gri-gus? It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. I've always loved Egyptian-style stuff, and this has the added bonus of letting me imagine that Lucy from Elfen Lied is trapped inside a sarcophagus.

#4. Shinbora

Bulbapedia suggests that the inspiration for this Pokémon comes from Nazca lines and Kachina dolls. I choose to believe that Shinbora is the product of a drunken night between a Xatu and like, 3 or 4 Unowns.

#3. Goruugu

This Pokémon is like one of the kind-hearted robots in the Robot Circus that helps Astro Boy come to terms with the fact that he's a hated piece of garbage that was disowned by his creator. I'm not sure if that actually happened in Tezuka's manga, but it should have.

#2. Shimama / Blitzle

It's an electric zebra with a mohawk. Electric zebra. Mohawk. Also it kind of looks like David Bowie, if he was a zebra.

#1. Dasutodasu

Oh god. God, yes. Nintendo obviously listens to my prayers, because they actually designed a Pokémon that is a big bag of garbage. LOOK AT THIS THING. I mean, look at it. It is obviously the product of hours of brainstorming as to what a bag of vomit and entrails might look like if it gained sentience. AND IT IS GLORIOUS.

*I thought really hard about purchasing Japanese copies of Black and/or White so I wouldn't have to wait until March. Then I realized that Japanese DS games cost twice as much as American ones. I also realized that I would have finished it and likely gotten sick of it by the time all my friends were playing it, and I would end up being ostracized as a Pokémon hipster when I inevitably told them, "I already finished that game months ago because I can read Japanese." Then they'd all go off to play and trade together and I'd be left alone. :,(

New Pokémon & Ochazuke Contest Winner!

We have a winner of the Pokémon Ochazuke contest! Congrats to Ruth from Pennsylvania!

In other news, lots of new Black & White Pokémon have been released! Am I the only one who sees the close similarity between Chiramii and the Neopets petpet Faellie?

Not like it actually matters or anything. It's just a stupid fluffy mouse.

Link of the Week: Black and White updates

I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but for posterity's sake, here are all the Pokémon from Black & White that have been released to the public.

My verdict? The legendaries are *awesome*, and I honestly think that Tsutaja is one of the coolest grass starters they've ever released. Either way, how can you hate that adorable baby otter?

As for Zorua and Zoroark, I'm kinda lukewarm. Zorua is really cute, but Zoroack's incredibly thin upper arms bother me. Unlike most members of the creature anime fan sector, I am *not* obsessed with foxes, so meh.