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SEOUL—Jeong Bo-ram’s new fascination has him chasing mass-produced pastries, delivery trucks—and his childhood memories.
His targets are $1.20 bakery items sold with random Pokémon stickers that fly off store shelves in South Korea.
Just a few short of a full 159-sticker collection, 29-year-old Mr. Jeong has gone to more than 10 convenience stores and supermarkets a day, often leaving empty-handed. He has shelled out hundreds of dollars. He has learned the evening restock times throughout his neighborhood to know when fresh drop-offs occur.
Mewtwo
“As kids we really couldn’t afford enough pastries to have a shot at getting a full sticker set,” said Mr. Jeong, a clothing store owner who lives in the central South Korean city of Chungju. “I will continue on until I finish.”
More than two decades ago, the Pokémon sticker-and-treat duo caught on with a generation of South Korean children, before the craze passed after a few years and the products were discontinued. Now the goodies are back just in time for the country’s broader retro boom, fed by tech-savvy adults nostalgic for simpler times.
South Koreans are going to great lengths to live out the Pokémon tagline of “Gotta catch ’em all,” with some collecting the stickers in display booklets. Pokémon, originally a Japanese game for the Nintendo Game Boy that features hundreds of monster characters, has expanded into globally popular animated series, toys and videogames, including the recent hit Pokémon Go for smartphones.
