I want to hear your favorite memory with Pokémon. It can be recent or a nostalgic childhood memory, relating to the video games, cards, anything! I’ll start.
One of my favorite childhood memories takes me back to 1999. I was about 5 years old and was learning to ride my bicycle without training wheels. I remember struggling and being frustrated until my Dad offered me a deal. He said “if you can learn to ride your bike without training wheels, I will take you to the mall and buy you a pack of Pokémon cards.” It’s safe to say that was a good motivator because not long after I was cruising and turning like a pro and true to his word he took me to the local card shop and bought me one base set pack. I distinctly remember waiting to get home to open it. I remember opening it in the kitchen, and the only card I even remember pulling was the Dewgong which is still a favorite of mine from base set to this day.
Anyways that’s mine. I hope to read some of your favorite memory’s!
My best pokemon memories are of my mom driving me to pokemon league everyweek. Before alzheimers stole her from us. So that’s makes those memories extra special to me. My More recent favorite memories is opening a booster box of cards with my dog and an etb with my dad.
My brother and I used to have really intense Pokemon Battles when we were younger via Link Cable. I had Yellow and he had Blue. The most intense one, that we still talk about to this day, occurred towards the end of our playing days. I don’t remember much about how the battle started or progressed, but we were down to our last few Pokemon. He only had his Zapdos left (his best and favorite Pokemon) where I had my Alakazam and Articuno as my last two.
I had just knocked out his second to last Pokemon with Alakazam so, with no choice left, he sends out Zapdos. Zapdos survives a Psychic with 1/3 HP left and counterattacks with Thunder. Alakazam gets knocked out so I send in Articuno. I knew that I would be able to knock out Zapdos with Ice Beam if I could get it off. Somehow, Zapdos wins the speed check and gets off another Thunder and it hits. OHKOing my Articuno and securing my brothers victory. What felt like a sure victory to me turned into a totally unexpected reverse sweep.
8 years old, early 2000: My friend and I imagined what the rest of Diglett and Dugtrio looked like underground and we determined that they had human-like asses down there. We drew some pictures of Digletts with but cheeks and to this day I have never laughed harder in my entire life. I’ll never forget it, the first time tears were rolling down my face due to laughter. Sitting in my friend’s mom’s van in my school parking lot.
I’m now working towards a Diglett master set binder.
I remember making a fire and a grass deck when I was around 8 and at my grandma’s house. I wanted someone to play with, and she was nice enough to agree to have me teach her how to play. That was the only time we played, and I don’t think she ever really got it, but the fact that she was patient enough to agree to try to learn some random TCG from an 8 year old is really cool to me. Bless her heart.
There are so many memories from the 90s. A few that come to mind are getting mew from the toysrus campaign. You had to redeem in person, and someone would transfer the pokemon into your game. I remember they gave me 2 because it took so long. Toysrus was the place back in the day. I remember trading for Japanese Southern Island Ledyba. I eventually traded for the full 3 card line.I saw so many cards there I’ve never seen before. Probably a big reason why I like japanese promos so much.
Mine would be when I was very young, probably 4ish and I went to the card store with my mom. The employee gave me the wotc eevee promo which is an amazing looking card even today and especially back then. We got my sister from school and I remember walking home with her and showing off that card. Partly my favorite memory because it is just a very nostalgic memory of being such a young kid.
Encountering Missingno in Pokemon Yellow without even knowing the Mew glitch was a thing (I also got Mew that way). I also remember one of them changed into a yellow Rhydon that knew fly, pretty dope.
TCG related maybe trading my Base Set unl Raichu for a 10 cm card pile (sry for not using retard units) with a rich kid. It felt to me like a one in a lifetime deal.
It was right around when the Jungle Set came out in late spring/early summer 1999. I was nine years old. I remember sitting outside my grandmother’s house with the neighbor kid with my binder of Pokemon cards. He had his binder, too. We were flipping through the pages of our binders and admiring all of the new Jungle cards. I specifically remember looking at Exeggutor.
To me, the Jungle Set carries more nostalgia than any other set. Not only did I have that moment, but the artwork itself gives off a nostalgic vibe. Exeggutor staring into the sunset. Eevee frolicking. Butterfree examining the flowers. Not that I would ever want to go back, because I love being an adult, but it just reminds me of a simpler time.
I grew up in this gorgeous neighborhood near a lake in Connecticut, that I have very special memories of. So it’s a double whammy with having had Pokemon, the nostalgia’s nostalgia if you will, come into my life at that time. That first sight of a kid’s pack pulls in his driveway which was highlighted by the shadowless Ponyta was life changing for me. The card was ethereal, out of this world. It was love at first sight for me, an instant strike of awe and reverence.
I have so many great memories in that neighborhood in the forest with Pokemon, but that love at first sight is extremely warm and special to my heart and childhood.
But I also always love seeing everyone’s favorite memories of Red/Blue/Yellow. I particularly cherish the memory of 1.) emerging from Rock Tunnel, the dark cave (having not used flash), and coming out to Lavender town and making my way to Celadon–the new world it felt like. Celadon was such a reward, the big city, having had earned it through the trial that was that nightmare cave.
And 2.) just as much, the memory of traversing the Seafoam islands and emerging out the other side and hitting Cinnabar isle, and being in awe of the music and atmosphere. My two favorite cities and gym leaders.
I can’t be the only one with fond memories of the Link Cable wars in the schoolyard? My Mewtwo had Mega Kick, Fire Blast, Solarbeam and Psychic. UNLIMITED POWER!!!
Gotta love those old link cables! My friends and I would have to hold them in tight and try not to move a muscle for fear of them even slightly disconnecting during a trade
Oh we certainly had them! We eventually got to a point where we decided on a “no legendaries or Dragonite rule.” Everyone’s team would be mewtwo, the three birds, dragonite, and either gyarados or a starter. After the rule was in place, I remember catching people off guard with my surfing rhydon and my persian with thunder. Made ya feel like a king!
Oh man games included, I remember seeing this website back in the day in ‘99. It had all these “cheats” and “secrets” for finding legendary Pokémon in Red and Blue. They were all so completely ridiculous, I wish I could wayback machine it somehow. But some of them I’ll never forget:
Pikablu being behind the museum in Pewter City
“Rainbow Bird” (Ho-Oh) being in the Cerulean Cave, where you had to learn this made up HM called Blast or something and blow up a rock then “surf for 5 miles” (what does that even mean?) and there’s rainbow bird and a guy selling master balls. lol
Give a lickitung a rare candy and turn you game boy upside and shake it and it evolves into Luigi.
Beat elite four 999,999 times to unlock Goku.
Does anyone else remember this webpage? I’m sure they were a dime a dozen back then, but maybe someone else heard these ridiculous things.
I have too many, but I’ll try and share a couple. When I was 6 years old, we were fortunate to own a basic home computer (this was in 1999) and a computer programmer who lived on our street managed to somehow get a ROM of Pokemon Red & Blue put onto a floppy disk. Me & my older sister played it for hours and hours all summer trying to catch all the Pokemon and max their levels. And of course we used to watch the anime every night it was airing on the YTV channel. Like it was for most people, that early Pokemon experience is a total joy that we’ll never forget.
The next memory comes a few months later in 2000. Back then we lived in a smaller town where you had to travel about 30 mins to get into the main shopping area. It wasn’t very big (just a typical strip mall) with a K-Mart which was the biggest store and a Dairy Queen was being constructed to be opened by the summer (this is in Eastern Canada). On the other side of the street was a barber shop and right next to it was a collectibles store (typical LGS) which mainly sold MTG & sports cards but eventually Pokemon as well starting in 1999.
Me & my older sister went to the shop that day before going home. My mom bought me my 1st ever trading card booster pack ever, it was a Base Set 2 booster at the time. I’ll never forget it, but I pulled a Base Set 2 Charizard out of the pack as my 1st ever holo. My sister understood it better than I did since she already had a few cards and knew it was a big deal (all though I don’t think we both understood the magnitude of Charizard specifically), but like a naive kid I ended up trading it into the store for a couple of starter decks and more packs since I thought it’d be cooler to have more cards instead of just the single holo card. The store owner had no problem doing it of course. In some ways I guess it was cool to have a whole bunch more cards to put in our binder, but of course Charizard is the big card of the Base Set era.
Anyway, as I’ve gotten back into collecting, I managed to get a very nice copy of Base 2 Charizard again to restore the memory of giving it up all those years ago because it was definitely one of my most silly mistakes I made but it was really cool to find such a nice copy many years later. Also, the corners are graded very harsh for a WOTC card it’s extremely clean overall:
