So many Pokemon.
And so begins the first in a series of posts in which I document, for your amusement, my gaming-related stuff collection. Although heavily Nintendo-centric, there will be the occasional PS3 special edition that I never touched after opening the box. Let's start things off right with my embarrassing collection Pokemon paraphernalia. It has amassed over several years, though the two main categories (games and cards) have accrued with some purpose. The figures depicted here were bought from Fred Meyer on sale. Grovyle and Craniados say their names when a button is pressed on their body. The Blastoid and Charizard don't do anything, but they're cool. You might recognize that Ho-Oh as the pre-order bonus for HeartGold.*
Of course, we begin with the game collection. Here are all of my DS games and Game Boy Advance games that I've managed to create boxes for (thanks, Cover Project!). I still need to make boxes for two more games (below). All of the DS games, save Pearl, were sent to me for review purposes. I played each one of them for FAR longer than I ever actually intended. Don't believe me? Ask my wife. 
I actually have Blue lying around somewhere, and probably Gold, too, but I can't find them right now. They're probably at my parents' house. Pokemon Pinball is my most recent acquisition. Bought it for a cool $5, and if you haven't played it, you're really missing out. At some point, I must have owned Pokemon Yellow, because...
...I still have the Pikachu walker, for some odd reason. It doesn't work anymore (probably needs new batteries) but I can't find Pokemon Yellow either, so that's kind of a problem. I still use the HeartGold Pokewalker (I'm wearing it right now) because there are a few little bastards who are still managing to elude my grasp on certain routes, like Surfing Pikachu in the Yellow Forest. The wife and I went to Avenue Q last night, and the girl next to me was playing with her Pokewalker! Oh, be still, my heart!
Once in a blue moon, a developer will send along a little surprise with their game. This is an example of that: Pokemon Diamond came with a little DS carrying case, with a lenticular hologram on the front. This hologram depicts Giratina and Shaymin in their original or "alternate" forms based on the viewing angle. It's pretty nice, but I never actually use it.Here is an arguably better prize: PokePark Wii came with a Wii Remote cling, featuring everybody's favorite electric mouse. I love it, and it's my primary Wii Remote now. Shut up! You're just jealous!
A long time ago, I wrote a blog post about this Pokemon Spinner game. It's basically HeroClix, but with Pokemon, and they on their dials. You do whatever the arrow ends up pointing to. It's a very fun game for two players and I love it. The problem is, it was a massive sales failure in the United States. I bought most of these while stores around town were trying to get rid of them. When we were in Hawaii one year, there was a Kay-B-Toys selling figures from the second series, which I grabbed right away (50% off, too!).
The little figures are surprisingly detailed and dynamic. As you might imagine, each figure is only a few inches tall, which makes their detailing all the more impressive. There is Charizard, of course.
Here's Groudon, smashing out of the ground. You can see Feraligator and Latias in the background. Seriously, this game is fun. There's a game board and Trainer Cards and rings for poison status and everything.
Salamance and some of the smaller Pokemon. "Weaker" Pokemon tend to have better dodge chances and can move more spaces per turn than bigger, stronger Pokemon. Some Pokemon focus on attack power while others focus on specific powers. For example, Murkrow's power has priority over enemy attacks--he causes them to be shoved two spaces away.
There are even Trainer figures. The starter pack comes with Ash, but you can find Misty and Brock through random chance ("mystery figures"). You use the Trainers to determine success or failure rates for Trainer Cards, which affect the gameplay in a similar manner to how they work in the Pokemon Card Game. Hey, speaking of the Pokemon Card Game...
I used to be a PCG addict. Then I was much younger, I'd buy a pack a week, like they were cigarettes. I blew so much of my hard-earned money working as a lifeguard on Pokemon cards it was unbelievable. I was a card-carrying member of the local Pokemon League and I won two badges before giving up my addiction. But from that downward spiral came some reason to celebrate.
After I'd moved out, my mother called me saying she was going to donate or throw away all of my Pokemon cards, which were being kept in (no joke) boxes. I decided to keep one of each unique card for posterity. I now have two largish binders full of cards. But once an addict, always an addict: I would very much like to collect each unique Pokemon card from the first ten sets released in the United States. That is, all the sets before the e-Reader set, when the game changed considerably and I totally lost interest.
Of course, after cleaning out those boxes and donating the leftovers, I still had a lot of missing cards. So to this day, every few months, I ask to leaf through all of the individual and "rare" cards at the local comic shop. Sometimes I'll come out really goddamn lucky, other times I get nothing. As you might expect, the more cards I find, the harder it is to find the remaining few cards. I think I have less than a dozen cards left to find, and almost all of them are from the Gym Leaders sets.
I did not take this journey alone, however. A good friend at the GameInformer forums (back when I was a bigwig over there) sent me many, many cards that I needed for pennies on the dollar. I think he was just happy to contribute to my goal. Some were in bad shape, but he did manage to get me some INCREDIBLY rare cards, like the Shining Pokemon shown here and above.So that's my story. I continue to collect the cards piecemeal, and if any of you readers out there have cards you'd be willing to part with, please let me know. I hope you've enjoyed laughing over my obsession with pocket monsters. Next time, we'll start going over Useless Special Editions. And no, none of them include a Cat Helmet.
*Because I knew I was getting the review copy of HeartGold, I may have acquired the Ho-Oh through illegitimate means. If any of you have the corresponding Lugia figure and have no use for it, LET ME KNOW.
