The word in Pokemon goods right now is Pokemon Black and White. Kids (and grown ups!) are buying Pokemon Plush Dolls (stuffed toys) and Pokemon Cards like crazy. Especially popular in the card arena are shiny suicune, shiny entei and Traditional Pokemon cards are making a comeback as well. Pokemon spinoffs have been a huge success, and while the card game is second in popularity in the world (Mario- also Nintendo- is the first), Pokemon is definitely the game with world?s most successful spinoffs.
Pokemon spinoffs include trading cards, Pokemon stuffed toys, animation, and movies. Merchandising Pokemon has a lot of room to go. While there is no doubt that stationary, towels, t-shirts, posters, and stickers are already out there representing just a small portion of the merchandising market, what other possibilities are there that could be added to outlets and the Internet market? My reckoning is that if bigger kids like Pokemon, little kids will too. Even the college crowd likes Pokemon, making it pretty much a household word.
So I’m just going to go ahead and throw my ideas ‘out there.’ You developers might want to perk your ears up as I’m offering these suggestions trademark free. First and foremost someone needs to develop a cool Pokeball. It has to have different settings such as ‘spin throw’ and ‘release Pokemon throw’ and it should be durable and a little on the expensive side. It also needs sound effects, and should come in different patterns and colors. The only problem with the Pokeball is that obviously giant sized Pokemon won’t be springing out of it like in the animation, but you could get a reasonably sized stuffed pokemon to spring out; say, four times the size of the ball. The other big drawback is the hassle of crunching the Pokemon stuffed toy back into the ball, but I bet Pokemon fans could have a lot of fun just throwing the ball around. If you are familiar with Bey Blade, you know that is an inexpensive yet immensely popular toy. But one Pokeball that had a really nice spin to it could be worth ten Bey Blades. Kids could also compete for spin.
Other ideas I had are not so dramatic as the Pokeball. They include the usual shtick like Pokemon shampoo, Pokemon gummies, Pokemon caps, towels, lunchboxes, Pokemon shaped toy chests, Pokemon cereal (Breakfast of Trainers), and Pokemon vitamins (they recharge you). Well, the list goes on and on and I’m sure some of these products have already hit the market, but you get the idea. Pokemon characters are nearly as hot as Disney right now and if I were a Merchandiser I’d be on it! Pokemon Battle Figures