When my older brother was in high school, he worked at Burlington Coat Factory and stole a bunch of these lil niggas for me. At least one or two a week. So I had a pretty decent collection. The little keychain was just screwed in to the toy and it wasn't more than a centimeter long so it unscrewed out of the plastic incredibly easily, making the figures super easy to just play with. Also made for a more immersive backyard larping experience with the balls.
I have fond memories of meeting other kids at the burger king trade nights in November and December of 1999. I wasn't a very social kid, things were just really weird around that time, but one night a week for 8 weeks, I felt so comfortable. All these kids who were just hanging out for one reason; we loved Pokemon.
That nostalgia, that vision of a time when I could share pokemon with others so innocently is what I long for. It's why I look back fondly on places like 420chan's Pokemon board, 151chan, /tr/ and all the other countless loving communities we've built along the way. Pieces of shit, attention span-less zoomers, autists are always going to try to intrude on these spaces and cause as much suffering as they seem to live with, but the night Scarlet and Violet come out is going to be fun. We're going to figure out all the new shit together, we're going to see new threads with new discoveries popping up for days, and it's going to be Pokemania again. Just like it always goes.
