>>48002808Nowadays sure, but back then it was just mismanagement. Pokémon when it debuted was such a phenomenon in part because you could go up to any age group and ask them what their favorite Pokémon was and they’d have one that suited their taste. Cute and pink monsters got marketed next to edgy beasts like Nidoking and charizard. More natural looking monsters like Rapidash were marketed . Oddballs like magnemite and Exeggutor. They did a great job of showing the variety.
But in 2000, In America at least, they went all in merchandising the cute baby Pokémon. If you were over 9 it was getting embarrassing to like Pokémon because the face of the franchise shifted from a variety of monsters to just cute toddler bait. Those of us who were deep into the games knew there were cool Johto Pokémon but they failed to market that until late in the era. And even then you didn’t see much merchwise.
