>>57234359>people really exaggerate how much they did that in the past, youve got maybe 5-6 Unova lines to point to>patrat expy of rattataearly route 2 stage rodent
>purrloin expy of meowth2 stage cat found mid-game
>munna expy of drowzeeboth based on the japanese trope of anteaters eating dreams
>pidove expy of pidgey3 stage bird
>blitzle expy of ponyta2 stage horse line
>roggenrola expy of geodude3 stage rock line with a trade evo
>woobat expy of zubat2 stage bat (zubat would get a 3rd stage but only in gen 2)
>drilbur expy of diglett2 stage mole line
>audino expy of chanseyrare pure normal pink blob with massive EXP yield
>timburr expy of machop3 stage fighting type with a trade evo
>tympole expy of poliwag3 stage frog line
>throh and sawk expys of the hitmonspure fighting counterparts, clearly connected but not evolutionarily (tyrogue would only be added in gen 2)
>trubbish expy of grimer2 stage pokemon based on waste products
>emolga expy of pikachupikaclone trope
>foongus expy of voltorb2 stage mimic trope
and that's excluding the more arguable instances such as Klink being an expy for the magnemite line, even then that's way more than "5 or 6"
