The Pokémon Company International sent me, Marriland, some really cool stuff for the holiday season to check out and unbox for you all! The above unboxing video features many items from the official PokemonCenter.com website, including some items from the new Holiday Lights line of holiday items, a bunch of Pokémon oversize card sets and product, and even a few useful items such as a nice Sobble mug!
You can check out the above video if you’d like the full scoop, otherwise I’ll share my thoughts and opinions on the items I opened up in the video down below.
Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse Holiday Countdown Calendar
This special “Pokémon TCG holiday countdown calendar” — as the message I received from Pokémon described it — is the item I know the least about. It has 25 different slots that can open up, one for each day leading up to Christmas Day, which fits the typical function of an Advent Calendar. That’s a tradition I hadn’t gotten into myself, but it seems pretty neat!
Anyway, this is a really cool thing that came wrapped in a bow. I couldn’t find it for sale anywhere on the website, or, for that matter, the internet, so I can’t really say anything about it’s price or even its contents — I’ve only so far opened up one of the doors, which contained a Cosmic Eclipse booster pack. (I was super lucky and it had a Secret Rare Draw Energy in it, nice!)
I’ll post a short video to my Twitter each day showing what’s inside of the corresponding days. Follow along if you’d like to keep up with it!
Grookey Poké Plush
The Grookey Poké Plush ($17.99 USD) is the 9¾” inch one from the Pokémon Center website and it’s pretty cute. It does a reasonable job at standing up, as advertised on the website, and should be a great addition to anyone that’s a fan of Grookey. Yeah, you heard me, #GrookeyGang!
Sobble Galar First Partner 12 oz. Mug
I received the Sobble version of the First Partner 12 oz. Mug set, but there’s also a Scorbunny and a Grookey version available. All are $15.00 USD and, according to the packaging, are both microwavable and dishwasher safe.
I haven’t had a chance to have a spot of coffee or tea from them just yet, but it feels sturdy. One thing I would say is that, if you have bigger hands, the handle might be a bit on the smaller side.
Pokémon TCG: Galar Collection—Scorbunny/Zacian
Pokémon sent over quite a lot of Pokémon TCG product, and the first item I checked out — well, aside from that really cool Advent Calendar — was the Pokémon TCG: Scorbunny Galar Collection featuring Scorbunny and Zacian (there’s also a version with Zamazenta instead, as well as the respective pairs for the other two starters).
Like a lot of the jumbo card sets, it comes with a big ol’ jumbo version of a card — in my case it was Zacian V from the upcoming Pokémon Sword & Shield TCG set, but as mentioned just a moment ago, Zamazenta V is also an option — as well as a few other goodies, such as booster packs, promos, and a Scorbunny pin, the last of which is exclusive to the Scorbunny collection.
One interesting thing to note about the Zacian V and Zamazenta V cards is that they don’t have any type or cost for their effects. They’re effectively blanked out. That’s because these items were actually available before the launch of Pokémon Sword & Shield, and Pokémon did not officially reveal their type beforehand. The actual cards will have their proper types once they’re released, don’t worry!
The three promo cards feature the starter Pokémon. They have extremely basic moves and stats, so they’re really more for the collection than to use in a deck, but they are still quite nice and showcase the starter Pokémon’s personality fairly well.
There’s also the pin, which seems pretty nice and is very fitting for me, a Scorbunny fan, to wear or pin on something nifty. I’ll have to find just the right thing for it!
My package contained 1 XY—Evolutions, 2 Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse, and 1 Sun & Moon—Unbroken Bonds. I’m not sure if these are random or always the same, but that’s what I got from them.
The various Galar Collections featuring the starters and either Zacian or Zamazenta are available for $19.99 USD each on the Pokémon Center website.
Pokémon TCG: Pikachu-GX & Eevee-GX Special Collection
Quite similar in style to the aforementioned Galar Collection, the Pokémon TCG: Pikachu-GX & Eevee-GX Special Collection ($29.99 USD) features a jumbo card, some promo cards, and a few booster packs. It lacks a pin but adds an extra promo card, giving you four promos — a Pikachu, an Eevee, a Pikachu-GX, and, uh…
…an Eevee-GX. I think.
It’s cool that it comes with two nifty Pokémon-GX promos as well as two non-GX promos, all of pretty popular Pokémon, and the jumbo Pikachu-GX card is also pretty cool, but I have to say that it comes with just 4 booster packs (mine came with 1 XY—Steam Siege, 2 Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse, and 1 Sun & Moon—Unified Minds), and that makes it a lot less of a value compared to the Galar Collection sets. The promo cards are much better, though, and may make it worth your while.
Although I still don’t know about that Eevee-GX…
Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse Elite Trainer Box
The Elite Trainer Boxes have been around for awhile and have always been a pretty deluxe experience, coming with not just a hefty amount of booster packs, but a bunch of essentials like basic Energy cards, dice, exclusive sleeves, and other markers such as poison, burn, and GX markers.
The Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse Elite Trainer Box ($39.99 USD) carries on in that tradition, coming with the following contents:
- 8 Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse booster packs
- 65 card sleeves featuring Arceus, Dialga and Palkia
- 45 basic Energy cards
- 6 damage-counter dice (for use as damage counters)
- 1 “competition-legal coin-flip die” that should be used instead of flipping coins
- 2 acrylic condition markers (the burn/poison ones) and 1 acrylic TAG TEAM GX marker
- A player’s guide to Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse that shows all of the cards and is actually pretty nifty
- A pretty cool box that can be used to store cards, along with 4 separators to help keep different groups separated
- A code card for the TCG online
Since booster packs are usually around $4 USD, this means you’re paying a premium of just $8 for the sleeves, energy cards, box, dice, etc., which isn’t too bad at all, since the packs alone would cost you $32. You’re also guaranteed to get all Cosmic Eclipse packs, unlike the other sets, so that’s nice.
Holiday Lights Pikachu Plush
The star of the show, at least as far as plushies go, of this year’s Pokémon holiday collection is the Holiday Lights Pikachu Plush ($22.00 USD). It’s wrapped up in a white robe, carrying a gift and wearing a fake mustache and beard.
And yes, if you were wondering, you can indeed remove Pikachu’s hood and fake mustache and beard. It’s indeed a Pikachu under there!
Pikachu & Eevee Pokémon Holiday 2019 Pins & Greeting Card
Another item from the Holiday Lights collection, it’s the Pikachu & Eevee Pins + Greeting Card ($14.00 USD). This was an item that caught my eye when the items were first revealed because I wasn’t quite sure what it was until I read the description more carefully and then it sounded pretty cool.
Basically, this is the kind of card you send someone as the gift itself, as it comes with just one card (and an envelope, thankfully!) that has the pair of pins pinned onto it. It’s not cheap for a card, costing $14 USD, but it is very impressive and the pins are absolutely adorable. Keep in mind that most of the pins on the Pokémon Center website go for $12.99 USD for a pair, so that justifies the price a bit, but it’s still something you won’t be sending out to everyone on your Christmas or holiday list — the Holiday Lights Postcards are a better option for that (they were not included in the package Pokémon sent to me, so I haven’t personally seen them, although they do look pretty neat).
I’d say one downside to this greeting card is just the fact you don’t get much room to write any note inside, due to how the Eevee and Pikachu pins are right in the middle of it, but I think it really makes it look nice from the outside of the card so it’s not a huge deal really.
Eevee Pixel Collection! Stickers (9-Pack)
Lastly, I received a neat set of Eevee and its “Eeveelution” pixel stickers ($13.99 USD). These have really nice-looking pixel art of Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon, and Sylveon.
Although it’s a bit on the pricey side for stickers in my opinion, they are very crisp and I think would be great to stick on all sorts of things. I haven’t decided what to stick any of mine on just yet, so I can’t say how well they stay stuck, but I’d imagine that’s not a concern. They’re also a pretty decent size, too.
Final Thoughts
I was definitely blown away with all of the stuff that The Pokémon Company International sent me, so, once again, HUGE thanks to TPCi for all of the goodies! Hopefully this review of all of the products shown above will inspire you for some gifts for this holiday season.