There's so much talk of shillmons on this board that I’ve been trying to reason out which ones were pushed on release, which ones were organically popular, and which ones were shilled after a very positive reception, as well as any overlap. From Gen 4 onwards (aka Lucario) there seems to be at least one Pokemon every generation that’s engineered to be immediately popular, and they’re usually decently successful, but not every popular pokemon is necessarily a shillmon of course. This is the autism I’ve come up with, question marks show points I’m not quite sure about.

Gen 1
Charizard - Organically popular -> Retroactively shilled (everywhere) -> Franchise face
Pikachu - Organically popular -> Retroactively shilled (everywhere, mascot) -> Franchise face
Eevee - Organically popular (over time thanks to evos?) -> Retroactively shilled (most everywhere)-> Franchise face
Gengar - Organically popular -> Retroactively shilled -> Franchise face?
Gigantamax form and super strong mega, near constant main game, spinoff, and anime presence
Mewtwo - Organically popular -> Retroactively shilled -> Franchise face?
Multiple megas, movie remakes, later game reappearances, smash
Bulbasaur, Snorlax, Arcanine, Lapras, Dragonite -> Organically fairly popular -> Comparatively light gen 1 shilling now
Meowth has been getting some push with all of its alternate forms and has been a constant anime presence, might be a franchise face
Machamp is also weirdly pushed nowadays seemingly out of nowhere

Gen 2
Togepi - Pushed (massive anime presence in previous gen) and not very popular now
Pichu - Pushed (as baby mascot) and Not very popular
Umbreon - Organically popular -> Seemingly mostly boosted Eevee shilling rather than its own
Tyranitar, Lugia -> Organically popular

Cont.