subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon (Franchise)
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Attachment Early in the Pokémon franchise's life, the Poliwhirl line recieved a major push in marketing, comparable to that of series mascot Pikachu.

Mascot costumes were made of Poliwhirl for promotional events, the Pokémon Adventures manga featured Poliwhirl as one of Red's Pokémon, Poliwag was placed closely to Pikachu on the box art of Pokémon Snap, food and toy lines would near-consistently feature a member of the Poliwhirl line alongside Pikachu even when the pool of Pokémon was as limited as 3 or 4 (with exceptions primarily being ones that also lacked Pikachu), and, most famously, Poliwhirl appeared on the center of the cover of TIME Magazine's issue adressing the popularity of Pokémon.

This could be related to Poliwag being Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri's favourite of the original 151 Kanto species.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 19, 2023
Comedic video about bizarre Pokémon merchandise showing off many instances of Poliwhirl and Poliwrath merchandise - the nature of Poliwhirl's "mascot" status is discussed at the 13:06 mark:
https://youtu.be/Gri7-XW3no8

ResetEra thread about Poliwhirl that opens with multiple images of Poliwhirl memorabilia:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/pokemons-bygone-mascot.763622/

Video from a Kellogg's fan channel featuring box scans and commercials for Pokémon cereal with Poliwhirl:
https://youtu.be/4kEnxp0ihPI

Pop Tarts commercial featuring Poliwrath toys:
https://youtu.be/oKw6l1Skglc

Kraft Mac & Cheese advert featuring Poliwhirl:
https://youtu.be/Sj5lfgEz_bU

Video featuring a photo of a Poliwhirl mascot:
https://youtu.be/KR5oKvYi_PQ

KFC and Heinz commercials for promotions featuring neither, Poliwhirl nor Pikachu:
https://youtu.be/9HCDPTQGmrI
https://youtu.be/nNc1xl8uoMA

Tajiri talks Poliwag:
https://youtu.be/gplIo-J9Ttc?si=vXRHECazu6kGu4IQ&t=433
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In order to evolve Magnemite, three Magnemite have to be gathered. This differs from the RPG Pokémon games and the anime, where three individual Magnemite are not needed.
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In the River course, Shellder are shown to be capable of levitating, an ability that is not demonstrated by them in any other media.
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To celebrate the Wii Virtual Console re-release, the Japanese Yahoo! Kids Pokémon page streamed all of the episodes in which Todd Snap appeared from December 14, 2007 to January 14, 2008.
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Pokemon Snap originally started development as a Nintendo 64DD game, but was switched to the Nintendo 64 as a cartridge game because of the 64DD's poor sales.
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Several of the Pokémon in the game retained their Japanese voices. Because the English voice clips were drawn from the anime, and those Pokémon had not yet appeared in the English dub, voice actors had not yet been chosen for them.
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Originally, the game was developed as a non-Pokémon game in which the player simply took photos, with no Pokémon at all. When the motivation for the game became unclear, it was transformed into a Pokémon game.
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Attachment Though most Legendary Pokemon can't breed and are genderless (and thus cannot lay eggs), you can actually find Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres in eggs.
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Attachment 63 of the then 151 Pokemon appear in the game. Ekans can be seen in pre-release screenshots, indicating the number may have originally been 64 instead of 63, as a reference to the Nintendo 64.
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Attachment Nintendo had a deal with Blockbuster in the USA, and Lawson convenience stores in Japan to display Pokemon Snap machines that could print in-game pictures out as stickers.

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