First Pokémon Item Ever Publicly Released

[7l7l]

Anyone know what it was (I suspect it was a manga or some other illustration(s)) and when it was released?

Thanks!

[azulryu]

Publicly? Probably something to do with early promotional material for the games. Prior to that, I know there was early era concept art in 1990 for “Capsule Monsters” but I don’t know if that was made public until after the release of Pokemon.

[cullers]

Pokemon Green.

[EnlightenedBulbasaur]

I’ve never seen any proof of a Pokemon product being released before Pokemon Red and Green in February 1996.

Even if something else random happened to be released before then (which again I’ve never seen) Pokemon was born as a video game. Satoshi Tajiri originally conceived the idea of Pokemon in 1990 and with help from Shigeru Miyamoto, Ken Sugimori, and others it took about 6 years for the final product to be realized.

[crushingame]

@EnlightenedBulbasaur

I’ve never seen any proof of a Pokemon product being released before Pokemon Red and Green in February 1996.

Even if something else random happened to be released before then (which again I’ve never seen) Pokemon was born as a video game. Satoshi Tajiri originally conceived the idea of Pokemon in 1990 and with help from Shigeru Miyamoto, Ken Sugimori, and others it took about 6 years for the final product to be realized.

Knowledge people…knowledge

[dizzylochs]

Had a look to see what I could find and looks like there was at least a Red & Green promo flyer from (probably) late 1995 & also some Red & Green plot info & test screenshots released in a Game Freak publication, Dec 1995.

Flyer

Courtesy of this Bulbapedia page :

The games were originally scheduled for a December 21, 1995 release, according to an old Nintendo of Japan flyer.[3] This could explain the copyright year of 1995 that appears in the games’ introductory sequence, and all subsequent games and official merchandise.

Publication

On page 153 of the December 1995 book New Game Design by Game Freak is a summary of Red and Green’s final plot. Two screenshots of the game are shown which use an unseen border resembling a Super Game Boy border. In it, “POCKET MONSTERS!” is written in a different size.

It’s only a small book, but this cover is just so cool

Edit: Second publication pic

[chok]

That Red/Green poster which dated December 2015 went for $600 on Yahoo a few weeks ago

[jkanly]

@dizzylochs I’d never seen that flyer before. Now that’s cool! Very similar to the topsun boosters.

Topsun booster pack for reference (1995)