The Art and Culture of Pokemon Plushies

Fair Warning: This post is about to get really geeky... and I don't care!

The Art and Culture of Pokemon Plushies

I remember my first big tournament in Nationals 2013. If memory serves me right, the winner that year, Gavin Michaels, had a horde of plushies with him. When I asked various people what they were for, it was apparently "an intimidation factor." I saw a number of the veteran players do this and like the young sheeperson I was at the time, I was all too willing to embrace the growing trend. This trend is basically a VGC tradition for me now. This post, I'm going to geek out talk about my weird obsession fun hobby (a metahobby, if you will?) that I do while I play at live tournaments.

The Main Squad

I tend to use these four when I go to tournaments, only changing it up as my mood allows.

Lapras

For anyone who knows me in this community very long or seen my other team report, I am pretty much obsessed with the Plesiosaur now. I had heard about it from Wolfey's blog (which is now extinct, rip) back in 2014 and decided to breed it for myself. I managed to obtain a good parent Amaura from a Japanese player on the Nugget Bridge forums and pulled a Lapras from last gen that I had available and soon I won my first Premier Challenge with the offspring. Lapras represents my first big success in VGC. I'll gladly set this plushie on the table despite the fact that the particular one that I own right now is really top-heavy!

I bought this Lapras plush on the internet, if you were wondering, and the same is true for Arceus. 

Pug Reshiram

Yes, I actually named this particular Reshiram Plush "Pug" because just look at that face! 

/\ u n u /\

I have a bit of a thing for derpy-looking plushies, and I happened to rescue this particular Reshiram from a vendor at a gaming convention in Columbus.

I have a connection with Reshiram because I got into the competitive Pokemon circuit in the fifth generation of games and Reshiram was the box-cover legend for White 2, my first competitive cart. Dragon/Fire is a pretty strong type combination, and it is a bit of a wish that there may be a legal Pokemon like a pseudo-legend with that typing.

Arceus

What a cute god-of-the-Pokeverse! As a Christian, Arceus reminds me of my faith and my own monotheism,  It's a reminder that while there are many things I can control like the plays I make or the many decisions I make for the team I decide to bring, there are just some things I can't control. So I pray to RNGesus* that the rolls go my way, but in the end, I always remember His will be done. This game can be cruel, especially as the match-ups and the player-base get tougher, so it's nice to keep some faith on your side.

Arceus was the first plush that I brought to these tournaments. It makes for much fear, awe, intimidation, and respect before the match begins. It also makes an opening for my opponent to make cheeky comments about how it isn't legal in VGC.

*Portmanteau of the words RNG, which means Random Number Generator, which is the what the community often references whenever luck happens, and of course, Jesus

Shuckle

My connection with Shuckle comes from right after 2013 Nationals. I wanted to have fun before the metagame changed that year, so I made sort of a fun yet decent team of Beat Up Technician Ambipom, Justified Lucario (Steel quad-resisted the Dark-type move Beat Up back in generation five), Calm Mind Cresselia, Scarfed Hydreigon, Defiant Tornadus... and After You Shuckle. Trick Room was everywhere after Worlds 2013, and seeing that I usually led Ambipom and Lucario, that lead would bait a lot of Trick Room out early and easily. So I get my Beat Ups in Turn One when Trick Room goes up, Protect Turn Two to bring in one of the slowest Pokemon in the game, and use After You to underspeed anything with my boosted Lucario. 

I fell in love with this little rock-bug as it ended up being my first positive finish, and it was the first team I really had fun using. However, try as I could, I couldn't find any Shuckle plushies on the internet. Then one day at my local Pokemon League, a girl named Leslie brought in several of these cute hand-crafted creations and she let me adopt one! I was soo happy :3

One more really coincidental thing to point out that it always stands up really easily due to the fact that it's weighted down with...a rock.

Honorable Mentions  

These plushies aren't brought as much, or had a tournament or two where I brought it with me.

Pika the Pikachu

I have the firm belief that anyone who has even casually liked Pokemon at any point in the franchise's existence has an average of five of these plushies around in some form. I know I've got at least that much. This one was my first, if you couldn't tell by the huge amount of dirt on it. It's tail has also mutated into two over the years.

Pikachu? More like, Pikatwo!

Pika (as I named it) was my best friend when I was like nine years old. I could toss him around and throw it at walls or some friends without hurting them much. He also has the talent of sitting down fairly easily thanks to its bean-bag insides. I think I brought it to a tournament or two before I decided to retire him because a) I'd like nothing to happen to him and b) people mocked it for being really dirty. Not my problem--Pika likes to run around in the forests I got around West Virginia!

Shaymin Land Forme

I got this one for one simple reason: it's cute :3. I was drawn to it ever since my friend gave me a shiny one back when I got into competitive Pokemon at West Liberty by my friend Mike Fragale. Its in-game cry is as adorable as its can't-hurt-you face; it's as if it's trying to say: "My name's Shaymin, pleased to meet you!" I took it to a couple of events, including the World Championships, where I bonded with Papa Yamamoto who really liked it, too. I bought this in New York at the Pokemon Center there.

The Angry Mew

Mew has always been one of my favorite Pokemon. Even cooler than the fact that its the plushie form of an extremely rare Pokemon is the fact that it looks extremely pissed off. It looks like it could take several First Movie Mewtwos and their clone friends all by itself! Now, I'm really confused because whenever I've watched Mew in the anime it always looked silly, happy and naive. Not this little fella. I have a feeling that this plush would be the spirit plush of Rhonda Rousey if she knew it existed.

"B-baka!"

Sylveon

Once upon a time, I had a Sylveon plush. I think I bought it with somebody in mind, but kept it for myself. It doesn't matter anyway, because I lost it at Worlds after sulking from being beaten, so I couldn't get a close-up of the one I have. But Sylveon fits that category of Pokemon that look naively happy that did something for me at a tournament, so I think of it as one of my favorite Pokemon now. I'm sure I'll find another someday, as I'm sure also that some lucky kid probably found it and is super excited to have it now! ...or it ended up all alone in the lost-and-found. ;-;

Why Plush It? And Other Notes on Plushies

There are several wonderful reasons to have some plushies to stand by your side at tournaments. First, it reminds you that you are ultimately playing this game for fun. As a grizzled now-World-Championship-calibur-competitor, the pressure to consistently win can be high, and it only gets worse if you've done well because you want to improve. When I have these soft things in front of me, well, my heart softens up as well! Second, it helps you break the ice with your opponent, whom you might've never played before. You know those stories I just told you? Well, I'm always glad to recycle them when I'm playing in public, and I may be making even more stories while I play. It helps me keep a level head when playing in these tournaments when I get to bond with everyone around me. Finally, it gives me something of a ritual to put me in the mindset of being professional, despite the cheekiness of the plushies in question.

As a self-rule, I never bring more than four plushies, and two's usually about average for me. Feel free to bring just one or none since, well, no one's forcing you. Anyway, this wonderfully tacky tradition is just a small part of why I love this game so much. The traditions and rituals make it feel almost like a holiday, and that's just the way playing this game should feel.